Bishop's to ditch ministering to families. Official.

[_Lemmie]

If you go back to the founding of the church, the Bishop oversaw the Aaronic priesthood as the president of the Priests. Made sense back then because the deacons, teachers, and priests were all adults and not 11 year olds like today. The general feel of these changes is really at the youth level. For the youth to remain faithful, they need more opportunities to do the work. The concept is now for the youth to self govern and get help from the bishop who technically is their leader. I foresee much more of the non-youth work to be done by the Elders and RS.

In your post quoted above I assume you mean the male youth when you say “the youth”?

[_Gadianton]

This is fascinating. It's the first of RTM Nelson's revelations with a bit of sense, although, I'm afraid it's not enough.

I vividly remember my two main scout masters. Both were disciplinarians of a sort with high regard for the military, but neither were very spiritual. One left the church down the road. Both had great testimonies of the Church as an auxiliary to fishing adventures. Young men's advisors tended to be the ward throwbacks, guys who were marginal members but liked camping and could relate to the youth okay. Most don't like dealing with kids, but the rebel guys who perceived themselves as cool, or the sportsmen, or the guys looking for guaranteed basketball on Tuesdays were down with it and the Bishops had a win-win, as giving these guys a calling like this got them out to church when otherwise they probably wouldn't go.

But the price was, the youth related to them because they were cool and could appreciate the kinds of things a bunch of rowdy kids liked to do. Some of them saw themselves as common-sense mentors to us outside of a gospel framework. One guy used to give us critical thinking scenarios without answers to expand our horizons. He also, a couple of times, pointed to logical holes in doctrine, and once outright disagreed with the First Presidency message in the Ensign while having a personal chat with me. I was blown away. That's like, deprogramming level tactics right there, and these are among the first critical thoughts I ever recall having. I'd had some of my own discovery prior, but an adult leader giving this kind of thinking legitimacy surely had an effect. Funny thing, is that guy ended up getting a little more spiritual and becoming very active. So it appears his stint as young men's advisor helped him along the way.

But this isn't a great answer. The Church in many ways parallels the Third Reich, but what's missing is the straight-laced adventurer who sees disciplined activity and outdoor skill development as a support for devotion to church leadership. It's really going to be a problem, because kids just aren't going to find their heroes in a bunch of former accountants and lawyers, and neither are there going to be local leaders who can get the energy of the youth focused in a way such that they can get brainwashed better in their devotion to the primarily lame leadership. So he sees a legitimate problem, but doesn't have the right answer.

[_Mormonicious]

And what does Nelson know about relating to the "youth"? Any more than the other condescending, baby talking, endlessly repetitive and out of touch old men? They only relate to themselves and each other.

Oh, I'm sure there is going to be A LOT of TOUCHING if you know what I mean. All praise to Horny Holy Joe and his organization of sexual predators

STUPID damned Mormons

All Hail Google GOD and her son eBay and the Holy Toaster youtube.

[_huckelberry]

I am not sure and puzzled by two questions. What is the bishop going to do with laser focus with the young men? What possible loss is a youth presidency? For the life of me I cannot remember such a person doing anything. I cannot remember such a position existing and I do have positive memories of individuals leading the particular youth groups and activities.

[_Kittens_and_Jesus]

If this is the route they wanna go they might consider going back to letting women give blessings. Then again, this might shock most members since they probably never heard about it...

[_I have a question]

There are still Young Women’s adult presidencies, though, right? Why eliminate Young Men’s Presidencies in order to have Bishops ‘focus on youth,’ but leave the YW presidencies in place? Is this a push to get boys on missions?

...he will be able to focus on strengthening youth — the rising leaders of the next generation....

Oh I get it. Nelson’s next generation leaders come from the boys to men group.

I think you have hit upon an interesting point.

Though the ward Young Men presidency no longer exists, the number of adult leaders for young men has not decreased, Brother Owen explained.

https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2 ... 75_1&pid=1

His statement is only possible because the Bishop and his two counsellors are now also the Young Mens presidency.

Sister Bonnie H. Cordon, Young Women general president, said the change to allow the Young Women president to report directly to the bishop, rather than a bishop’s counselor, is an opportunity for the young women to be closer to the bishop as well.

So the Bishop is now directly the Young Mens President, and also the direct presider over the Young Women's Presidency. Lemmies right, the Church is treating Young Mens and Young Womens church development with different levels of importance. Favouring the young men.

[_I have a question]

I think this is another massive change that will have serious repercussions:

And the bishop has to learn how to refer those who come to him to the elders quorum and Relief Society presidents — even with some of the issues that may be sensitive, he added.

“There are certain worthiness issues that the bishop has to engage in. But even with permission from the person, he can involve others. To me, this is quite a cultural change from what we have established over many, many years,” Elder Christensen said.

https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2 ... 75_1&pid=1

So what worthiness issues are ones that Bishops have to engage in, and what worthiness issues are the Elders Quorum and Relief Society Presidents now authorised/expected to counsel members on?

[Guest]

The 3 fold mission of the Church is; proclaim the gospel, perfect the Saints, and redeem the dead. To which was belatedly added, help the poor and needy. This change in ward reporting structure and associated responsibilities, just told the Bishops to pay no direct attention to those things and to focus all his efforts on trying to keep the youth active.

Don't they get it? Don't they understand why youth go inactive? Have they just set the Bishops up by making them responsible for if the youth go inactive or not?

And finally, they just made it easier for predators to have direct access to young people.

[_mentalgymnast]

The 3 fold mission of the Church is; proclaim the gospel, perfect the Saints, and redeem the dead. To which was belatedly added, help the poor and needy. This change in ward reporting structure and associated responsibilities, just told the Bishops to pay no direct attention to those things and to focus all his efforts on trying to keep the youth active.

Don't they get it? Don't they understand why youth go inactive? Have the just set the Bishops up by making them responsible for if the youth go inactive or not?

There is another way to approach this. With the emphasis on Come Follow Me and home centered gospel teaching/practice, it may be that the church is also letting parents know that their kids are their responsibility and that in times past too much was placed on church organizations and church personnel to raise their kids. Now, the buck stops with the primary care givers, the parents. The Bishop, as a Shepard over the flock, will act as a support/backup to the callings which parents now have (or always have had) to be directly responsible for the teaching and nurturing of their own children in the gospel. Where necessary, the Bishop can now dedicate extra time and attention to the youth who have a family structure/situation that doesn't allow for what should be going on in the home.

The Gospel is becoming more and more Christ centric within the lives/homes of the members rather that church centric. The church is there for administering ordinances of salvation/exaltation and as a community of saints in the pure sense. Gathering together to partake of the Sacrament and have simple fellowship with one another. This has gradually been going on for quite a while now. President Nelson is simply quickening the pace.

Regards,
MG

[_Lemmie]

it may be that the church is also letting parents know that their kids are their responsibility and that in times past too much was placed on church organizations and church personnel to raise their kids.

Wow. Mormon families have been letting an organization raise their children? That’s a cult, not a religion.

Although rearranging the roles so the Male leader has closer access to and tighter control over those boys they consider to have leadership potential, potential to be tapped into when they have acquired a wife so they can provide more boys to indoctrinate still sounds pretty culty to me.