The programs of the Church are important, but they are not ends in themselves. They permit organized efforts to be made to reach and bless the individual. They are designed to help God’s children to achieve the purposes of the Lord for them, to operate in the principle of real love, to be implemented in the spirit of compassion and contrition. They are to help us bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.

The basic problem of our time is loneliness—the insecurity and anxiety that come with separation from God and from one’s fellowmen, and from a sense of alienation from self that is almost always present. The source of reconciliation and wholeness is Jesus Christ. – Marion D. Hanks, “Conference Report,” October 1970, Second Day-Morning Meeting, p.58