Heather, thank you for your question. I’m going to answer it as best I can, also hoping to enlighten readers who might not be members of the Church, so bear with me….

The Mormon Church has a lay clergy. That is, the members of the Church are called to fill the various positions of leadership and service that enable the Church to function for the benefit of its members. Most callings to positions are temporary. There is no system of progress from position to position, and members are not supposed to covet or vie for positions. Members do not vote for people who are called to various positions, but they are asked to “sustain” other members in their callings, and to manifest that sustaining with a raise of their right hands in the appropriate church meeting. This fulfills the law of common consent, wherein the entire kingdom of God functions as all its members uphold it. To sustain someone in a calling means to support, help, pray for, and strengthen the person as he or she serves. Members have the right to refuse to sustain a person they think should not be called. The member is asked in private to explain the reasons for abstaining. And leaders take to heart this information, and act upon it, if necessary.

No one in a position in the LDS Church has been professionally trained, or has gone to divinity school to prepare him or her for a calling. The Holy Spirit prompts the person as he or she is prayerful as to how to best serve, although there are guidelines, other leaders, and manuals to help. Bishops and bishoprics who lead local wards, and stake presidents with their counselors who lead stakes (groups of wards), try to counsel members according to the revelation they receive in their stewardships. Members then go to the Lord in personal prayer to receive validation of that counsel from the Holy Spirit. They then act on the counsel. This system requires humility both on the part of the leaders and the members. It also requires “charity,” including the quality of charity listed in the scriptures…longsuffering, not easily offended. Sometimes members are offended when they receive good counsel, because they are not truly humble and ready to accept that counsel. Other times, leaders are a little clumsy because they are simply human; perhaps they don’t express themselves perfectly; or their own experiences somehow are allowed to color their opinions. The member with charity can still accept counsel according to the validation from the Lord, even if the member doesn’t care for the manner in which it was given or feel personal chemistry for the person giving the counsel. The key here is humility. If a person feels beligerent towards his or her leaders, offended, or rebellious, then humility is usually wanting, and the person needs to work on becoming more Christlike and more centered on the Savior. This is impossible for an outsider to judge, especially as we are counseled to “judge not.”

Loren C. Dunn, when he was in the first quorum of the seventy said, “Sustaining, however, should not be confused with voting into office.”

He added, “When we sustain officers, we are given the opportunity of sustaining those whom the Lord has already called by revelation. The dictionary tells us that the word sustain means “to bear up, to support, to furnish sustenance for, to aid effectually, to hold valid, to confirm or corroborate.”

The Lord, then, gives us the opportunity to sustain the action of a divine calling and in effect express ourselves if for any reason we may feel otherwise.

To sustain is to make the action binding on ourselves and to commit ourselves to support those people whom we have sustained. When a person goes through the sacred act of raising his arm to the square, he should remember, with soberness, that which he has done and commence to act in harmony with his sustaining vote both in public and in private.

If for any reason we have a difficult time sustaining those in office, then we are to go to our local priesthood leaders and discuss the issue with them and seek their help. (Loren C. Dunn, “We Are Called of God,” Ensign, Jul 1972, 43)