have been exhilarating spiritual events, and the Church

itself has been a place to come to know the Lord.

I realize that there are those who

consider themselves religious or spiritual

and yet reject participation in a church

or even the need for such an institution.

Religious practice is for them purely personal.

Yet the Church is the creation of Him in whom our spirituality

is centered--Jesus Christ.

It is worth pausing to consider why He chooses to use

a church--His Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints--to carry out His and His Father's work "to bring to pass

the immortality and eternal life of man."

Beginning with Adam, the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached,

and the essential ordinances of salvation, such as baptism,

were administered through a family-based priesthood order.

As societies grew more complex than simply extended families,

God also called other prophets, messengers, and teachers.

In Moses's time, we read of a more formal structure,

including elders, priests, and judges.

In Book of Mormon history, Alma established a church

with priests and teachers.

Then, in the meridian of time, Jesus organized His work

in such a way that the gospel could

be established simultaneously in multiple nations

and among diverse peoples.

That organization, the Church of Jesus Christ,

was founded on "apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone."

It included additional officers such as seventies, elders,

bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons.

Jesus similarly established the Church

in the Western Hemisphere after His Resurrection.

Following the apostasy and disintegration of the Church

He had organized while on the earth,

the Lord reestablished the Church of Jesus Christ

once again through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

The ancient purpose remains; that is,

to preach the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ

and administer the ordinances of salvation--in other words,

to bring people to Christ.

And now, through the instrumentality

of this restored Church, the promise of redemption

is placed within reach even of the spirits of the dead who

in their mortal lifetime knew little or nothing

of the Savior's grace.

How does His Church accomplish the Lord's purposes?

It is important to recognize that God's ultimate purpose is

our progress.

His desire is that we continue "from grace to grace,

until [we receive] a fulness" of all He can give.

That requires more than simply being nice or feeling

spiritual.

It requires faith in Jesus Christ, repentance,

baptism of water and of the Spirit,

and enduring in faith to the end.

One cannot fully achieve this in isolation,

so a major reason the Lord has a Church is to create a community

of Saints that will sustain one another in the "strait

and narrow path that leads to eternal life."

"And [Christ] gave some, apostles; and some,

prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

"...

For the work of the ministry, for the edifying

of the body of Christ:

"Till we all come in the unity of the faith,

and of the knowledge of the Son of God,

unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature

of the fulness of Christ."

Jesus Christ is "the author and the finisher of [our] faith."

Uniting ourselves to the body of Christ--the Church--is

an important part of taking His name upon us.

We are told that the ancient Church "did meet together oft,

to fast and to pray, and to speak one

with another concerning the welfare of their souls"

"and to hear the word of the Lord."

So it is in the Church today.

Joined in faith, we teach and edify one another

and strive to approach the full measure of discipleship,

"the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

We strive to help one another come to "the knowledge

of the Son of God" until that day when "they shall teach no

more every man his neighbour, ... saying, Know the Lord:

for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto

the greatest of them, saith the Lord."

In the Church we not only learn divine doctrine;

we experience its application.

As the body of Christ, the members of the Church

minister to one another in the reality of day-to-day life.

All of us are imperfect; we may offend or be offended.

We often test one another with our personal idiosyncrasies--or

as President Packer put it, our personal "idiot-syncrasies."

In the body of Christ, we have to go beyond concepts

and exalted words and have a real hands-on experience

as we "live together in love."

This religion is not concerned only with self;

rather, we are all called to serve.

We are the eyes, hands, head, feet,

and other members of the body of Christ,

and even "those members ... which seem to be more feeble,

are necessary."

We need these callings, and we need to serve.

One of the men in my ward grew up

not only without parental support

but with parental opposition to his activity in the Church.

He made this observation in a sacrament meeting:

"My father cannot understand why anyone would go to church when

they could go skiing, but I really like going to church.

In the Church, we are all on the same journey,

and I am inspired in that journey by strong youth,

pure children, and what I see and learn from other adults.

I am strengthened by the association

and excited with the joy of living the gospel."

The wards and branches of the Church offer a weekly gathering

of respite and renewal, a time and a place to leave the world

behind--the Sabbath.

It is a day to "delight thyself in the Lord,"

to experience the spiritual healing that

comes with the sacrament, and to receive the renewed promise

of His Spirit to be with us.

