We’ve just launched a new version of MormonTestimonies.org and we’ve changed our assumption of what a “testimony” is. Instead of sharing your “one” testimony, MormonTestimonies.org now encourages you to share multiple “testimonies.” You might share your testimony of the Savior, or of tithing, or of the Book of Mormon.
You might also share applications of Gospel teachings. In fact, Elder Ballard recently spoke about “taking part in everyday conversations in an unforced way, where your values and your religious beliefs will arise naturally.” He listed several questions you might answer online:
How do your beliefs lift and shape your life for the better?
How does the gospel help you as a parent engage with your teens?
How do your values encourage you to participate in civic affairs?
How has your experience as a home or visiting teacher enlarged your compassion or care for the sick and needy?
How has your Church life helped you to avoid such things as pornography and immorality?
How have family councils or home evenings helped you resolve differences of opinion with members of your family?
How has your experience in speaking in church helped you address large public groups?
Where did you learn to respect and not to criticize other faiths?
We’ve preloaded these and other questions into MormonTestimonies.org. Each time you visit the site (or refresh your browser) a new question will be loaded. Feel free to answer these questions, or write something else entirely. If you think of other questions we might ask, please leave them in the comments below.
(If you had a user account on the old MormonTestimonies.org site, please contact us to get a new username and password.)
Saturday Elder Ballard spoke at a meeting of the BYU Management Society in Washington, D.C., and again encouraged members to share their beliefs on the Internet. Counting his previous speeches at BYU-Hawaii and BYU-Idaho, this is the third time he’s spoken on the topic.
Here are excerpts:
Many want answers, and the places they are most likely to seek those answers are either on the Internet or from their Mormon acquaintances.
I probably don’t need to tell you that there is much questionable information and even outright falsehoods about the Church on the Internet and in the media-much bad mixed with the good.
Gradually, accurate and positive information is rising to the top of lists generated by various search engines. Those seeking information are more likely to encounter accurate information today than at any time since the Internet began, even though we still have a long way to go.
So let me pose a question. What are you prepared to do about it? If you are a member of the Church, what is your responsibility during this period of unusual attention and debate? Interest has continued at a high level and probably will for some time. If a national conversation is going on about the Church, are you going to be an active participant or a silent observer?
…Church leaders can’t do it all, especially at the grass-roots, community level. While we do speak authoritatively for the Church, we look to our responsible and faithful members to engage personally with blogs, to write thoughtful, online letters to news organizations, and to act in other ways to correct the record with their own opinions.
However, I emphasize that it is not always about correcting misinformation. Sometimes it is about getting solid information and ideas out there in the first place. Share your experiences - those from your own life - that show how your values and your faith intersect. It doesn’t matter whether that’s face to face with another person, or whether you do it by participating from your own blog or contributing to someone else’s blog. The most important thing is that you let people know that you are a Latter-day Saint, and that your behavior and attitude always reflect the high standards of the Church and what is expected as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, you will be speaking as an individual member and not as an official representative of the Church.
I am talking about taking part in everyday conversations in an unforced way, where your values and your religious beliefs will arise naturally….
Audio and video recordings of the April 2008 General Conference are now available through iTunes. This is a convenient way to access the words of the Church leaders who Mormons sustain as prophets. (The following links will open in iTunes.)
Opportunity for online member missionaries: Click the “Write a Review” button and explain what you thought about General Conference, especially something you felt or learned.
“Every month there are 60 billion searches for information on the Internet. Many are seeking information about the Church; and while some are finding the truth, others find anti-Mormon sites that mislead them and defame the Church.”
“Today I want to encourage you to reach out to others in the world to help change the perception and even the hearts of millions of our Heavenly Father’s children by correcting misunderstandings by sharing with them the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.”
At an advertising conference last year, Robert Stephens said, “Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking.” (Source: Business Week)
The implication was that if your product is good enough, people will talk about it and spread the word, and you won’t need traditional advertising. Seth Godin calls this being “remarkable” or “worth remarking about.”
What if the Church didn’t need to spend any money on traditional advertising because Church members were that vocal about the Gospel? What if full-time missionaries didn’t have to do any finding? (Some might argue that advertising is as much about energizing the base as reaching out to new people.)
For Mormons who have felt the joy that comes through the Savior Jesus Christ, the Gospel is remarkable — worth remarking about — and they talk about it. After all, this is Good News.
When Latter-day Saint Brooke White auditioned for American Idol, Simon Cowell said, “Tell me something interesting about you.” Of all the things she could say, she said, “I’ve never seen a rated R movie.” (I love Randy’s interjection — “Why!?”) Brooke went on to explain the standards her parents gave her and that she doesn’t drink or smoke.
