The Surprise Call to Serve in Sunday School Presidency

This is a rebroadcast. The episode originally ran in May 2019.

Tad R. Callister served as Sunday School general president, in the Presidency of the Seventy, as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, an Area Seventy, president of the Canada Toronto East mission, regional representative, stake president, bishop, and as a full-time missionary in the Eastern Atlantic States Mission. Brother Callister held an accounting degree from BYU, a Juris Doctorate degree from UCLA, and a master’s degree in tax law from NYU Law School. He is the grandson of apostle LeGrand Richards and the author of several books, including The Infinite Atonement and A Case for the Book of Mormon. He and his wife, Kathryn Louise Saporiti, are the parents of six children.

Links

A Case for the Book of Mormon
God’s Compelling Witness: The Book of Mormon
Transcript available with the video in the Zion Lab community

Highlights

2:30 Moving on from being released as General Sunday School president

4:20 Which came first, the book or the talk?

5:15 How his law practice helped him crystallize thoughts when writing

5:50 His approach to personal study

6:10 Lesson to seek and ponder his own insight first before turning to doctrinal commentary

8:00 Studying first thing in the morning, and writing along with reading has helped him summarize his thoughts while studying the scriptures

8:50 Questioning and discussing with others is part of pondering

10:00 Reason can strengthen faith, and logic and the Spirit can go hand-in-hand

11:40 The audience for the book is first people who have testimonies that can be strengthened and who can help strengthen the testimonies of others, as well as those who may have questions, and finally critics

12:40 A partial truth, when presented as a whole truth, is an untruth

13:00 Less than 2% of the archeological finds in ancient America have been unearthed

16:00 An intellectual witness of scripture does not come from archeological findings, whether regarding the Bible or the Book of Mormon

16:40 His grandfather LeGrand Richards was a common-man leader, related to everyone, and simply loved people

19:15 Ward Sunday School presidents are not merely bell-ringers because they are in charge of the teacher councils, and they have the responsibility to help improve the teaching of every teacher in every organization, and to see that the individual and family curriculum is being implemented in every home

21:50 One purpose of the Come Follow Me curriculum is to take us from reading the scriptures to pondering the scriptures and discussing them. In the homes, it is the catalyst for discussion and learning the gospel together.

23:30 There has been a substantial increase in individual and family study, and class members from children to adults are better prepared for Sunday meetings

24:10 He and his counselors traveled internationally and were able to get a good idea of what was happening with teacher council meetings

25:10 Practicing through role play at the end of teacher council meetings was one thing they observed and recognized as an effective implementation in those meetings

25:45 Another effective implementation is the change to Christ-centered Easter Sunday and Christmas services so that members can invite others to come worship with them

27:30 Surprised at his call as the General Sunday School president

28:20 They were given a lot of latitude but there was a clear expectation to improve teaching in the home and at church

30:20 Traveling and visiting as a Sunday School general auxiliary president was to teach in general how to teach more like the Savior, to help teachers make teacher counsels more effective, and to discuss in focus groups what was working or not working in areas around the world

31:40 In the presidency of a Quorum of Seventy, they were given responsibility for a specific area, and were to train area seventies, and serve on committees for a variety of topics

33:30 Hoping that his book can help strengthen the testimonies of readers

34:00 His leadership callings have helped him be more humble and recognize the value of other people’s ideas and the input of his counselors

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