One of the greatest blessings of being

part of the body of Christ, though it may not

seem like a blessing in the moment,

is being reproved of sin and error.

We are prone to excuse and rationalize our faults,

and sometimes we simply do not know where we should improve

or how to do it.

Without those who can reprove us "betimes with sharpness,

when moved upon by the Holy Ghost,"

we might lack the courage to change and more

perfectly follow the Master.

Repentance is individual, but fellowship on that sometimes

painful path is in the Church.

In this discussion of the Church as the body of Christ,

we must always bear in mind two things.

One, we do not strive for conversion to the Church

but to Christ and His gospel, a conversion

that is facilitated by the Church.

The Book of Mormon expresses it best

when it says that the people "were converted unto the Lord,

and were united unto the church of Christ."

Two, we must remember that in the beginning,

the Church was the family, and even today

as separate institutions, the family and the Church serve

and strengthen one another.

Neither supplants the other, and certainly the Church,

even at its best, cannot substitute for parents.

The point of gospel teaching and priesthood ordinances

administered by the Church is that families

may qualify for eternal life.

There is a second major reason the Savior works through

a church, His Church, and that is to achieve needful things

that cannot be accomplished by individuals or smaller groups.

One clear example is dealing with poverty.

It is true that as individuals and families

we look after the physical needs of others,

"imparting to one another both temporally and spiritually

according to their needs and their wants."

But together in the Church, the ability

to care for the poor and needy is multiplied

to meet the broader need, and hoped-for self-reliance

is made a reality for very many.

Further, the Church, its Relief Societies,

and its priesthood quorums have the capacity

to provide relief to many people in many places affected

by natural disasters, war, and persecution.

Without the capabilities of His Church in place,

the Savior's commission to take the gospel to all the world

would not, could not be realized.

There would not be the apostolic keys, the structure,

the financial means, and the devotion

and sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of missionaries

needed to carry out the work.

Remember, "this Gospel of the Kingdom

[must] be preached in all the world,

for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come."

The Church can build and operate temples, houses of the Lord,

where vital ordinances and covenants may be administered.

Joseph Smith stated that God's objective in gathering

His people in any age is "to build unto the Lord

a house whereby He [can] reveal unto His people the ordinances

of His house and the glories of His kingdom,

and teach the people the way of salvation;

for there are certain ordinances and principles

that, when they are taught and practiced,

must be done in a place or house built for that purpose."

If one believes that all roads lead to heaven

or that there are no particular requirements for salvation,

he or she will see no need for proclaiming the gospel

or for ordinances and covenants in redeeming

either the living or the dead.

But we speak not just of immortality

but also of eternal life, and for that, the gospel

path and gospel covenants are essential.

And the Savior needs a Church to make

them available to all of God's children,

both the living and the dead.

The final reason I will mention for the Lord to have

established His Church is the most unique--the Church is,

after all, the kingdom of God on the earth.

As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

was being established in the 1830s,

the Lord said to the Prophet Joseph Smith,

"Lift up your hearts and rejoice, for unto you

the kingdom, or in other words, the keys of the church

have been given."

In the authority of these keys, the Church's

priesthood officers preserve the purity of the Savior's doctrine

and the integrity of His saving ordinances.

They help prepare those who wish to receive them, judge

the qualification and worthiness of those who apply,

and then perform them.

With the keys of the kingdom, the Lord's servants

can identify both truth and falsehood, and once again

authoritatively state, "Thus saith the Lord."

Regrettably, some resent the Church

because they want to define their own truth,

but in reality it is a surpassing blessing

to receive a "knowledge of things as they [truly] are,

and as they were, and as they are to come" insofar

as the Lord wills to reveal it.

The Church safeguards and publishes

God's revelations which constitute

the canon of scripture.

When Daniel interpreted the dream of Babylonian King

Nebuchadnezzar, making known to the king "what

shall be in the latter days," he declared

that "the God of heaven [shall] set up a kingdom, which

shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not

be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces

and consume all [other] kingdoms,

and it shall stand for ever."

The Church is that prophesied latter-day kingdom,

not created by man but set up by the God of heaven

and rolling forth as a stone "cut out of the mountain

without hands" to fill the earth.