Organizing to Make a Difference

     I need to provide a little background about how LDS congregations are organized in order to explain the topic of this post. Within a typical LDS congregation, there is an Elders Quorum and a Relief Society which are something like a men's and a women's group respectively. One of the main functions of both of these groups is to provide service, and they often work together in accomplishing this.
     Each group has a president who has two counselors and a secretary. I currently am a counselor in my congregation's Elders Quorum. My primary responsibility is to oversee and organize service activities for the quorum. And here we come to the point. Our quorum does a wonderful job at performing "routine" kinds of service. We shovel snow for widows, help people move into/out of their homes, drive African refugees to a Swahili speaking congregation, and other simple, yet meaningful tasks. But my question is what can we do that is outside of the norm? I believe these acts of service our important, and very good in fact; but perhaps they limit my vision as to what we can accomplish because it is what we have always done. What can we do to broaden our vision?

(One hour later...)
     
     And Google comes through again. By searching "community service opportunities" I was able to find quite a few ideas that I hadn't thought of before. Several involve setting up 5K runs for MS or cancer, but there were some other ideas as well. I believe I'm a thinking a little broader than before. Do you have any ideas?

Perhaps be the Means...

     I hope that what I write here will be as much, if not more, about you as about me. I'm don't want to hide that I'm here to talk about my faith and living a Christian life. Where do we talk publicly, sincerely, humbly about our beliefs? Depending on your background, you might talk about your faith frequently; perhaps you don't have a particular faith or you are not religious. Regardless, I believe there will be something in this blog for each of you. 

     I've titled this blog "Perhaps be the Means" based on a verse of scripture. The quotation in full is:

And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. Alma 26:30

     My desire is that here, by relating my experiences of meeting life as a Christian, particularly as an LDS Christian, that you and I will both be blessed and have our faith reinforced. This is a place where I hope that you and I might "perhaps be the means" of bringing our souls and the souls of others closer to Christ.