Welcome to NavigatingDiscipleship.com! We started this blog as a way to share our personal perspectives as we’ve strived to live our Mormon faith centered on Jesus Christ. We frequently have open discussions at home about the complexities, joys, struggles, hope, and awe we experience in our faith. As we’ve shared some of these insights with others, we have felt the great blessings that come from “standing as a witness of God”. (D & C 14:8)
We feel there is a need for everyone to individually take ownership of their own faith. To choose what we believe, why we believe it, and how we live it. This takes effort, questions, accountability, and trust. Hugh B. Brown put it this way:
There are altogether too many people in the world who are willing to accept as true whatever is printed in a book or delivered from a pulpit. Their faith never goes below the surface soil of authority. I plead with everyone I meet that they may drive their faith down through that soil and get hold of the solid truth, that they may be able to withstand the winds and storm of indecision and of doubt, of opposition and persecution. Then, and only then, will we be able to defend our religion successfully. When I speak of defending our religion, I do not mean such defense as an army makes on the battlefield but the defense of a clean and upright and virtuous life lived in harmony with an intelligent belief and understanding of the gospel.
(source)
This moves beyond merely repeating what others have said about faith and choosing to be an active participant in giving your faith new expression:
I believe ‘Mormonism’ affords opportunity for disciples [who develop faith … ‘beyond its earlier and cruder stages of development’]; nay, that its crying need is for such disciples. It calls for thoughtful disciples who will not be content with merely repeating some of its truths, but will develop its truths; and enlarge it by that development… The disciples of ‘Mormonism,’ growing discontented with the necessarily primitive methods which have hitherto prevailed in sustaining the doctrine, will yet take profounder and broader views of the great doctrines committed to the Church; and, departing from mere repetition, will cast them in new formulas; co-operating in the works of the Spirit, until they help to give to the truths received a more forceful expression, and carry it beyond the earlier and cruder stages of its development.
(The Improvement Era, July 1906 – source)
It is our hope that visitors here can find hope and awe for the possibilities a journey of discipleship can bring and an appreciation for the truths the Mormon faith can offer in Christ-centered discipleship.
A little about Caleb
I resonate with the intellectual tradition many Mormons have aspired to such as Joseph Smith, BH Roberts, James E. Talmage, Henry Eyring, Stephen L. Richards, Hugh Nibley, Hugh B. Brown, Neil A. Maxwell, and others — each in their own unique way. While I wouldn’t compare myself to the capabilities of those individuals, I share in their aspirations focused on a commitment to truth:
…in this Church you don’t have to believe anything that isn’t true.
(source)
This commitment is traceable to the foundational LDS Articles of Faith:
We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
(source)
I believe that, through this kind of aspiration, a robust faith can be developed which can find meaningful expression today.
A little about Irene
For me, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about the practical application. The covenants we make, families we build, and desires we cultivate when centered on the true principles taught by the Savior, lead to a deep reservoir of peace only God can provide. I find great inspiration from personal narrative. For this reason I love to read the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith said “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (Book of Mormon, Introduction). This I have found to be true. Additionally, the first prophet of the book of Mormon, Nephi counseled us to “liken all the scriptures…for our profit and learning”. (1 Nephi 19:23) My hope is that by sharing my own path to Christ I might find others along the same road who are in need of the comfort that can only come from walking with a friend.
Questions?
Questions drive much of our discussions about our faith. If you have questions and a desire to understand, feel free to contact us using the contact form or by visiting our Facebook page.
Disclaimer
While our focus on this site is our faith, we do not officially represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our opinions do not constitute official policy or doctrine. For official teachings, statements, and doctrine see churchofjesuschrist.org, newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org, and comeuntochrist.org.