Orthodox view of Change

[Anonymous]

There’s an interesting article over at lds.org (er, is that churchofjesuschrist.org?)

https://www.lds.org/blog/the-most-important-change-of-all

This is a nice, fully orthodox view of the changing times and the potential for looking inward for improvement. I appreciate the tone and emphasis of the article. It’s interesting to see this kind of article pop up somewhat frequently from the orthodox perspective, because this kind of dialog was what we would have considered non-orthodox just five-ish years ago.

[Anonymous]

That is interesting.

Thanks for sharing it.

[Anonymous]

Nice article. I am wondering what elements do you see as non-orthodox? Thank you for your insight.

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

Nice article. I am wondering what elements do you see as non-orthodox? Thank you for your insight.

I think it is all orthodox now. What is orthodox is changing right now, in our time. It’s kind of cool. Just a handful of years ago, we would not have seen so much emphasis on NOT following blindly. The paragraphs that start “I couldn’t agree more” and “God wants to speak to us” would have been written and presented differently.

But even more so is the “change the culture” discussion, coupled with the idea that the people IN the Church ARE the Church… It is our responsibility to change the Church culture, rather than the Church’s responsibility to tell us what the culture should be. “We have the opportunity to be that change as we literally restore the Savior’s ways in His Church in our day.” We restore… the Savior’s ways… in His Church. That’s a major shift.

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

I am wondering what elements do you see as non-orthodox?

I don’t want to speak for OON [edit: posted this at the same time as OON’s response], but I think his view is that it’s an orthodox article now, but 5 years ago elements in the article would have been considered non-orthodox.

Change itself. It’s hard to pin this down because I feel like change (room for new revelations) has always been a part of the doctrines of the church but there’s been a paradoxical attitude that has developed within that doctrinal culture, the element that is resistant to change because of the testimonies placed on past revelations. Stated differently, it’s hard to change because we have to move off something that has served as a foundation.

Just my opinion, but over the last several decades it felt like the “heavens” were closed because there were so few changes. What was the point of having a church that believes in continued revelation if we didn’t use it?

But…

I’d like to see our embrace of change extend all the way down to the local level. To our sacrament meetings and Sunday schools. I feel like we still derive too much comfort from keeping the conversations well within the bounds set by correlation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for those insights!

[Anonymous]

Honestly, after studying more church history and my personal experiences, here is my opinion on growth in the church. It grows like a toddler.

The periods of correlation and consolidation are like the growth spurts that a kid has as they absorb tons of food. The periods of change and challenge are like those times when the kid shoots up an inch in their sleep.

It seems under President Nelson that we are in the growth spurt era 😆

[Author]

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