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Hello Everyone: I am of course new to this site but have been over on NoM for a while . Have had a crisis in faith for the past few months since about Feb. have investigated many many things pertaining to the church and other churches . Not sure if I will stay LDS but am leaning that way . The church has a lot of positive things about it and some not so positive. I am trying my best to sort out everything I think and feel , I have been a member since 1981 and have served in many different capacities including a bishopric . You wouldn’t think in this stage of life I would be questioning anything about my faith but I am !!! well that’s all for now , oh P.S. I am Jack . Welcome to the forum, I’m glad you found us. I also joined the church in 1981 and have also served in many capacities including bishoprics. I’m not sure there is only one type of person who has a faith crisis – I think it can happen to anybody (although I do think some people pre-dispose themselves). Our mission is to help people StayLDS, so feel free to poke around and read what is written here and feel free to ask questions and contribute. What are your main issues? Welcome, Jack. I’m sorry that you are experiencing this unexpected faith crisis. I think it’s a surprise to most of the people who go through it. I just want you to know that there are lots of people here going through it as well, and this is a safe community to try to work through the issues in a positive way. I hope for the best for you and look forward to seeing you around here.
I ache for you Jack! I think all of us are shocked when this happens, like On Own Now said. I never imagined I would ever question my faith. I did everything to keep strong and I was blindsided. But this is such a good place to be. So positive and quite a bit less cynical than NOM, and I have been held together because of the people on this site. So welcome and feel free to share anything and everything! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
jgaskill wrote:I have been a member since 1981 and have served in many different capacities including a bishopric . You wouldn’t think in this stage of life I would be questioning anything about my faith but I am !!!
Hi, Jack
:wave: I’m glad you joined! You’re here with a bunch of other people who’ve gone along and given their all and can hardly believe what’s happening to them. Speaking only for myself, I’m still a little dazed, but have enough presence of mind to get myself and others out of the middle of the road. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.Darkjedi : my main issue is the church is not Christ centered enough it is always about the church and devoting all your time talents etc etc to the church. I have issues with tithing for a church worth Billions and I am hardly surviving I refuse to send them my last pennies !!! I have issues with Joseph Smith being caught having an affair then moving on to polygamy . I refuse to clean the church when it can afford to pay custodians !! Other churches do. Their is no evidence the Book of Mormon is true !! Their are several different accounts of Joseph Smiths first vision !!!!!!! I want to hear more about the savior not what went on at Girls camp in church, I want to be inspired and dedicated to Jesus Christ. The Bretheren taught us the church should not be run by a council then on May 4th 2007 they say it should be run by the council of 15 . I could go on and on but I will not . I think I have too much water under the bridge but we will see. J – Welcome. Thanks for your forthrightness. We believe in breathing here. We are in various stages of being connected to the LDS faith. Some because of family, some because they have looked around at other churches and find the pro’s and con’s equal out and decide Mormonism is their language so they stay, others stay with hope in effecting some of the very things that concern you. I would encourage you to step back from the cliff of jumping for the moment. Take some time to read present threads and old threads. Look up your most urgent topics, read those discussions. Add your questions to them, maybe even churn them up for us to compare our own present thoughts now. And breathe. Read the books section, select some writings to read about faith, re-framing, and hope. While you are presently still attending define why you are – and don’t think your dishonest if it’s a mixed up answer. We all do a lot of things for a multiplicity of reasons. Keep jobs, move to a new area, start a new career.
Lastly just to reassure you, nothing on your list hasn’t been wrestled with here before. We rearrange the puzzle quite often. Welcome aboard.
Welcome. I don’t have much time, but I just want to repeat that we understand – and that things aren’t dire. You can work through everything and find a way to be at peace with your own faith and what that means for your church involvement. All of us here have done or are in the process of doing that, and we each have structured our journey a little bit differently than each other (in some cases, a whole lot differently).
It’s okay to be you, even as it’s important to be the best you possible. It can be a balancing act, but it actually can be empowering and enlightening and liberating – and, in the end, faith-propelling. The exact nature of your faith might change, but it will be yours. It might feel like a crisis now, but it can become more of a transition.
I absolutely agree with everything you said, jgaskill, and I have the same concerns. There is no question we don’t talk of Christ anywhere near enough and then we wonder why others don’t think we’re Christian. If you’ve looked around you’ve seen my standard advice and it fits here. Take it slow, don’t dump all at once, and especially for you focus on what you do believe (which apparently includes a testimony of Christ).
I’m going to go look – I was inactive on May 4, 2007 – and I’m not sure what you’re referring to there. Can you enlighten me? FWIW, I like that the church is more about the 15 of them (12 currently since Elder Scott is indisposed) than about one guy or even three guys. I think we’re way too carried away with the “follow the prophet” business and historically that has not always worked out for the best (particularly with the many things BY did/said). However, I can also see this evolving into the follow the
prophetswhich does concern me a bit. Welcome, Jack. Glad you joined the forum and I look forward to reading your posts. Life is interesting, isn’t it? It doesn’t seem to go the way we think it will. I don’t really subscribe to the idea that God plays these games with us to teach us or that he evaluates what tests are hard for us and stretch us but doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle.
I more subscribe to the idea that life has enough tests for all of us. We’ll all get our share. And as we age…we start to see things differently because of our experiences.
Have you read any Eckhart Tolle? I found his books to be calming to my mind.
Glad you’re with us. Welcome.
I hear you Jack. Our last SM’s theme was Joseph Smith. Essentially: DarkJedi wrote:There is no question we don’t talk of Christ anywhere near enough and then we wonder why others don’t think we’re Christian.
When I was more orthodox I was right there on the front lines arguing how we were indeed Christian. Now that I’m more removed from the fight I see how I was arguing from a position of “this is our theology” and they were arguing from a position of “these are your practices.” We were both right, we are and we aren’t Christian… just like everyone else that makes the claim I suppose.
During the beginnings of a faith crisis our pulse can race and make us think that we should be moving at a quickened pace. The advice I always see here (that’s still hard to do) is to slow down. The problems with the church are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
When I started out with something that was perfect and later found flaws I had the tendency to want to find every flaw, to find just how far from perfection everything actually was. I lost sight of a few things. 1) I may have been rooting out all the flaws in an attempt to define what perfection meant to me. What is perfection? Is anything truly “perfect?” 2) After a while all I started to see were the flaws. I became blind to what was good. I’m still working on that, it’s so much easier (and often funner) to be a critic.
Welcome to StayLDS.
Welcome Jack, we’re glad you’re here. Welcome Jack, you said: Quote:The church has a lot of positive things about it and some not so positive.
What are the positive things you see in the church?Are the positive things worth stays for?
We know what you’re going through. Keep coming back.
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