Doctrine and Covenants 163
Commentary Series

Growing Capacity to Bring Blessing

by David R. Brock

Truly authoritative priesthood ministry emerges from a growing capacity to bring blessing to others. Unfortunately, there are some who have chosen to view priesthood as a right of privilege or as a platform for promoting personal perspectives. Others hold priesthood as a casual aspect of their lives without regard to appropriate levels of preparation and response.—Doctrine and Covenants 163:6b

I was sitting in a small circle of evangelists in the beautiful Ribstone, Alberta, church. We had “snuck off” for a get acquainted meeting amid a joyous centenary celebration. As a ninety-year-old evangelist spoke of ministry and life, I was in awe at his attentiveness to the realities of the present day. Self-deprecating humor accompanied his observations as he shared insights about humanity. He brought a breadth of experience, but shared it humbly and gently. He displayed authoritative ministry and a genuine desire to keep growing in his capacity to bless others. He left an impression!

In another circle, a staff gathering in the Pacific Islands, I looked across at a sister in Christ I had met seven years before. I had watched her grow from an in-the-background, hesitant follower, to a leader willing to assume servant roles as elder and pastor. Her self-discipline to learn English; study in Temple School, a theological college, and MEADS courses; her sacrifices to visit in homes and hospitals and to minister at local and mission center events was remarkable. As she knelt with basin and towel to wash and dry our feet, then ask forgiveness if she had offended in any way, she expressed ministerial authority that transcended her personal abilities. Through her, the Holy Spirit graced our lives. She bore the mantle of leadership for all of us, though, ironically, the truth she expressed
was almost free of any consciousness of self. It wasn’t about her but about a desire for others to be blessed.

These two priesthood members embody what I understand to be faithful response to God’s call to bless others. Reviewing their ministry, questions emerge that call for further reflection:

1. What is authoritative priesthood ministry? What allows us to speak or act “as one having authority”?

2. What constitutes blessing? What difference does God’s blessing make? And, how do we join God in blessing another?

3. How does one grow in capacity to bless the lives of others? What causes some to strive, for as long as mind and body will allow, to increase knowledge, deepen relationships, and discern the future God is dreaming?

Authoritative Ministry
Some years ago, I had the privilege of visiting a Nairobi, Kenya, slum where the Missionaries of Charity had opened a home for orphans. Mother Teresa was present for the dedication. Though we refer to her so often we risk making her life and work trite, the experience of that day taught me much about authoritative ministry.

The contrast with church and government leaders was stark. The Kenyan Roman Catholic cardinal and several bishops were present, all dressed in their best to honor the moment and the ministry of the Yugoslavian sister who had made the slums of Calcutta her home. The finery seemed a little out of place, but there was dignity in the officials of the church who filed in, took their places, and opened the ceremony.

The other special guest was the Kenyan minister of culture, Mr. Oloitiptip. He arrived late (intentionally, I’m sure!) in a stretch limousine with horns blowing and lights flashing. Paid cultural dancers lined the streets singing, waving branches, and dancing vigorously. People cheered and craned to glimpse the huge man as he emerged from behind tinted glass and made his way to the podium.

When Mother Teresa walked through the crowd, there was a stir and a murmur, but many missed the tiny, hunched over woman in the simple white dress with blue stripes. After the prepared speeches, she stood and spoke without notes; her concise sentences, simple really, were powerful in clarity and authenticity. On that day, all the power and ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, and the impressive physical presence of Minister Oloitiptip and his entourage, were but a diversion from the one we had come to see and hear.

We dare not denigrate the role of institutions in society, the great good in the Roman Catholic Church, or the value of leaders in church and government. Title and role do matter. Institutions endure because policies and procedures are set up and responsibilities are entrusted to those who carry the mantle of pastor, apostle, or president. Organizations, imperfect as they are, provide continuity that makes possible and sustains the ministries of such people as Mother Teresa. When authority is not grasped for, but is granted by the Holy Spirit and wise discernment of the body, the world is blessed.

What gave Mother Teresa authority beyond institutional authority? I believe it was her longing for an intimate relationship with God, time with God, trust in God. I believe it was a vision of the peaceable kingdom so compelling that the passion for bringing it to fruition was a fire in the bones that could not be put out. If she could be a simple “pencil in God’s hand,” to do God’s will, nothing else mattered.

