Elders Quorum President

It occurs to me that if this is my blog then I can post whatever I like, and includes thoughts I have had recently on some church callings.  I'm not being critical, the Lord said, "Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence." (D&C 107:99).  My goal is to figure out how I could serve better.  If anyone comments then I reserve the right to update this post to include the enlightening ideas.

Some callings I have thought about, but will likely never openly express my opinion, for reasons that are obvious to me.  But I would like to muse over the scope and potential of the Elders quorum president  (as I am currently and EQ Councillor).   This is spurred by one simple question:
How can I tell if the Elders quorum is functioning well?

I've determined the answer to that question requires this pre-question:
What is the function of the Elders quorum?

The obvious correct answer is "To bring souls to Christ".   I get that, but let's assume that everyone is always seeking to be more Christlike, and yet falling short, and that would be true in an Elder's quorum that was functioning well, or one that was completely non-functioning.   So my question really is:

If there were two wards, one where the Elder's quorum presidency was doing everything they could, and one where the Elder's quorum presidency did nothing, how would you be able to tell which was which?

My first  idea is to say that the functioning Elder's quorum would do the ward's grunt work.  In my ward that means a lot of moving college students in (August) and out (May).  Sometimes there's duties like setting up chairs for conference or chopping wood for a widow, but if you took away moving college kids then there's maybe four or five other times a year that the ward needs the muscle.  So what role does the Elder's quorum presidency play?  They shouldn't be expected to be the ones that show up every time (although surely they would show up more than typical) but they are the ones that announce the need and make sure people show up.  Just saying what the job is in Elder's quorum is natural, but not enough since not all the Elders are in the meeting.  So I have my first duty:
1) Keep a current email list to inform Elders of work (like moving) that needs to be done.
2) Be willing to step in and assist in the work (like moving) as much as possible

As for ensuring that the duties are covered that is tricky.  If someone is moving Friday morning at 11am that directly conflicts with my work, and asking (or requiring) me to be there would be inappropriate.  If someone needs help at a specific time then they will simply have to be content with whomever they can get.  I think the duty of ensuring that Elders are not abused (by someone who needs 10 hours of help moving) should really go to the bishop.  Some duties, like setting up chairs for stake conference, don't have specific schedules and so the Elders Quorum Presidency should plan for when that can get done.
3) For flexible assignments determine when/who will get the job done

One duty which ought to be mentioned simply because it has scriptural backing is "an elder...[is] to administer bread and wine—the emblems of the flesh and blood of Christ—" (D&C 20:38-40) which is normally an Aaronic priesthood function, but if for some reason the Aaronic priesthood was not able to do their duty then the Elder's should be willing to step in.  It deserves special mention, perhaps, because this is one of the duties which requires personal righteousness.  Specifically the Elder's quorum presidency may need to assign other Elders to do this.

4) Be willing to step in and perform Aaronic Priesthood duties if needed

5) Assign Elders to fill in Aaronic duties if needed

So far we've talked about things that are infrequent, and mostly things that can simply be assigned to other Elders (like those two guys in every ward that end up doing most of the work).  When I think of what work the Elder's quorum does regularly I think of home teaching.  While the presidency should certainly do their home teaching, the hard part is in organizing and reporting the home teaching that happens.  Rare families have special needs (sometimes personality conflicts or they only accept one connection to the church) which can make organizing home teaching tricky, but for the most part it's simply a matter of putting it together.
6) Set an example of good home teaching
7) Assign Elders to do the home teaching

How often should home teaching routes be changed just to shake things up?  In my ward it's a moot issue since so many students move in and out regularly that the routes have to be redone every September anyway.  I suspect there is more that could be done here, however, in terms of finding companionships that don't function.  We all know there are Elders who get the ball moving, and Elders that only do work when someone else gets the ball moving.  Unfortunately I've found this task is a lot like trying to recreate the Mona Lisa with living ants.
8) Redesign the home teaching to improve companionships

The hardest part of home teaching is the reporting.  That's mostly because other Elders are impossible to get a hold of.  With modern technology I would expect the presidency to design something that could make the reporting easy, and then to chase down (to a reasonable degree) those who refuse to report.  I've heard of Elder's quorums where there were men called specifically for this, but in our ward there aren't that many extra people.
9) Set a system for reporting home teaching
10) Attempt to contact those who have not reported their home teaching

