I came home from ward council last night feeling a little depressed. I think the feeling was mutual among everyone there. It was probably because our Bishop seemed sad and frustrated about our efforts in the ward with home teaching, visiting teaching, and trying to reach out to others.
There frankly are way too many less active people in our ward and not enough active people to visit them all. This leaves a great burden on those that are active to try to reach out. But, what was worrying our bishop was that those active people were also feeling left out due to the focused efforts of the ward on the inactive. It’s probably not just our ward that suffers from this catch 22. You definitely don’t want to lose the active members, or maybe the members that are coming every once and while and perhaps are on the verge of inactivity. Sometimes, you don’t even know who they are.
I mentioned that even though I have been active all of my life (except maybe for a brief stint of rebellion when I first lived away from home) there have been many times where I have felt overlooked. It’s easy to look at the family that attends every Sunday and has time intensive callings that they fulfill and a family to take care of and think, “I don’t need to worry about her. She’s got it all together”. In fact, the Savior did preach about leaving the 99 to go after the 1 lost sheep. But, maybe the 99 are thinking that they might want to join that lost sheep.
This is something that is difficult to really know as a home and visiting teacher. Unless you visit very regularly and become a close friend of those you visit, you may never know the true struggles that they are facing if you can’t figure out a way to get them to open up. This is a struggle that every visiting and home teacher has.
In our ward, we are trying to figure out who even still lives in our ward boundaries. This is a challenging and daunting task. But, it’s one that has to be done. Yet, we can’t become so focused on that, that we forget the other members too. I think that the answer is prayer. If you aren’t sure where to start, start on your knees. Heavenly Father will guide you to those people that need a visit the most, whether they be active, inactive, or somewhere in between.