We’re creating a new section on Christ.org–one of our More Good Foundation websites–that will include a composite of personal stories regarding the ways in which the Savior has intervened in our daily lives, and helped us to overcome, realize His hand, submit to His will, live on, receive understanding, see purpose, or find joy in the journey. (Possible topics and questions are listed below.)

We’d like to extend an invitation to you to write and submit to us, your own account of any way in which you have felt the personal impact of the Savior’s atoning love, grace, and influence in your life as you’ve moved forward in your journey of life, or as you’ve faced a particular life challenge. It doesn’t matter if the story revolves around a small moment, one event, or a long struggle. Selected accounts will be published on the site.

If you’re interested, please email your name, photo, and story to Karen Merkley, km@moregood.com. Stories should be approximately 350-1200 words. While we can post some stories anonymously, we’d also like to receive those from guests who would like to include a photo and first name, with their post, to keep the site inviting, real, and personal for our visitors.

Thank you for your interest and for all you already do to share your voices online in positive ways.
————

Topics

Coping with Fear
Dealing with Depression
Resolving Family Conflict
Dealing with Stress
Responding to Cancer or Other Illness
Forgiving
Dealing with Verbal Abuse
Overcoming Same Sex Attraction
Finding Comfort Amid Challenges
Finding Peace
Overcoming Loneliness
Dealing with Blended Families
Finding Joy
Overcoming Unresolved Guilt
Dealing with Tragedy
Handling Pain
Healing from a Hurtful Past
Surrendering to the Savior‘s Will
Dealing with Jealousy
Growing in Confidence

Questions:

How has the Savior helped you to find joy in your life?

What role does the Savior‘s grace play in your life?

How do you cultivate your relationship with the Savior?

How has prayer helped you understand the Savior‘s purpose for you?

How has the Savior helped you overcome worry or fear?

How has the Savior helped you overcome depression?

How has the Savior helped you forgive an abuser?

How has the Savior helped you overcome same sex attraction?

How has the Savior helped you cope with anxiety or panic attacks?

How has the Savior helped you overcome panic attacks?

How has the Savior helped you cope with the loneliness and uncertainty of having a deployed spouse?

How do you “come unto” the Savior?

How have you seen the Savior‘s hand in your affliction?

How has the Savior helped you deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed?

How has the Savior helped you deal with a child who is on a spiritually dangerous path?

How has the Savior helped you cope with abandonment, separation, or divorce?

How has the Savior helped you as you’ve battled cancer or other illness?

How has the Savior brought you peace?

How has the Savior opened your eyes to see new spiritual truths about yourself, Him, and/or others?

How has the Savior helped you deal with your spouse’s marital infidelity?

How has the Savior guided you in your daily choices and significant turning points?

How has the Savior lifted your burdens?

How has the Savior‘s forgiveness felt in your life?

How has the Savior helped you deal with infertility?

How has the Savior guided you in the adoption process?

How has the Savior helped you overcome anger or a temper?

What has increased your faith in the Savior and His atonement?

What personal meaning have you found in tragedy?

What have you learned about following the Savior?

How has the Savior helped you overcome an eating disorder?

How has the Savior helped you have unconditional love in a blended family?

How has the Savior helped you in a particular relationship?

A recent BYU Daily Universe article explains that Dr. Richard Holzapfel is encouraging gospel blogging by making it part of the curriculum. In BYU religion classes, it’s common to be asked to keep a private study journal throughout the semester. By moving the assignment online, the study journal

• may benefit a much larger audience than just the student;
• may be the catalyst for conversations about the Church;
• gives readers a glimpse into the life of a real member of the Church; and
• lives beyond the end of the semester*, whether the student continues to add to it or not.

Students may take the assignment more seriously — avoiding fluff and cliches that might pass with the grader — since the real world is reading.

Authenticity is paramount:

Holzapfel said he urges students to make their blogs authentic and said they must include “real things about real life.”

“If the blogs are preachy, no one will read them,” he said. (Student Blogging Spreads Church Globally)

Similarly, online journal services like LDSJournal.com or Pyxlin.com could offer a “Share this Paragraph” button in their private journals, so Church members can share without much extra effort.

By the way, Professor Holzapfel practices what he preaches and has begun blogging on the BYU Religious Studies website:

Dr. Richard Holzapfel’s blog

During the Sunday morning session of the 178th Semiannual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes referred to as the “Mormon” Church), a modern-day apostle, Elder Robert Hales, addressed the body of Saints and visitors worldwide. Elder Hales addressed the notion of Christian courage in the wake of misunderstanding about who we are as a people and what we believe.

Elder Hales spoke of seasons of opposition that we have known as the Lord’s church and and as a people. Such seasons of opposition, he indicated, can actually be turned to our good, and can help others and the Church as we respond to those criticisms in love.

“Criticisms create interest,” remarked Elder Hales. As those who seek the truth but don’t know where to find it, our individual responses count and can make a difference.

In a time when we awareness of us in increasing, there is still much to do in the way of creating understanding. While the Olympics, Mitt Romney’s campaign, increased press coverage around the world, have increased discussions about us globally, there is obviously a large percentage of the public who still do not know what we claim, nor understand our central belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  50-85% are still not sure that we are distinct from polygamous groups around us. While Elder Hales did not refer to specific misunderstandings, he did offer a blanket of counsel regarding our duty to respond to those misperceptions and our responsibility to do so in meekness.

