Preparing for Your Endowment


Book Description

Receiving your endowment, making those covenants with God in His house, is a sacred experience. Careful preparation will help you understand the promises, ordinances, and blessings involved. Using entertaining stories and insightful teachings from the scriptures, this book helps teens and young adults replace their fears and questions about the temple with the faith and confidence they need to make and keep eternal covenants and to experience all the blessings of temple worship.




Understanding Your Endowment


Book Description

Enrich your temple experience by focusing on the context of often-overlooked rites and rituals of ancient Israel. This book is invaluable for deepening your understanding of divine covenants. From name exchanges to terms and conditions of covenants, this book--through the scriptures--sheds light on the culture and customs of biblical times to help you better appreciate the temple as a modern Saint.




Your Endowment


Book Description

As members of the Church, we often spend years anticipating the privilege of entering the Lord's temple. But we all know that there are times when temple worship can seem confusing, repetitive, or even boring. In this remarkable volume, Mark Shields, an experienced gospel teacher, casts new light on the symbolism inherent in temple ordinances and provides a wealth of insights that will change the way you worship. By approaching the subject from a scriptural and historical perspective, Mark focuses on specific aspects of the endowment while still respecting the sacredness of the ordinance. With helpful summaries at the end of each chapter, this book provides direction and guidance for all whether you've been attending the temple for years or are preparing to enter for the very first time. Learn to love the temple, understand its purposes, and appreciate the rich symbolism it embodies. Your Endowment is a must-read for anyone looking to get more from temple worship.




Completing Your Endowment


Book Description

Completing Your Endowment is the third and concluding volume in a series on the LDS temple ordinances. Beginning with Preparing For Your Endowment and continuing in Understanding Your Endowment, this work is aimed at helping members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) better understand their temple ceremonies. Joseph Smith taught that knowledge is the power of salvation. With that in mind, one might wonder: what was the purpose for introducing temple ordinances to the Church? Are they simply arcane rituals to be memorized? Do they have some inherent magic necessary for redemption? Or are they rather intended to help the Saints gain knowledge, particularly knowledge which saves? And if imparting knowledge is their purpose, then what is the Lord trying to teach us? Once we have received the ordinances is that enough or is more required to complete our endowment? This book is an attempt to help the reader answer these questions. It is written in the hope that it will enable the reader to approach the temple with new eyes.




The Holy Invitation


Book Description




Understanding the Symbols, Covenants, and Ordinances of the Temple


Book Description

Using teachings of living prophets and the scriptures, along with her advanced scholarship of ancient traditions, symbols, and beliefs, Amy Hardison outlines the significance of Latter-day Saint temple design, covenants, clothing, names, and more as a means of helping Latter-day Saints better comprehend the sacred nature of the house of the Lord.




Understanding Your Mormon Neighbor


Book Description

In Understanding Your Mormon Neighbor, Ross Anderson seeks to help Christians relate to Latter-day Saints by giving insights into Mormon life and culture. Anderson’s work is supported both by his lifetime of experiences growing up Mormon and by current research that utilizes many Latter-day Saints’ own sources. This book explains core stories that form the Mormon worldview, experiences that shape the community identity of Mormonism, and how Mormons understand truth. Anderson shares how most Mormons see themselves and others around them, illuminating why people join the LDS Church and why many eventually leave. Latter-day Saints will find the descriptions of their values, practices, and experiences both credible and familiar. Understanding Your Mormon Neighbor suggests how Christians can befriend Latter-day Saints with confidence and sensitivity and share the grace of God wisely within their relationships. Anderson includes discussion questions for individuals and small groups, black and white photographs and charts, and an appendix that includes “Are Mormons Christians?” and “Should I Vote for a Mormon?”




Sacred, Not Secret


Book Description

Because the LDS presence is spreading and being felt throughout the world in both economic and political venues that affect all facets of human life, the purpose of this book is to reveal to the world at large, and most significantly to the LDS people themselves, the exact meaning of the endowment, and to unfold all of the mysteries and hidden symbolism that pertain to it. In so doing, the non-LDS mind will come to an understanding of its extraordinary beauty, wonder, and glorious message. But more significantly, through its exceptional clarity and plainness, this profound and original explanation will allow the LDS people the opportunity to become aware of exactly what they are symbolically doing when performing the endowment. This insight will help them gain a better eternal perspective and understanding of the hidden mysteries of God they do not yet understand. In being made aware of its true purpose and intent, LDS members and their leaders might come to acknowledge the insignificance of this ordinance with regard to the salvation of a soul, and at the same time, reveal to all people its paramount significance in teaching the mysteries of the plan of our mutual Creator. The beauty of the temple endowment is that it is meant for everyone upon earth regardless of gender, race, or religious creed.




75 Questions and Answers about Preparing for the Temple


Book Description

How can I prepare to receive my endowment? What covenants will I make in the temple? How will I know if I’m ready? Temple scholar Alonzo Gaskill answers these questions and more in this long-awaited book. With thoughtful answers to your most burning questions while staying rooted in the scriptures and the words of prophets, this is an ideal resource to prepare Saints of all ages to attend the temple.




Nonprofit Essentials


Book Description

Praise for Endowment Building "This comprehensive work shows how endowments can provide multiple opportunities for donor involvement when the solicitation program is well designed and integrated with other fund development and program goals. Emphasizing the critical ethical issues inherent in marketing and structuring endowment gifts, it is an excellent reference manual and training guide." --Joanne Scanlan, PhD, Senior Vice President for Professional Development Council on Foundations, Washington, D.C. "Endowment Building provides both practical, hands-on advice and a philosophical, inspirational framework to guide novice and experienced mission-based organizations. Given the demographic opportunities and challenges facing the nonprofit world, this book is a must-read." --Nancy Herrold Strapp, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer Buckhorn Children & Family Services, Louisville, Kentucky "A comprehensive guide on how to start, grow, and maintain an endowment. It shows how to put theory into practice with numerous real-life examples and success stories." --Joe Bull, Director of Planned Giving, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio "After you read this book, you will know what to do and how to do it. It is a wonderful tool for new and emerging community foundations!" --Kay M. Marquet, President and CEO, Community Foundation Sonoma County, California "Endowment Building is an insightful, succinct, easy-to-read resource on building successful endowment programs. It's a well-organized guide containing practical suggestions and reminders of things development professionals know but some-times forget." --Jeff W. Smith, Vice President and Trust Counsel, Baptist Foundation of Texas, Dallas