Sunday21 Posted June 14, 2018 Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 Ministering: Wordsmiths rise up! I am your....what we used to call Visiting Teacher. (I feel like the artist formerly known as Prince). How is your ...ministering(?) going? That last is not too bad! I met my (the lady that I minister to) ... I met (the lady who ministers to me)... Seriously we need some new vocabulary! Should we keep saying Visiting Teacher? Or am I now a Minister? Let’s decide amongst ourselves and spread our terms like a virus throughout the church! Jane_Doe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted June 14, 2018 Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 (edited) Per the FAQ, a former visiting teacher is now a ministering sister1, a former home teacher is now a ministering brother. This is the terminology used in LDS Tools and Church communications. (I recommend we not try to subvert this, but rather sustain it.) If you're talking about an interview, I would ask about each individual by name: "How is sister so-n-so? How have you ministered to her?" etc. "I met with sister so-n-so." (Or just "Jane".) Really, their names are what we should use and how we should think of them. Who would you rather be: "that sister I'm assigned to" or "Sunday21"? If some clarification is needed, you might say, "I met with Jane So-n-so, one of the sisters I minister to2, and..." No, we should not keep saying Visiting/Home Teacher, if only to get out of that mindset. 2Unless you feel compelled to be grammatically correct, in which case, you'd say "...one of the sisters to whom I minister..." 1I strongly recommend against slangifying this into "minsis" (bad, just bad). 0Yes, I inverted my footnotes. Us creative types can do that. Edited June 14, 2018 by zil Jane_Doe and Sunday21 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday21 Posted June 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 Minsis!!!!! That’s it! Many thanks! 😇 zil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentOne Posted June 14, 2018 Report Share Posted June 14, 2018 How do you feel about the term "minbro"? Sunday21 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdf135 Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 I just found this thread and I am still SERIOUSLY feeling awkward about the terminology especially when it comes to people who have been less active and have had little contact with church for a long time. They may know what a visiting\home teacher is but to call up and say "Hello. I know you don't know me but I have been asked to be your ministering brother" seems somehow more uncomfortable than saying home teacher. I suppose we could just call and say "Bro. So and so and I have been asked to see if there is anything we can help you with". Regardless, I would still be more at ease if the authorities had been more specific and clear about a thing one could call one"s self Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdf135 Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 PS what are other languages calling this? Sometimes certain words e.g. "ministering" don't translate well. Sunday21 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted July 8, 2018 Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 (edited) 17 hours ago, jdf135 said: I just found this thread and I am still SERIOUSLY feeling awkward about the terminology especially when it comes to people who have been less active and have had little contact with church for a long time. They may know what a visiting\home teacher is but to call up and say "Hello. I know you don't know me but I have been asked to be your ministering brother" seems somehow more uncomfortable than saying home teacher. I suppose we could just call and say "Bro. So and so and I have been asked to see if there is anything we can help you with". Regardless, I would still be more at ease if the authorities had been more specific and clear about a thing one could call one"s self All the software uses "Ministering Brothers", "Ministering Sisters", "Ministering Assignment". As a programmer, I'm positive the programmers themselves didn't make this up - we generally decline to claim such responsibility - so I think this constitutes the authorities being clear about what we call each other. Beyond that, I couldn't begin to tell you how to overcome the awkwardness - my name is listed as one of the definitions of that word. Edited July 9, 2018 by zil Sunday21 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdf135 Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 So I can tell people not familiar with the church that I am a "minister". Although it may be true on many levels, the average north amercan would wonder what theological university I attended. Sunday21 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunt Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 (edited) 2 minutes ago, jdf135 said: So I can tell people not familiar with the church that I am a "minister". Although it may be true on many levels, the average north amercan would wonder what theological university I attended. Same would be true if you told them you were a Bishop, Priest, or Elder. Edited July 9, 2018 by Grunt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdf135 Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 True. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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