In the church, leaders are discouraged from giving people more than one calling. This can become overwhelming and very time consuming. However there are wards and branches that are small enough that it is a necessity to have people serving and helping in more than one area. It can also become difficult if the majority of the stake leadership callings come from your ward as well. Here are five tips to make holding more than one calling possible.
1) The first step is to make sure that you really need to fill the calling. For example I served in the Young Women’s Presidency in a ward where there were two Beehives, one Miamaid and one Laurel. We only had the president and first counselor. We did not need a fully staffed Young Women’s organization to make sure that it ran properly. In smaller wards you can combine Sunday School and Primary classes to cut back on the number of teachers you need.
2) If the person has a large calling then you should refrain from having them hold more than one calling. For example the Young Men’s President, Young Women’s President, and Relief Society President should not have additional responsibilities in the ward. It is easier to serve on the activities committee and as a teacher in Relief Society, since these callings don’t conflict with each other.
3) You need to make sure that the responsibilities do not conflict with each other. Someone could be called to be the Primary pianist and ward organist. However, if someone were called to Young Men’s and to teach Priesthood class, this would be a big conflict.
4) With the necessity of having Primary classes be taught two deep, you can consider using the same people who work on Achievement Days and in Scouts to cover the classes. You may also want to have people called to just sit in on classes during both Senior and Junior Primary.
5) It is important to make sure that the individuals do not become overwhelmed, so you should check up on those serving periodically. Also if you have more than one calling and you feel that it is too much, talk to your bishop about your concerns. They may be able to release you or find you some extra help.
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