Leaders in Video Series Affirm All Have a Place in Christ’s Church

Contributed By Camille West, ChurchofJesusChrist.org Church News

Article Highlights Leaders in new videos assure those who may feel unwelcome that they are loved and needed.

Members should extend the hand of fellowship to everyone.

“As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called upon to see the worth and potential of each soul.” —Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Related Links Watch or download the videos now.

In a new video series published on the Mormon Channel on YouTube and on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, five Apostles and two General Officers of the Church reassure those who may feel unwelcome in the Church that they are loved and needed. The leaders also encourage members to extend the hand of fellowship to others, regardless of perceived differences.

Acknowledging that some people attend their Sunday meetings to be uplifted and inspired but leave feeling judged or unneeded, Sister Carol F. McConkie, First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency, urges members to see others through Christlike eyes. “The gospel of Jesus Christ does not marginalize people,” she said in one of the seven videos. “People marginalize people.”

“Whatever our condition at the moment may be,” Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reminds members of the increasingly diverse Church, “the body of Christ [the Church] is there to sustain each member (see 1 Corinthians 12:25–27).

“As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called upon to see the worth and potential of each soul,” he says in the the video titled “Is There a Place for Me?”

“All of us have glorious possibilities through Christ to contribute richly to the kingdom of God, and all of us struggle and are in need of His redeeming and enabling love,” he says. “Together, as we follow the call to ‘bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light’ (Mosiah 18:8), we will discover the divine potential our Heavenly Parents have in store for each of us.”

Following are the titles and links to each of the videos:

Elder David A. Bednar: “Being an Agent to Act”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson: “Is There a Place for Me?”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “The Savior Understands Me”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks: “Love and Law”

Elder Gary E. Stevenson: “No Blessing Denied the Faithful”

Sister Carol F. McConkie: “Lifting Others”

Sister Jean B. Bingham: “Focus on the One”