Are Mormons Christians?
One Way to Get Your Community's Attention
by J. Cooper Johnson

How would you like to have a fireside in your stake where a 1,000 attended and most of them are neighbors not of our faith? Here's an idea that worked with great success in Southern California.

When I arrived in Provo, Utah last year, to attend the annual FAIR (Foundation of Apologetic Information and Research) Conference, I expected to hear from some of the best LDS scholarly minds on a range of apologetic issues (apologetic doesn't mean apologizing for our religion, but defending our faith, our belief in Christ, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, etc.).

Since the theme of the conference was "The Book of Mormon: Modern Witnesses for an Ancient Record," I expected to learn from some of the most prolific Scholars of BYU's FARMS/ISPART (Foundation of Ancient Research and Mormon Studies/Institute for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts) and others, on the subjects of archeological finds in Arabia and Latin America to support the Book of Mormon. I expected to learn about Egyptian influences in ancient Israel. I looked forward to learning all types of Book of Mormon scholarship: DNA studies, naturalistic theories, etc.

I was more than satisfied. I had been intellectually and spiritually fed with the food I had expected and then some. What an experience!

What I did not expect, however, was to learn of a bold, new and innovative concept in the area of missionary firesides, aimed at dispelling myths and misconceptions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its teachings. I did not expect to learn that this new approach in missionary firesides was able to pack 1200-1300 people in a stake center, the majority not being members of our faith. I did not expect to come home excited and motivated to the point of writing a four-page proposal on this new concept to our then stake mission president.

When was the last time you attended a missionary open house? I don't mean the satellite broadcasts, I mean the local-grown kind. You know the ones. Each auxiliary has a table in the cultural hall, for the purposes of parading all the non-members through the church to see all that the church has to offer. Then at some point, everyone sits and watches a video about the Book of Mormon or Forever Families. You usually get about 60-100 people to show up, from the stake. But 95% of those people are active members of the church. It's a successful event if you have more than 5 to 10 people not of our faith? What's wrong with this picture?

What is it?
Referred to as a "community fireside," this concept has proven to be the single most successful missionary event this author has ever heard of in the United States. The brain-child of Ross Baron, a Bishop and CES Institute Director from Southern California, this community fireside has not just been successful once or twice, but this particular stake has held 4 firesides, within the last year or so, all with outstanding success (over 1000 people in attendance at each fireside).

The meeting begins with a hymn, an opening prayer, then the speaker speaks for 40-45 minutes. The meeting is concluded with a closing hymn and prayer followed by a brief and controlled question and answer session. And no fireside would be complete without refreshments: high-powered, quality, Mormon refreshments. Leave the Jello at home.

What makes this so special, you ask? In two words: marketing and content.

Bishop Baron decided to adopt an extremely direct and aggressive approach, capitalizing on the controversial nature of the LDS faith to the rest of the Christian world. An "in-your-face" type marketing angle, LDS style.

Here's how it works:

Catchy Theme
After approval and full support at the stake level, a date is set (preferably a Sunday evening) and a theme is selected. The theme must be direct and address common questions about the Church. For example, for the first fireside, Bishop Baron chose the theme, "Are Mormons Christians?" Other subsequent themes were, "Book of Mormon: Fact or Fiction?" and "Where is Jesus Christ's Church Today?"

Advertising and Marketing
Do we leave it up to the members to invite their neighbors? While announcing it to the membership of the stake is important and necessary, member-missionary work is not relied upon for spreading the word and inviting those not of our faith. The advertising of this event is a three-tier plan.

Newspaper ads in the local newspapers - Go to the local newspapers and take out quarter-page ads. All local newspapers within the stake should be included. The ads should be simple, direct and correspond with the theme of the fireside. For example, the first ad could be something like, "Are Mormons Christians?" in big bold letters with a subtitle of "Find out what Mormons Really Believe," along with the time, date and location of the fireside.

The ads should run in the Sunday edition, starting two weeks prior to the fireside and run the following Sunday and the Sunday of the fireside.

Handing out Flyers - Full-time and ward missionaries, among others, can distribute flyers to neighborhoods. This could also be a youth project or ward activity on a Saturday.

Personal Invitations - These are to be sent to civic community leaders (mayor, city council, etc.) and to all local clergymen (all ministers and pastors of every local church in the area). The invitation could come from the respective bishops in that particular area or the stake presidency.

The Speaker
This should be a good and dynamic speaker with a good foundation of critical claims of the detractors of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The talk must be extremely rehearsed and fluid. During the Q&A session, one other person can help field questions so the two can play off each other. Both however, must be very prepared for all possible questions.

There are a few do's and don't based on the experience in southern California. The following suggestions are very important and were strongly recommended by Bishop Baron.

Bishop Baron's 10 Keys to a Successful Community Fireside
1.     It must be priesthood driven. It must have full support from the stake presidency.

2.     The subject must be clear and exciting, one that will interest people in attending and will keep their interest peaked during the fireside, and will leave a person with the desire to know more.

3.     Advertise well. Newspapers, flyers, personal invitations, member involvement, etc. Include refreshments in the advertising (refreshments should be exceptional at the event).

4.     Keep it local — All involvement should be local. Speakers should be from the stake (no "hired guns").

5.     Preparation and organization — Speakers must be extremely prepared to field all possible questions. Advertising must be well mapped out. From ushers to seating, to refreshments: everything must be well thought out.

6.     Controlled Environment — The speaker cannot go long. With opening/closing prayers and hymns, it should be right at an hour, not including Q&A, which should also have a time limit. Q&A should be limited: one per person (no debate: no follow-up questions, etc.)

7.     No contention. Use light humor and light self-deprecation (Q&A) is a good way to prevent contentious atmosphere.

8.     Speaker must be able to not only speak well, but to field the questions and answer with good solid gospel-centered responses (must be in tune with the Spirit).

9.     Limit the number of missionaries in attendance (one or two sets) and give specific instructions not to proselytize at the fireside.

10.  Have great refreshments.

The following are results that particular stake experienced:

-       1,300 people attended the first fireside and over 1,000 at each subsequent fireside.

-       Improved respect from the community in general

-       Specific improved respect level from civic leaders, to a great extent.

-       Great tool for strengthening the members of the stake (many of whom did not have the answers that were provided at the fireside).

-       Less active families were strengthened and many were reactivated.

-       A great opportunity for the part-member families.

-       Approximately 100 new convert baptisms (while this number was difficult to quantify, Bishop Baron believed this number was roughly correct).

I'm going out on a limb to say that most stakes would likely see this event as an incredible success if only 10% of the above results could be accomplished.

While an outstanding concept, it must be noted that the community fireside is not for every stake. It only makes sense where myths and misconceptions about our Christianity and our beliefs are prevalent and becoming more so. Areas where more and more critical and misguided information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is spreading and causing genuine misunderstandings within the community are the areas best suited for the community fireside.

(For more information on FAIR, visit their website at http://www.fair-lds.org)

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