Maybe I just don’t get it: Ministering


Fether
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I posted something like this not too long ago, but I still don’t get all the hype.

Today in sacrament meeting, a speaker said “some people only see minstering as a renaming of home teaching, but it is much more than that”. To that I thought “I am definitely one of those people... but what is the difference?

Every Sunday since general conference, EQ  meeting has been centered on minstering. Today, the teacher cut a very good lesson on repentance short and began diving into ministering again... I am getting pretty tired of the topic right now. Everyone keeps talking about inspired, amazing and brilliant this idea is and how it is so much different than home teaching... but everything discussed in the lessons were all found in home teaching lessons too, save the name and reporting.

So what is the difference? Why is there so much hype? What responsibility or stewardship do I have as a ministering member that I didn’t have as a home teacher? Honestly I feel like I had more direction as a home teacher than as I do as a ministering member (of course that is likely due to the amount of time it had been around and all the material that had been written for it).

Thoughts? 

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30 minutes ago, Fether said:

So what is the difference? Why is there so much hype? What responsibility or stewardship do I have as a ministering member that I didn’t have as a home teacher?

The actual responsibility is not different.  What is different is the general interpretation of the responsibility.

The responsibility has always been that we are our brothers' keepers.  Under home teaching people relegated this to satisfying themselves that they checked a box for the month.  Home teaching often became more about fulfilling your duty to do home teaching, and less about fulfilling your duty to God by serving and showing love to your fellow man.

What ministering has done is to eliminate the barriers we have mentally placed upon ourselves.  There is no reporting of individual visits, only reporting of needs and status.  We can no longer think our obligation satisfied by completing the requirements to check a box.  The flip side to having a higher responsibility is that we can also feel free to fulfill our obligation in nearly any way we can come up with.  We don't need to go and physically share a message to consider it a valid visit; we need to be very much like an actual brother or sister to those to whom we are assigned.  This can be accomplished in many many ways and can be specifically catered to each person.

In short:  Home teaching was a program that enabled people to have a 'one size fits all' mentality.  Ministering invites us to have a 'made to order' mentality.  In the economic sense, which one of those is the more preferable option to the customer?  Imagine an employee in a bakery who stands face to customers making requests, which is the most preferable to the employee?  In this exact same way, ministering is more valuable to the recipient, and more beneficial to the minister, who now can more easily recognize that they have the freedom to act as they see fit.

I hope this explanation is helpful!

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26 minutes ago, person0 said:

The actual responsibility is not different.  What is different is the general interpretation of the responsibility.

The responsibility has always been that we are our brothers' keepers.  Under home teaching people relegated this to satisfying themselves that they checked a box for the month.  Home teaching often became more about fulfilling your duty to do home teaching, and less about fulfilling your duty to God by serving and showing love to your fellow man.

What ministering has done is to eliminate the barriers we have mentally placed upon ourselves.  There is no reporting of individual visits, only reporting of needs and status.  We can no longer think our obligation satisfied by completing the requirements to check a box.  The flip side to having a higher responsibility is that we can also feel free to fulfill our obligation in nearly any way we can come up with.  We don't need to go and physically share a message to consider it a valid visit; we need to be very much like an actual brother or sister to those to whom we are assigned.  This can be accomplished in many many ways and can be specifically catered to each person.

In short:  Home teaching was a program that enabled people to have a 'one size fits all' mentality.  Ministering invites us to have a 'made to order' mentality.  In the economic sense, which one of those is the more preferable option to the customer?  Imagine an employee in a bakery who stands face to customers making requests, which is the most preferable to the employee?  In this exact same way, ministering is more valuable to the recipient, and more beneficial to the minister, who now can more easily recognize that they have the freedom to act as they see fit.

I hope this explanation is helpful!

It does help actually :)

But what still gets me is the notion that this is an even more inspired way of doing the same thing.

People are saying “oh this is great! It’s not just a check mark anymore!” ... well you made it that way, not the prophets that formed it, the recording was not meant to be just a check mark. Will the changing of the system change our approach? Or like many other changes, will we still resort back to finding someway to make this a check mark?

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Just now, Fether said:

It does help actually :)

But what still gets me is the notion that this is an even more inspired way of doing the same thing.

People are saying “oh this is great! It’s not just a check mark anymore!” ... well you made it that way, not the prophets that formed it, the recording was not meant to be just a check mark. Will the changing of the system change our approach? Or like many other changes, will we still resort back to finding someway to make this a check mark?