What else does an Elder's quorum do?  The thoughts are usually "home teaching " and "lessons on Sunday".  Assigning someone to teach (even if it's another member of the presidency) is easy if it's set on a schedule.  The problem is (in my experience) often the teacher shows up having forgotten they're supposed to teach.  Let's not bring up how much preparation a teacher puts in even when they knew it was their week.  I think assigning teachers isn't enough - the presidency also needs to call them the day before to make sure they remember it.
11) Assign teachers for Elder's quorum
12) Call the teacher on Saturday to make sure they remember they are teaching
13) Be ready to step in and teach if the instructor flakes

All of these duties are functional - there's a job to do and the Elder's do it.  The real goal of an Elder's quorum should be to bring souls to Christ.  That being said it's inappropriate for Elder's to conduct worthiness interviews, so what can a presidency do to improve the spirituality?  I've given this a lot of thought, and I'd love ideas, but there's really only two opportunities I can see: When teaching, and during PPI's (Personal Priesthood Interviews).  While the presidency only teaches once a month the idea is straightforward, teach by the spirit what the quorum needs to hear.  I think one item that the list should include is how to do home teaching by the spirit. The list above makes home teaching sound like a checklist, which would be very offensive to the Lord.
14) Teach by the spirit what the Lord wants the quorum to know
15) Teach about loving your home teaching families

Personal Priesthood Interviews (PPI's) confuse me.  It's not a worthiness interview, and it's not a lecture, so what is the purpose?  I think the ambiguity is one reason why my quorum has struggled to keep up with PPI's. The stated purpose is to report about home teaching and the home teaching families, but my ward does not have great home teaching percentages.   Is the PPI meant to lecture them about not home teaching?  When they report their home teaching they mention if there are special needs that the quorum needs to be aware of.  Is the PPI meant to fix holes in the home teaching reporting?  Since this instruction to conduct PPI's come from church administration I assume there is greater value to these which we have not tapped.  I'm open to thoughts on the problem.
16) Conduct Personal Priesthood Interviews

This one comes from a friend who suggested that an important measure of a good Elder's quorum is  having acivities regularly (he says monthly).  He says this makes a big difference in how unified and social the Elder's quorum is.  Monthly seems like a lot to me, but I can agree that camaraderie within the Edler's quorum should be a priority.
17) Schedule regular quorum activities

So I count 16 duties that fall under the Elder's Quorum President
1) Keep a current email list to inform Elders of work (like moving) that needs to be done.
2) Be willing to step in and assist in the work (like moving) as much as possible
3) For flexible assignments determine when/who will get the job done
4) Be willing to step in and perform Aaronic Priesthood duties if needed
5) Assign Elders to fill in Aaronic duties if needed
6) Set an example of good home teaching7) Assign Elders to do the home teaching
8) Redesign the home teaching to improve companionships
9) Set a system for reporting home teaching
10) Attempt to contact those who have not reported their home teaching
11) Assign teachers for Elder's quorum
12) Call the teacher on Saturday to make sure they remember they are teaching
13) Be ready to step in and teach if the instructor flakes
14) Teach by the spirit what the Lord wants the quorum to know
15) Teach about loving your home teaching families
16) Conduct Personal Priesthood Interviews
17) Schedule regular quorum activities
Since I'm a statistician I instantly want to create a data frame for this based on the characteristics.  Unfortunately a table is difficult to fit in the blog, so here's some variables I'll assign:
W:  Done weekly
M:  Done monthly
D:  Can be delegated to a councilor

S:   Requires personal spirituality

Duty	W	M	D	S
1			X
2
3			x
4				X
5			X
6		X
7		X	X
8				X
9			X
10		X	X
11			X
12	X		X
13	X		X	X
14			X	X
15			X	X
16			X	X
17		X	X

And so  I return to the original question: If I showed you two wards where one was functioning well, and the other had an Elder's quorum that was not  functioning well, how would you pick out which one was which?

It's not fair to say "which one is more spiritual?".  Everyone has a spiritual level between 0  and 1, and a great Elder's quorum president could be working with Elders who are struggling, and a bad president could have a quorum full of men in tune with the Lord.  I accept that a good Presidency will increase the spirituality, but I don't think you can measure the spirituality, nor use it as a tool to evaluation how well the presidency is working.

So I have some ideas, but for the most part I do not feel like I have a good answer, and I would love to have thoughts on it.
A) Elders are informed of service opportunities, and those needs are fulfilled (except in unusual circumstances)
B) A good EQ presidency has assigned home teaching to all active (and some inactive) men in the ward.  Each family (not assigned to the High Priests) has a home teacher assigned to them.  New families or Elder's moving will only cause a hole to last a month.
C) Home teaching reports come in every month with most of the Elders being contacted.  Those whom are not contacted are noted, and if they are not able to be contacted for several months the presidency will reach out to them
D) Each Sunday the lesson has an assigned teacher who was contacted to make sure they knew about their turn to teach so they could prepare (whether they actually prepare or not is beside the point)
E) Seek the spirit so that they can instruct the quorum on improving spirituality and receive inspiration on what can help bring their quorum to Christ.

