In the October issue of the Ensign magazine, President Thomas S. Monson gives a beautiful message regarding less active members of the church. He shares with us that there are some among us who "struggle with sin while others wander in fear or apathy or ignorance. For whatever reason, they have isolated themselves from activity in the Church. And they will almost certainly remain lost unless there awakens in us - the active members of the Church - a desire to rescue and to save." He goes on to say, "Ours is the duty to reach out to rescue those who have left the safety of activity, that such might be brought to the table of the Lord to feast on His word, to enjoy the companionship of His Spirit."
On display in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England is the following 1831 painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner. It is the scene of a turbulent sea. The light from a stranded vessel shines in the distance. In the foreground is a lifeboat being tossed about by the waves. On the shore stand a mother and children who have already made it to shore and await those making their way to the shore.
President Monson goes on to say that "in a very real sense, those persons stranded in the storm-tossed sea of Turner's painting are like many of our less active member who await rescue by those who guide the lifeboats. Their hearts yearn for help. Mothers and fathers pray for their sons and daughters. Wives plead to heaven that their husbands may be reached. Sometimes children pray for their parents."
May we follow the invitation the Savior gave to the fishermen at Galilee when he urged them to leave their nets with the promise that he would make them fishers of men. May we also be fishers of men by providing whatever help we can to less active members.
President Monson has served as a General Authority of the church for over 50 years. In all his years he has found that there are two fundamental reasons that largely account for the return of less active members. "First, individuals return because someone has shown them their eternal possibilities and has helped them decide to achieve them. Second, others return because loved ones have followed the admonition of the Savior, have loved their neighbors as themselves....The catalyst in this process has been - and will continue to be - the principle of love."
He closes with the prayer that "we might have a desire to rescue the less active and to bring them back to the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they might partake with us of all that full fellowship has to offer. May we reach out to rescue the lost who surround us. May we extend to them the hand that helps and the heart that knows compassion. By doing so we will bring joy into their hearts, and we will experience the rich satisfaction that comes to us when we help another along the pathway to eternal life."
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