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I haven’t been to church in about 3-4 years. How time flies. What has changed since 2020? I do reminder the combining of EQ and HPG, and the “cancellation” of the home teaching program in favor of a “ministering” program. Also 2 hour church. Anything else significant?
I would venture to guess that lots of changes happened near the beginning of Pres. RMN’s tenure because he had much that he wanted to do and wasn’t sure how long that he would live to see it through. I think that Pres. RMN has surprised himself by living this long and is pretty much done making changes.
Some other changes that I have observed are:
Cutting ties with the scouting organization
Eliminating YM presidents
Making Liahona subscriptions free for church members
The new Hymn book
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/a-look-at-president-russell-m-nelsons-5-year-prophetic-ministry#:~:text=He%2520changed%2520a%2520Church%2520policy,settlement%E2%80%9D%2520with%2520%E2%80%9Ctithing%2520declaration%E2%80%9D ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/a-look-at-president-russell-m-nelsons-5-year-prophetic-ministry#:~:text=He%2520changed%2520a%2520Church%2520policy,settlement%E2%80%9D%2520with%2520%E2%80%9Ctithing%2520declaration%E2%80%9D “Through the Church’s council system and with the full support of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he has also enacted multiple policy changes within the Church.
Under his leadership,
-Latter-day Saint leaders replaced home and visiting teaching with ministering,
– adjusted the Sunday meetings schedule to accommodate home-centered,
-Church-supported gospel study and asked members to use the full and correct name of the Church.
– He changed a Church policy, allowing the children of parents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to be blessed as infants and baptized;
– discontinued a policy requiring couples who marry civilly to wait one year before being sealed in the temple;
-replaced “tithing settlement” with “tithing declaration”;
– and established a policy allowing women to serve as witnesses of temple sealings and women, youth and children to serve as witnesses for baptismal ordinances.
“One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as President of the Church is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will,” said President Nelson during the Church’s April 2018 general conference.”
“As leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Nelson has announced 118 new temples — bringing the total number of announced, dedicated or under-construction temples to 300.”
More have been announced since this article…
Rqatkins wrote:
– He changed a Church policy, allowing the children of parents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to be blessed as infants and baptized;– discontinued a policy requiring couples who marry civilly to wait one year before being sealed in the temple;
– and established a policy allowing women to serve as witnesses of temple sealings and women, youth and children to serve as witnesses for baptismal ordinances.
Amen and Amen!
:clap: :clap: :clap: So much “small stuff” has changed that I won’t try to list it. My observation is that President Nelson has worked to change the general mindset of the membership, including leadership, to move away from “rule following measurement” and “metrics-measured obedience” to “faithful effort” and “grace-based acceptance”.
I see areas into which I hope that movement continues, but I absolutely LOVE the general movement.
“HOME CENTRIC, CHURCH SUPPORTED” FRAMEWORK REVISION / MOVEMENT *This is from my point of view as a white middle aged women who has lived in/visited the US and Canada only with 2 children impacted by the “Senior Primary 8-11 age group” (child #1 2017-March 2020, child #2 (January 2024 to present) and Youth programs who was skeptical of the framework to start with and didn’t pick up all the nuances before no longer attending most church functions 4 years ago.*
This movement was charged with solving these high level organizational problems:- Replacing the Scouting program for the 8-11 year old boys and providing scalability and equality for the girls’ program at the same time.
- Directing “content” for the hour of church each week “lost” from church attendance.
This movement was tangentially charged with solving these high level organizational problems:- Avoiding community members “Getting Offended” through less community exposure. NOTE: I think that the upper leadership was trying to ease the executive functioning burden of “community creation” by scaling back teaching requirements.
- Outsourcing the “extra study hour” each Sunday to the family with a specific “Come Follow Me” framework (specifically to the mother – the 2018 RS broadcast was all about that). NOTE: It is probable that the men got similar injunctions the next times they met up – my husband didn’t seek that information and I didn’t do the research.
Themes:- Flexibility
- Adaptation
- Self-Awareness/Self-Assessment/Introspection
COME FOLLOW ME:
This was started in 2018 I think with the “Come Follow Me” format. I understand how it was rolled out to give greater flexibility in the structure of family activities and pull the decision-making authority back to the family (with the women charged in the 2018 RS Broadcast to be the program facilitators at the home level – Elder Eyring’s talk is really specific about that).
Women “Quiet-Quitting” TangantNow that I type this, I think that is the “final straw” reason women are “quiet quitting” church.
It’s one thing to do all the executive functioning things to get all the kids “clean enough” for church, fed (unless Fast Sunday), dressed appropriately (with related logistical battles), accessorized appropriately (quiet toys, cheerios, calling props) to show up and participate at church.
But shifting the environment to the home environment still requires “clean-ish”, fed kids dressed in ways that do not offend family members with the accessory and prop requirements AND the added bonus that your family members are likely to shoot down all your creative efforts. And if your house is anything like mine, there are more localized messes at home to clean up then what was generated at church before you can “get down to the business of scripture study”.
In all fairness, I didn’t run “Come Follow Me” at home with my family – so maybe I am projecting the pitfalls we had with “Family Home Evening” onto the family-run Sunday School lesson and the “Weekly Family Meeting” that we stopped holding because no one wanted to be there [that is an “us” scenario in that ADHD and/or AuDHD (combining Autism and ADHD) make it so that we need more structure and fight structure like blood-thirsty racoons at the drop of a hat – I totally own it].
UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES:
- Loss of Community and Support (we actually have a lot of single individuals who could “show up” to meetings but not plan and prepare those meetings at home for themselves left unsupported – for a variety of reasons.
- Another point to be self-righteous about / shame others on.
- Men defining “success” of women’s “at home” efforts.
It’s difficult for me to pick up on the minutiae from year to year, it’s only a little easier for me to pick up on changes in 10 year arcs. The church changes over time but I change as well. Church meetings feel more welcoming of divergent viewpoints than they did 10 years ago. I’m not saying it’s perfect and I’m not saying that my experience will be anyone else’s experience. I’m just saying that meetings feel more accepting than they felt 10 years ago. We may have a long way to go yet but it feels like we’re headed in a direction that’s more welcoming than in a direction that’s more confining.
Maybe that’s a ward thing, some wards become more welcoming, others become more strict. I’d be interested in hearing other people’s experiences on that front.
In addition to things already mentioned:
Missionary attire is more relaxed.
- Missionaries communicating with family is more relaxed.
- One year waiting period for sealing in the temple if married civilly is gone.
- Parents can be present for youth interviews with the bishop.
- Women can have more roles in ordinances than they could prior (specifically witnesses for baptisms).
It feels like the church is getting rid of things that fall into the category of hardships for the sake of hardships. IMO there are many more unnecessary hardships that we could shed but I feel we’ll eventually get there.
Oh, and a more recent change… The RS and EQ can decide whether they’d like to have a combined meeting on any EQ/RS Sunday. They don’t have to wait on a 5th Sunday for a combined meeting, they can combine whenever the respective presidencies feel like it on a Sunday that’s reserved for EQ/RS meetings.
It will be interesting to see what comes of that change. Maybe it’s a precursor to making the 2nd hour
alwayscombined. In other words no more EQ/RS specific meetings on Sundays. If it goes that direction, then 2nd hour may morph into always being Sunday School. There might be wards out there that are very traditional and never do a combined EQ/RS outside of 5th Sunday. There might be wards out there that will decide to always combine. That would be another thing I’d be interested in knowing. How often people’s wards/branches are combining EQ/RS outside of 5th Sunday.
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