The Challenge

by Alvin R. Dyer

In fifteen succinct chapters Alvin R. Dyer lays down The Challenge to every missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From the beginning chapter, "The Underlying Needs of Effective Proselyting," through each successive chapter the author traces the development of the successful missionary.

Genres: Church, Religion

hardbound

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[David Cook · Rating 1 out of 5]

I write this review more than 40 years since reading The Challenge by Alvin R. Dyer. I read it right before leaving on my mission while on a trip to California with friends. The book was recommended by my neighbor and friend of my older brother, who had served in England during the time Dyer was President of the European mission. As a 19-year-old just weeks before leaving on my mission I ate it up with the fervor of a zealot ready to convert the world. Now after serving as a young missionary, a counselor to four mission presidents and a mission president, I see the book as having done much damage.

Dyer's basic premise was hard sale numbers driven "conversions". He officially encouraged mission presidents in the European Mission to use an invitation to the temple to prod missionaries to achieve baptism quotas. Those that did not achieve numerical baptismal success were deemed as lacking in faith. In 1962 when The Challenge was published, Dyer referred to the mission president [in Frankfurt, Germany, who] had promised his missionaries that if they got four baptisms in December, they could go to the temple as the guest of the mission president over the Christmas holidays. Dyer then told of two missionaries who had no one to baptize on 22 December, but who baptized four people in three days and went to the temple with their mission president. The concept was that faithful missionaries will baptize, and faithless missionaries do not. I can think of no teaching that is more contrary to doctrine and scripture than this. It saddens me that so many young missionaries were influenced by this and thought of themselves as failures due to the false doctrine taught in this book.

Sadly, there were several generations of missionaries that were taught these principals and bought into them. I was fortunate that my mission president was the antithesis of Dyer. Never did he emphasize numbers. He was a "Preach My Gospel" mission president before PMG existed. Many do not realize that one of the reasons President Hinckley commissioned PMG was to avoid extremes and "ungodly" practices that sometimes creep into missionary work.

As a MP in Chile, I saw the damage done by those practices of quotas and rewards in an earlier era. I saw membership numbers on paper that had no relation to real growth and sometimes wondered what people were thinking in baptizing 1000+ people a month (mostly youth) with little corresponding increase in church attendance. Why do we sometimes let worldly views creep in to doing the work of God?

I am sure that Alvin R. Dyer had good intentions and was a good man, but boy did he get it wrong.

[BC Sterrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. Even though I’m not a missionary, this book helps to put a lot of things into perspective about what it’s all about and why we share the gospel. This was written around the time Pres. David O. McKay gave the challenge of “Every Member a Missionary,” thus the title. The format of this book is a little scattered as the author seems to be giving a massive download on his thoughts and infectious zeal towards sharing the gospel and why it’s so important, so I wouldn’t say each chapter necessarily sticks to one topic. It’s all connected but the organization of this book is not organized traditionally by topic. If that makes sense. A previous review on this book in here, written 40 years after it was read, says it focuses too much numbers. I don’t necessarily agree with that, it’s focus is on people and how the gospel enhances and changes lives binding them to Christ. As a missionary we used numbers to keep track of our progress, but knowing full well that each number represents a child of God. Numbers are just symbolic to help achieve and reach for goals. Without a goal or number of people to aim for, the work can become slow and stagnant. Setting a goal to teach at least 7 discussions in a week was a standard goal my companion and I reached for, but that number was not as important as the people involved. Making sure missionaries understand that I’m sure has become a greater emphasis as time progressed since 1970 when this was published. Just as the focus on Christ in fast and testimony meeting has received greater emphasis and importance. Anyway, I’m still reading this book, I’m on page 100 as of this review. It was just an old book that belonged to my father that I found in the house so I started reading. I especially love the explanations of how to share the gospel with confidence and how much missionary work comes by just living a exemplary life by keeping the commandments and following the Savior. In recent chapters I really loved it’s explanation of why historically the restoration needed to take place, which I will keep in my notes as well as the book’s expressed need for daily repentance, which was echoed in today’s priesthood quorum meeting. There may be better and improved ways of saying things today, but I still love hearing gospel voices from the past speaking from the heart as well <3