{"chapter_no":"2","chapter_title":"Leadership and Personal Ambition","book_id":"4","book_name":"Beauty the World Has Never Seen","subchapter_no":"0","page_no":"661","page_number":"1","verses_count":0,"total_pages":5,"page_content":"

 <\/p>

Chapter 2<\/p>

Leadership and Personal Ambition<\/h1><\/p>

 <\/p>

Stake leaders and their wives from all over the world are invited to a special leadership
conference in Salt Lake City—The men called to lead <\/i>the Church<\/i> are humble and unselfish—To become
righteous kings and queens of Zion, we need to be totally free of <\/i>personal <\/i>ambition.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

 <\/p>

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One day an invitation from Church headquarters was sent out to all stake presidents and
their wives throughout the world to gather at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City for a two-
day leadership seminar on the theme of Zion. <\/p>

 <\/p>

In this modern era of the Church, there was generally no need for these men and women,
in receiving this invitation, to undertake a long march on foot for hundreds of miles, crossing
rivers and difficult terrain and enduring hunger, thirst, fatigue, and diseases along the way. Nor
were they being called to take up arms to provide relief to the suffering saints of Salt Lake City
who had been chased out of their homes by angry mobs into nearby Davis or Weber counties.
The printing presses for the Ensign <\/i>magazine and other Church news publications were safe and
secure, protected by strong and tall buildings, full-time security personnel, and laws enforced by
federal and local authorities. In fact, in this day and age, Salt Lake City was a large and beautiful
city, comprised of Latter-day Saints and non-Latter-day Saints living in peace one with another. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Those living overseas were not being called to board sailing ships to cross the great
oceans and endure powerful storms, sea-sickness, dysentery, measles, the want of fresh air, and
ghastly smells below the decks; instead, they booked flights on airlines that used modern
commercial jets, were served food and drink every few hours (nonalcoholic beverages) and,
along with the other passengers, had their every need looked over by friendly flight attendants
and flight crews. Comfortable hotels in downtown Salt Lake City awaited them once they
arrived. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Money was also plentiful in this modern, prosperous Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Therefore, those needing help were given financial assistance to make the journey. <\/p>

 <\/p>

In Ogden, James and Beth received word of the event six weeks in advance and planned
their schedule accordingly. For the long, forty-six-mile trip to Salt Lake City, they decided to use
their recent-model Ford Focus station wagon and booked a two-day stay at a hotel a few blocks
away from Temple Square. <\/p>

This first Zion conference marked another important milestone in their lives, and there
surely could not be a happier couple in all the world than they. Over the last three decades, they
had been the recipients of the greatest blessings a married couple could receive, blessings so
numerous that they could not count them all. The call for stake presidents to gather in Salt Lake
City, like a second Zion's camp in a sense, was special to James also in this respect––it reminded
him of the invitation to that special basketball camp in Los Angeles long ago and all the
important lessons of life he learned through the experience. <\/p>

 <\/p>

There was one key difference, however, this time. In the case of the basketball camp,
James and the other boys his age from around the nation had arrived at the camp hopeful that
they might stand out and be noticed by the camp organizers and college scouts, having
expectations of scholarship offers and an overall enhancement of their athletic careers. In
contrast, the stake presidents arriving to this Zion's conference had no such ambitions; their only
concern was for the welfare of the souls of men and, most especially, for those they were called
to serve in their local communities. They were filled with love for everyone, and that's what
made them special. <\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

To meet and talk with any one of them is like talking with your local bishop or quorum
president. They listen patiently and politely as others talk. They laugh and smile easily. They are
confident and comfortable with themselves and don't feel the need to grandstand or dominate a
gathering. Perfected by experiences in the gospel that might span a lifetime, and filled with the
Holy Ghost, there is a noticeable peace about them. They are ready to lead in any situation, but
they are also ready to be led themselves, whether that is being taken by the hand of the Lord
directly or, if within a difficult trial, willing to be lifted up and carried forth in His arms. They
can shake hands in a crowd or do any one of a hundred routine tasks and not feel rushed, for
truly, the yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows of a man of God are much the same, and there is
always plenty of time<\/span>.<\/p>

 <\/p>

They also understand the importance of achieving results as opposed to being caught up
in the significance of their callings. <\/p>

 <\/p>

A good analogy for this is seen in the drafting of collegiate sports stars in professional
football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and hockey, as well as in the awarding of college
scholarships to gifted high school athletes from around the nation. Athletes who have the most
potential are drafted or awarded scholarships, but very often players don’t live up to expectations
when it comes time to suit up and perform on the field, to be a good influence in the locker room,
or to behave as a role model in the community. Some athletes do very well, and some do not.
Success depends on their character as individuals, their work habits, their leadership qualities,
and certainly the special talents they have developed in their lives up to that point.<\/p>

 <\/p>

In the case of selecting Church leaders, however, the Lord doesn't have that problem.
He's had several generations to establish His Church organization on earth and fine-tune the
hearts of the men and women who are born into this dispensation of the gospel. As a result, He
has an embarrassment of riches to work with, a reservoir of great people in every stake of the
Church to choose from. All of these men and women are excellent spiritual athletes with good
character, fine work habits, and strong leadership qualities, and all are big game performers. <\/p>

Those who lead us are not perfect, but they perform the tasks needed to be done with great skill.
The Spirit takes their personal attributes and abilities and magnifies them to instruct and lead the
Church.<\/p>

 <\/p>

We might also make note of something else very special about the Church organization
that is sometimes overlooked. Have you ever noticed how many counselors there are? We are not
led by individual leaders alone, but by presidencies. There are two counselors everywhere you
look: in priesthood quorums, in the Relief Society, in the primary, in the youth organizations, in
the bishopric, in the stake presidency, in the mission presidency, in the area presidency, and, of
course, in the First Presidency. Thus, the Lord has both good leadership and good supporting
leadership everywhere in His Church. This part of the Lord's design has a tendency to be taken
for granted (and be underappreciated) even though it is right there in front of us every Sunday
and during every conference session<\/span>. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Latter-day Saints have that natural spark of ambition to succeed in all that they do, and
that is true also for those called to preside over them. But in the Church, and especially in Church
leadership, personal ambition and career development have no place. A Latter-day Saint member
or leader takes pride in the Lord and in His wondrous gifts which are given freely to all. He
should lay aside any sense of ambition or chance for notoriety in his status, calling, or gifts of the
Spirit.<\/p>

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Jesus said: But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall
exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Abraham Lincoln once said of his own ambitions in life: Every man is said to have his
peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as
that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How
far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

President Lincoln accomplished his humble ambition.<\/p>

 <\/p>

To be righteous kings and queens of Zion, we have to be totally free of personal
ambition, and that includes not just what we do inside the Church, but also that which we do
outside of it in the career choices we make in our personal lives. <\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

To quote from an earlier chapter:<\/span><\/p>

 <\/p>

A righteous king is full of humility and kneels before God. He has no personal ambition
other than to do good and bring joy to the people he serves. He steps forward and consecrates
all he has to the building up of Zion, bringing forth gold, frankincense, myrrh<\/i>,<\/i> and other
marvelous gifts to lay at the feet of the Son of God. Surely there is no greater honor or joy<\/i> in<\/i> life
than this? To work all <\/i>of <\/i>one’s life to bring forth wonderful gifts to honor the Son of God!<\/i><\/span> <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

In studying the feasibility of the ideal and the far-reaching goals the Church may very
well achieve in the world someday, we shouldn't overlook the fact that it is great already. One <\/p>

way of measuring this greatness is to note the absence of things that are destructive and do harm
to other organizations of the earth. <\/p>

 <\/p>

Included below is an excerpt from Les<\/i> <\/i>Miserables<\/i> which presents a sad commentary on
the ambitions of persons too often found today in businesses, governments, nonprofit
organizations, and religions of the world, but which we can happily say are NOT found in the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking of the Church generally and not
individually. We are led today by humble and unselfish plainclothesmen in the Lord's service. <\/p>