Honestly those who thought Home Teaching was just a check mark...  Did not magnify their Home Teaching calling.  Those that magnified their calling to be a home teacher will float right into  Ministering with no problem and no real change.  For those that struggled to do and magnify their Home Teaching calling this change is a call to repentance.  There are also some administrative changes that the church hopes will help with the repentance process.

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2 minutes ago, Fether said:

It does help actually :)

But what still gets me is the notion that this is an even more inspired way of doing the same thing.

People are saying “oh this is great! It’s not just a check mark anymore!” ... well you made it that way, not the prophets that formed it, the recording was not meant to be just a check mark. Will the changing of the system change our approach? Or like many other changes, will we still resort back to finding someway to make this a check mark?

Just a theory based on hope.

I'm thinking that many people just never did their home-teaching.  These same people will still not do home teaching.

Some people did their home teaching from time-to-time.  These people will be more likely to talk to their stewardship more.  Some may actually minister.  Some may not.

Some people did everything they could to get the check mark.  These people will either be confused at what they have to do for their check mark, or they'll wake up and realize that they need to actually love and serve someone.

Some people really watched out for their HT stewardship regardless of any check mark.  Nothing will change for these people.

As you can see, there won't be much help on the low end, and no real change on the high end. But there is potential for growth in the middle.

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2 hours ago, Fether said:

I posted something like this not too long ago, but I still don’t get all the hype.

Today in sacrament meeting, a speaker said “some people only see minstering as a renaming of home teaching, but it is much more than that”. To that I thought “I am definitely one of those people... but what is the difference?

Every Sunday since general conference, EQ  meeting has been centered on minstering. Today, the teacher cut a very good lesson on repentance short and began diving into ministering again... I am getting pretty tired of the topic right now. Everyone keeps talking about inspired, amazing and brilliant this idea is and how it is so much different than home teaching... but everything discussed in the lessons were all found in home teaching lessons too, save the name and reporting.

So what is the difference? Why is there so much hype? What responsibility or stewardship do I have as a ministering member that I didn’t have as a home teacher? Honestly I feel like I had more direction as a home teacher than as I do as a ministering member (of course that is likely due to the amount of time it had been around and all the material that had been written for it).

Thoughts? 

First of all, I totally get being sick of the same topic over and over again- that's a very natural reaction.  Like when a temple was being built near my house-- which is a GREAT thing, but we had lessons on "the importance of the temple" for EIGHTEEN weeks straight!  Yes, it's a great thing, but can we also talk about other great things too?  

For me, the ministering program is what the HT/VT program was *supposed* to be, but... let's face it, they came up short due to human short comings.  The key I see being emphasized here is flexibility to best suit people's needs, rather than trying to force the people to meet the program.  It's kind of the "the sabbath was meant for man, not man for the sabbath" re-focus.  

For example: you don't need anyone's "permission" to visit at a park instead of their house.  Which, honestly I feel like that's stating a "no duh", but I'm remembering that coming up as a major concern on multiple threads for folks.  You don't need to visit at their house.  You don't need to visit every 31 days.  You don't need to read an article to adults as if they couldn't read themselves.   

Again, these kind of all feel like "no duh"s but so many people were entrenched in the old program, and there was too much focus on man serving the program than folks truly helping folks.  The Brethren tried several times throughout the last decade to be focused on the people and not the program... and honestly that didn't really take.  So they scrapped the old program to better serve the spirit of what was meant in the first place.

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As someone who has never done home teaching or had a home teacher, here is my understanding on ministering.  I won't be the slightest bit offended when you tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.  

We are to look after each other.  As @person0 stated, I am my brother's keeper.  With Home Teaching, there were stricter requirements and a larger expectation from both parties.  A time was set.  Companions and families had to coordinate a decent sized chunk of time.  Lessons were involved.  People knew what it entailed, particularly those who were fallen or falling from the church.

With ministering, our requirements are to meet the needs of the families we minister, whatever they may be.  Just be friends with your families.  Some people aren't going to be receptive to a lesson.  Maybe they need wood stacked.  Maybe they need a babysitter so they can have time alone.  Maybe they don't want anything to do with the church and your responsibility is to just be a friend to them.  

Removing some of the structure allows you to serve your families how they need to be served.

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19 hours ago, Fether said:

I am getting pretty tired of the topic right now.

If I'm being really honest, I'm in the same boat too.

