Fellowshipping converts and reaching out in love to members who may have fallen into inactivity was the focus of opening remarks of President Gordon B. Hinckley in his address at the Regional Representatives Seminar.
President Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency, also spoke of giving single adult members of the Church the challenge of responsibility and the reward of appreciation."Generally speaking," President Hinckley said, "there is greater activity in the ChurchT than we have experienced in more than half a century, notwithstanding the fact that we are reaching out into distant areas of the world.
"We have every reason to feel encouraged, but any convert whose faith grows cold is a tragedy. Any member who falls into inactivity is a matter for serious concern. The Lord left the ninety and nine to find the lost sheep. His concern for the dropout was so serious that He made it the theme of one of His great lessons.
"We must constantly keep Church officers and the membership aware of the tremendous obligation to fellowship in a very real and warm and wonderful way those who come into the Church as converts, and to reach out with love to those who for one reason or another step into the shadows of inactivity."
Speaking of single adults in the Church, President Hinckley noted that they constitute about one-third of the adult membership. "Their numbers are so large and their problems so serious that we cannot disregard them."
President Hinckley counseled against generalizing single adults.
"These are individuals, men and women, sons and daughters of God, not a mass of look-alikes or do-alikes," he said. "Because they do not happen to be married does not make them essentially different from others. All of us are very much alike in appearance and emotional responses . . . in our need to be happy, to love and be loved.
"There is no substitute," President Hinckley declared, "for appreciation and love. Without these two great blessings, life has little meaning. This is why so many of those whom we classify as singles feel miserable and unneeded and of little value."
Of the single adults who are older but who have never married, President Hinckley said, "In the hearts of many of them there is a great loneliness unknown largely to the rest of us but of which Church officers must be aware.
"These people do not want pity. They want to be regarded as the equal of others in handling opportunities and challenges. They do not want to be categorized as a unique and peculiar lot who do not fit in with the rest of us. Great are their talents and tremendous is their capacity. They can make wonderful contributions. For the most part, they have maturity, they have judgment, they have much of training and experience."
Of single parents in the Church, President Hinckley said they carry "exhausting burdens in fighting the daily battles that go with rearing children and seeing that their many needs are met. For them this is a lonely duty."
President Hinckley observed, "In dealing with them, it is essential that the inspiration of the Lord be sought. But far better that we reach out with help in excess than that we neglect them."
"My plea to you," President Hinckley said to the regional representatives, "is that we follow up with bishops and stake presidents to see that these whose circumstances cause them so much of the time to walk alone will not so walk when we have the power and the capacity, the resources and the inclination to assist them."