 <\/p>

The excerpt is as follows:<\/p>

 <\/p>

A bishop is almost always surrounded by a full squadron of little abbes, just as a general
is by a covey of young officers. This is what that charming Saint Francois de Sales calls
somewhere \"les pretres blancs-becs,\" callow priests. Every career has its aspirants, who form a
train for those who have attained eminence in it. There is no power which has not its dependents.
There is no fortune which has not its court. The seekers of the future eddy around the splendid
present. Every metropolis has its staff of officials. Every bishop who possesses the least influence
has about him his patrol of cherubim from the seminary, which goes the round, and maintains
good order in the episcopal palace, and mounts guard over monseigneur's smile. To please a
bishop is equivalent to getting one's foot in the stirrup for a sub-diaconate. It is necessary to
walk one's path discreetly; the apostleship does not disdain the canonship.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Just as there are bigwigs elsewhere, there are big mitres in the Church. These are the
bishops who stand well at Court, who are rich, well endowed, skilful, accepted by the world, who
know how to pray, no doubt, but who know also how to beg, who feel little scruple at making a
whole diocese dance attendance in their person, who are connecting links between the sacristy
and diplomacy, who are abbes rather than priests, prelates rather than bishops. Happy those
who approach them! Being persons of influence, they create a shower about them, upon the
assiduous and the favored, and upon all the young men who understand the art of pleasing, of
large parishes, prebends, archidiaconates, chaplaincies, and cathedral posts, while awaiting
episcopal honors. As they advance themselves, they cause their satellites to progress also; it is a
whole solar system on the march. Their radiance casts a gleam of purple over their suite. Their
prosperity is crumbled up behind the scenes, into nice little promotions. The larger the diocese of
the patron, the fatter the curacy for the favorite. And then, there is Rome. A bishop who
understands how to become an archbishop, an archbishop who knows how to become a cardinal,
carries you with him as conclavist; you enter a court of papal jurisdiction, you receive the
pallium, and behold! you are an auditor, then a papal chamberlain, then monsignor, and from a
Grace to an Eminence is only a step, and between the Eminence and the Holiness there is but the
smoke of a ballot. Every skull-cap may dream of the tiara. The priest is nowadays the only man
who can become a king in a regular manner; and what a king! the supreme king. Then what a <\/i>
nursery of aspirations is a seminary! How many blushing choristers, how many youthful abbes
bear on their heads Perrette's pot of milk! Who knows how easy it is for ambition to call itself
vocation? in good faith, perchance, and deceiving itself, devotee that it is.<\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

Monseigneur Bienvenu, poor, humble, retiring, was not accounted among the big mitres.
This was plain from the complete absence of young priests about him. We have seen that he \"did <\/i><\/p>

not take\" in Paris. Not a single future dreamed of engrafting itself on this solitary old man. Not a
single sprouting ambition committed the folly of putting forth its foliage in his shadow. His
canons and grand-vicars were good old men, rather vulgar like himself, walled up like him in
this diocese, without exit to a cardinalship, and who resembled their bishop, with this difference,
that they were finished and he was completed. The impossibility of growing great under
Monseigneur Bienvenu was so well understood, that no sooner had the young men whom he
ordained left the seminary than they got themselves recommended to the archbishops of Aix or of
Auch, and went off in a great hurry. For, in short, we repeat it, men wish to be pushed. A saint
who dwells in a paroxysm of abnegation is a dangerous neighbor; he might communicate to you,
by contagion, an incurable poverty, an anchylosis of the joints, which are useful in advancement,
and in short, more renunciation than you desire; and this infectious virtue is avoided. Hence the
isolation of Monseigneur Bienvenu. <\/i><\/p>

 <\/p>

A bishop or stake president, like Monseigneur Bienvenu, can attend general conference in
Salt Lake City and feel the excitement of all that is there in the epicenter of the Church, yet still
long to return home where he can apply the principles he has learned. His ward or stake is
connected to the larger Church organization headquartered in Salt Lake; and there is, most
assuredly, a great need for men to be called to leadership positions there and manage the affairs
of a rapidly growing, international Church. But the place where a local Church leader resides and
serves already, his home and neighborhood, is an end in itself and satisfies his wants. It is a place
where he, like Ammon among the Lamanites, wants to spend the rest of his life. The Lord may
call him to a higher post or send him on a temporary assignment elsewhere. He will go if called.
But his utmost desire is to be at home, if possible, to build up Zion in his own land and among
his own people. One cannot be filled with too much ambition for the building of a stake of Zion. <\/p>"}