The Gospel and The Church - What's the difference?

Converted to His Gospel through His Church - April 2012

I love it when a talk crystallizes a subject I have been pondering but had not been able to put into words. This is exactly what Elder Hallstrom did, clarifying the difference between activity in the Gospel and activity in the Church. I'll see you in 11 and 1/2 minutes.




I felt like the crux of Elder Hallstrom's address was summed up in the following statement:

"We often wonder: How can someone be fully active in the Church as a youth and then not be when they are older? How can an adult who has regularly attended and served stop coming? How can a person who was disappointed by a leader or another member allow that to end their Church participation? Perhaps the reason is they were not sufficiently converted to the gospel—the things of eternity."

I have often pondered on why some members of the church don't seem to fit the profile of a disciple of Christ (not unlike Elder Bednar's address a month ago).  I've talked about it before in terms of separating the culture of the church from the doctrine of the church.  I have a non-member friend who lived in Utah for years and was very turned off by the behavior of certain church members.  In a way, he couldn't see the beauty of the Gospel because of the culture which had grown around the church. 

It has been interesting for me to live away from that culture for a few years now.  Out here "in the field", the social constraints and practices surrounding the appearance of living the gospel don't exist (at least, not as strongly).  Therefore, those who live the gospel daily do so from their own motivation, not due to social pressure.  Consequently, there is an increased (albeit not complete) sincerity and genuineness about the church members.  I have found this to be particularly true about the youth, who have not been raised in more mormon-intense cultures. Without social pressures keeping them active, the youth who remain active are often very grounded in the Gospel.  Conversely, those who are active only by familial pressure will often fall away when they hit their rebellious teenage years.

So we must be careful to to think of activity in the Church as the ultimate goal, right Elder Hallstrom?

"Some have come to think of activity in the Church as the ultimate goal. Therein lies a danger. It is possible to be active in the Church and less active in the gospel. Let me stress: activity in the Church is a highly desirable goal; however, it is insufficient."

Thanks for backing me up, Elder Hallstrom.  It's possible to be active in the church but not in the Gospel.  Let's continue with another quote:

"Sometimes we use the terms gospel and Church interchangeably, but they are not the same.  They are, however, exquisitely interconnected, and we need both."

So to me this heads us off from going to the extreme conclusion that we can be active in the Gospel without the church.  The logical conclusion then is that if we are active in the Gospel, we will become active in his Church. But it's not bad to be just active in the Church.  We must just realize that it is insufficient and strive to build connections for every church-going member .  In fact, "...The purpose of the Church is to help us live the gospel."

Knowing and being converted to the Gospel is far more important than attending church.  It is important to me as a father, a home teacher, and whatever other stewardship callings I may have to understand the difference so that I can help others find the Gospel.  Elder Hallstrom does a great job of delineating the difference between the two.

Finally (or perhaps initially), it is important for us to analyze our own relationship to the Gospel and with Christ (hmm... "What Thinks Christ of Me?"  We'll get to that one later).

"...How much faith do we really have? How repentant are we? How meaningful are the ordinances in our lives? How focused are we on our covenants?"

Finally, Elder Hallstrom lists three fundamental ways to make the Gospel our foundation:
1) Deepen our understanding of Deity.
2) Focus on the ordinances and covenants.
3) Unite the gospel with the Church.

I found it interesting that this talk preceded so many others in this conference about genuine church service, home teaching, missionary work, and rescuing the lost. To me, it set a tone and wrote a subtext into each of those other addresses, cautioning us that as we do this work, we must be careful to remember the ultimate goal of bringing others to Christ through preaching his Gospel, and not just emphasizing activity in the church.