Every single adult discussion, today's high council talk was on it and Elders Q was on it. It is not that the subject is bad, it's just let's talk about something else also. I told my wife, "If I hear another discussion about ministering is 'raising the bar', I'm going to get up and leave".

We get the point. Let us now put into practice what have learned for a little while and then check back in a couple of months with a return and report.  Beating us senseless with, "this is the best thing since sliced cheese" is now making me resent sliced cheese rather than look forward to it.

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4 minutes ago, NeedleinA said:

If I'm being really honest, I'm in the same boat too.

Every single adult discussion, today's high council talk was on it and Elders Q was on it. It is not that the subject is bad, it's just let's talk about something else also. I told my wife, "If I hear another discussion about ministering is 'raising the bar', I'm going to get up and leave".

We get the point. Let us now put into practice what have learned for a little while and then check back in a couple of months with a return and report.  Beating us senseless with this is the best thing sliced cheese is now making me resent sliced cheese rather than look forward to it.

We haven't discussed it at all in my ward.

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4 hours ago, Fether said:

I posted something like this not too long ago, but I still don’t get all the hype.

Today in sacrament meeting, a speaker said “some people only see minstering as a renaming of home teaching, but it is much more than that”. To that I thought “I am definitely one of those people... but what is the difference?

Every Sunday since general conference, EQ  meeting has been centered on minstering. Today, the teacher cut a very good lesson on repentance short and began diving into ministering again... I am getting pretty tired of the topic right now. Everyone keeps talking about inspired, amazing and brilliant this idea is and how it is so much different than home teaching... but everything discussed in the lessons were all found in home teaching lessons too, save the name and reporting.

So what is the difference? Why is there so much hype? What responsibility or stewardship do I have as a ministering member that I didn’t have as a home teacher? Honestly I feel like I had more direction as a home teacher than as I do as a ministering member (of course that is likely due to the amount of time it had been around and all the material that had been written for it).

Thoughts? 

The new initiative, focus, toward ministering is inspired. This is President Monson's legacy, which is totally appropriate for the type of person he was and how he served God (first great commandment), and how he served his fellow men (second great commandment). The reason we keep hearing about ministering, and its policies, is because we are still receiving training on how to move forward with it, and what it is to look like. We just received additional training this morning in high council.

Right now, in our stake high council training Home Teaching is being likened to the "Law of Moses." We check a box and we are done, while the inner man hasn't changed or made any life better. Also remember, within the Law of Moses there were those (i.e. Lehi, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nephi, Jacob, and many others) who recognized the Spirit of the law and lived not only the Law of Moses but its higher unwritten laws. As King Benjamin taught, when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.

If you take the principles of ministering even from conference (both good and bad) they were all examples of home teachers who either magnified or did not magnify their assignment. The great example of ministering shared in GC was from a diligent home teacher who continued to reach out to a single mom. Eventually, the single mom reached out for help, and the ward stepped up. Then you had Elder Holland share the bumper sticker, "If I honk, you have been home taught."  This is one stigma this type of "ministering" -- this new focus -- will antiquate such thought -- hopefully (the natural man is strong though unless he yields to the enticing of the Holy Spirit 😉 ).

Also, now all those people in the Church who would proclaim that Home Teaching is problematic and we should just love our fellowmen. Well, guess what, these people now have the opportunity not become hypocrites, as ministering is now solely a principle of the second great commandment (Matthew 25:40). Or possibly they will just come up with another excuse as to why they think they don't have to act in their duty.

I believe also, this (I hope) will get rid of the stigma that if you "act in duty" somehow you do not love the person you are serving, which is false and ridiculous to automatically assume such. We are able, like the Lord, to act in duty and in perfect love toward our fellow humans. Home Teaching, because of the checkbox sadly allowed such actions to take place. We have experienced such, people who solely came over with truly no thought in their lessons and their visits.

As for me, I am not tired of hearing it, at this moment, and I am looking forward to the additional training received from the brethren. Here is one thing good for bishops through this (seeing how busy they are), they are no longer to be assigned any ministering families as their calling requires them to already perform weekly ministering to the whole ward. Stake presidents are also in the same boat, and at the discretion of the stake president high councilman may not be required to be assigned families as their responsibility will be to the EQP.  So, more is to come.  Accept it. Look for the principles the Lord wants you to see. :)

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4 hours ago, Fether said:

It does help actually :)

But what still gets me is the notion that this is an even more inspired way of doing the same thing.

