In order to do His Will; we have to know what it is, then we have to do it. We can keep on the strait and narrow way.

Besides following what we know we should already be doing. Keep in mind any lessons learned from this blog series:

• It is crucial that you be honest in all your dealings.
• You should not seek power, hoard it, use it unrighteously or use it for your own purposes. Treat it as a sacred trust.
• Keep confidences.
• You should seek to be inclusionary in all your Church responsibilities. Social cliques, generation gaps, and other distinctions are not of God and have no place in His Church. 
• You should avidly seek to implement authorized changes and to fear God more than you fear people.
• Never use your power for personal aggrandizement.
• You should faithfully seek to serve and seek to make your service, in the Church and of the Church, anonymous, so far as you are able. Those that do not have already received their reward.
• Avoid any type of creeping change. Never let them solidify into traditions.
• Obey all Church instructions and guidance with exactness, regardless of how small or seemingly insignificant. Making innocuous or unimportant changes in how the Lord has instructed his Church to operate is as much apostasy as making momentous changes. The only difference is the speed with which the changes take place.
• Seek to implement all the new changes and resources the Church rolls out.
• Make certain your numbers and statistics are honestly reported and have integrity.
• Seek the gift of discernment in all your responsibilities.
• Endure and submit righteously to whatever treatment you are subjected to without murmuring. Heavenly Father is perfectly capable of managing His Church, but it will be according to His timeline, not yours.
• Remember, persuasion and love unfeigned is the essence of righteous leadership.
• You must be humble. You should abhor personal aggrandizement. Adulation is poison.
• Don't use flattery with others and try to innoculate yourself against its effects on you.
• Try, try, try to avoid pride!

Exposing or publicizing corruption is NOT your responsibility

Real corruption in others is not for individual members to expose, identify or correct outside of official channels. Corruption in the Church is corruption in Church members, by its very definition.

This is a top-down organization, not a true hierarchy, and should not be made into such. This is Jesus Christ's Church.

A democracy is a bottom-up system where the government gets its power and authority “from the people.” This is not where the Church’s power and authority comes from. It is appropriately a top-down organization and will always remain such.

Many churches are bottom-up structures. Ours is not.

Keep this top-down structure in mind when you evaluate how you should act within it.

When others are called to call others to repentance

Unfortunately, on occasion, the Lord has had to designate outside prophets to call corrupt people and corrupt Church leaders to repentance. This is what Lehi and Abinadi did.

There may have been others testifying against corruption at the same time. However, there is a crucial difference. The difference would be that instead of being “called of God” they were called by themselves. I count myself among them. These blog postings are mine and this blog is a personal one.

I would caution you not to discount my ideas; just because you consider yourself faithful, have a current temple recommend and are worthy to hold Church callings.

Wickedness or unrighteousness is not the absence of religion. It can be quite the opposite. Priestcrafts often exist under the guise of religion. Communities such as the Zoramites and Amulonites built churches, had church leaders, and some semblance of religious worship, despite their extreme wickedness.

The Church itself will not apostatize, so we can be confident that our leaders at the top can be relied on. But individuals are just as prone to apostasy as they ever were. We must guard against it by focusing on the scriptures, revelation from modern prophets and the guidance and counsel we receive from inspired Church leaders.

Will this blog series have any influence?

Sadly, I suspect much of the fallout from this series of blog postings will consist of nothing more than “shoot the messenger”, even if people can get past a knee-jerk reaction to the title and actually read what I have posted.

Only in a time of extreme apostasy, would it seem radical, controversial, or cause me to be labeled a trouble maker; because I advocate following the scriptures, modern Church prophets, and their policies, guidelines and procedures.

Moral decision-making is ALWAYS necessary

I have one last suggestion to make that I have not covered previously: We should not fail to realize when a moral decision is necessary.

Yes, you have the authority and power to do something, but should you? Should you have this activity? Should you have this event? Should this be done this way? Should we teach in this manner? Should we treat a person or persons this way?

We should be constantly asking ourselves these questions and more. We should not just kick into automatic pilot, doing what we have always done or others have always done. We need to examine the moral implications of all our actions and behaviors.

Satan would like us to think that only the big decisions in our lives need careful thought and moral reflection. This isn't true. The small decisions in our lives have massive consequences. We should be applying moral decision-making to the little ones as well.

Moral decision-making should NOT be ceded to our leaders

We should not cede this moral decision making responsibility to our leaders. We cannot say to ourselves that they are our leaders and we can let them decide what is right and what is wrong or what is appropriate and what is not appropriate.

I suspect that many of the people who took part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre assumed their local stake and unit leaders were acting properly and relied on this as a comfort. We should not make this mistake.

If a stake or unit leader told me to do something I knew was wrong, I would not do it. In fact, I have refused on occasion and requested I be released as a result.

I will not do something I know is counter to the scriptures, instruction by prophets, or against the policies and procedures of the Church, primarily the General Handbook. I refuse to violate any of them even if I know a stake or unit leader will let me.

We should seek to know and utilize righteous leadership principles

Elder Paul E. Koelliker makes another statement we need to take to heart:

Studying and applying the righteous patterns of leadership, service, and worship taught in the scriptures will help our homes become sanctuaries of safety and fortresses of faith for our precious loved ones. May we have the wisdom in our leadership roles to shun our own reflection and instead seek to radiate the light of the Savior. It is our choice. We have the ability to act. Let us choose humility, a broken heart, a contrite spirit – the opposites of pride.

I will close with further quotes from President Ezra Taft Benson’s address on pride: