Church leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have often taught that every Latter-day Saint is both a teacher and a learner. Church members are also instructed to “teach about Jesus Christ no matter what you are teaching.”
But, in a "Come, Follow Me" year focused on the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history, how can teachers, all Latter-day Saints, always find the Savior in Church history?
That’s what educators from BYU and Seminaries and Institutes taught attendees at the Church History Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Sept. 5.
The panel discussion was moderated by Casey Griffiths, associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University, and featured Barbara Morgan Gardner, professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU; Lori Newbold, director of training services for Seminaries and Institutes and a former Young Women general council member; and Anthony Sweat, BYU professor of Church history and doctrine.
Together, they framed Church history not as an archive to admire but as a living classroom where students can symbolically meet the Savior.
‘It’s not Joseph’s Restoration, it’s Jesus Christ’s’
Early in the discussion, the panelists emphasized that teaching the Restoration must begin — and end — with the Savior.
“It’s not Joseph’s Restoration, it’s Jesus Christ’s,” said Sweat.
He added a reframing that anchored the discussion: “When we’re talking about Joseph in the past, we’re actually talking about Jesus in the future.” He continued that Latter-day Saints are living in the ongoing work the Lord is still accomplishing: “The Restoration of all things is an ongoing work.”
For learners, he said, that future-facing frame locates their discipleship inside the Savior’s active, unfolding work to make earth more like heaven.
Teaching the Doctrine and Covenants so students see Christ
Gardner described a preparation habit that keeps her teaching personal and reverent: as she studies a section, she imagines two people in the room — “the person being spoken to in the section and the Savior.”
That simple mental practice changes her tone and her questions. With students, she often invites a direct question: “What does the Savior want you to know about Him?”
The aim, she said, is to help learners report to the Lord, not merely to a teacher, “If the Savior were in the room and asked, ‘What did you learn about Me today?’ what would you tell Him?”
Sweat pointed to the Lord’s own pattern in Doctrine and Covenants 19:23 — learn of Christ, listen to His words, walk in the meekness of His Spirit and find peace in Him — as a four-part approach he uses in class and at home.
Applied to any section, he said, the method pulls attention to what the text reveals about the Savior’s character and teachings, the invitations or commandments He gives, and the promises He makes.
“It focuses the point back to the Savior and His work,” he said.
Mercy, correction and the Savior’s ‘love language’
The panel spent significant time naming a tension their students often feel: Is Jesus only gentle — or also exacting? In the Doctrine and Covenants, they said, readers encounter the real Christ who is both perfectly merciful and perfectly just.
Sweat cautioned against presenting a one-dimensional Messiah: the Lord who comforts also corrects — and correction is a form of divine care. As he put it, “one of His love languages is chastening.” Because the Savior knows hearts, his rebukes are “perfect in His correction” — tailored to invite growth, never designed to shame.
Newbold agreed, connecting that principle to student hope. When young people meet the living Christ in scripture, they discover He asks for honest offering, not instant perfection. As she summarized the invitation: “He’s not asking you to be more than what you are right now. He’s asking you to give what you are, and He will grow more with you.”
Trust the learner
The panel discussed the importance of teachers seeing students not as passive receivers, but as covenant disciples already prepared by the Lord.
Griffiths reminded teachers that students are not usually disinterested. “You don’t have to sneak up behind them and whisper in their ears. They’re ready to hear what you have to say.”
Gardner urged faith in the rising generation. “Don’t believe they aren’t interested ... and don’t let them believe it.” She referred to President Henry B. Eyring’s address to Church Educational System teachers in 2001 when he invited all to “raise our sights” and to have high expectations for students. She emphasized, “They are preparing the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.”
