The message of home teaching

Our church measures things.  President Monson says, "When performance is measured, performance improves."  So we collect lots of data and use it to try to improve performance.

One of the imperfections of such measurements is that things that are easy to measure aren't necessarily the most important.  What we want are outcomes of increased spirituality and members feeling God's love and the Atonement in their lives.  Those are impossible to measure.  So, we measure what is measurable: baptisms, sacrament meeting attendance, home teaching visits.  These things are indicators of positive outcomes, but aren't the outcomes themselves.

The danger for people, then, is to focus on what gets measured, the tools we use to reach the outcomes we want, instead of focusing on the outcomes themselves.

My stake has taken a wonderful approach to this conflict in how it addresses home teaching, and it was the lesson in Elders' Quorum on Sunday.  Instead of measuring just visiting a home and sharing a message, our stake measures "watchcare."  This difference is based on the following facts:

• People are busy, and needs are great.  There is more work to do to build the kingdom than can possibly be done by any individual who is also watching out for the needs of his own family.  A home teaching companionship will have more families to watch over than they could reasonably be expected to visit in their home each month.
• Some people aren't interested in having home teachers come by for a visit, or would not feel comfortable with the Ensign message.
• The real point of home teaching is to build relationships so that those with stewardship can understand the temporal needs of families and that families feel comfortable coming to the church when needs arise.

So, rather than answer the question, "How many of your families did you visit this month?" the question Elders in our stake get is, "Did you prayerfully watch over the ____ family this month? And will you continue to prayerfully watch over them?"  Prayerful watchcare may include a visit to their home, a letter, phone calls, visits over the back fence, or many other valid ways to build positive, purposeful, and meaningful relationships.

I like this approach because it puts the end goal of home teaching as more important than the process.  Home teachers are entitled to the Spirit as they prayerfully watch over families and should be trusted to use the Spirit in visiting and building relationships with the families they serve.

And really, whether a home teacher gives the First Presidency Message from Ensign magazine, or talks about football, or just helps his family weed a garden, the underlying message is the same.  The message from every home teacher to every family they watch over should be, "Your Heavenly Father loves you.  I am here because His representatives have asked me to watch over you."

And over time, as home teachers build meaningful and purposeful relationships based on service, to this message is added, "I love you.  I am here to serve you and ensure your family is cared for."

That's the message of home teaching.