I first met Lynn at a Book of Mormon Conference last month here in Layton, Utah. Having never heard of him before and not sure what his presentation was about, I felt prompted to attend and was so glad that I did! What an incredible man on an incredible mission!
Lynn is passionate about building bridges between what he terms "Book of Mormon Believers" and "Bible Believers". Yes, those who believe in the Book of Mormon also believe in and read the Bible (just so there's no confusion), but this term refers to us Bible Believers who also believe in the Book of Mormon! Over the years, Lynn's ministry has resonated with so many Latter-day Saints including our beloved prophet Gordon B. Hinckley who while President of the Church, once invited Lynn to dinner to personally meet him and thank him for his genuine message to the members of the LDS church. Upon meeting Lynn, President Hinckley said, "We've never had a Baptist preacher come to our town and ask for our forgiveness."
The reason I am thrilled beyond words about Lynn's message and ministry is because a few years ago I was searching for something like this. One day while on the phone with my sister, I expressed to her that I believed a day would soon come when these two groups would come together and be powerful for the Lord. I truly believed that there was much we could learn from our Christian brothers and sisters and also that there was much we could share with them. I truly believed that we could have these conversations without offense or contention. That we would realize we actually have more in common than we do differences.
Many of the things that the Spirit has been teaching me over the past few years are common place among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians - as well as common place among the early Saints of the Church. For a while, I felt that I couldn't share many of these things that I was learning with my fellow LDS friends because they wouldn't understand or would not be ready to hear, but truly felt that I wouldn't have to because someday in the near future, our two groups would come together and teach each other!
Some of these priceless gems I have learned over the years are:
- How to improve my prayer closet
- How to improve my prayers
- How to strengthen my faith in healing and miracles
- Spiritual warefare
- The power of praise
- And the truth about Halloween
Truly, I feel that the Lord often uses my blog and YouTube channel as a platform to give a voice to His other children whom He is using as instruments in His hands. I am happy to share their messages and help hasten the Lord's work. He is doing a work among all of His children, not just through the members of the LDS church. Whoever is willing, He will use for His wise purposes - purposes that we are often slow to understand and comprehend.
This post needs to be shared with everyone. It's so important for us to help build these bridges between our different Christian communities. There are so many creative ways we can do this! For example, my sister has shared with me that her ward Relief Society has arranged an interfaith worship night once a month. One night each month, many sisters from various Christian denominations come together and celebrate the Lord. A different church hosts each month. They've been doing this for a few months now and it has been amazing! My sister shared with me her favorite night when a Christian worship band took requests. My sister and I are fans of Christian contemporary music mainly KLOVE radio and The Message on Sirius XM. As my sister threw out song requests, her fellow LDS sisters were confused as they were not familiar with this music nor these artists or songs. They were amazed that my sister knew all the words and stood with her fellow Christian sisters with arms raised to the ceiling while singing along. She said they looked a little unfamiliar and awkward but she fit right in! These are the fruits of stepping outside of our Mormon bubbles - a message I have shared over the last several years and will continue to share.
As we come together and have these experiences and conversations we can eliminate the awkwardness of our different religious cultures, traditions, and terminology. As explained so eloquently in Lynn's third video below, we have more in common than we realize. We believe in many of the same things, we just call it something different. As we tear down the walls of prejudice, misjudgment, misunderstanding, and old quarrels from the past, and we lose the mentality of us vs. them or whose right and whose wrong, and instead focus on our common denominator which is our love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our desire to serve Him and be like Him, we will experience compassion and miracles on a level we have never experienced before! I believe this with all my heart, in Jesus' name amen.
Here are three videos that sum up everything about this blogpost as well as offer a little more introduction about Lynn and his background. The second video is powerful!
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