New Ministering Program

[LostMormon]

So it's been a few months now, what is everyone's feeling on this? is it working? I personally have not gone, nor have I been visited, nor have I been roped into an interview. Seems to be working pretty well.

[deacon blues]

So it's been a few months now, what is everyone's feeling on this? is it working? I personally have not gone, nor have I been visited, nor have I been roped into an interview. Seems to be working pretty well.

I'm experiencing the same thing. It's working better than I had hoped.

[Hagoth]

So it's been a few months now, what is everyone's feeling on this? is it working? I personally have not gone, nor have I been visited, nor have I been roped into an interview. Seems to be working pretty well.

I'm experiencing the same thing. It's working better than I had hoped.

So expect it to change again soon.

[Linked]

So it's been a few months now, what is everyone's feeling on this? is it working? I personally have not gone, nor have I been visited, nor have I been roped into an interview. Seems to be working pretty well.

Me too. No ministering visits, and I haven't been asked about my families or visited them.

The new elders quorum change brought some unwanted bi-weekly (the version that means twice a week) emails reminding me what elder's quorum will be about and with a write up from the lesson. I know they are trying to do a good thing, but every time I get those emails I just feel pestered. I have now set up a filter so any email from that guy will go to spam. I feel bad that I won't be notified of legitimate stuff like service in the ward, but it's just not worth the frustration.

[Not Buying It]

Told the bishop our family was opting out of Ministering. To his credit, he accepted it and they haven’t bothered us about it.

[Evil_Bert]

Our Ward hasn't even started the ministering yet. The EQP was conducting interviews the last two weeks to make assignments. I got asked to come in for an interview and politely declined. I told the EQP that I wasn't going to participate in the program.

This process is a total cluster in my ward. The three other wards in town had their programs running in a couple of weeks. My ward is really slow with everything. They tend to suffer from analysis paralysis.

[Red Ryder]

Best thing ever! No one has come by. No one has given me an assignment. I still get random emails where you could literally substitute home teaching for ministering and the context is EXACTLY the same!

My MIL is an RSP and she's running herself ragged trying to run this ministering program to where SHE thinks it should be. They are personally visiting all the ladies at home to do interviews so she's always dealing with scheduling conflicts. It's insane! I feel bad for the next RSP who will not be able to follow in her footsteps.

My mother mentioned her ward is having interviews in the church parking lot! The ladies just do a quick "drive through" interview.

Whatever stupid decides, stupid deserves!

[Gatorbait]

This one has been kicking around a while and I've not given it much thought.

The way I see it, the old Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching was antiquated and needed to be re-vamped. I'll give credit where credit is do- the church is at least trying.

This may be a step in the right direction. No more tap tap taps on the last day of the month and having some sweet RS sister hand me a card to give to my wife with the "thought of the day" nonsense. (Eye roll) It was a silly program and it was made sillier by church leaders that wanted to be 100%ers.

Good riddance. Oh, and by the way, no one has popped over to see me in a ministering capacity, but it is okay if they do. What harm can it be?

[slavereeno]

We haven't really be visited, but our ministers brought ice cream to my son when he had oral surgery. I haven't really done anything for my family, don't know them well.

There has been little to no nagging about it though, like there was for HT.

[JustHangingOn@57]

I absolutely love it! I was a high priest before I was demoted to lowly ender and for my companion the monthly ht visit was literally life or death. He is still my companion, and we still have the same families, but with this new kick butt ministering program we haven't ministered since March 31st. My ministering angel moved, so we haven't been bothered, err, ministered to, for months. Yeaa!

[Archimedes]

Well if it doesn't work out it will only be because the members lacked the faith to minister properly.

And the so called prophets can go on prophesizing about other mundane bureaucratic nonsense.

Thus sayeth the lord and all that.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

I had a thought this morning about ministering after my wife mentioned needing to go in for her ministering interview. What if the point of the change is to force more interviews of faithful saints with leaders, rather than relying on lazy members to keep the indoctrination influence on other members? I'm not fully buying into the idea that this change was meant to phase out control mechanisms like visits.

[alas]

I had a thought this morning about ministering after my wife mentioned needing to go in for her ministering interview. What if the point of the change is to force more interviews of faithful saints with leaders, rather than relying on lazy members to keep the indoctrination influence on other members? I'm not fully buying into the idea that this change was meant to phase out control mechanisms like visits.

This. They are cutting their losses, and the fringe members are as good as lost already. They will now concentrate harder on keeping the hard core to keep them under control. They no longer trust standard members to keep each other in line, but want the control interviews done by group leaders, so RSP and EQP. Anyone not willing to HT or VT has just been cut along with the inactive. It is a pulling in and using the best resources on the best members.

They have found with the youth that interviews every 6 months kept the youth guilted and under control. But bishops don’t even have time to do the yearly TR for active members that they did years ago. But they will make RSP and EQP work much harder and do the same kind of guilt producing interviews with the active adults. Watch, ten years from now, there will be worthiness questions added to these interviews.

[Red Ryder]

Oh I get it. Like a siphoning of the uber righteous where the winners get a free trip to Missouri?

Isn't it crazy when the church self identifies a bad program, makes a change for the better, and we STILL complain about it being a control mechanism.

If I didn't know any better it sounds like we don't trust the organization??

[alas]

Except of course, it isn’t going to work because RSP and EQP do not have time to do all these personal interviews and when people get over whelmed they start letting things slip. I know. Been there done that. We all have. So, we can see some very dedicated people trying and burning out. They will crash and burn and never accept a calling bigger than passing out hymn books. If they want to do this, they will need to hire full time employees and we all know the church is too cheap for that. So, another great idea failed because the church already thinks it’s members are really employees.

[Palerider]

Oh I get it. Like a siphoning of the uber righteous where the winners get a free trip to Missouri?

Isn't it crazy when the church self identifies a bad program, makes a change for the better, and we STILL complain about it being a control mechanism.

If I didn't know any better it sounds like we don't trust the organization??

Bro. Apollo Gest:

"Oh, hometeaching was never a "bad program". It was inspired from the beginning. They just took a good program and made it even better."

But you know what the real problem is here? We're actually using the term "program" in reference to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel and "program" are mutually exclusive terms. Programing is something businesses and cults do. You can't "program" someone into Heaven. It doesn't work that way. Programing is following a method.

Believing or salvation is dependent upon the heart. The commandents are evident in the scriptures. But God looks on the heart to see if one is sincere in keeping them.

Anyone can follow a program or method without being honest and sincere. Just observe the Pharisees.