Resources

Practical guidance for ward bishoprics — calling workflows, sacrament meeting programs, ward council agendas, interview tracking, and tithing declaration scheduling.

• How LDS Bishoprics Track Callings Without a Spreadsheet

  Most bishoprics keep their open callings on a printed list, a shared spreadsheet, or in the bishop's head. A simple ward calling tracker — built around the actual stages a calling moves through (proposed, approved, extended, sustained, set apart) — saves the bishopric hours each month and keeps every counselor on the same page without anyone having to ask, again, where things stand.

• Building a Sacrament Meeting Program: A Bishopric's Checklist

  A sacrament meeting program is two documents pretending to be one: the bulletin that members read and the conductor's script that the presiding member reads aloud. Treat them as one source of truth — speakers, hymns, presiding authority, ordinances — and Sunday morning stops being a scramble for the counselor who is conducting.

• A Ward Council Agenda Template That Actually Gets Used

  A ward council agenda only works if it's the same shape every week. When the bishop and the organization leaders all know the rhythm — assignments review, ministering, organization reports, items of business — the meeting moves fast and decisions actually get made. When the agenda is improvised, the meeting runs long and nothing carries forward to next week.

• Tracking Temple Recommend, Youth, and Ministering Interviews

  Interview tracking is dates and labels — never content. A bishop or counselor should know at a glance who is overdue for a temple recommend, which youth haven't been interviewed this quarter, and which ministering companionships still need their visit. The conversation itself stays private; only the cadence is shared.

• Scheduling Tithing Declarations Without Phone-Tag

  Tithing declarations should not require six weeks of phone tag. A simple online schedule with timed slots, a public booking link, and a printable QR poster lets every household pick a time that works, get a confirmation, and reschedule if life changes — without the executive secretary spending an evening returning calls.

• Tools for New Bishops in Their First 90 Days

  A new bishop inherits a calendar full of decisions he hasn't yet had time to understand. The first 90 days should be about getting visibility — open callings, interview cadences, ward council rhythm, tithing season — without trying to reinvent any of them. The tools that matter are the ones that give a new bishop a clear picture quickly so he can spend his time with people, not paperwork.

• Using LCR and Bishopric Board Together: What Belongs Where

  Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR) is the Church's official, authoritative system for ward records — membership, callings of record, ordinances, finances, temple recommends, and the ministering assignments your stake submits. Bishopric Board is not a record. It's a working surface for the things that are still in motion: the candidate you're considering, the calling that hasn't been extended yet, the program you're drafting for next Sunday, the interview cadence you're trying to hold. Used together, the two never conflict — because each one is doing what only it can do.

• How a Stake Presidency Keeps Every Ward on the Same Page

  A stake presidency doesn't run the wards — the bishops do. But a stake president still wants every ward in the stake to have a calm, consistent rhythm: open callings moving forward, ward council meeting on a stable schedule, interview cadences that don't slip. A shared workspace gives each bishopric its own private, walled-off space while letting the stake set a common shape, so a newly-called bishop inherits the same tools as the bishop down the road. The stake presidency also gets a workspace of its own — for stake callings, stake meeting agendas, and stake-level interview cadences — kept entirely separate from any ward.

• Tracking Stake Interviews: Temple Recommends, Melchizedek Priesthood, and Patriarchal Blessings

  Stake-level interviews follow the same discipline as ward interviews: track the cadence, never the content. A stake presidency should know at a glance who is due for a temple recommend renewal, which brethren are being considered for the Melchizedek Priesthood, and who has requested a patriarchal blessing — without ever writing down what was said in any of those conversations. Only dates and labels are shared; the conversation itself stays private.