 

I like to think of it as the next step in progression towards becoming like Christ--individually and collectively.  During his mortal mission, Christ didn't formally Home Teach. Rather, he informally ministered. However, since we aren't operating at the same level oasChrist, we need to follow a path that leads us to where he is. I believe that Ward Teaching was preparatory to Home Teaching, and Home Teaching was preparatory to today's formal Ministering, and formal Ministering is preparatory to informal ministering as with Christ.

In each step of progression, there are elements that are the same. As Elder Benson noted regarding Ward Teaching and Home Teaching 

Quote

"We have refined home teaching a lot since those early days in Whitney. But it is still basically the same. The same principles are involved: caring, reaching out, teaching by the Spirit, leaving an important message each month and having a concern and love for each member of the family." (see HERE)

Yet, there are also  developmental differences (see Ministering FAQ. #11):

Quote

Ministering is similar to home teaching and visiting teaching in that each household will have priesthood brethren—ministering brothers—to minister to and care for the family or individuals who live there (see D&C 20:47, 59). Each adult sister will have members of the Relief Society—ministering sisters—to minister to and care for her, further reinforcing the emphasis on ministering shared by the Relief Society General Presidency beginning in January 2018 (see “Keep in Touch with Her Anytime, Anywhere, Any Way,” Ensign or Liahona, Jan. 2018, 7).

In addition, some requirements of home teaching and visiting teaching have been adjusted to help members minister with greater focus on meeting needs. No longer must contacts always be formal visits. They can take place at home, at church, or in any setting that is safe, convenient, and reachable. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught: “[What] matters most is how you have blessed and cared for those within your stewardship, which has virtually nothing to do with a specific calendar or a particular location. What matters is that you love your people and are fulfilling the commandment ‘to watch over the church always.’”3

In that regard, you went on to ask:

Quote

People are saying “oh this is great! It’s not just a check mark anymore!” ... well you made it that way, not the prophets that formed it, the recording was not meant to be just a check mark. Will the changing of the system change our approach? Or like many other changes, will we still resort back to finding someway to make this a check mark?

As a former secretary for the High Priest group, and the current secretary for the newly formed Elders Quorum, I can tell you that the old Home Teaching reporting system was taken off line during last General Conference, and the new reporting system won't be available until August. From what little I can tell, it won't be a check box (or radial button as the case was with Home Teaching), but rather a mechanism for recording matters discussed during ministering interviews (See Ministering FAQ #19, 20, and 21)

Quote

Leaders no longer gather reports of families and individuals who were visited during a given month. Instead, ministering brothers and sisters have an opportunity to counsel with their elders quorum and Relief Society leaders about the circumstances of those they serve and about their ongoing ministering efforts. This counseling together takes place at least quarterly in ministering interviews and any additional time when communication is necessary.

A ministering interview is held (1) to counsel about the strengths, needs, and challenges of assigned families and individuals; (2) to determine what needs the quorum, Relief Society, or ward council might assist with; and (3) to learn from leaders and be encouraged in ministering efforts.

At least quarterly, ministering brothers and sisters meet with a leader of the elders quorum or Relief Society in a ministering interview, preferably in person and with their companion. A married couple ministering together can meet with either elders quorum or Relief Society leaders or both. Between interviews, ministering brothers and sisters communicate other information as needed—in person or through phone calls, texts, emails, or otherwise. They share confidential information only with the elders quorum or Relief Society president—or directly with the bishop.

Elders quorum and Relief Society presidencies keep a record of the interviews they hold with ministering brothers and sisters. Leaders indicate the month interviews are held and who participated in them. They report a companionship as interviewed if at least one member of the companionship is interviewed during the quarter.

By August 1, 2018, updates to the LDS Tools app and to Leader and Clerk Resources on LDS.org will be available for such reporting. Changes in the Quarterly Report will also be available mid-2018. More details for leaders and clerks will be provided in an upcoming notice from Church headquarters.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

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The way I see it is that home teaching was thought of as a once a month visit with a lesson and a prayer so we could report that it was done. 

With ministering we are to do what we always should have been doing but with the emphasis taken off of the visit and lesson we are free to do whatever is necessary to meet the needs of the members. As one member put it it is “raising the bar” on home teaching. 

I think it is more like treating others like you would treat your best friends, children or grandchildren. It’s seeing that their needs are met. 

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11 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

The RS president labouring as a simple worker in God’s vineyard? Really? 

Has your ward decided that they need to haul out the Dream Team?

Yes, but it's by choice.  If I had my way, I would never have any calling other than teaching (and maybe the library and doing the program & newsletter).

I don't comprehend your "Dream Team" question.

10 hours ago, wenglund said:

From what little I can tell, it won't be a check box (or radial button as the case was with Home Teaching), but rather a mechanism for recording matters discussed during ministering interviews

I highly doubt this.  The Church has always been more than firm about not wanting private details recorded electronically.  The new system will more than likely be a way to record either a simple number representing the number of interviews performed during the quarter, or a way to mark those companionships which were interviewed during the quarter (the latter presents problems given that companionships can be rearranged many times during a quarter).

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18 hours ago, Fether said:

I posted something like this not too long ago, but I still don’t get all the hype.

Today in sacrament meeting, a speaker said “some people only see minstering as a renaming of home teaching, but it is much more than that”. To that I thought “I am definitely one of those people... but what is the difference?

Every Sunday since general conference, EQ  meeting has been centered on minstering. Today, the teacher cut a very good lesson on repentance short and began diving into ministering again... I am getting pretty tired of the topic right now. Everyone keeps talking about inspired, amazing and brilliant this idea is and how it is so much different than home teaching... but everything discussed in the lessons were all found in home teaching lessons too, save the name and reporting.

So what is the difference? Why is there so much hype? What responsibility or stewardship do I have as a ministering member that I didn’t have as a home teacher? Honestly I feel like I had more direction as a home teacher than as I do as a ministering member (of course that is likely due to the amount of time it had been around and all the material that had been written for it).

Thoughts? 

I think it encourages us to focus more on the individual more frequently and in different ways than on making a visit and presenting a message. Of course we were always encouraged to do that, but this is a more personally focused level of emphasis and encouragement that refers more specifically to our need to understand and emulate the Savior's way of doing things.

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16 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

If I'm being really honest, I'm in the same boat too.

Every single adult discussion, today's high council talk was on it and Elders Q was on it. It is not that the subject is bad, it's just let's talk about something else also. I told my wife, "If I hear another discussion about ministering is 'raising the bar', I'm going to get up and leave".

We get the point. Let us now put into practice what have learned for a little while and then check back in a couple of months with a return and report.  Beating us senseless with, "this is the best thing since sliced cheese" is now making me resent sliced cheese rather than look forward to it.

Ha Ha -  Now we are all sitting around waiting for disaster to strike our ministering families so we can rise up to the occasion:popcorn:

Maybe Elder Hollands talk a few years back about being better home teachers wasn't enough to help members realize they had been doing home teaching wrong.  I do admit I am sometimes guilty of the check-mark.  hopefully we all do a little better but in all reality there are some who were already ministering and don't need to change but for the rest of us yahoo's a little re branding and focus is probably needed.

Edited by e-eye
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I also am teaching this 4th Sunday topic.  I'm in a mid singles ward, and we really haven't talked about it that much.  I actually have tried to push the Elders Quorum Pres to do more.  (We did not have any change in our quroum because we don't have a high priest group). 

In preparing for my lesson, I wanted to go back and figure out when Home Teaching started.  It was announced in April 1963 conference.  Elder Lee (at the time) was giving the assignment to present this new correlation program the church had been development.  (This is also were the term ward council seems to have started). 

The idea at the time was to revamp the teaching in the church.  New way of teaching the different age groups, a bigger emphases on teaching in the home, thus Home Teaching. 

We realize now we have more members outside the USA then it it.  Yes Home teaching probably could still work fine in Utah and maybe even the USA.  Outside it, things needed to evolve.

 In my singles ward we actually tried to adapt home teaching as Elder Holland brought up a year or two ago.  The problem we actually ran into was the church's record still needed to know who you visited each month.  Became kind of a hassle figuring out if we count that as a visit.  

Like others have said, I think for the last 55 years we just got complacent with how things were done.  Back in April 1963, Pres David O. McKay wrote about Home Teaching in some new leadership manual that was coming out.  The first part of it I think got lost over the years.  I just changed the quote from Home Teaching to Ministering. 

Quote

“[Ministering] is one of our most urgent and most rewarding opportunities to nurture and inspire, to counsel and direct our Father's children in all that pertains to life…  

"First, a knowledge of those whom you are to [Minister]. As each family is different from another, so each individual in the family differs from others. Methods and messages should vary according to each individual, and according to his problems and needs.

