New Youth Program

[Linked]

My ward showed the church video about the new youth program for next year during the second hour. It was like one of those corporate training videos, lots of cringe. The kids will create and work on goals in 4 areas to grow; Spiritually, Socially, Physically, and Intellectually. They trotted out the "Home Centered, Church Supported" stuff they have been pushing since releasing Come, Follow Me.

I think helping kids learn to set and achieve goals is good, but they could really benefit from some additional structure and milestones. Also, I am not a fan of the direction they push the kids (surprise!).

I'm not a fan of this reaching into primary. I feel like this is the point where I need to push back on my son's church attendance. This is where church gets internalized as you set goals with the church paradigm. This is where my son is going to lay the groundwork for the wedge in our relationship at the church's direction. Boo.

[Red Ryder]

Corsair pointed this out on Reddit.

The PISS youth program.

Physical
Intellectual
Social
Spiritual

Personally I think it’s great. For mixed faith families and marriages the church just got more diluted by implementing this.

As a parent, I’m happy to focus on the 3 non spiritual areas and call it “church” to keep the TBMs happy.

The broadcast itself was so poorly done that most of the people in my chapel were completely bored with cringe looks of really??

It was a freaking infomercial!

[jfro18]

I'm not a fan of this reaching into primary. I feel like this is the point where I need to push back on my son's church attendance. This is where church gets internalized as you set goals with the church paradigm. This is where my son is going to lay the groundwork for the wedge in our relationship at the church's direction. Boo.

I think it could go either way - it seems so watered down that I could see a lot of the youth just kind of skimming it and not really putting much effort into it.

Judging from my 7 year old, if we he was in this he would have NO interest whatsoever in doing anything beyond what we forced him to do... so this could be another issue where the truly righteous families go all out while everyone else treats it like home teaching. Sorry, ministering.

[græy]

I think it could go either way - it seems so watered down that I could see a lot of the youth just kind of skimming it and not really putting much effort into it.

Judging from my 7 year old, if we he was in this he would have NO interest whatsoever in doing anything beyond what we forced him to do... so this could be another issue where the truly righteous families go all out while everyone else treats it like home teaching. Sorry, ministering.

Much like home teaching there are no visible rewards for accomplishment, no penalties for simply not doing it. Like you say, I think very little actual effort will go into this program beyond the youth doing the things they're already doing because they genuinely enjoy them. I don't see that consistently translating into quality group projects.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

Zealous Moms everywhere are going to get burned out quickly by having to nag their kids to death with one more thing they have to try and control in their already busy schedules.

[Mahonri Moriancumer]

Much like home teaching there are no visible rewards for accomplishment, no penalties for simply not doing it. Like you say, I think very little actual effort will go into this program beyond the youth doing the things they're already doing because they genuinely enjoy them. I don't see that consistently translating into quality group projects.

I was actually pretty surprised and favorably impressed with the gist of the new program - allowing kids to choose their own goals in 4 different areas, and having parents/siblings help them work on those goals. If the youth activities will also be tailored to helping kids achieve these goals (church-supported), even better! There also seemed to be a de-emphasis on requirements and checklists.

But (and this is a big but)... - there were very few details of the "Personal Development" program that will replace the Duty to God/YW Personal Progress Program. I'm afraid that this will be where the checklist/requirements/recognition program will be detailed. More information forthcoming at the Face to Face with Elder Gong in November, apparently.

[Corsair]

The PISS youth program.

Physical
Intellectual
Social
Spiritual

I'm confident that some clever teenage boy would have figured it out sooner or later. The next thing to do will be to create a big banner for the inevitable ward level activity about this new program. Just put this out with big yellow letters:

• Physical Intellectual Social Spiritual: We're Number One!

For reasons that I continue to find hilarious, I am still serving in a Young Men presidency. I am very interested in how this actually gets implemented. I foresee that it will get implemented in a more sloppy way than Boy Scouts was put in place. A lot of parents of teenage boys really did not like the Scouting program and were not under any condemnation for their lack of support. This new program will put some of the guilt of non-compliance back on the parents.

[Random]

Hm.

SIP

Sounds good. Sip of this and sip of that, but not a sip of PISS as we FTP.

Corsair pointed this out on Reddit.

The PISS youth program.

Physical
Intellectual
Social
Spiritual

Personally I think it’s great. For mixed faith families and marriages the church just got more diluted by implementing this.

As a parent, I’m happy to focus on the 3 non spiritual areas and call it “church” to keep the TBMs happy.

The broadcast itself was so poorly done that most of the people in my chapel were completely bored with cringe looks of really??

It was a freaking infomercial!

[Random]

The PISS youth program.

Physical
Intellectual
Social
Spiritual

I'm confident that some clever teenage boy would have figured it out sooner or later.

Heck, give nearly any teenager 5 minutes and they'd have the acronym down pat, complete with jokes with their friends.

[Random]

Hm.

SIP

Sounds good. Sip of this and sip of that, but not a sip of PISS as we FTP.

Okay, I don't want to give the wrong impression. I'm all for spirituality and making private spiritual goals, but the acronyms leave something to be desired. We FTP when we PISS?