Preach My Gospel Manual

On June 22, 2023, the Church announced the release of a second edition of Preach My Gospel. This new a guide for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ “will inspire and help members and missionaries as they serve and invite people to enjoy the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” The article below reflects the first edition of Preach My Gospel, but will soon be updated based on the new edition.

What is “Preach My Gospel”?

Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Missionary Service is the manual for full time missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The manual explains the principles of gospel of Jesus Christ clearly and concisely, and also gives suggestions for effective teaching, learning a foreign language, and methods for finding individuals to teach and baptize.

A major portion of Preach My Gospel contains the lessons that missionaries teach to prepare others for baptism. Missionaries should study these lessons and teach them from the heart, using their own words as prompted by the Spirit. There are five missionary lessons that missionaries must teach new members before they get baptized:

1. The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
2. The Plan of Salvation
3. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
4. The Commandments
5. Laws and Ordinances

Elder Richard G. Scott said this about Preach My Gospel, “it equips them to teach their message with power and to bear testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His prophet Joseph Smith.” It focuses missionaries on their true purpose, to “Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.” The First Presidency has said to full-time missionaries, “Preach My Gospel is intended to help you be a better-prepared, more spiritually mature missionary and a more persuasive teacher” (see The Power of Preach My Gospel by Elder Richard G. Scott, May 2005).

All Members Can Benefit from Preach My Gospel

Missionaries are not the only ones that can benefit from the Preach My Gospel manual. LDS families are also using Preach My Gospel to help prepare their children for missions. One family reported that they assigned their 17-year-old to prepare a family home evening lesson from Preach My Gospel manual. “As expected, he looked for the shortest segment in the book. His lesson, however, was a 20-minute heartfelt expression of the principles, complete with scriptures and testimony.”

Elder Scott says that “Probably the greatest benefit of Preach My Gospel will be seen in the lives of returned missionaries, who will be stronger parents, [and] more able Church leaders.” The manual Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Missionary Service can be downloaded from the Gospel Library section of ChurchOfJesusChrist.org.