"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the salt of the earth; but if the salt shall lose its savor, wherewith shall the earth be salted?" —MATTHEW 5:13
I enjoyed reading The Pew Forum interview with Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder Lance B. Wickman.
Toward the end of the interview they are asked why the Church is receiving so much attention, especially since the Church is not large relative to other religions. Elders Nelson and Wickman suggest one reason may be that Latter-day Saints can be found in every part of the world and are prominent players in their communities.
Elder Nelson: “Here's another thought that comes to me, and that is that nearly everybody has a neighbor who's a member of this church. There are what, about 200 countries in the world. We have at least one member of the church in every nation of the world now.”
Clearly we have salted the earth. But what is that salting doing?
I am reminded of a quote by Elder Glenn L. Pace when he was a member of the Central Area Presidency. He said,
We cannot become the salt of the earth if we stay in one lump in the cultural halls of our beautiful buildings.
With so much potential to influence our communities, what is the result of "lumping" in the cultural halls? It’s a funny visual if you think about it - members of the Church congregating together, staying in their comfortable cocoon of close church associations – a big lump!
This brings to mind the blog, Think Outside the Cultural Hall. As we plan activities in our programs can we think of ways to de-lump ourselves?
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