Elder Hales suggested that when we read something that is not congruous with our beliefs, we take advantage of the opportunity to speak out in kindness. We can, he said, do some of the following:

• Write a letter to the editor of a publication containing misguided information
• Have a conversation with someone affirming the truth
• Email someone who may have been influenced by prejudice
• Comment on a blog

This is a time that calls for “Christian courage,” he suggested; moreover, meekness is not weakness. As we respond in meekness, not reviling when others may revile, “we stand where the Savior stood,” Elder Hales reminded us.

Let us follow his admonition. If you’d like to know how to start your own blog or need help knowing where to respond to statements about our faith, please contact us at email@moregoodfoundation.org.

If you have a blog, you can participate in a Testimony Tag by
1. Creating a blog post about a Gospel topic
2. Linking to another positive website or resource about the Church
3. Encouraging (”tagging”) your friends to do the same

For more information, read Testimony Tag.

Thanks to David for sending this in. I thought this was a great idea.

By the way, for an example of being a missionary online, see Matt Asay’s post “Five things you don’t know about me”. In the course of explaining five things about himself to a business and technical audience, he mentioned both his high school seminary class and his mission to France. He wasn’t preachy; he simply mentioned elements of his beliefs and practices that were a part of his life. This sort of transparency and openness helps build bridges and dispel myths about the Church.

Participants include the following individuals, as well as occasional guests:

• Larry Richman, LDS.org Product Manager
• Joel Dehlin, Church CIO
• David Nielson, Managing Director, Church Audiovisual Dept
• David Frischknecht, Managing Director, Church Curriculum Dept

A recent MormonTimes.com article quoted Larry Richman relative to the launch of this new site:

Richman said the principal writers for LDSMediaTalk.com will glean technology information useful to families based on each author’s area of expertise. The curriculum director will focus on teaching the gospel. The audiovisual director will focus on Hollywood, movie-watching and music. The CIO will dig into technology issues. “I’m somewhere in the middle of all of those,” Richman said.

On his personal blog, Brian posts photos of his family and newborn son, writes on a variety of topics from being a father to owning an iPhone, and, importantly, shares elements of his beliefs. After writing about tithing recently, Brian discovered that one of the visitors to our website had begun reading his personal blog.

Brian, you don’t know me in person but I’ve been reading [your] blog for a while. (I found it thru freemacware.com when you owned that.)

Anyway, I’m not Mormon but I appreciate [the] things you write about. There’s just one thing I have a question about with the mormons. every other religion (including mine) sees commandments as burdonsome and limiting. But in your posts and other mormons I know seem like they appreciate commandments. Why is that? maybe you or some of your mormon readers care to respond.

Several of us responded to Michael’s question, and eventually he asked to be visited by the full-time missionaries. I spoke with Brian today and he confirmed that the elders have now visited Michael and his family several times.

Brian didn’t intend to preach a sermon, but by simply sharing his faith online, he was able to reach someone who wanted to hear it. I think this is an exemplary model of online member missionary work.

Do you want to start a blog? We’ll help!

The Deseret News recently announced that it will add “an interactive component [including] blogs and reader comments” to its LDS Newsline product. Its first call for bloggers goes out to Education Week attendees who are willing to blog about what they’re “thinking, feeling and experiencing as [they] enjoy the spirit and opportunities of Education Week.”

This sort of blogging by Church members about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences is precisely in order.

Kudos to the Deseret News for encouraging Church members to blog.

I emailed him, suggesting he start a blog:

I think it would be great if you setup a blog. You could post the original letter and follow-ups and allow people to comment. Let people pass around the address of your blog instead of the text that might get altered. The world needs more blogs from faithful members who defend the Church. I’d be glad to help you set it up if you’re interested.

But he wasn’t interested:

I don’t have an interest in setting up a blog. I do not want to spend time becoming an internet apologist for the Church.

So I tried one last time:

…the Internet needs more faithful voices. With as much effort as you put into your letter, you appear to have the courage and energy to be such a voice. Consider a line from Elder Ballard’s Nov 2005 conference talk: “We call upon Internet providers and Web site creators to become more responsible regarding their potential for influence….”

In President Kimball’s address “When the World Will be Converted” he talked of using radio, TV, and satellite to spread the Gospel and that he believed “the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse.” That was 1974. Could Church members have envisioned an invention that would allow us to connect instantly with billions of people all over the globe? I feel like we have the opportunity to share the Gospel in a completely new way.

While his response was kind, he was still uninterested:

you contend well for a faithful use of the internet. thanks for all you’re doing.

What went wrong?

He can certainly do as he pleases, but if he has the time to publish a lengthy, well-written letter to PBS — and it was well-written — why not publish on a blog? Blogs allow for an open dialog between parties and preserve the history and fidelity of the text. (We believe blogs to be authentic; we believe emails to be authentic, as far as they are forwarded correctly.) Publishing online where everyone would see might have tempered his initial response. It facilitates a gentlemen’s duel — if we must use the word “duel” at all — instead of a drive-by shooting.

My offer to him stands for everyone. If you need help starting a blog so you can share your beliefs and testimony, we’d be glad to help.