Church’s Disinvestment in Members

[Not Buying It]

There is a fantastic quote on Reddit today that really rang true to me:

At the end of the day, the Church’s greatest asset was their human membership, but they decided to invest elsewhere.

When the church chose to cut funding for activities, programs, janitorial services, training, etc, in favor of investing in real estate, advertising/correlation, stocks, auditing mechanisms, exclusive temple rituals to raise revenue, etc, they made a clear decision to grow the shell of the organization instead of the fabric and sinew of a vibrant diverse enjoyable community. The emphasis on growing wealth required streamlining the message, removing diversity of thought and creating a corporate culture to keep things efficient. Over time, the leadership sucked the life out of their members, and with the advent of the internet a perfect storm of individual/familial physical exhaustion and access to the true “narrative” leads to a mental and spiritual reawakening resulting in diminished piety and ultimately a withdrawal of membership.

[alas]

There is a fantastic quote on Reddit today that really rang true to me:

At the end of the day, the Church’s greatest asset was their human membership, but they decided to invest elsewhere.

When the church chose to cut funding for activities, programs, janitorial services, training, etc, in favor of investing in real estate, advertising/correlation, stocks, auditing mechanisms, exclusive temple rituals to raise revenue, etc, they made a clear decision to grow the shell of the organization instead of the fabric and sinew of a vibrant diverse enjoyable community. The emphasis on growing wealth required streamlining the message, removing diversity of thought and creating a corporate culture to keep things efficient. Over time, the leadership sucked the life out of their members, and with the advent of the internet a perfect storm of individual/familial physical exhaustion and access to the true “narrative” leads to a mental and spiritual reawakening resulting in diminished piety and ultimately a withdrawal of membership.

Yup, this is what I have been saying for years now. But this is said much better than I can. The church switched from serving the members to the members serving the church. They switched from building up the kingdom of God to building up their own kingdom. I suspect it was mostly Packer, because he was such an unfun stick in the mud. He pushed for no songs that were not in the hymn book, for funerals to be a tribute to the religion instead of the person they were supposed to honor, having a priesthood purpose for all activities as if priesthood is the opposite of fun, community, connection, social ties, love. Yeah, priesthood is drudgery, indoctrination, treks where the kids suffer to make them appreciate what they have, and boredom. And building up the kingdom is taxing the people to within an inch of their lives so the kings can build fancy buildings. Yeah, Packer was a petty tyrant who couldn’t stand for people to have fun. He was an anti intellectual who was against any truth that didn’t further his goals, anti women, homophobic, poohbah. (Not to bad mouth one of me favorite characters from the Mikato.)

[2bizE]

There is a fantastic quote on Reddit today that really rang true to me:

At the end of the day, the Church’s greatest asset was their human membership, but they decided to invest elsewhere.

When the church chose to cut funding for activities, programs, janitorial services, training, etc, in favor of investing in real estate, advertising/correlation, stocks, auditing mechanisms, exclusive temple rituals to raise revenue, etc, they made a clear decision to grow the shell of the organization instead of the fabric and sinew of a vibrant diverse enjoyable community. The emphasis on growing wealth required streamlining the message, removing diversity of thought and creating a corporate culture to keep things efficient. Over time, the leadership sucked the life out of their members, and with the advent of the internet a perfect storm of individual/familial physical exhaustion and access to the true “narrative” leads to a mental and spiritual reawakening resulting in diminished piety and ultimately a withdrawal of membership.

Yup, this is what I have been saying for years now. But this is said much better than I can. The church switched from serving the members to the members serving the church. They switched from building up the kingdom of God to building up their own kingdom. I suspect it was mostly Packer, because he was such an unfun stick in the mud. He pushed for no songs that were not in the hymn book, for funerals to be a tribute to the religion instead of the person they were supposed to honor, having a priesthood purpose for all activities as if priesthood is the opposite of fun, community, connection, social ties, love. Yeah, priesthood is drudgery, indoctrination, treks where the kids suffer to make them appreciate what they have, and boredom. And building up the kingdom is taxing the people to within an inch of their lives so the kings can build fancy buildings. Yeah, Packer was a petty tyrant who couldn’t stand for people to have fun. He was an anti intellectual who was against any truth that didn’t further his goals, anti women, homophobic, poohbah. (Not to bad mouth one of me favorite characters from the Mikato.)

These posts really sums it up. The church has progressed to intense boredom, and has become such a time suck that it makes life in the church unbearable.

[Archimedes]

This is a really good observation. I remember church being occasionally interesting, and somewhat accommodating of oddballs, right up to Correlation. After that the drive for conformity across all fronts just sucked the life out of everything. But the upper leadership thought Correlation was the greatest thing since sliced bread. They continue to be the leadership group most out of touch with the average members of any large organization I am familiar with.

The system only dreams in total darkness.

[Corsair]

The revolutionary fire of doctrine and innovation of the early church has gone out. Apologists and critics disagree about doctrines plural marriage, translation, and exaltation. But they all largely agree that these doctrinal transformations built a cohesive, strong church that allowed them to establish civilization in the wilderness.

If another religious innovator like Joseph Smith appeared again, the institutional church would summarily reject him. Today, the church is faced with new challenges that could use some innovation. The type of leader needed today could not adance in the LDS church.