Dr. Mark R. Grandstaff, PhD., a former Presidential Advisor and Fellow of numerous leadership think-tanks, is President and CEO of Renaissance-Thinkers, an educational consulting firm.  He is a Certified Master Practitioner in the field of Jungian Depth Typology.  His work on strategic leadership and the role of individuation and archetypal awareness has been cited as a refreshingly new approach to self-awareness and creativity by leaders like Bronco Mendenhall and Stephen Covey.  An emeritus associate professor of History and Institutional Leadership at Brigham Young University, he has lectured at UC Berkeley, UCLA, Oxford, the London School of Economics, The University of Victoria, New Zealand and The University of Maryland, College Park.  He assists people in getting to know themselves better through tying their work into their larger life journey — hence, finding a renewed sense of calling and mission, excitement, and satisfaction in their careers and lives.  His Church assignments have spanned Ward, Stake and Area callings.  He and his spouse, Amy L. Dixon, Esq., reside in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and have recently returned from a mission to Frankfurt, Germany.

Enter Mark...

The Journey Back:  Vision, Crises, and the Role of God in Our Lives.

We are all on a journey — A journey back to God who gave us life.  And as religious leadership, we are here to provide vision and work with people so that they might develop their God-given attributes.  As President Lorenzo Snow explained, “Our spirit birth gave us godlike capabilities.  We were born in the image of god our Father; He begot us like Himself. There is the nature of deity in the composition of our spiritual organization; in our spiritual birth our Father transmitted to us the capabilities, powers and faculties which He Himself possessed. . . .”  (The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, comp. Clyde J. Williams, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1984, p. 4).

Indeed, as it is recorded in D&C 4 and 2 Peter 1, we are one with the Divine Nature.  Our leadership calling is to help people understand this.  We are not earning the celestial kingdom, as I once heard, rather we are returning after having recognized that it is our internal, external, and eternal home.  

In my 40+ years in the Church (I was a twenty-year old convert) — most of them in some kind of leadership position — I learned that yes, the Saints need Jesus personally, but usually what they need is for another person to be a Christ to them.  I often have had to ask myself what does it mean for me “to be Jesus” in my work, my relationships (especially with family), my ward and the world.

Most of my time was taken up in calling, encouraging and pointing out the hand of the Lord in a given person’s life.  I usually started by reviewing Christ’s sojourn.  A careful reading of Matthew 3, 4 and 10 demonstrates that Christ was baptized, acclaimed of God and then tested, proved and taught while in the desert.  When he was proved, he went out and called twelve others to be his inner council and students.  Those whom he called recognized that Christ offered them a vocation (a way and purpose in life) which went beyond what they did as a job.  Who better to show them the way than a man who was able to overcome the world through His own series of crises by continually choosing God’s purposes for His life.  Times of testing Christ’s sense of vocation included the desert and the cross.  And the Lord’s time in the Garden demonstrated to God again that, despite the Savior’s pain, He was willing to have the Father’s will be done.  He chose God and His ultimate purpose — to overcome death and atone for mankind’s sins.  

I do not know of many Mormons who overcame the world without at some time reaching a crisis...