mikbone

I'll try to be more specific. The Handbook states 7.3.2 "Where possible, they visit or interview quorum or group members at least once a year." The term Personal Priesthood Interview is not in the handbook nor the scriptures. You can find it in the Ensign yes and all over the Internet. I remember when I was a missionary and was instructed to give discussions from memory word for word. The missionaries no longer are required to do this, their discussions are much more free flowing allowing circumstances and the spirit to dictate how they teach. If you have been having monthly PPIs since the 1970s that would be approximately 500 PPIs. I highly doubt that you have had near 500 PPIs... If you have had that many, you have my condolences. When my EQ president informed me that we are required to do monthly PPIs with each and every member of our Elders quorum I felt a great unease, for the following reasons. 1) Time requirement for interviews would be excessive and burdensome on the presidency, members and secretary setting the appointments. 2) It felt like I was to micromanage the Elders in our quorum. With directed questions about their life, Goal setting, and accountability. 3) Repetitive nature of these interviews would no doubt make the interviews less significant than annual interviews or visits. 4) I had never had monthly PPIs previously as a member of my prior quorums in Texas, Utah (BYU), or California. 5) I am already having plenty of contact with the EQ members with church events, home teaching, home teaching reports, weekly priesthood meetings, etc. 6) The requirement of these monthly PPIs is not reasonable, and in my opinion will lead to failure. Especially in a ward whose home teaching numbers were in the teens. 7) When I asked my EQP if the PPIs were having any positive effect on the HT numbers he said that they were not. 7) The Handbook does not recommend monthy PPIs. This monthly PPI recommendation struck me as a business model of a boss micromanaging and checking up on his employees. Much like the 360 degree evaluations where I used to have to evaluate my Attending Surgeons, nurses, etc, during my residency. All the residents would sit down for an hour at the end of each month and circle numbers. Some residents would vent on their evaluations whereas I would never leave any comments. Those 360 evaluations did not have any effect on our business model other than wasting an hour of my life every month until we decided as a group to stop the process after a 6 month trial. I recommended to my EQP that we do PPIs on a annual basis and that with the time that we save we could actually work on Home teaching. I asked my EQP to give me the names of some elders who were not doing their HT and that I would start taking them out Home teaching to teach their families. This gives me the opportunity to pray with the Elders. Show them what a home teaching visit consists of, and meet some of the ward members in their homes. It allows personal visits with the elders, and bolsters our HT numbers. I have a testimony of Home Teaching not monthly PPIs. I felt inspired to question the motivation and plan of my EQP.

yes Exodus, thanks. So, if anyone other than the Lord, or the Prophet's father, or whomever ordained the Prophet were to mention that what Moses was doing was not right they would have been apostate?

Genesis 18: 13-18 Was Jethro apostate in the above scripture?

Did you read the entire link, including George Albert Smith's reply to the article in question? I'm pretty sure that the original author implied that we should follow our leaders blindly. It's even worse that the title of the article is following the Prophet. The he makes the blanket statement for all church leaders at the crux of the arguement. I agree with George Albert Smith. We should get our own confirmation that we are following God's will. I have never in my life had to question the council of a prophet or anything presented in a general conference. But I have served under Bishops and stake presidents whom were later excommunicated. As well as an inactive mission president...

Monthly PPIs? Every 2 years I get an interview from my bishop and stake president for a temple recommend. it works for me. Youu ever done 360 evaluations? Couple years ago a hospital administrator had everyone in the hospital evaluating everyone. I'm not sure it accomplished anything other than giving the administrator a whole bunch of reading material.

LoL, there is quite a lot of difference between a physician and a Orthopaedic surgeon. I think of myself as a carpenter with sterile instruments. I almost failed my psych rotation because I though that most of it was garbage. I don't like to get into intimate issues with my patients. Thats what a primary care physician if for. :)

I think we are interpreting this classic article differently. The thinking has been done article that I am referring to is, When the Prophet Speaks, Is the Thinking Done? « FAIR You appear to read it as if the author was implying that when a church leader speaks, He has performed his due diligence, studied it out in his mind, prayed about it, and received devine inspiration. Thus the leader's thinking is done. I interpret the authors meaning as a bit more sinister. Such as, when a church leader speaks, those members whom are in the audience have no need to think about the directive. It is the word of God. The thinking is done move on and obey blindly.

I believe that I do. In your above statement you seem to champion the, "When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done." Ideology. I have read enough of your posts here on LDS.net to know that you don't really think this way... Do you think that I am apostate for using the light of Christ and questioning the decisions of my leaders when I have a legitimate feeling of unease? Is it wrong to search the scriptures and Handbook and ask for a meeting on a certain topic that our leaders have presented?

Thank you. And yes I am well. I do respect personal revelation as well as revelation from my local leaders. But this single issue of Monthly PPIs with all quorum members seemed over the top. It is an incredible time consumer between setting up the visits and performing them. It struck me as micro-management. And it can only lead to failure in my opinion. Especially in a quorum whose HT numbers are usually in the teens... As I already related when I addressed my concerns with my EQP, he was in agreement with my assessment and relieved that I was able to point out the Handbook reference which implies that elder quorum visits or interviews should be yearly. I did not go into details concerning where his understanding of the monthly PPI concept originated and frankly I don't really want to get into the details. It came from somewhere, no doubt. Perhaps from the '75 Ensign article previously cited. Or from another local leader... "The greatest fear I have is that the people of this Church will accept what we say as the will of the Lord without first praying about it and getting the witness within their own hearts that what we say is the word of the Lord." Brigham Young We plan on doing our yearly interviews. And with the extra time on our hands we have implemented a program of setting appointments for less active home teachers and actually going home teaching with them.

No worries.

Yes and thank you. I am aware of HT reporting. I have been in various elders quourms over the years and have received sporadic reporting phone calls. I assume that I have also been involved in these 'quarterly' or 'regularly' meetings usually where upon I am asked in a hallway how my families are doing, and my report is most often 'good'. I wish I had an old handbook to consult...

I disagree. I implemented the Handbook in an appropriate manner. I had a concern, knew that the material was not within the standard works. Then I went to the Handbook Handbook 2 Administering the Church Introduction When I was a missionary in southern Chile back in '89, I had to explain to the local bishop that there was no such thing as the 'Holy Bowl' from which the extra sacrament bread was to be discarded into and that no female of the church was permitted to touch. The handbook speaks for itself. I feel strongly that monthly or even quarterly PPIs for the Elders Quorum are not the expressed will of the document.

I actually went along with the program for a few weeks, until I felt the impression that what we were doing was wrong. I went to the handbook. Did my research and then discussed my concerns with my EQP. He expressed great relief. He also felt that the monthly program was particularly burdensome. And despite his efforts, the HT numbers had hovered within the 10-20% range. The reason I made this post was to get a feeling of what if any other EQ members have experienced with the PPIs and if they were doing them on a monthly, or yearly basis.

I'll quote the statement again for clarity. "Where posssible, they visit or interview quorum or group members at least once a year" Monthly does qualify. But then again, so does daily... hourly...

I did find a power point presentation on these EQ PPIs - Personal Priesthood Interviews And I also saw a youtube video of a EQ president stating that he used the monthly PPI as an effective way to increase his quorum's home teachings numbers. My fear is that someone with a professional administration job is trying to apply what he knows from business to his EQ calling and recommending the same to others.

Thank you. My wife graduated from J. Ruben Clark law school so I have been instructed long ago on the boolean internet search. When I found the term PPI within the Ensign, it generally was not associated with the elders quorum. But with father's interviews - https://www.lds.org/ensign/1977/12/really-getting-somewhere-with-fathers-interviews?lang=eng Or with a stake president or Bishop - LDS.org - Ensign Article - The Vision of the Aaronic Priesthood Or a post mortal interview with the Savior - Counseling Together in Marriage - Ensign June 2012 - ensign I did find the article Keeping Pace - Ensign June 1975 - ensign that does actually comment about home teaching and PPIs. This is the closest that I have come to find the concept that my local EQ perhaps is referring to. But the article has no author listed.

Yes I am aware that the Church Handbook is available online and searchable. What I was asking for, is the actual wording found within the handbook that backs up the practice of the PPI as described to me by my local EQ. You see, I suspect that the PPI is a concept that has been made up. As a matter of fact if you do a search of the Handbook for the term 'Stewardship' you will find that the word is not found once within the entire book. I have a bit of a pet peeve when someone receives personal revelation and then proceeds to require that I follow their personal revelation. For example don't read D&D 89 and tell me that I can't eat chocolate...

Can you find the actual reference from the handbook? That would be helpful.

Personal Priesthood Interview. Let me give you some background. I've been LDS my whole life. I can point to times in my life when I have had priesthood interviews. From my father as a youth. From my bishop, stake president, etc. During my mission I had interviews with my mission president and companionship inventory. I have had many 'discussions' during my married life with my wife. But I would not put those under the PPI heading... Most recently with my teenage children, a father's interviews and discussion have become necessary and are quite effective... Anyway to get to the point - I recently moved into a new ward and was called into the elders quorum presidency. Wherein I was informed that we are to do PPI's monthly with each member of the quorum. My response was 'WHAT THE heck?' I was informed that I was to ask pointed questions concerning the Elder, his family, job circumstances, his marriage, home teaching families, set goals with him both personal and family, and ask him if he was exercising his priesthood. And if there were any recommendations that he had for the quorum presidency. This was strange because it seemed like an undue amount of time committment on both the quorum members and presidency. And frankly I am a quiet person and somewhat anti-social and I really don't want to get into other members personal business. Not to mention the issues of confidentiality, etc. Furtermore I was not set apart to do such intimate interviews neither was I trained in how to conduct these interviews. And if there are issues that come up during these interviews... I assume that I would defer such issues to the bishopric anyway. And I have never had such an interview as a member of my previous quorums. The term Personal Priesthood Interview can neither be found in the LDS Cannon nor in the Handbook. The closest thing that I have found is in Church Handbook 2 7. Melchizedek Priesthood Elders Quorum President and Counselors and High Priests Group Leader and Assistants "Where posssible, they visit or interview quorum or group members at least once a year." Which of course is quite different than the material that I was presented with... I would love to be enlightened about the origin of these PPIs and the doctrinal foundation upon which they are based. Personally I think that my time would be better served by just setting up home teaching visits with slacker home teachers and visit with them and their families instead of talking about it.

In a 1987 study, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, of 132 cats that were brought into the New York Animal Medical Center after having fallen from buildings, it was found that the injuries per cat increased depending on the height fallen up to seven stories but decreased above seven stories. The study authors speculated that after falling five stories the cats reached terminal velocity and thereafter relaxed and spread their bodies to increase drag. The Straight Dope: Do cats always land unharmed on their feet, no matter how far they fall?

Isaiah 53:2

I just made a Maple Bacon Pecan Pie.

Every day Work Free will The Gospel Other children of God that respect life and follow the gospel.

Yeah, we love em. Its kinda like watching the Osmonds for us but different. We love SiFy Our favorite episode was when Si and Phil went to the kids school for career day and teach the kids how to clean a duck and all about Vietnam.

I doubt it. The next couple links lead me to believe that God actually lives on a Star instead of a planet. http://www.boap.org/LDS/Parallel/1843/18Feb43.html BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Diamond star thrills astronomers