More struggles with Direction from stake President


carlimac
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7 hours ago, askandanswer said:

What is the difference  between going beyond the mark and going the extra mile?

I'm not addressing this thread.  I'm only addressing this question.

Going the extra mile is doing what we've been commanded to do but with full spirit, not caring whether we "just made it over the line" but continuing until the job is completely done, and done well.

Looking beyond the mark is looking at inconsequential and unimportant details of something as if it somehow changes the greater truth.  The example often given is taking the discussion down to whether Jesus was crucified with 9" nails or 7" nails.  Whether he was crucified on a cross (as the name indicates) or was nailed to a tree (as was the practice during a certain period in history).  What does that matter?  The import of Christ's Atonement is the central doctrine of our faith.  The size of the nails or the substrate upon which he was nailed has no bearing on the efficacy of the Atonement.

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So... I am in this exact same conundrum now.

I have this really awesome Christmas program that we did over 10 years ago.  Since then, our ward membership has undergone such change that there are only a very few of us who were in the ward back then.  So, because this is one of the rare occurrences that we decided not to travel this Christmas season, I thought it would be a great spiritual activity for my family to organize the ward Christmas Party this year using my Christmas program featuring the musical talents of my family.  So I told the Bishop telling him that I'm going to run the ward Christmas party like the activity chairperson of yonder years - I'll take care of every single detail and all the auxiliary presidencies have to do is fulfill the things I assign to them.  He said he'll talk to the Bishopric and the counselor came back to me and said, it's a go!  So, like my overachiever self, I got everything organized in a day, got all the assignments handed out, had volunteers for the program and we set up our practice schedule.  I'm super excited.  The kids are super excited.  And the counselor reported our progress to the Bishop.... who proceeded to nix the program.  He said he wants all the songs to be from the hymnbook and the program to only be 30 minutes long.  My kids lost interest... "hymnbook ward party" is just not interesting to them even as our Christmas program had 3 out of the 10 songs from the hymnbook.

So, now I'm stuck with organizing a Christmas Party without a program with a party schedule 3 weeks away.  I debated going ahead with my planned program anyway, but then I thought that would put a big rift between my family and the Bishopric (who I love very much) and the volunteers for the program would be caught in the middle.  So, I don't know what I'm gonna do yet.

Edited by anatess2
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1 hour ago, anatess2 said:

So... I am in this exact same conundrum now.

I have this really awesome Christmas program that we did over 10 years ago.  Since then, our ward membership has undergone such change that there are only a very few of us who were in the ward back then.  So, because this is one of the rare occurrences that we decided not to travel this Christmas season, I thought it would be a great spiritual activity for my family to organize the ward Christmas Party this year using my Christmas program featuring the musical talents of my family.  So I told the Bishop telling him that I'm going to run the ward Christmas party like the activity chairperson of yonder years - I'll take care of every single detail and all the auxiliary presidencies have to do is fulfill the things I assign to them.  He said he'll talk to the Bishopric and the counselor came back to me and said, it's a go!  So, like my overachiever self, I got everything organized in a day, got all the assignments handed out, had volunteers for the program and we set up our practice schedule.  I'm super excited.  The kids are super excited.  And the counselor reported our progress to the Bishop.... who proceeded to nix the program.  He said he wants all the songs to be from the hymnbook and the program to only be 30 minutes long.  My kids lost interest... "hymnbook ward party" is just not interesting to them even as our Christmas program had 3 out of the 10 songs from the hymnbook.

So, now I'm stuck with organizing a Christmas Party without a program with a party schedule 3 weeks away.  I debated going ahead with my planned program anyway, but then I thought that would put a big rift between my family and the Bishopric (who I love very much) and the volunteers for the program would be caught in the middle.  So, I don't know what I'm gonna do yet.

If you were as sinister as I am...

I'd just go ahead and give the bishop exactly what he asked for.  Make it as boring as anything. Consider the "overachieving" as the challenge of being the most boring Christmas Party EVER!!!

Sorry.  I know you probably have a much better opinion of your bishop than I do. But he's not my bishop.

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5 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

If you were as sinister as I am...

I'd just go ahead and give the bishop exactly what he asked for.  Make it as boring as anything. Consider the "overachieving" as the challenge of being the most boring Christmas Party EVER!!!

Sorry.  I know you probably have a much better opinion of your bishop than I do. But he's not my bishop.

I'm incapable of "boring" and "simple".  Incapable.  A personality flaw, I daresay.  My husband said - good, then you don't have to do much work, pick 10 songs from the hymnbook and be done with it.

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4 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

I'm incapable of "boring" and "simple".  Incapable.  A personality flaw, I daresay.  My husband said - good, then you don't have to do much work, pick 10 songs from the hymnbook and be done with it.

Your husband sounds like a very practical and smart young man.

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12 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Your husband sounds like a very practical and smart young man.

He's used to it from spending all these years as a scoutmaster being shot down on a lot of his awesome activities... like having the Scouts wear their scout uniforms and hand out poppy pins before sacrament meeting on veterans day.  Can't have the deacons pass sacrament in scout uniform... or his idea to take the troop to mountain camping (which requires different skills from Florida flat land camping) because the ward can't do without the deacons and teachers for one Sunday, etc. etc.

Edited by anatess2
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4 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Can't have the deacons pass sacrament in scout uniform...

When I was a boy, we did exactly this. I sustain our leaders in their new interpretation (new from the time I was twelve), and I understand the aversion to having any sort of uniform, military, paramilitary, or otherwise, associated with Priesthood duties beyond a white shirt and tie. But I do think it's kind of a shame.

