I gave this talk in 2010 in Sammamish Washington

There’s a concept that drives a lot of key marketing decisions and investments called “Branding”. A brand is a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

Companies around the world spend hundreds of millions of dollars defining their brand. They then spend billions more building it to the point where people around the world instantly recognize the brand and attribute some value to it. This work pays off. Google landed the world’s top brand recently – its brand alone was valued at $100 Billion. Microsoft was #2, with a brand valued at $76 Billion. A brand is not a tangible asset per se; this is about a value or feeling that is implied.

Good brands are about authenticity and reinforcement.

Authenticity means that what you’ve said, and what has been experienced by the customer, are the same. People put value in authentic brands. This is one of the reasons why Toyota is in such trouble right now with its recent engineering troubles. For years it has built a brand based on quality engineering, and has previously been able to claim that in an authentic way. Now, they have a lot of work to do to rebuild that trust.

Reinforcement means that customers have a consistent experience each time. McDonalds is the epitome of this idea. Whether you go to a McDonald’s in Tacoma or Taipei, you should have a similar experience. When you go to DisneyWorld in Orlando or Paris, you should have a similar experience. There shouldn’t be great swings in the level of experience as a way to protect their brand.

The world’s best brands know the importance of these attributes, and protect their brands religiously.

As I thought about this talk, I asked myself: What is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint brand? I think our Faith is defined in many ways by those we come in contact with every day…some good, some not so good.

I heard a story recently that reinforces this point.

A woman was driving on the streets of Las Vegas when she pulled up to an intersection.  Stuck behind a car that wasn’t making a turn properly, she yelled and screamed profanities at the driver and made common unpleasant gestures. The police pulled her over, handcuffed her, and took her to the station. She continued in a similar way all the way to the station. After several hours of waiting a policeman finally came to take the handcuffs off of her. She demanded to know why she had been held so long for merely cursing and gesturing at an intersection. The policeman then told her that’s not why they pulled her over. They had suspected she had stolen the car. The woman, stunned, said, “Why would you think that?” The officer explained that when they saw her behavior, they were surprised. But they thought it was stolen when they saw the bumper stickers “RULDS2” and “Families can be together forever” on the back of her car.

Clearly, she did not exemplify the brand that these officers were used to.

The Brand “Mormon”

How people perceive our Faith is based on what they see and what they experience. If they see us as faithful, family-oriented, God-fearing, Christians who do good works, they see us in a positive light. My friend at works says “Mormons are the nicest people I know”. That’s a compliment to me and the other Mormon friends that she has had over the years.

Unfortunately, others have different opinions.

As the face to the Church, we are the brand ambassadors for our religion. And like it or not, we will define our religion for everyone we come in contact with. Is this a lot of responsibility? Yes. Does it require us to think before we speak or act? It does.

For my talk today, I want to suggest that Latter-day Saints can authentically own a very important Christ-like quality that will act like a light in the darkness and bring people to the Truth. That branding quality is Service, and the single idea for my talk is:

Let service define you

King Benjamin taught “When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.”

Jesus taught us “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

More recently President Monson said, “I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish – and in effect save their lives.”

I think about a story I heard once. A hurricane had ravished a town, and because Latter-day Saints are easily mobilized and a highly-trained workforce, they were some of the first responders. Days later, while continuing to work in the area a neighbor approached one of the Latter-day Saints and said “We really appreciate your help with all of this. There are two churches who have really shown us what it’s like to be a Christian: The Mormons and those people from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”.

This is a good brand experience.

President Monson said, “I am confident it is the intention of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we covenanted to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.” How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling that “oh, surely someone will take care of that need.”

He continued, “We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”

Service opportunities are within eye sight of you today. There are people around you today who are in need. These are people you pass in the hallways in church, who may not feel welcome here. You might say “that happens in other wards, but it does not in my ward”. This is simply not true. Within the sound of my voice is someone who needs a hand of friendship. Who needs your hand of kindness. If we fail here, we will fail out there. So let’s firm up our resolve to help our Church brothers and sisters. Let us be liberal in our service. Let us become addicted to it.

