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Quote of the week. DevilsAdvocate wrote:You probably can’t realistically expect many working adults with bills to pay and families to support to devote nearly this much time and effort to missionary work; it’s hard enough to try to get them to do their home teaching.
SamBee wrote:I remember what one woman said to me once, “I’m not going to get a bunch of twenty year olds teaching me about theology.”
She must have been in her forties/fifties, but I do wonder, is sending twenty something missionaries in suits out with identikit lessons really the way to go?
We had the missionaries in our home to teach my daughter’s school friend. They certainly didn’t have “identikit lessons”, they talk about basic gospel principles. I think they did a pretty good job, actually, except they got a little too eager with commitments. In some ways, I wonder if the church likes that…get the naive to commit to others to baptism with sincere intentions. There were times we did feel the spirit when they taught, and other times we cringed.I think in our area of Colorado, lots of people have heard things about the church. It would benefit the missionary program better if missionaries were more educated on what others have heard, whether what they heard was right, wrong, or indifferent.
I still think its a good program, and the young 19-21yr olds benefit from it…but it will be forever facing challenges of how to reach out to a changing audience…and will constantly need “tweeking”
“Preach My Gospel” is crystal clear that the memorized lessons of yesteryear are exactly that – supposed to be relics of an earlier time. Now, missionaries have total freedom to teach the lessons and the concepts included within the lessons in any order they choose and in any way that they feel inspired to present – as long as the basic concepts are taught and taught accurately. All other issues aside that might cause consternation, “identikit lessons” are not supposed to be an issue anymore.
I really should do a post on “Preach My Gospel”. It is truly amazing when compared to when I was a missionary – and I actually am a bit envious of my son.
Old-Timer wrote:“Preach My Gospel” is crystal clear that the memorized lessons of yesteryear are exactly that – supposed to be relics of an earlier time. Now, missionaries have total freedom to teach the lessons and the concepts included within the lessons in any order they choose and in any way that they feel inspired to present – as long as the basic concepts are taught and taught accurately.
All other issues aside that might cause consternation, “identikit lessons” are not supposed to be an issue anymore.
I really should do a post on “Preach My Gospel”. It is truly amazing when compared to when I was a missionary – and I actually am a bit envious of my son.
Yes, this is true – BUT are we sure it is a GOOD thing? I think it is GREAT for a person who is a bit more mature in the gospel, but seriously, if I hadn’t been told exactly what to do and how to do it…. They are just 19 year old kids, and I can’t imagine 19 year-old boys being “mature” enough to do it any other way? i don’t know, maybe it would have worked – but I doubt it.
Fwiw, I love that particular change – without reservation. Memorizing the lessons still is an option, even if it’s not supposed to be the default – but the ability to follow promptings and tailor the teaching to each person . . . I would have loved to be able to do that on my mission. As to the overall question in the title of this post, I posted the following on my own blog on Tuesday – my missionary son’s birthday:
“
Not Every Young Man Should Serve At 19” ( http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-every-young-man-should-serve-at-19.html Quote:Today is my oldest son’s 22nd birthday, and he has been a full-time missionary for just over a year.
Do the math. He left on his mission at the age of 21 – between his sophomore and junior year in college and after a year away from school. It was his choice – totally, and I honor him for the way he made his decision and what he sacrificed to serve. I don’t need to detail all of those sacrifices here. Suffice it to say that we are grateful for the support and encouragement he has been given by those who love him and whom he loves, especially since not everyone understood fully why he chose what he chose.
He is a wonderful missionary for multiple reasons, but, from the perspective of his father, four stand out:
1) It really was something he chose.We lived in one state when he started college – in a different state. He was over 500 miles from home, with very little (or no) support at the college he attended. His time there was classic for a college student far from home – at least in the sense that he drifted out of full activity in the LDS Church for a while. When the meetinghouse isn’t an easy walk from campus, when there is no family near to accompany, when basically nobody on campus shares your faith – it is easy to drift into inactivity.
By the time the summer following his sophomore year was approaching, he had found a wonderful young woman whom he loves dearly – as do we. It would have been very easy simply to ignore a mission and pursue his education and their relationship. He made a difficult choice, but the fact that he made that choice with his eyes wide open –
and that it was truly a choice of competing goods– is part of why he is such a good missionary. 2) He is older, wiser and more experienced than he was at 19.I understand why the Church allows young men to begin their missionary service at the age of 19. I understand the probability that many who postpone leaving will end up not serving at all. I know leaving at 19 was the right thing for me to do – as was leaving before I started college. I know that serving at 19 is best as the standard for the Church as a whole. Having said all that, the extra two years gave him benefits he simply could not have had without them and made him able to relate to others with whom he might not have related if he had left earlier.
3) He is his own, unique self.This, above all else, is what I believe contributes to his success as a missionary. He has a unique sense of humor – which I try to blame on his mother, but . . . He has a real love for others and a deep desire to serve and help and connect. He is not fake or contrived or false in any way. He is himself – the person he found largely during the time between his 19th birthday and the day he left for the MTC.
4) He has found out for himself, at a much deeper level than previously, in serving and teaching others, the power and beauty of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.His discovery permeates the letters he writes home. It shines through the sporadic timing of those letters, although they are no more sporadic than our letters to him – another characteristic I try to blame on his mother. It fills the communications we receive from those he has taught. It is obvious, and it fills his parents with great joy.
