Author Archives: JM

To be called of God

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There have been a few discussions going on in the bloggernacle about being called of God (or the lack of it). Most of the discussion focuses around past and present bishopric members of various wards talking about how hard it is to staff a ward and that it is impossible to have the stamp of approval from the Lord on every calling extended. I’m not sure what the purpose of their discussion is. They aren’t looking for any answers. They don’t seem to have any intention of correcting the situation. Perhaps it’s just a big pity-fest to help them rationalize why they aren’t doing their callings correctly. who knows?

If we turn to the scriptures, we find in the fifth article of faith that “a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.”

Well, I guess one out of two ain’t bad…

President Packer gave a good talk on callings. He points out that:

“When there is a need for someone to serve, the leaders talk about it and pray about it?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùoften more than once. They seek a confirmation from the Spirit, for calls should be made prayerfully and accepted in the same spirit.”

As a lowly member of the ward, am I asking too much that my leaders follow the prescribed pattern in making callings?

President Packer goes on to say:

“One who has authority to issue a call must rely on inspiration to avoid overburdening those who are always willing.”

I wonder if the reason why these bishoprics have such a problem staffing the ward is because they consistently fail in this one area? This talk is a goldmine in information for anyone issuing callings out of “desperation”.

Let’s see what the handbook says regarding issuing callings:

Doctrines of Callings and Releases

A person must be called of God to serve in the Church (see Articles of Faith 1:5). These callings come as the Holy Ghost inspires presiding officers to issue them. Releases from Church callings should also come by inspiration, except when a person’s change of residence necessitates a release or when a calling is for a specific time period, such as full-time missionary service.

Again, we see the need for inspiration in issuing callings in the church.

So, I guess my question is “why do bishoprics take shortcuts and offer calls of desperation, and then wonder why they have such a hard time staffing the ward?”

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We Need Some New Callings

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Over time and through some painful experiences, I have learned to keep my skills as a “computer geek” secret from members of any ward I live in.?Ǭ† I even act dumb when asked?Ǭ† if I know anything about printer drivers so they can print home teaching reports, etc. if I happen to be passing by the clerks office.?Ǭ† I have found that if “They” ever find out about my superpowers, I’ll get roped into a “computer related” calling and be stuck there until I move or die.

I was talking to a friend about this.?Ǭ† His profession is in finance and investing.?Ǭ† Because of this, he was shackled to the financial clerk chains for many years, even though he knew nothing about accounting.?Ǭ† His leaders always commented that they were grateful that they had him because someone with his experience made things go so much smoother in the ward.?Ǭ† He would always joke to me that he had zero experience before he took the calling.

I believe we have others who are typecast into certain callings.?Ǭ† Of course this won’t be 100% of the time, but it is very common in my experience.?Ǭ† I was in a ward where a lady worked as a head librarian at a city library… bet you can guess what her calling was.

To me, the odds of this being “inspired” 100% of the time is pretty small.?Ǭ† I believe these are callings of convenience.?Ǭ† To me, it was disheartening to have to do my computer job all week long, and then in my spare time have to tend to the computer needs of the ward and the family history center.?Ǭ† I never got a break.

Locally, (again, not 100% of the time) my experience is that the leadership callings of the ward and stake are reserved for the “professionals”.?Ǭ† High councils are mostly full of doctors, dentists,?Ǭ†and lawyers.?Ǭ† Bishops are dentists, lawyers and doctors.?Ǭ† And I can see why, it’s because there is no calling in the gospel that coincides with their profession.

This leads me to think that we need some new callings in the church.?Ǭ† We need to have the ward doctor, the ward, dentist, the ward lawyer.?Ǭ† They would then be on call 24/7 and be able to use their professional expertise to help the members of the ward FOR FREE, just like I do when I use my computer skills in a calling.?Ǭ† Who knows, maybe we’d see more convert baptisms if people knew they had access to those types of resources as a result of being a member of the church!

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Knighting an Apostle

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My Sister just sent this to me… Most funny! (Apologies if this has already been mentioned)

———————————————

?Ǭ†After President Hinckley finished with the sustaining of the officers
?Ǭ†of the church during the Saturday morning session, Elder Eyring had
?Ǭ†moved into his new seat on the stand. Unfortunately, they didn’t show
?Ǭ†this on TV, but when President Hinckley turned around, he stood there
?Ǭ†for a moment looking at Elder Eyring (probably with the little twinkle
?Ǭ†in his eye), then picked up his cane and “knighted” him on his
?Ǭ†shoulder and head. Truly one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen
?Ǭ†him do.

?Ǭ†Here’s the picture from it. I love how Elder Erying looks just like a
?Ǭ†little boy….
?Ǭ†
http://www.deseretnews.com/photos/midres/4668085.jpg?Ǭ†

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Cub Scouts

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My eight year old son just started cub scouts this fall.?Ǭ† He’s pretty stoked and has fun going.