"To perform fully our duty as [Ministering] we would need to be continually aware of the attitudes, the activities and interests, the problems, the employment, the health, the happiness, the plans and purposes, the physical and temporal and spiritual needs and circumstances of everyone --of every child, every youth, and every adult in the homes and families who have been placed in our trust and care as a bearer of the priesthood and as a representative of the bishop.” (June 1963 Improvement Era, pg 508)

 

 

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7 minutes ago, tubaloth said:

I also am teaching this 4th Sunday topic.  I'm in a mid singles ward, and we really haven't talked about it that much.  I actually have tried to push the Elders Quorum Pres to do more.  (We did not have any change in our quroum because we don't have a high priest group). 

In preparing for my lesson, I wanted to go back and figure out when Home Teaching started.  It was announced in April 1963 conference.  Elder Lee (at the time) was giving the assignment to present this new correlation program the church had been development.  (This is also were the term ward council seems to have started). 

The idea at the time was to revamp the teaching in the church.  New way of teaching the different age groups, a bigger emphases on teaching in the home, thus Home Teaching. 

We realize now we have more members outside the USA then it it.  Yes Home teaching probably could still work fine in Utah and maybe even the USA.  Outside it, things needed to evolve.

 In my singles ward we actually tried to adapt home teaching as Elder Holland brought up a year or two ago.  The problem we actually ran into was the church's record still needed to know who you visited each month.  Became kind of a hassle figuring out if we count that as a visit.  

Like others have said, I think for the last 55 years we just got complacent with how things were done.  Back in April 1963, Pres David O. McKay wrote about Home Teaching in some new leadership manual that was coming out.  The first part of it I think got lost over the years.  I just changed the quote from Home Teaching to Ministering. 

 

 

@tubaloth!!!!!

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On 5/20/2018 at 3:33 PM, Fether said:

I posted something like this not too long ago, but I still don’t get all the hype.

Today in sacrament meeting, a speaker said “some people only see minstering as a renaming of home teaching, but it is much more than that”. To that I thought “I am definitely one of those people... but what is the difference?

Every Sunday since general conference, EQ  meeting has been centered on minstering. Today, the teacher cut a very good lesson on repentance short and began diving into ministering again... I am getting pretty tired of the topic right now. Everyone keeps talking about inspired, amazing and brilliant this idea is and how it is so much different than home teaching... but everything discussed in the lessons were all found in home teaching lessons too, save the name and reporting.

So what is the difference? Why is there so much hype? What responsibility or stewardship do I have as a ministering member that I didn’t have as a home teacher? Honestly I feel like I had more direction as a home teacher than as I do as a ministering member (of course that is likely due to the amount of time it had been around and all the material that had been written for it).

Thoughts? 

Nice to see you guys talking about this. I actually mentioned this to my wife at one point and said it needed to be reworked. In the past I had attended Mormon meetings pretty regularly with my wife and kids. The priesthood classes were as follows:

Sitting in a room with most of the men slouched over and looking at the floor, sitting upright but eyes glazed over or standing up holding a baby. They all looked exhausted and like they would rather be doing something else. If the lesson was engaging then it was different, the men would perk up and everyone would contribute. It almost seemed that the men would say "Great lesson. That's just what a I needed. Thanks for coming prepared", However THEY were talking most of the time and not the teacher. Then the home teaching report would be discussed.

"Brethren we need to do our home teaching. Our percentages are low, We need to MAGNIFY our callings." I would watch as the slouching intensified and the glazing would thicken. As a recipient of home teaching it would feel awkward. Same dudes I saw at church looking disinterested would come into my home and be all rambunctious with the kids and sometimes even look as if they were flirting with my wife. She of course would just look at me or squash it immediately (my wife rocks) They seem to come in an extrovert / introvert pair. With one always talking way more than the other.

I eventually politely asked them to stop coming. We lived far from home for my job, we all did at my work place. The non Mormons always did fun stuff together, albeit a lot of drinking and going to clubs but they had a friendship. The Mormon men never spent time together or at least not that I knew of. Every once in a blue moon morning basketball would happen. It really felt like a lonely world to be honest. I didnt need a "teacher", especially Mr. Slouch bucket. I needed a good LDS friend. Maybe even a good LDS couple friend so that we could not feel so alone in this often crappy existence.

With this new program I may invite them back again but still a reserve. Do I want someone assigned to be my friend? I guess we'll see.

Edited by Overwatch
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