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The most important change in the Church is yet to happen

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The following has been republished with permission from taylorhalverson.com and was first published on LDSLiving.com in August 2019.

I recently attended a stake leadership meeting. The stake president asked a conversation-generating question: “How has the Church changed recently? What do those changes mean for you and why?”

I had two immediate thoughts when I heard these questions.

Before I share those two ideas, I’ll share the list our group rattled off in about five minutes of discussion.

Our list was not meant to be a comprehensive documentation of all the changes in the Church in the past several years. You’ll likely think of other items that could be added to this list.

  1. Focus on the name of the Church as “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”
  2. Two-hour block of Church services on the Sabbath to focus on the sacrament
  3. Youth programs
  4. Relationship between the Church and the Boy Scouts of America
  5. Changes in quorums and classes
  6. New curriculum
  7. New temples announced
  8. Changes to temple endowment
  9. Changes to temple sealings
  10. Changes to temple initiatory
  11. Temple callings changed from a veil worker to an ordinance worker
  12. If you forget your temple recommend you can talk to a designated temple worker (the Recorder) instead of having to reach your bishop
  13. Changes to mission age
  14. Changes to missionary dress 
  15. Changes to missionaries being able to call and video conference with family weekly
  16. Changes to length of service for Church service missionaries
  17. Changes to temple youth participation age
  18. Changes to the age young women can enter the Young Women’s program
  19. Changes to the age when young men can receive the priesthood and enter the Young Men’s program
  20. Changes to family study time
  21. Family-centered, church-supported gospel learning
  22. Ministering program
  23. Youth involvement in the ministering program
  24. Elder’s quorum restructuring
  25. Changes to General Conference schedules
  26. Women who have children at home serving in the temple
  27. Bishops and stake presidencies being able to hold temple callings
  28. Changes to ward mission leaders
  29. New technologies to support family history

With that list in mind, here are the two thoughts that came to my mind upon hearing my stake president’s question.

We do not simply believe in the theory of revelation.

We believe in modern-day revelation. We should expect change. We should expect new ideas. We should expect updates. We should expect expansion. We should expect the norm to give way to the new.

We should expect revelation.

We do not simply believe in the theory of revelation.

We believe in, act on, and accept the practice and reality of revelation—daily, ongoing, persistent, ever-flowing.

The Church is changing. Am I?

During the entire conversation I could not dislodge these growing thoughts from my mind:

  • No matter how much the Church changes…
  • No matter how much revelation is received by Church leaders, or by me…
  • No matter if the 116 lost pages are found…
  • No matter if the remaining two-thirds of the Book of Mormon, which is currently sealed, is translated bringing forth more than 1,000 pages of additional scripture…
  • No matter if angels return to the earth declaring glad tidings…
  • No matter if more temples are built to dot the earth…
  • No matter if Church programs come and go…
  • No matter if our missionary ranks swell into the hundreds of thousands or the millions…
  • No matter if the Church changes much or little in my lifetime…
  • No matter if BYU eventually beats the University of Utah just one more time before I die…

Only one thing matters.

Am I changing? Is my heart changing?

Am I loving God with all my heart, might, mind, and strength, and my neighbor like myself?

The only change that truly matters for our personal salvation, for peace in our families, for peace in communities and nations, is the change of our own hearts.

In all of our excitement and enthusiasm for ongoing revelation and change in the Church, I’m hopeful that I am more excited and enthusiastic to pay the price to have my own heart changed.

Perhaps then I can join with the Lamanite king who humbly pleaded with God, “I will give away all my sins to know thee” (Alma 22:18).

That is a change worthy of rejoicing!

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