The obvious next step is to ask whether MY Elders quorum is functioning well.  Obviously I have purposely avoided saying anything about how we are doing - This isn't the right place for that, but suffice it to say I think we are doing not-too-bad in some areas, and there are some areas where we could improve.  Just writing this blog post has helped me to organize my thoughts which I hope will plan how I can perform my sacred calling better.

Being Valiant

There are many scriptures that list being valiant as desirable, for example, "Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts" (1 Chronicles 11:22). Now being valiant by itself does not mean someone is righteous, the wicked are sometimes called valiant, but the Lord wants the righteous to be valiant too. In fact, losing out on the celestial kingdom is described as "These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God." (D&C 76:79).

So what does it mean to be valiant? I guess my best answer is to describe experiences that have helped me to understand it. Experiences that have shaped my ability to take a stand for the right, to not let anger be an excuse, to follow the commandments, and to stay on the Lord's course.

As a child I was teased regularly because of the physical deformities from my cleft palette. I was regularly known as "Flat Nose" or "Dumbo". Sometimes it was hard for me to handle - I would feel the anger surge, but I was taught that violence should not be option. I tolerated the taunting and simply moved forward. Their words might hurt, but they could not stop me from doing what I knew was right.

One day in fourth grade a big tough fifth grader named Ren was teasing me. I was sitting in the second row of the bus, and he was behind me. I was not surprised when Ren called me Flat Nose and starting teasing me about how my looks were disturbing to others. It was common and in 20 minutes we would be at the school. Seeing that I was ignoring him he decided to get more physical.

He pushed the back of my head forward. I could ignore that. He started flicking my ears. I could ignore that. He licked his fingers and stuck them in my ears. That's too much. I turned around, told him to stop and pretended to read a book. He reached over, closed my book, licked his fingers, and stuck them in my ears again.

Roiling mad I had a choice. My parents had taught me to not use violence, but this was escalating, and clearly Ren would not stop until he got the reaction he wanted from me. The hard part was that my emotions were raging and all I wanted was to punch the guy.

Being valiant means doing the right thing regardless what your emotions say. The struggle is that I can't tell what is right when my emotions are strong. In this case I felt that I needed to take a stand against bullying. I felt that I needed to let Ren know that he had crossed the line. I made a decision to fight back. I gave him one fair warning, "Ren, if you do that again I will punch you."

Three second later sloppy wet fingers were in my ears. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. It was probably the very reaction he wanted. I balled a fist, swung around and connected with his nose. He slammed back against his seat holding his nose looking wide eyed. To my knowledge it didn't bleed, but he was quiet the rest of the ride home. Later a friend told me the bus driver had chuckled and then pretended not to be watching in the mirror when I turned around.

I spent the rest of the morning in doubt. I felt as if I had violated one of my own rules. In acting out I had violated my own rule against violence. On the bus ride home from school I avoided Ren, but the next day he was sitting behind me again. To my surprise he left me alone. In fact every day after that he left me alone. The only time he ever brought it up was years later when he said, "Hey, Scott... remember that time you punched me on the bus? That suprised me so much!"

I learned that being valiant means you're willing to stick up for what is right, and sometimes that means taking action. I have great respect for the soldiers of our nation who are willing to pick up arms in defense of their country. When Zarahemnah offered to stop the famous battle against Captain Moroni while promising to come back and fight another day Moroni's response was "Behold, we will end the conflict." (Alma 44:10) Moroni was valient in knowing the right time to fight, and being willing to stand up for what was right when it was time.

Physical fights aren't what I face now. When I graduated high school we were in a long line to return books when a kid started using vulgar language. One of the bullies that had tormented me when I was younger stood up to him and told him to stop his profanity. My respsect for a peer that I had once despised skyrocketed. He understood what it meant to be valiant and he faced down this other kid to make him stop swearing.

After these stories you might think being valiant means being tough. That has nothing to do with it. It's possible to get angry and to stand up for yourself and not be valiant. One summer my wife and I took our three year old Thomas with us to Lagoon - an amusement park. We were met by Teasha's parents who helped us watch over Thomas. As I passed the spook alley I commented to Teasha that I remembered how that ride used to scare me as a little boy. I would have nightmares and feel creeped out for days. We left Thomas with his grandmother and explained how we wanted to go through the ride to see if I could recall why it was so terrifying.

The ride was hilarious - the scary dummies were laghable, and the jump scares were predicatable. When we came out I was thrilled to realize I found nothing scary now, although I probably should never have gone on that ride as a child. We looked around for Thomas and Grandma. They were gone. Teasha's father informed us Grandma had taken our three year old through the spookhouse behind us.

I was livid. In a park full of fun things there is no reason to scare a small child. Their cart rolled out of the spookhouse and Thomas was shaking staring at his shoes. I was full of strength, and if you had asked me I would have said that what I did next was "valiant".

"How could you do that? You just heard me talk about how it traumatized me as a child! There was no reason to take Thomas through that!" I continued my tirade explaining the inappropriateness of the action, and ending with "How could you be so stupid!?"

At that point Grandpa stepped in "Don't call my wife stupid. You are out of line. Come take a walk." And he walked with me until I had regained my cool. I realized that I had let my anger take over. I returned to Grandma and apologized for my outburst. It struck me afterwards that (although I may have been in the right to say I didn't want my child to go through the spookhouse) because I lost my temper the only thing everyone remembers from that incident is how I blew my top. The point I was trying to make was lost, and I was the one left looking like a fool. I excused myself by saying I was being valiant, but the truth was it was only an excuse.

Grandpa was the one who was valiant in that story. He stood up against a very angry father to protect his loved ones. Instead of losing this temper he evaluated what was right and then stood up for it. Valiant is not the same as strong, angry, or powerful. It means to use your strength in defense of right.

The Lord made the distinction clear: "when we undertake to... gratify ourpride,...or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion...Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.... No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;" (D&C 121:37,41)

In elementary school there was a talented and hard working photographer that would come every year to take school pictures. He was clever and humorous in his methods for getting us to smile. Because I knew he wanted me to smile I made a pointed effort to NOT smile. I thought valiant meant tough, and tough meant you did the opposite of what people wanted to you do. For that reason alone I refused to smile for my school picture.

Every year I would get the school pictures and be so proud of myself to see I didn't smile. Then I would show my mother and she would be so sad that I scowled. We would drive back to "picture retake" day on Saturday where I would smile to make my mother happy. Each year I would think "I wish I had just smiled the first time."

And then then next year when that photographer would say "Smile!" I would say "nuh-uh" and refuse. Blame it on immaturity, but it took me many years to realize that refusing to do what others wanted me to do was not the same as being valiant. It's matter of understanding what the right thing to do is, and then acting on that - regardless of whether others want you to or not.

Grandpa Corbridge understood that better than most. I suspect it's related to his experiences growing up. When he was eleven years old his parents went on a plane trip with their good neighbors. The Corbridge family had four small children, and the Elder's family had four small children. All four parents were in the airplane when it crashed and they died.

As a boy grandpa was thrown into a world of chaos and trials as his grandparents took the four Corbridge children and tried to raise them. Spirituality and patience were not always in great supply for an elderly couple that was already losing the vitality of youth. When I married into the family he told me how it was difficult to remain valiant with so many mixed messages and traumatic events to distract him. Many times he relied on his brothers and sister to keep himself sane.

Then one day he managed to find one of the four Elder family children. It had been 30 years and everyone had grown up and matured in their own way. A reunion was scheduled and all 8 children met at a church. They discovered one huge difference between the Corbridge and the Elder families. The Corbridge children had been kept together while the Elder's were split up and raised in separate homes. For years some of them didn't know where their siblings were.

Grandpa Corbridge learned something important about being valiant that day. He had not realized until that day what a benefit his siblings had been to him during those difficult years. The Elder's had lost a lot of the spirituality, the trust, the stability, and the direction in their lives. They had traveled difficult paths and only as older adults were they able to start to mend the psychological and emotional damage to put their lives back together.

Sometimes being valiant is confused with being alone - standing by yourself and fending off the entire world. The truth is the opposite - being valiant includes knowing who you can rely on and whom you can lean on. Because the Corbridge children had each other they weathered the terror of their parents death much better than the Elder's did. I am sure in heaven there will be a way to balance the unfair aspects of life.

To be valiant is to look for what is right, relying on people you can trust to help you know what is right, and then to act on it and use your might, mind, and strength to do what you know is right. That is why Helaman's 2000 stripling warriors are referred to as "young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted." (Alma 53:20)