Zion's Army--The Prophet's Call

The Prophet's Call

The Prophet’s Call…Double the Number of Convert Baptisms!
“Great is our work, tremendous is our responsibility in helping find those to teach,”
President Gordon B. Hinckley, February 27, 1999

Every member of the Church should be aware by now of the Prophet’s Call. It all began in a special member missionary-focused meeting on February 27, 1999, when President Gordon B. Hinckley said:

“While some 300,000 converts were baptized in 1998, I am not being unrealistic when I say that with concerted effort, recognition of the duty that falls upon each of us as members of the Church, and sincere prayer to the Lord for help, we could double the number."

He continued by saying:

“Brothers and sisters, this downward trend must be reversed. We need again to give this important matter its proper priority. Great is our work, tremendous is our responsibility in helping find those to teach…."

He extended an invitation to all members to—

"Become a vast army with enthusiasm for this work, and a great overarching desire to assist the missionaries in the tremendous responsibility they have to carry the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.' The field is white already to harvest.' (D&C 4:4.) The Lord has repeatedly declared this. Shall we not take Him at His word?”

"Let us, every one, resolve within ourselves to arise to a new opportunity, a new sense of responsibility, a new shouldering of obligation to assist our Father in Heaven in His glorious work of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters throughout the earth."

ZionsArmy exists to help you succeed at member missionary work. Our Motto is President Hinckley’s: “Let’s ALL work to grow the Church!” We believe the easiest way to do member missionary work is to do it with a group of friends.

How are we going to do it? With input from our website, you can decide what your own tailor-made Standard of Performance will be. Then, by following your Standard of Performance and using the Tool Chest at ZionsArmy, you can do your part to respond to President Hinckley’s call for member missionary action. Each of these tools was developed in the highly successful Mesa Arizona Temple Youth Guide program for pre-missionary youth. The Youth Guide organization was thought to be the premier pre-missionary training program in the Church. We are confident if you join us and learn how to use these tools, they will work for you, too.

Sign up for a daily newsletter called ZionsArmyNews that will help you with stories and excerpts from the Youth Guide program materials and a missionary newsletter called The GUIDElines that was sent to Youth Guide Alumni around the world for almost ten years. In our extensive files we have 2,000,000 words from the field, including letters written by Alumni of the Youth Guides, and we will be sharing them with those who join ZionsArmy.

When President Hinckley used the word “concerted” he wasn’t inferring that we could continue to do the same things we have always done. Concerted means concentrated, intensive, determined. Who was he talking to and about? The members of the Church like us. With that concerted effort we must also involve the Lord by asking in sincere prayer for his help. Using those two steps, a concerted effort coupled with prayer, we will see a dramatic increase in the number of convert baptisms in the Church. But it won’t be easy and it won’t come overnight. We’ll have to learn how to talk to Not Yet Members of the Church and how to invite them to come with us to Church and family functions or to meet with the missionaries.

ZionsArmy is not in competition with any ward, stake, or mission. We want you to work hand in hand with your Priesthood leaders and follow the plans they have outlined in their areas of responsibility. However, we have found that sharpening our individual skills at member missionary work can help us be more successful in reaching out to our Not Yet Member friends. That is ZionsArmy’s mission, to help members of the Church become better Finders! It fits right in with what President Hinckley has said. We need:

"...to work constantly at the task of finding and encouraging investigators. Those finders include every member of the Church. In each stake, members should develop an awareness of the opportunity to find those who will listen to the gospel message. There needs to be an infusion of enthusiasm at every level of the Church."

There you have it! He has asked for a “vast army…to assist the missionaries” and we hope to accomplish the raising of such an army as thousands join with us at ZionsArmy.

Learn what you need to know to fearlessly contact your friends and acquaintances and introduce them to the Church. Let our war-cry be “Let’s ALL Work to Grow the Church!”

Bro. P.