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Continue ShoppingGeneral Authorities Disagree With Each Other and Why Councils Are Important in the Church
Does everyone have to agree? Church members always agree with each other right? In fact, it's safe to say that Church leaders always agree with each other right? Even SAFER to say is that General Authorities always agree with each other. Right!?
WRONG!
While General Authorities showcase the agreements that they have with each other, it doesn't mean that it was automatic or easy, which is why councils are very important in the Church. While members of these councils might not agree with each other, they take the time to listen to each other's various points of views before coming to a common consensus.
Taken from an article from the Church News about the importance of councils in the Church, President Henry B. Eyring recounts a memory in which he was observing a similar principle the first time he attended a meeting with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Not yet an Apostle at the time, President Eyring was a guest at the meeting.
As he watched the Brethren discuss an item, “I thought they had reached, after a lot of differences of opinion, a consensus,” he recalled. “And the President of the Church who was in the chair said: ‘I sense there is someone in the room who is not settled yet. We’ll bring it back another time.’”
President Eyring said as they filed out of the room, he noticed a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles tell the President of the Church, “Thank you.”
Whether in a meeting with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a stake presidency meeting or even a family council, “the great leader of a council is very sensitive to that — not to try to force unanimity or consensus but wait until it actually happens,” President Eyring said.
Referencing President Nelson’s emphasis for Latter-day Saints to “keep on the covenant path,” President Dallin H. Oaks said, “We know that children of God are in different places on the covenant path … and that’s part of the function of councils, to help people at different points on the covenant path.”
“If they, together, feel that the Lord has something He wants done, and don’t know yet what it is … there is a chance that, together with their faith, they can find out the Lord’s will.”
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments!