I want to tell you about two people, both very different and yet very much the same.

Father Rick is a doctor and he runs an orphanage in Haiti. The stories that we hear from him will break your heart. Here’s one:

“The unbelievable had happened. Sister Abha was shot. How could they do this? The Sisters live with the poor, they live poorly themselves, they care for the worse of the poor. Especially Sister Abha, who opened their mission in Haiti, with Mother Teresa herself, twenty eight years ago. She has worked tirelessly in Haiti for all these years. To add salt to the wound, the shooting was ordered and paid for by a young man she had taken off the streets and raised from the time he was a small child. Fortunately she had pushed the arm of the thief as he fired, and the bullet pulverized one of the bones of her forearm rather than piercing her chest. We were able to get her to Florida right away for surgery. I called her a few days after her surgery and asked if she would return to Haiti. She told me that God’s goodness to her, especially following the shooting, obliged her to continue to care for the poor of Haiti wholeheartedly. Besides, we will all die one day anyway. It does not matter how or when or where. It only matters how we have lived.

As we were organizing for Sister’s Abha’s emergency care, the phone kept ringing about other kidnapped people and other people shot in areas of conflict. We were back to the slums again. This time the special police force was there. I told them I had to go into the slum for an old man who was shot in the abdomen and a young girl shot through the thigh. They told me they could not give me cover. I told them I didn’t need cover.

They told me I would be killed if I went in. I told them I knew I would not be killed. They asked me why, was I a gangster too? Was I a friend of gangsters? I told them I am a doctor and a priest, and unless they themselves shot me, I knew I would not be shot.

Four of us went in with two stretchers. Eight of us came out. (Aside from the two wounded, two young men offered to help carry the stretchers out.) Not a shot was fired by anyone from the minute we set foot into the slum until we left. When we came out unharmed, the special police gave us a full scale scathing and search.  They were sure we were criminals. We had to be, if we could circulate freely in the slum. They searched us, and when they were done we rushed the wounded, once more, to the emergency room of Doctors Without Borders.”

The other example of service I want to high-light is my mother-in-law.

She has always led a simple, humble life. There is nothing pretentious about her. Year after year she makes due with very little…she earns in a year what most of us earn in a month. She has suffered her entire life from terrible, debilitating diseases which restrict her functionality. Yet, she is constantly on the lookout for service opportunities. She is like Mother Theresa in that she cares for the downtrodden and forgotten. She will bring meals to the sick or home bound. She writes letters or cards to those who have no family. She invites the lonely into her home. She has so little, but day after day, month after month she finds ways to serve. These are not the people she visit teaches – it’s not an obligation that she fulfilling. It’s a way of life. No one knows that she does it, but she does it. These are the poor, meek, and mild. These people need tenderness, and she administers to them constantly.

What is similar about these two examples? They both exemplify the Spirit of Christ in dolling out service. Both give willingly and openly, with no thoughts of recompense, recognition, or praise. Both of them have trained their eyes to watch for those in need. They have let service define their life.

When I read Matthew, 25, it says:

 “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

“Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

“Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

The essence of these sacred verses is this: we are here to serve our fellow travelers on this journey through life. But how? We must train ourselves to look for it.

We do not see easily find people who are starving in Sammamish. But we do see people hungry for friendship or Truth. We do not see people thirsty for water. But we see people struggling to keep their heads above water. We may not see people who need a roof over their heads, but we see people who need an arm of comfort.

President Monson said, “An attitude of love characterized the mission of the Master. He gave sight to the blind, legs to the lame, and life to the dead. Perhaps when we [face] our Maker, we will not be asked, ‘How many positions did you hold?’ but rather, ‘How many people did you help?’ In reality you can never love the Lord until you serve Him by serving His people.”

I think Jesus is saying “Err on the side of too much love and too much service. Be indulgent. Go overboard with service. Look for opportunities to help people, and be ready to help.