priesthoodpower

3 hour down to 2 hour church service along with a reduction of leadership meetings are just some examples of changes that impact church culture. So you are correct maureen, it is already happening.

There was a point in time when I didnt pay tithing for 4 yrs, not because I couldnt but because I was frustrated with life in general. This was a time when I think I learned and grew the most, from a spiritual perspective you could say I was living the allegory Footprints in the Sand. The atonement became real to me and not just something I believed in, why? because I needed and wanted Christ even more in my life. Financially I was very blessed, my business grew during this time but im humble enough to recognize that this was a result of the momentum built up during the previous 3yrs. Still though its not like God was going to punish me and make me homeless because I stopped tithes. One day I even fell 15ft off a roof backward, smacking my head on the concrete, got up and walked away without a scratch, truly a miracle and evidence that God was watching over me that day. The title of this thread is everything that is wrong with religion.

MG, you are a convert and you grew up learning how to be friends with anyone and everyone. Mormons grow up only associating with other Mormons and that becomes their safe haven. I am an example of that and I see it all the time. The social possibilities are endless as the internet connects the world, current church culture boxes members in to a single ward for their social life and that is sad. What is even sadder is when ward boundaries split the ward a part, or one family moves into another ward then all of sudden we are not friends anymore. We claim to be a WORLDWIDE church but little do we realize we operate like a WARD-wide church. One of many instances of this mentality is when our Stake Pres. gets up a few times a year to chastise us for the low baptism rate in our wards, he says that we are not doing enough to talk to our neighbors, yet the people I have most influence over are co-workers or friends that live in other towns, I guess member missionary work is not that important if it doesn't benefit the ward.

What about the idea of wards meeting virtually online. I know lots of inactives that love the gospel but due to social drama/insecurities will not attend services. Bread and water placed in front of the computer while the priesthood with presiding bishop bless it??? I completed an online bachelors degree last year without physically meeting any teacher/counselor/ or classmate. Everything was email, forums and virtual classrooms. It was amazingly effective. This type of stuff was not available 50yrs ago. I think HMSA health insurance started online video teleconference appointments for basic primary care issues. Imagine getting diagnosed and prescribed medicine by talking to a physician on a computer screen. How much longer will the church continue to shrink due to lack of implementing the tools and resources that the Lord has placed right in front of our faces.

Men hold the keys, the church is just an entity that organizes people. The church can be re-organized (policy changes/3hr vs. 2hour service/ HT vs. Ministering/ lessen leadership meetings etc..), rebranded (Mormon..LDS..The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints) but the priesthood keys and gospel are permanent. When I talk about the church having problems its more about the social aspect/ human error and how when you gather a bunch of people together personalities will be different and cause some to be uncomfortable or offended. God doesn't shun/ label or judge us within the four walls of the chapel, other people do that. If this is what is happening in "church" then yes, church is not for everyone and church is not of God. Due to my work schedule a couple of years ago my bishop told me I only had to take the sacrament to maintain my temple recommend and to try attend sacrament meeting at least once a month and it didn't have to be in my ward it could be in another ward whose meeting time was more convenient. Sunday school and EQ are important but not necessary. As technology continues to advance it is becoming possible to worship and learn the gospel of Jesus Christ in our own homes where the priesthood keys can still be ministered without the social drama found in a church.

Just like you I had a confirmation from the HG that what I was doing was true, what was I doing? I was in the first month of serving a mission which I also equated to the church being true, but I like your words better..."I am supposed to be part of this church". That phrase leaves open the possibility that the church has human error. This is where I think the church becomes a crux to the Gospel. The Gospel is for everyone but church, at least in its current state, isn't. Presidents Nelsons move toward "home learning/worshiping" and less "church" is a step in the right direction.

Some men wont open up and just stay quiet with generic responses while relying on their better judgement. From an organizational standpoint, where there is smoke there is fire so I wouldnt be too worried that this particular person behaves this way but that many people behave this way when it comes to finding the reason they dont attend and/or left. Most of you that follow my posts in here know that I appear borderline anti-mormon when I am simply expressing my true feelings and questions about the church. Im just trying to find answers and make sense of my testimony in the gospel. I will NEVER open up like this to my local leaders or fellow members for fear of being labeled.

Any and all debate/arguments over religion have become pointless in the internet age, both Kwaku and Jeremy did a great job but when your intent is to prove the other wrong there is no room for the holy ghost to manifest. I left after 35 mins.

Its not about his debating skills, its about who he relates to. A young mormon. My 16yr old stopped going to church, youth activities, devotionals, service projects because she finds it boring but she will climb a mountain to attend a church dance.

Thank you for posting this. I dont have fb so I went to Youtube and searched Kwaku and found him on the "saints unscripted" channel. I have three things I want to share. 1. Two weeks ago I found a vlog on utube of a young 45 yr old man that left the JW religion after 25 yrs born and raised. Some of the things that really interests me is that he married at 18, divorced after 12 yrs of marriage, has a 25yr old daughter, lived in his car for 2 yrs, is an entrepreneur, was shunned by his parents and JW friends after leaving the religion. He shares all of his life stories unfiltered and holds nothing back, I found a lot of gems in his videos that give me courage and strength. Im obsessed with him because he is relatable. Other channels I follow religiously is Joe Rogan, ESPN (1st take, skip/shannon), NBA, NFL to name my favorites. One channel I do not follow and is pretty boring to me is the churchs channel (T.C.ofJ.C.ofL.D.S.) I try to visit it maybe once a month especially when new videos come out but it seems so scripted and monotonous. I was thinking just yesterday if it was bad of me to think like that of our churchs utube channel but then I decided to look at how many subscribers it had and it shows 1.03 million out of 16 million members worldwide. Only 6.5% of our members are subscribed to the channel. I looked at a video posted 6 days ago "Joseph Smiths first vision" and it only had 17k views. That's a mere 1.7% of views from its own subscribers. Lets go back a month to find a video of president Nelson, that only has 54k views, 5%. Im not the only one that finds the content boring. In contrast I looked at a utube channel that my kids frequent. Norris nuts, an australian family with 3 young kids, they have 3.4m subs. Their most recent video posted two days ago and already has 2m views, thats a 64% viewing rate. How is it that a random family in australia with no talent whatsoever is more interesting than the prophet and only true church of the world? 2. So tonight I was sitting on the couch after dinner thinking how Im going to get an fhe/spiritual lesson going with my kids. I have been working nights the past week so tonight was the first opportunity in a long time (last fhe was 3 weeks ago). Usually when I mention fhe the kids run away or suddenly "need to shower/go to bed", they are some rebellious kids I tell ya! Being a little discouraged I decided not to mention anything of a fhe lesson and just surf on my phone with my earphones on. I came to thirdhour and saw your post Mrshorty and thats when I looked up kwaku on utube. Keep in mind that my kids dont know what im watching or listening to on my phone. I found the saints unscripted channel and was blown away that these young 20 something year olds were addressing mormon topics in a hip and fun way. I quickly subscribed after watching one video and then decided to watch another, considering that halloween was just a week ago I watched "Do Mormons believe in Ghosts?" which was only 6 minutes. After that I turned off my phone and then put my attention on the family and just hung out. About 10 minutes later my 13yr old daughter sitting in the corner randomly said out loud "I wonder if ghosts read people's minds", she was thinking this because her grandma passed away 5 months ago and was wondering if her grandma was reading her mind. My eyes widened as I saw an opportunity to talk religion by showing her the video "Do Mormons believe in Ghosts?", which would answer her question from a mormon stand point. I chickened out and decided not to mention the video. Then my 10yr old daughter yells out to the 13yr old "who you gonna call! Ghost busters!!". OMG, the video has clips from the Ghost busters movie. I knew this was a sign and God's hand in helping me get a religious lesson in tonight. So I called my 13yr old daughter to my side and told her I have an answer, put the headphones on her and played the video on my phone. She loved it, absorbed all the info and was entertained. Out of curiosity my 10 yr old asked what are you watching? I explained to her its about mormons beliefs about spirits, put the head phones on and then showed it to her. That was 2 of my 3 kids that got a religious message for the night, my 16 yr old had just gotten out of the shower and had no idea what we did, I had no intention of showing her the video so we carried on. About 15 mins later as my 16yr old was on the computer browsing pinterest something caught her attention and she said out loud "I want to see a psychic!", I smiled and invited her over to me. The video also addressed wigi boards, seance/psychics. Unbelievable! 3. Thank you Mr Shorty!

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I really loved this conference because the pressure is on and you can really sense the urgency from most of the speakers. Some things-a-brewing!

What is the relation with women and Spiritual tools outside of the Priesthood?

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official email subscription =============== Early in this dispensation, the Lord instructed that "in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established" (Doctrine and Covenants 6:28). Consistent with this direction, members of the Church serve as witnesses when sacred ordinances of salvation and exaltation are performed.We are pleased to announce procedural adjustments for the two individuals who serve as witnesses to baptisms and sealing ordinances. These adjustments are effective immediately in all temples and in all Church units. As invited by presiding authorities: Any member holding a current temple recommend, including a limited-use recommend, may serve as a witness to a proxy baptism. Any endowed member with a current temple recommend may serve as a witness to a living or proxy sealing. Any baptized member of the Church, including children and youth, may serve as a witness to the baptism of a living person. We trust that you, as individuals and families, will find great joy in your service as you help provide saving ordinances to Heavenly Father's children.

We have sinned as a Church then. Why? let me explain, because culturally we have gotten away from it and now Pres Nelson is steering us back in that direction. In the 1960's there was only one stake in this town and my Grandfather (my dads dad) was on the stk presidency (we now have 5 stks). There was a LDS family in the area that took family home evening to the next level, they had extended family, friends and neighbors over for a gathering every month. They shared gospel discussion but more importantly they ate, sang and enjoyed each others company. Upon hearing rumors of these saints gathering my grandfather and the rest of the stk presidency became concerned that they were getting too big and there may be signs of apostasy. The head of that household was called in to meet with the stk presidency and told to stop the gathering or he would be excommunicated. This is the form of control that my generation has grown up with under the church. Maybe that's why we relied on the church to teach us because they wanted to make sure they controlled the message, the process and the behavior? Maybe it did not start off like this under Joseph Smith but over the years it developed into it. I think it was a year ago I read an article on lds.org where we are now encouraged to worship with other saints in our homes. Funny thing is that the head of that household that was told to stop his gatherings had a son that ended up being the temple president years later, he also had a granddaughter that ended up marrying my dad, yes she was my mom. I can assure you that the group was not apostatizing, they were just ahead of their time.

Thanks for clearing that up, that is exactly what I meant. The "Culture" of our religion, or any social organization where a group of people gather, is going to have this element of judging and controlling in it whether it come from a member in the group or a leader. In my own home I am guilty of micro controlling my wife (at the time) and daughters with the way they dress, what they watch/listen to, who they hang out with etc... My rules in the home are based on the standards and values of the church. This is a reason why my daughters are frustrated with me and have lost interest in the church. My two oldest are 16 and 12 and I no longer force them to attend church, two hours before church starts on Sunday I announce that they should get ready, when the time comes only me and my 9 yr old are out the door. About 5 yrs ago I remember our stk representative saying in a WC meeting that "we are losing our youth", and the solution coming down from SLC at that time was the come follow me curriculum which made the class lessons more interactive/involved hoping that this would keep the kids interest. Fast forward to today and we are talking about the classroom being the secondary source of learning. To me it sounds like we are saying "ok, ok we no longer are able to control our youth and get them in the class room, parents its your responsibility and your home is the primary place for gospel learning". I would argue that we are moving the goal posts (culturally not doctrinally) because ever since I have been a member from birth the chapel (church, seminary, scouts) was our primary source of gospel learning.

I never said that and u r jumping to conclusions. "worthiness" from a LDS perspective means a lot of things not just a question in a bishops interview. I think u r too bias to see that changes in the church are "free'ing" up members and their time. Less hours in church (from 3 to2) equals less callings, equals less saints baring testimony at the pulpit about how unworthy they feel about not living up to said callings.

This is the new model in general, the church realizes that they no longer have the same micro control overs its members. The irony is that there have always been philosophers through out time that taught that the power of God is within us all. "Self-sufficient, home centered, at ur own pace", is all signs that we need to discover that power within us (within the teachings of the gospel) rather than rely on a church leader to tell us if we are worthy or not.

Those CompTIA certs are a good start and usually the minimum requirements for getting your foot in the door at an entry level Tier 1 ($30-40k). Tier 2 ($40-70k) and Tier 3 ($60-120k) is when you start narrowing it down into each of the following fields a. Networks - CCNA/CCNP/CCIE b. Server-Database - MCSE/ Netapp/ VMware/ MCDBA/Oracle c. CyberSecurity - CEH/ CAP/ CISSP d. Programming (Im not familiar with) How quick you move up the ladder depends on many things like who you know, how well you perform and the opportunities that surround you.