The Mission, Purpose and Responsibility of Religious Educators in the Worldwide Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invests heavily in the education, including the spiritual education, of individuals. Why?

“One of the major reasons the Church invests so much in what we do, in everyone who’s involved in this work, is because they believe this matters,” Elder Clark G. Gilbert, the Church commissioner of education, told religious educators within the Church Educational System.

In a broadcast that will be made available to tens of thousands of university, college and seminary and institute teachers around the world, Elder Gilbert reiterated the mission, purpose and responsibility of teachers within CES.

“In the Church Educational System, we are preparing young people all across the Church to grow spiritually and become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ,” testified Elder Gilbert.

During President Russell M. Nelson’s most recent general conference address, the Prophet noted, “The rising generation is rising up as stalwart followers of Jesus Christ.”

Elder Gilbert told listeners he hopes they feel the truth of President Nelson’s words.

“Seminary enrollment is at a record level across this Church,” Elder Gilbert said, “both the total number of students and the percentages participating. Enrollment at our universities continues to set records. Even at a time when many people are not going to college, institute is at its highest level ever in the history of the Church.”

As such, teachers within the Church Educational System have a responsibility, Elder Gilbert continued. “In the words of President Nelson, we are preparing ‘a people who will help prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord’ (“The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again,” October 2024 general conference).

“May we take that stewardship with soberness, humility and confidence as the Lord helps us do this with power and strength in our assignments,” declared Elder Gilbert.

Elder Gilbert spoke as part of a panel discussion the morning of Friday, June 13, during the second annual Religious Educators Conference, which gathered religious educators from each of the Church’s educational entities — Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, BYU, BYU–Idaho, BYU–Hawaii, Ensign College and BYU–Pathway Worldwide.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles kicked off the two-day conference by offering a keynote address originating from the Conference Center Theater on Thursday evening, June 12, on developing lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.

The following morning, the conference reconvened on the Brigham Young University campus in Provo, Utah, and featured a keynote address by BYU–Idaho President Alvin F. Meredith; the panel discussion with Elder Gilbert and other seminary, institute and university educators; and various other breakout sessions hosted by other religious educators and administrators.

The keynote sessions were broadcast on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and will be added to the Gospel Library app and Media Library in coming days in dozens of languages.

Lifelong Discipleship Is the Goal

In his keynote address on Friday morning, President Meredith also focused on the purposes of religious education in the Church.

He noted how Elder Christofferson the night before both began and concluded his message with the mission of CES. “I was struck by [Elder Christofferson’s] repetition and the emphasis on helping students become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. He seemed intent on reminding us what we hope to accomplish with our teaching,” President Meredith observed.

Just six months after being called as an Apostle, then-Elder Russell M. Nelson offered a devotional at BYU titled, “Begin With the End in Mind.”

Said Elder Nelson, “Track stars don’t begin a race without knowing the location of the finish line.”

Keeping the end in mind — or knowing where the finish line lies — is especially true in gospel teaching, said President Meredith. “When we stay focused on our divine objective, we’re far more likely to reach it.”

Church President Thomas S. Monson taught: “The goal of gospel teaching … is not to ‘pour information’ into the minds of class members. … The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about and then do something about living gospel principles” (Conference Report, Oct. 1970).

President Meredith then issued a “simple” invitation to religious educators: “Continue to be intentional about teaching with lifelong discipleship as the goal. Look at everything that you do through that lens. Periodically review what you teach, how you teach, and even what you test on. Review not only what you are helping them to know, but also review what you are inspiring them to do and become. Teach with the intent to help them become ‘new creatures’ in Christ.”

Quoting Elder Christofferson, President Meredith encouraged teachers to teach as the Savior taught. “‘[Jesus] taught in ways that required [His disciples] to think, participate, discuss and apply His teachings.’ May we do the same.”

Effective Teaching and Student Responsibility

In the panel discussion, John Hilton III, BYU professor of ancient scripture, used an analogy of raw wool to explain students’ responsibility in the learning process.

Hilton likened teaching his students a wonderful lesson with incredible scriptural insights to giving his students lots of raw wool. The raw wool might feel nice, but as soon as the learners walk out the door and the wind blows, it’s going to blow away.

The student needs to comb and card the wool, spin it into yarn, and then it can become a wool coat that can withstand the winds and storms of life. “I want students to have the coats, but they have to do that work for themselves,” Hilton said.

One way to invite diligent learning — where the student has an opportunity to act and use their agency in the learning process — is to invite preparation. Panelist Nathan Peterson, BYU–Idaho religious education faculty member, connected preparation to lifelong discipleship. “Discipleship requires discipline,” Peterson noted.

While he might be inviting his students to read before class to enhance a discussion, he’s also hoping that through those invitations students can learn to develop a pattern of preparation that will serve them outside of his classroom and throughout their lives.

Another panelist, Jenet Erickson, associate professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU, said it’s been powerful to invite her students to reflect and then share.

Whether students are sharing in small groups or just write it down, “I get the most beautiful responses from them as they have felt the Spirit of the Lord give them an answer that they needed, and then they can bear witness to their other fellow students of that. So it’s real — that discipleship — experiencing it in class is real from the preparation that they’ve done,” Erickson said.

In order to invite diligent learning and student preparation, teachers must change the culture of their classrooms, noted Kaylee Merrill, a seminary principal. In order for teachers to engage with well-prepared students, they have to be well-prepared themselves, and they have to build in time for students to share.

Added Peterson: “I have to wind up saying less and making room for the students to say more.”

Merrill said she thinks teachers can set up their instruction in a way that students are provided with clear expectations and sufficient training “but then we give them that time and space to be able to express for themselves what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, what they’re learning,” she said.

To conclude, Elder Gilbert invited educators to write down one thing they learned that will help them become better teachers. He then asked them to share it with someone and then create one goal based on their learning.

“How we teach matters,” Elder Gilbert reiterated.