I have learned to use terms that associate me with Mormonism in my conversations—comments about my mission to Korea, my children’s missions, my assignments in the Church, my having attended Brigham Young University, and so on. These comments open the door for a conversation about the Church. Most who notice that I have opened this door choose not to walk through it. A few do, however, usually saying, “So you’re a Mormon?” I then ask if they’d like to learn more about us. (Clay Christensen)
This missionary spirit seems to be part of their natures.
We are called to open our mouths:
8 Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness.
9 Yea, open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your backs, for lo, I am with you.
10 Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying: Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;
Source: D&C 33:8-10
Elder Russell M. Nelson recently discussed the Church’s new website about the Savior, JesusChrist.lds.org, in a short video clip on YouTube (embedded below.) He said the Internet is a medium which will help the Apostles fulfill their calling to preach the word of God throughout the entire world:
Our responsibility as Apostles is to teach of Jesus Christ to all the world. We have used the website [JesusChrist.lds.org] because that’s the way people get their information now a days. When the Lord called his Twelve Apostles, he called them to send them throughout the world and preach of him. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. In those days they could talk to a few people, here and there. In our time, we’ve had radio, television and now we have the Internet. The Internet is a very excellent way of promoting the word of God. We have confidence in this medium. We know it will appeal to a lot of people. We take seriously the responsibility that we have.
Elder Nelson then quoted the Apostle Paul’s words to the Ephesians — Ephesians 2:19-20
and Ephesians 4:11-13 — and said the website is to help promote a unity of understanding.
So that’s why we have this website. We are to promote unity in our understanding of our faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. The Lord has revealed more in this day and age than He has ever before. We’re the recipients of that knowledge and we’re happy to share it with others. We’ve done it through this website and we’ve employed not only the written word but visual text and some video clips. This should be a great aid to the members of the Church. They can identify segments of this that will be of particular appeal to their family or friends or relatives and just forward it.
We may have a different understanding of Jesus because he personally appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and he taught the Prophet Joseph Smith and so those revelations are very important. There’s only one Jesus Christ and our understanding of him is very rich and we’re very anxious to share that with all human beings.
We’ve written previously about using the Internet to fulfill the three-fold mission of the Church and suggested some ways members can be involved in proclaiming the Gospel online. Elder Nelson’s comments reveal an even larger vision for the use of this technology. I think we can begin to see how the truth of the Lord will actually and realistically “penetrate every continent, visit every clime, sweep every country, and sound in every ear.”
The following “badges” can be used on your own blog or website to link to the site. This is a great way to share teachings of the Savior with your readers and visitors.
To use an image from the left, copy the HTML code on the right to your own blog or website:
The More Good Foundation recently launched LDS.net, a social network for Church members to share their Mormon beliefs online. Features include blogs, forums, videos, photos, testimonies, news, and chat.
We intended for LDS.net to be like a fishbowl, allowing persons of other faiths to “peer in” and passively observe what Mormons think, believe, and say. But the result has been even better: several non-Mormons have signed up and are actively participating in conversations about the Church. LDS.net currently has 9,907 users.
LDS.net isn’t intended to compete with top social networks like Facebook and MySpace. They’re far more established and powerful. But if you want a place to share the Gospel online, alongside other Church members, LDS.net is a safe place.
You can also share the Gospel on Facebook. Most Church members on Facebook have both Mormon and non-Mormon friends. By simply being yourself online, non-Mormons will get a feel for what you do on Sundays, where you were for 18-24 months, where you were married, and other aspects of your faith.
In a BYU devotional, Gerrit Gong asked, “Would you feel comfortable showing your profile in Sunday School-or on the big screen at this devotional?” We believe many Church members would. Today we’re launching a new version of our Facebook Application — The LDS App. Our Facebook application allows Facebook users to share their testimony, favorite scriptures, and news from the Church directly on their profile page. Over 20,000 Facebook users have added the LDS App and hundreds are using it to share their testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The quick launch of these two Church websites is remarkable because it involved the coordination of almost a dozen teams. (More Good Foundation is just one team.) Kudos to the Church. The quality shows.
Our beloved prophet President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away last night at 7 PM. Since then, we’ve seen a flood of online interest in him, his successor Thomas S. Monson, how leadership and priesthood succession works in the Church, who current members of the Twelve are, and many other questions.
In the coming days, members of the Church have a great opportunity to answer these questions. If you have a blog, it would be helpful to write something on what President Hinckley’s service meant to you, your thoughts on President Monson, your understanding of how priesthood succession works, and related topics. It would also be helpful if you link to additional information like these:
