Building the Kingdom of Heaven
Faith Matters resources to accompany your Come Follow Me study: March 17-23
The Savior can lift me “up out of [my] afflictions.”
Melissa Inouye, in any group, had a remarkable way of reorienting a conversation. She tended to be the one with the eyes to see “the least of these.” She had a profound and sincere empathy for those who are in deep struggle, those on the edges, the marginalized, the looked-over, the passed-by. When these people and their difficulties are invisible to others, she gently called others’ attention to them as well.
That uniquely empathetic perspective she brought found a beautiful expression in her book Sacred Struggle: Seeking Christ on the Path of Most Resistance. It’s a “treatise on trials” — one in which Melissa asked the deepest, most difficult questions without shying away from them, including those around her own experience with cancer.
The book, and the conversation we had with Melissa, deal with struggle itself, but also with its second-order effects: how can struggle be alchemized into connectedness — into Zion — instead of driving us apart? Who gets to assign meaning to struggle? Is there a way to avoid pain in a community, or is it built into the experience?
We were grateful, as we always are, to benefit from her deep wisdom born of lived experience.
I have an important role to play in God’s kingdom.
In this wide-ranging conversation with Terryl Givens, Kate Holbrook talked about her faith and her personal story. She highlights the importance of telling the LDS story from the perspective of its women. Does discipleship look different from a woman’s perspective than from a man’s? She talks about her heroes, and she talks about the effect the Relief Society (“God’s quorum for women”) has had in shaping the church.
LDS church history “needs to be told in a way that integrates what men were doing with what women were doing,” Holbrook said. And not just what Mormon women were doing, but what they were teaching and preaching. Kate co-edited an extraordinary volume titled “At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women.” “At the Pulpit” features 54 speeches by LDS women over the entire history of the church, complete with important historical context provided by Holbrook and fellow co-editor Jennifer Reeder.
This is a conversation with Melissa Inouye and Kate Holbrook that took place not long before Kate’s passing in August 2022. We spoke with Kate and Melissa about an amazing new book that they co-edited called Every Needful Thing: Essays on the Life of the Mind and the Heart.
In their book, Kate and Melissa gathered so many remarkable Latter-day Saint women who are true leaders in their fields, including academics, psychology, medicine, law, and many more. These women also represent countries around the world; it’s a truly diverse book and gives wonderful insight into how broad the definition of “Latter-day Saint” can be.
Kate and Melissa talked through so many important questions with us, including how we can belong exactly as we are and how we may have more choice in the matter of belonging than we think we do; how it’s important to be thoughtful as we think about change and progress in a global Church; and perhaps most importantly, how we can reconcile both mind and spirit as we live our lives.
This conversation with Dr. Janette H. Ok is a rich exploration about why women’s voices are essential in religious settings and how we can step into those opportunities with intention and authenticity. Janette shares her conviction that when women preach, they bring perspectives, depth, and strengths that can mature an entire congregation. She explains that this work requires discernment. Stepping into leadership—whether you hold an official title or not—means listening for your unique calling, assessing the power you do have, and showing up faithfully, even, and maybe especially, when it feels uncomfortable.
Our favorite part of this interview is that Janette offers some really practical steps for developing your voice and pulling up a seat to the table. This conversation lit us up—not just for the way it can help individuals find their voices but for the powerful reminder that communities grow when men and women lead together. We hope Janette’s insights challenge, encourage, and empower you as much as they did for us.
For even more on the role of women in the LDS Church, listen to “The Future of Women at Church: A Conversation with Neylan McBaine” and “What's the Future of Women at Church? - A Conversation with Neylan McBaine and Bethany Brady Spalding,” and read “Women at Church: 10 Years Later” by Neylan McBaine in Wayfare magazine.
“Continue in the spirit of meekness.”
Read about the meekness of the prophet Jacob in this essay from Deidre Nicole Green:
And read about how the spirit of meekness can help us build Zion:
“Lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better.”
Is the project of the Restoration to find and shepherd the elect of God to exaltation in the next life, or is it to create a Zion community here that strives to include those on the margins, the way Jesus ministered? Should it be one or the other?
It’s seemed to us that there’s an implicit discourse around this question playing out on social media, in Church meetings, in books and articles, on podcasts — and even in forums like General Conference. And it has significant implications.
We thought it could be important and helpful to have an explicit conversation around this question that’s often felt more than heard. And we think we ended up with the perfect conversation partner, and someone we know many of you love and admire as much as we do—Patrick Mason.
Patrick helped us walk through some of this tricky territory with his signature blend of love for the Church, enthusiasm about the restoration, and clear-eyed realism about where we are as a community and tradition—and where we could hope to go.
“From a transformative perspective, worldliness is any attempt to find security through finite means—safety, pleasure, the esteem of others, and the insatiable need to control our circumstances. The gospel invites us to leave this worldliness behind and find security in the only Reality that is worthy of our hearts. We are not sanctified by perfecting the false self but by waking up to an entirely new dimension of self, whose center of gravity is Christ.” —Thomas McConkie, At-One-Ment (read an excerpt here.)
“Our relationship to the physical world itself has been shaped in surprising ways by Greco-Roman culture and philosophy. For example, the early Christian movement incorporated the idea of Platonic forms, which says there is a perfect world “out there” in contrast to the deficient (and “fallen”) world we live in. (Many centuries later, Joseph Smith revealed that the Fall of Adam was in fact necessary to make possible a fullness of joy. In the restored gospel’s telling, physicality is not a fall from anything. It is a glorious ascent. The body is not fallen—it is the god and the goddess in embryo.)
…Revealed scripture clearly states that the transformative process for Christ (and we can suppose it is the same for ourselves) isn’t just a movement of “up and out.” It’s not a matter of passing the test in a body then flitting off to the “real world” of spirit. Exactly as much as there is an “up and out,” a transcendence in the spiritual journey, there is a moving “down and through,” an immanence, into the heart of the earth and the very heart of matter.” —Thomas McConkie, At-One-Ment
A journaling invitation from At-One-Ment: “What if this very body, this very world were already heaven? Rather than relating to this life as a test to get somewhere better, what if you treated this very moment as the better place you were hoping to get to? You’ve already arrived. This is it. How would you act differently if this were the case? In what way do you start to perceive things differently when you take this to be true?”
“The Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus said, is within us. It’s not just in a far-away celestial land where God will make everything right that is currently wrong. As co-creators with God and co-builders of Zion, we can harness grace to intervene in the stickiness now— to merge the disparate visions of a glorious family-centered heaven with each heaven-centered human of earth’s family who wants to be there.” —Hannah Packard Crowther, Gracing
The Lord delights in my “song of the heart.”
“All things shall be done by common consent in the church.”
Hear Terryl Givens talk about the principle of “by common consent” in “How Free is Your Will? (Start at about minute 38.)
“There are dangers, viruses inherent in the nature of institutions. And I think for that reason, the Lord made sure he provided us with the antibiotics… The principle of common consent I think is more pertinent, more needful of being invoked today, maybe than in many other times.
…We misunderstand the principle of common consent. This is not a Mormon invention. When Joseph uses the expression, he's inheriting a Puritan tradition. It was used by the Puritans widely, it was used by John Locke, and it was a principle of governance.
And here's what the principle of common consent says: It says that when you vote as a body, when you vote to sustain a leader, you are sustaining the process. You are saying, I may be adamantly opposed to what this guy just said, what he represents, who he is. But I uphold the principle of democracy by throwing my support behind the verdict.
The Puritans took that principle and applied it to church governance. So when you were sustaining a leader, you weren't saying, yeah, okay, I agree. No, what you were saying is, this process was legitimate. This is this process God sanctioned and ordained. And so I uphold the process and respect the verdict. And that way my integrity is still fully intact.
…Under the principle of common consent, you can be an activist opposing [a particular policy] and still put your hand to the square in complete integrity and faith. Because what you're saying is, no, I sustain the process by which Church policies are established, even if I think this one is out of kilter and not inspired.
That's the cost of membership in any institution that you think has a net good in the world, whether it's democracy or the restored Church.”
So what does it mean to “sustain” someone? Read Tim Chaves’ thoughts in, “Is it ok to try to fix the church?”, Patrick Mason’s in “Searching for Infallible Prophets?” and “Can I trust and sustain fallible leaders?” and listen to our conversation with Rich Hanks: When Sustaining Means Speaking Up: The Life and Legacy of Marion D. Hanks.
Go deeper with The Big Questions Project: In the past, church leaders have made some significant mistakes. How much should I rely on pronouncements and teachings of our leaders today?
My covenants with Heavenly Father bring me joy.
Read an excerpt from Gracing that could change the way you think about covenants:
Could it be that this was the essence of covenant? Fundamentally, it’s not about reciprocal duties, but rather, reciprocal relationship?
And could it be that at the heart of every covenant we make is this one same truth? It’s not just separate and distinct agreements made at baptism, during the sacrament, and in the temple. It’s not a legal contract with pages of clauses. It’s one promise. It’s one choice. It’s saying yes to gracing. Fundamentally, it’s not making covenants (plural), it’s living in covenant (singular). It’s living in Christ.
Baptism is not fundamentally about keeping some people out of heaven and letting others in. The symbol is an invitation. Baptism says, “Salvation is here.” Right now. Enter God’s presence and start living life as it was meant to be lived. Baptism says, “In Christ, your old self has died and your new one has risen.” Don’t wait. Enter into the divine dance now, so that when you mourn with those who mourn, and comfort those who stand in need of comfort, you will do these things differently. You will do them in Christ.
When we haven’t quite learned this participatory dance, we can practice. When life’s activities seem hollow, we can learn the steps. If we haven’t figured out how to play the duet, we can learn scales. We can read scriptures without really understanding them, or minister without real connections, while being ready to pivot into the relationship when it presents itself in unexpected ways. It’s the karate kid sanding the floor and waxing the car. It’s going through motions, through rituals or habits, in hopes that they may lead to something good. It’s the children of Israel looking to the serpent on the staff, and it’s trying different parenting approaches. It’s the bird flapping in imitation of the other birds. These works are a vehicle to grace. They school us in how to draw peace from conflict, clarity from heartfelt prayer, or joy from a chaotic evening bath time.
And read Deidre Nicole Green’s thoughts on temple garments, as published in Issue 4 of Wayfare: