The invitation read,
An Evening at the Bishop’s House
Please join us Friday, November 11th for an informal evening with friends, food, and faith.
We’ll start dinner at 6:00 pm, but come when you can. We will eat, visit, and discuss issues of faith and belief.
Child care will be provided–call or text….. They are expecting to hear from you!
We hope you can come,
The Brockbanks and the Rosses
Please let us know if you can’t make it.
The bishop and I prepared an evening for people in our ward to gather in his home for a meal and a discussion about maintaining faith. We talked about this over the course of a year. We knew it was probably important to address the doubts that are coming forward so strongly today, but how should we go about it? We talked about it in ward council. We talked about it in other meetings. We wanted to create an environment where people would feel comfortable addressing this very personal topic. We wanted it to feel casual, warm, supportive, and inspiring. I heard myself say in ward council one Sunday that I felt that a sister’s voice was needed along with the bishop’s voice in such a gathering. Eventually, in September, the bishop asked me to come up with a format for the night to be a foundation we could add upon. He wanted to hold this activity sometime in October or November.
One night I lay awake thinking about what to do. I fell asleep but woke up around 1:00 am with a clear idea of what needed to happen. I turned on a light and wrote it all down. We did not plan this evening. The Lord did. On this list were tiny details such as mailing invitations and a need for childcare. Also there were bigger concepts such as focusing on maintaining faith rather than going down a list of controversial topics, although we should be prepared to address these topics. Truly, God’s hand was in the planning. The bishop added a few things, including providing a dinner, not just a dessert and he finalized the list of people to invite.
The bishop mailed invitations and prepared his house for the big event. Seriously, he hand-addressed envelopes! No one was hand picked because we had specific concerns. We just chose the younger age group in the ward. I saw how he prepared spiritually. I tried to do the same. My presidency, a few other sisters, and I made the food. Two sisters and their teens provided childcare next door to the bishop’s house. Richard rode in the back of our truck up the hill to the bishop’s house, trying to stabilize a handful of crock pots full of soup.We helped set up some chairs and set out the buffet. We held our breath and hoped for a good turnout. 30 people out of the 40 we invited showed up!
After dinner, we gathered in the living room and began a discussion. The bishop and I spoke, back and forth, and so did his wife and Richard. We hoped others would participate, too. Neither of us spoke from notes, but we knew some basics of what each would discuss. We shared personal stories from our lives. The bishop used some videos from the church and Steven Spielberg to make some points. I drew from James 1 to encourage us to let patience have her perfect work as we sort through matters that challenge our faith.
I feel really good about the evening because so many came and so many people felt comfortable enough to share their experiences. As people shared their journeys with us, many topics came up, such as sustaining the prophet, same sex marriage, and priesthood, as we thought they would. People felt supported. People seemed to love the time together. There is a lot of support for doubt in the world. We wanted to create a place and community to support choosing faith, while acknowledging there are challenges to our faith. I think we achieved that.
I feel a lot of gratitude for the opportunity to speak as a leader, to share my testimony, and to encourage others. Preparing food for a crowd and preparing my mind and heart to speak at the same time was a big deal. I smile when I think about the evening.
