1I was baptised into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in my mid-20s in London, joining a host of new young single adult friends in my newfound faith. During the first sacrament meeting following my baptism, I was asked to come to the front of the chapel, and the congregation was invited to raise their hands as a sign of welcome to the ward and to the Church.
2This was an unfamiliar practice to me. But I looked into those smiling faces, and I felt as if they were cheering me on, genuinely thrilled that I had discovered faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to follow Him. Many of my new friends had recently experienced this same welcome and transition into a life of faith.
3A week later, I was invited to meet with the bishop. He had taken time to get to know me when I was being taught by the missionaries. He rocked back in his chair, thwacking a ruler into his palm, and told me that we were meeting because he had a calling for me. He had prayed—about me—and he told me the calling would be of benefit to me and my future service to the Lord in His Church. He extended the calling of assistant ward clerk. The reaction in my mind was, “Assistant ward clerk? Well, that is not me!” Fortunately, a little grace intervened, and I responded with a “thank you” and that I would endeavour to learn what was involved. I did not have a clue.
4At church the next Sunday, I was asked to stand as my calling was announced. My ward family was invited to raise their hands if they agreed to sustain me. Comfortingly, I saw those same raised hands and smiling faces surrounding me in the congregation, reassuring me that these new friends would support me with their goodwill, patience, and faith.
5The ward clerk I was to be “assisting” came straight to me at the end of the meeting and said, “Come on, Patrick. I’ll show you how this works.” Over the coming months, he did show me how everything worked, sitting side by side, often for hours—in the small clerk’s office. (To be clear, that’s a small office for clerks, not an office for small clerks.)
6Other callings followed. My bishop kept a loving eye on me and eventually shared that he had felt prompted by the Lord to extend callings which would be stretching for me but, he trusted, not overwhelming. I came to see purpose and power in each calling I received, and with hindsight, the bishop’s inspiration came to make sense to me.
7I also had the opportunity to sustain many others, happily trying to support them as we all learned to serve together. Often the calling was an obvious fit to the person’s gifts and talents. Occasionally I thought, “Hmm, interesting choice,” though never more than when I was that choice.
8With those raised hands and encouraging smiles, we were participating in common consent, where we can choose to sustain, by the raising of the right hand, those called to serve. Common consent is not a mere formality but a beautiful mix of our agency, unity, and faith. It is a voluntary, personal commitment to support, uphold, and help the Lord’s called servants in their responsibility, whether bishopric member, Young Women adviser, Sunday School teacher, or stake Primary president. We sustain each other with our prayers, our love, our patience, and our faith. Will we always agree with those we are invited to sustain? Will we always think they are doing a good job and serving as the Saviour would? Perhaps not, and we might be right, but as we pray for them and they for us, important bridges of unity are built.
9I came to understand why everyone serves one another in a ward or branch: it affords us all the opportunity to pursue Christ and His virtues—such as charity, humility, meekness, forgiveness, and love—with people who may be very different to us. I clearly saw how faith is fortified and the body of Christ bonded together. I could see the Lord working through imperfect servants, very much including myself, who were striving to discern His will for those they were serving.
10Some callings are highly stretching, while others may leave us wondering, “Isn’t there more I could be asked to do?” You might serve in a very visible role for a time, only later to be called to quiet, unseen service—or to support those with less experience. When callings change in ways that deeply impact you or your family, it can require great faith and trust in the Lord while you adjust.
11I also acknowledge that there are those who, owing to exceptional circumstances, are unable to respond to a calling at a given time. Careful leaders will be sensitive to this, and through prayer, the Lord can help you know when the time is right for you to serve again.
12Is it sometimes inconvenient to serve in a calling that asks something of us? Might we become jaded or reluctant? I have learned over and over again that—whatever our offering—in the Lord’s economy we always come out ahead.
13When the Saviour called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him, they instantly dropped their nets. If a call were ever inconvenient or incomprehensible, it must have been this one on the shore of Galilee, yet with faith they followed. And what of feeling disheartened or flagging? Well, even with all they saw, felt, and experienced, those first Apostles needed the Lord’s gentle reminding and His repeated invitation to feed His sheep.
14Our service is a choice, an offering to God, and a blessing. We all know that prayer, study of scripture, and worship at church and in the temple are critical to the development of our faith. Have we also come to see our callings as having a foundational role in the expansion of our faith? Callings from the Lord are tailor-made for our growth, as we humble ourselves, look outward, and learn that, indeed, when we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are in fact in the service of our God. It really isn’t where we serve but how that matters to the Lord.
15And it matters for us too. There was nothing half-hearted about those friends I talked about. They were living their faith at full speed, and it was contagious. I could see the joy that came to them from their whole-souled devotion—which brings us to today.
16We have had the sacred opportunity to come together to raise our hands in support of President Dallin H. Oaks, to sustain him as the Lord’s prophet, seer, and revelator. I’m sure that if he were to review his Church service in his 20s and 30s in the way that I just have my own, nothing would have been further from the realms of possibility in his mind than becoming the President of the Church. This is a call he didn’t seek or aspire to. The weight of this responsibility is colossal and sobering. I can’t help but think of his daddy, who died when young Dallin was only seven, and his faithfully resolute mother, who raised a resilient, hardworking son who would later be called from an illustrious yet modest life to serve as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Now, 42 years later, we joyfully sustain him as the Lord’s chief Apostle, as his whole soul once again responds to a call, claiming no infallibility while trusting in the Lord’s guiding hand.
17Since 1880, we have called this kind of moment a solemn assembly, a sacred gathering for a holy purpose such as this. While today is certainly solemn in purpose, it is also a day full of gratitude and rejoicing at the opportunity for the whole Church to come together and exercise common consent. We have signified our willingness to uphold President Oaks with our confidence, faith, and prayers.
18“Every individual [has stood] equal with every other in exercising with soberness and in solemnity his or her right to sustain or not to sustain [him] who, under the procedures that arise out of [revelation], [has] been chosen to lead.”
19When 12-year-old Jesus was found by His parents teaching in the temple, He told them that He had been “about [His] Father’s business.” And we can be too. Every calling, whatever it may be, is “His business” when embraced with a humble and willing heart and a desire to lift and comfort His children and share His good news. We are not merely filling an assignment when we respond to an inspired call but joining the Saviour of the world in His infinite, redeeming work. He needs you, and He needs me. Life is better—everything is better—when we are about His business. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.