As a parent, I’m not impressed with what our ward offers as far as the cub scout program goes.?Ǭ† For example, this week, their activity was “Putting away the chairs in the gym from general conference”.?Ǭ† Now, if that was ever the lamest cop-out of an activity, I don’t know what is!?Ǭ† I believe they passed it off as a “Service Activity”.

?Ǭ†This got my wife and I talking.?Ǭ† My nephews are also in cub scouts.?Ǭ† They aren’t members of the church, so they go to a community group.?Ǭ† I believe they have 50+ kids going to this community cub scout group.?Ǭ† There are quite a few parent volunteers who help out.?Ǭ† They are always working on badges, skills, getting ready for camps, fund-raisers, etc… all the things I remember doing when I was eight years old and in cub scouts.

Is the difference that we’ve made cub scouts a part of the church??Ǭ† Is it because it’s a calling that it only gets done half-ass?

?Ǭ†We’re considering the idea of taking our son out of the ward sponsored cub scout program and put him in the community one.

I feel bad for our local leadership.?Ǭ† I’m going to assume that they are trying to make the church experience the best it can be.?Ǭ† But from my perspective, it is seriously lacking.?Ǭ† When you have a program being so poorly run, how do you turn that around??Ǭ† How do you create an environment where people actually want to come to church and socialize and participate??Ǭ† How do you combat the apathy??Ǭ† Or perhaps we should strip out all of the unessential programs and leave it to community groups to do what they do best?

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Getting it right

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“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who?Ǭ†drink of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.”

We were treated to this twice yesterday before our bishopric’s first counselor got up and pointed out the error to the frustrated, young priest.

?Ǭ†Then, we heard the following:

“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat it in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.”

At which point the first counselor nodded his approval, not wanting to drag out the scene any more. (The bishop and?Ǭ†second counselor were away, so “Number One” was flying solo.)

After the sacrament was done and the Aaronic priesthood were dismissed, “Number One” felt inspired to give us a short, five minute talk about how valiant, and worthy, and diligent the young men were in performing their sacramental duty.?Ǭ† I think this was meant to somehow help the young priest save face, although it was just out of place and awkward to listen to.

But why go through all the effort of correcting him the first time, and why give the little speech at the end if you are?Ǭ†ultimately going to let the prayer be said incorrectly??Ǭ† What harm would there be to having him do it a fourth time, to hopefully get it right??Ǭ† Why was he more concerned about hurting the young fella’s feelings than getting the ordinance done correctly?

Which makes me wonder… does it really matter if the prayer was said correctly??Ǭ† If three wrong attempts are good enough, then surly two would have done the trick.?Ǭ† Did all 200 of us yesterday actually renew our covenants or did we just have a snack?

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I love the church youth program

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I love how the church’s youth program prepares our children for real life by teaching them that:

  • There exists a social order based on popularity, physical appearance, and wealth
  • People love to talk behind your back
  • Leaders cater to the needs of the “in-crowd”
  • Token lip service to God is only required for 50 minutes on Sunday
  • The standards of the clique outweigh gospel standards
  • Rather than deal with problems, it’s best to just ignore the other person and leave them in the dark
  • Friendships change more frequently than you change your underwear
  • If your parents are in a church leadership position, you can get away with pretty much anything
  • If it appears to the leaders that there is nothing wrong, then dismiss anyone who says otherwise
  • Nice guys finish last

Funny how it really hasn’t changed that much since I was in the program 20+ years ago.

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Self Reliance vs. The Need to Serve

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It was an interesting Elders Quorum discussion yesterday.?Ǭ† We had the chapter in the book on self reliance (chapter 11 I believe).?Ǭ† What I particularly liked about it was that we actually had a class discussion where different members of the quorum were talking?Ǭ†and asking questions to each other, not asking and answering me.

?Ǭ†When I presented the lesson, I took a pretty firm stance on the whole Self, Family, Church order of taking care of one’s needs.?Ǭ† A few in the class disagreed with that position.?Ǭ† I was actually happy that someone cared enough to want to discuss it in a non-confrontational way.?Ǭ† It was good.

?Ǭ†It still leaves me wondering where the need to serve outweighs the need to be self reliant.

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If you could hie to NGC-7293

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I think my belief in extraterrestrial life pre-dates the Memorial Day weekend of 1977.?Ǭ† Although seeing Star Wars for the first time expanded my imagination of what could be out there, I’ve always thought it was possible.?Ǭ† This belief probably originated in Primary classes where I was taught that God created worlds without number and that He has children on those worlds as well.?Ǭ† We also have scriptures that teach this as well.

?Ǭ†It’s always seemed a little improbable to me that this would be the only planet in the universe with life.?Ǭ† I’m glad science is catching up with me!?Ǭ† I ran across this today.?Ǭ† Interesting…

Popularity: 2% [?]