What Mother Teresa continues to teach, even long after her death, is that true authority is not claimed but given. If we are a true church, we won’t spend our time trying to prove it by argument or appeal. Our authority is Christ. If we do our best to faithfully follow the life patterns of Jesus and remain true to the values at the core of who we are at our best, the world will eventually recognize the integrity and authority: No privilege. No platform. No self-promotion. “Not me, but Christ in me.”

Sometimes we think people grant authority to those who are always strong, never make mistakes, never show a weakness. But there is little precedent for it in the walk of faith. Review your history! We need leaders of competence. But competence without vulnerability, without honesty, without acknowledgment of feet of clay, is not the measure of a leader we will follow. We go to places we would never dare to go with leaders who know they are as human as we are.

And in the end we follow them—
            not because we are paid,
            not because we might see some advantage,
            not because of the things they have accomplished,
            not even because of the dreams they dream
            but simply because of who they are . . . .
We give them our trust. We give them our effort.
What we ask in return is that they stay true. —William Ayot, “A Word from the Led,” The Contract

Bring Blessing
Section 163 draws us toward blessing: “…your name, given as a divine blessing…discover the blessings of all of the dimensions of salvation…blessed with an increased capacity for sharing Christ’s message of hope and restoration…discover the blessings of the gospel anew.”

We are blessed by a God who in Christ revealed an irrevocable love. The word “blessed” carries the idea of being happy, as Jesus expressed it in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Those who live in God’s love are promised a happiness that endures.

As we grow in our spiritual life, we find deeper meaning in what constitutes blessing. We become less demanding of God and more willing to leave ourselves open to the expression of God’s will in our lives. We are aware of our need to see life as God sees all creation (www.CofChrist.org/evangelist/Blessings.asp ).

John O’Donohue says blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen. It is invocation, a calling forth of divine favor. Blessing is the art of harvesting the wisdom of the invisible world. It is a constant invitation to growth—to become more than we have been, to transform loss into presence, and to allow what is false to fall away. A blessing can penetrate and change the inner shape of our identity (John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, Doubleday, 206–207):

…the human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness, a place where everything comes together, where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform into vision, where damage will be made whole, where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise, where the travails of a life’s journey will enjoy a homecoming. To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a person now.—O’Donohue, 199

Why do we say yes to the call to follow and serve? To bring blessing to others. In congregational life, we stretch out our hands to welcome all with a handshake or hug. We serve the breakfast, clean toilets, wash windows, hold a Communion tray. We gently lay our hands on the head of the baptized, the one called out to serve in priesthood, or the one beginning chemo treatments on Tuesday.

We carry that same call into our place of work—the place where the self meets the world. We not only enter cancer wards or women’s shelters but also bring blessing in the office and factory. Walking into church on Sunday or onto the job on Monday, may our prayer be, “God, I thank you for the joy and privilege of joining you today to bless this person, this creature, this community. Please help me do what you are already blessing. Amen.”

Growing Capacity

Years ago I went to Apostle Aleah Koury, expressing interest in doing something that mattered in Latin America. His response, “Learn Spanish,” wasn’t the “blessing” I wanted to hear. He saw my need to grow in capacity and sent me “back to school.” He gave ecouragement and affirmation, but gently said, “Prepare yourself.”

I’ve still got growing to do. We’ve got growing to do as Community of Christ. We are far less prepared than we should be to accomplish that to which we are called. Yet we have capacities to which we are blind. We are blessed to do great things—yes, even in our weakness. We are stronger than we know.

Are we blessing the lives of others? Is our worship, our offering, our Sunday school class, our profession at which we spend so much of our lives, blessing others? Do we evaluate our building program, our budget, our sermon, our Habitat project, our daily work by that simple question? Do we then raise the bar by asking not where we are failing and falling short, but simply, “How can we grow in our capacity to bless?”

The greatest gift is Emmanuel—God with us! The One who is the source of our growth and all growth is our Creator, as we are reminded in New Testament letters:

He who plants, nor she who waters is anything, but only God, who makes it grow.—I Corinthians 3:7

Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ.—Ephesians 4:15

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.—Colossians 1:6

Perhaps the greatest gift of priesthood is good men and women touched by God’s grace who, without reservation, share God’s grace by being “with us.”