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4 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

He's used to it from spending all these years as a scoutmaster being shot down on a lot of his awesome activities... like having the Scouts wear their scout uniforms and hand out poppy pins before sacrament meeting on veterans day.  Can't have the deacons pass sacrament in scout uniform... or his idea to take the troop to mountain camping (which requires different skills from Florida flat land camping) because the ward can't do without the deacons and teachers for one Sunday, etc. etc.

I guess your bishop has never heard of "Scout Sunday".

Trying to put this in the most positive light possible, I could guess that the bishop is thinking that scouting is on the way out anyway.  So, why bother?  I have to admit that this does make some sense.  Part of me shares that view.

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41 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

A personality flaw, I daresay.

It's your "one weakness". :crackup:

42 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

pick 10 songs from the hymnbook

At least do variations on Once in Royal David's City - we never hear that enough, and Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains - also not done enough and the only Christmas hymn in the book written by a member!

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19 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I guess your bishop has never heard of "Scout Sunday".

Trying to put this in the most positive light possible, I could guess that the bishop is thinking that scouting is on the way out anyway.  So, why bother?  I have to admit that this does make some sense.  Part of me shares that view.

I've never heard of it either.

In any case, our Bishop has several daughters, no sons.  But he's supportive of the scout program, just not when it veers from standard Sunday worship or when it's "too dangerous" like having to flip somebody over in a kayak to meet a merit badge requirement...

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5 minutes ago, zil said:

It's your "one weakness". :crackup:

At least do variations on Once in Royal David's City - we never hear that enough, and Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains - also not done enough and the only Christmas hymn in the book written by a member!

I should've thought to ask you guys to help me come up with a program!!!

Help?

Where's Eowyn when you need her...

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6 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Where's Eowyn when you need her...

Ya! Where do she go! She was the one of the first responders to my first post and my first encounter with a heated arguement on this forum. 

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3 minutes ago, Fether said:

Ya! Where do she go! She was the one of the first responders to my first post and my first encounter with a heated arguement on this forum. 

Eowyn abandoned us altogether. She took her ball and went home, leaving not even her name behind (except in memory and reference).

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1 minute ago, Vort said:

Eowyn abandoned us altogether. She took her ball and went home, leaving not even her name behind (except in memory and reference).

That’s sad :( And she will never find her way back. No matter how hard she tries to find MormonHub... it will never be there.

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1 minute ago, Fether said:

That’s sad :( And she will never find her way back. No matter how hard she tries to find MormonHub... it will never be there.

If only there were someone she knew that could help her find us...

And I think you mean LDS.net, not that short-term imposter MormonHub.

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17 minutes ago, Fether said:

Ya! Where do she go! She was the one of the first responders to my first post and my first encounter with a heated arguement on this forum. 

Well, obviously, she left because of you.

(kidding) There was a background that you're not aware of.  She left because she felt it was best for her.

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I'd have to look it up (if I wanted to, not really wanting to right now) but I think that directives came out (have to check if it's in the handbook or not, can't recall if it was via that or some other measure) that deacons were not to wear uniforms or costumes when passing the sacrament. 

Thus, I think, it is churchwide where deacons are no longer supposed to wear scout uniforms when passing the sacrament. 

I could be wrong, but I think it was from some directive or another.  If it is, well...following the leaders of the church is probably a good thing to do.

IF I'm wrong (and I could very well be recalling information badly off the top of my head on this, it's never really come up in our ward recently) then...I'm wrong, obviously.

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8 minutes ago, askandanswer said:

I have been to many celebrations of Christ's birth. Never once have I heard anybody sing the Happy Birthday song. Perhaps you could include this in your song list? :) 

Sing "Happy Birthday" slowly, and replace "Happy birthday to you" with "We mourn for your loss". Melodically, that's totally a funeral dirge.

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9 hours ago, anatess2 said:

So... I am in this exact same conundrum now.

I have this really awesome Christmas program that we did over 10 years ago.  Since then, our ward membership has undergone such change that there are only a very few of us who were in the ward back then.  So, because this is one of the rare occurrences that we decided not to travel this Christmas season, I thought it would be a great spiritual activity for my family to organize the ward Christmas Party this year using my Christmas program featuring the musical talents of my family.  So I told the Bishop telling him that I'm going to run the ward Christmas party like the activity chairperson of yonder years - I'll take care of every single detail and all the auxiliary presidencies have to do is fulfill the things I assign to them.  He said he'll talk to the Bishopric and the counselor came back to me and said, it's a go!  So, like my overachiever self, I got everything organized in a day, got all the assignments handed out, had volunteers for the program and we set up our practice schedule.  I'm super excited.  The kids are super excited.  And the counselor reported our progress to the Bishop.... who proceeded to nix the program.  He said he wants all the songs to be from the hymnbook and the program to only be 30 minutes long.  My kids lost interest... "hymnbook ward party" is just not interesting to them even as our Christmas program had 3 out of the 10 songs from the hymnbook.

So, now I'm stuck with organizing a Christmas Party without a program with a party schedule 3 weeks away.  I debated going ahead with my planned program anyway, but then I thought that would put a big rift between my family and the Bishopric (who I love very much) and the volunteers for the program would be caught in the middle.  So, I don't know what I'm gonna do yet.

Same from our SP. No music in Sacrament meeting unless it's in the hymnbook. I look at this as missing out on the joy of finding truth and beauty everywhere we go- not just within the confines of the LDS hymnbook, lesson manuals, scriptures, etc. There are some wonderfully talented musicians who have written religious music that would inspire and lift our souls. But we aren't allowed to sing or share it in our church. Here's something really ironic though. We are participating in an interfaith program this Sunday and a song in our Primary songbook is being sung in the Catholic church by the interfaith choir. 

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