No I would not say wrong, but definately not right. I think the missionary program needs to operate more like a mainline Christian church with far more emphasis on service. I’m not saying that it’s not tough I think tougher really. I think the church should stop doing door to door misionary work. In this day and age it’s like selling vacuums, toothbrushes, or any other product. The best missionary work is done by example. It may take years and slow cultivation but the end result is happier converts who know what it all about to be LDS. I would say part time missionaries doing more service oriented callings and better selection of investigators (i.e. them contacting the church) people requesting info would much better serve the church.
I think something like a bi-annual stake or ward open house/carnival would be a better outreach as well as better community activites would better use the resources of the mission program.
All in all the biggest reason why I went inactive for several years was due to the fact that I did not want to go on a mission and felt extreme pressure followed by abandonment when i didn’t go. I never felt right about trying to convert someone and baptize them after a few short lessons. I honestly wanted to get married and earn my degree and start a family. I would have had no problem even being a part-time missionary.
The missionary program shouldn’t be 86’d but I think it needs a serious overhaul. Furthermore I think it should be entirely financed by the Church and well financed at that.
In addition I think a great oppotunity for the church would be to open private schools on a massive scale. It would be a HUGE opportunity to outreach the communities in which they were established as well. The schools themselves would be a ministry of cultivation and create stronger converts as well as strengthening the church membership already in existence.
Most people here do not like having their door knocked upon, it annoys them. It’s partly because there are so many people trying to sell them things, politicians calling or trying to get elected, meter readers, you name it, but we get swamped by them. From a practical level, I’m not sure it would be wise to do away with proactive searching techniques like going door-to-door. Even though it’s highly ineffective numerically, it does teach endurance and patience in an important way – and, let’s face it, there are quite a few people who wouldn’t be found in any other way in lots of places in the world. That is true especially of people who are different than the average member – not friends, close acquaintances or likely to have any significantly positive interactions with actual members. I know that the two most amazing experiences of my own mission would not have occurred if missionaries hadn’t ben going door-to-door. Much of the diversity that exists and is growing in the LDS Church is due to missionary work as it is done now (absolutely imperfect as it is), and I would hate to stifle that by effectively limiting those found only to the fishing and hunting activities of the full-time missionaries.
FenixDown wrote:No I would not say wrong, but definately not right. I think the missionary program needs to operate more like a mainline Christian church with far more emphasis on service.
It’s interesting to me that the Adventists have over 20 million members world wide and to the best of my knowledge don’t proselyte, just provide service in part as health care. That it was good for me to get up every day at 6am and knock on doors all day for 2 years I won’t dispute, but I don’t recall any real benefit to the church other than that our Irish Catholic landlady learned what mormons were.
Quote:Most people here do not like having their door knocked upon, it annoys them.
Perhaps the Church has been listening to us. Just last Wednesday, July 15 announced a total revamp of
http://www.mormon.org . It gives wide space to blogs by volunteer member’s blogs about why they believe, and make themselves available to questions from anyone who wants to ask. The investigator can specify age, gender, & ethnicity they want, and be guided to members meeting those descriptions. Here, the investigator is initiating the discussion, and the members responses escape the %$#@~!&* church Co-correlation committee editors! I’m sure “inappropriate” responses will be deleted, but at least the responses can’t be scripted.http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/49942960-76/church-missionaries-online-lds.html.csp Hi Don, yes, I’ve seen it, it’s a very positive development. Creeps and trolls notwithstanding, it will be a much better, targeted form of evangelism. After some long hard thought – I have come to the following conclusion SOme people have said people knocking on doors is not the way to go, and to some extent I do agree with this, although this is not the sole issue.
We come to a problem when we have 19 year olds knocking on the door of a family man who is 40, telling him how to live.
Standard set lessons, in a standard set order, to what is esentailly a script
“Do you want to live with your family for all eternity …. Great Im Elder “X” from the Church of Jesus Christ……”
I know we cant send 25 – 30 year olds on the whole, because they are starting to get careers off the ground, and settle down to married life (for the most part)
ALthough I DO beleive that perhaps this should be more relaxed when it comes to those that convert late in life.
If I had gone on a mission after I had joined…..my life would probably be a LOT different now. (And shortly after joining I could have afforded to thatnks to a large redundancy payout – which is now gone)
I just wonder – what else can the church do. Service is done a lot with “helping hands days”
Maybe just maybe the members across the world could do more to build the foundations, I dunno…..
The key thing is to not leave new converts high and dry as soon as they get married. Which is what I feel happened to me.
The YSA Programme is to be frank awesome – especially for converts.
It openes up a new social life that can get people away from pubs and clubs and other things that go against Words of Wisdom , and gives dating oppertunities that may be more difficult to find otherwise
Theres a lot of room for improvement – but will it ever be right – will it suit everyone. I think not.
BUt that as they say is “life”
Starting the week of July 18 the Missionaries are being retrained for some changes in how to teach the Gospel. The announcement came through the Mission Presidents. Most members are unaware of this information. I know about it because I was ask to help with transportation for some sisters.
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