Home teaching in the church is one of those things that like many other things SHOULD have worked but fell far short of its intended purpose. There's probably many reasons including a smaller and smaller amount of active priesthood over the years. Of course it wasnt all that sucessfull overall since replacing ward teaching years ago. We can only hope that any new program coming down the pike can help ohers give a damn about others.

Speaking of caring... our ward apparently broke the rules and assigned HT's to a guy that was ex'ed. Just the way our Bishop worked, I guess.
He appreciated the "gesture" and continued attending.

Home teachers can be assigned to excommunicated men and women especially if the person doesn't have a member nor active spouse. It gives them contact with the church.

As far as the new ministering program, other churches, for example the Lutheran Church, have assigned elders to contact their members on a monthly basis.

I think it is a step in the right direction if administered properly and carried out.

Also, every month for visits was excessive. Perhaps for those rare folks with very pressing personal issues, monthly visits may have been appropriate, but for the vast majority of members, quarterly visits would have been more adequate IMHO.

I once was 'assigned friends' to a fam with an unmarried mom;

Comp & I 'couldn't believe' no requests for help/blessings/anything from this family.


making Nice with people because you're assigned to (regardless of name/ stated purpose/suggested outcomes?

What Could Go Wrong?

Hate to be "that guy" but I feel like you can't force people to care about others, you know? Maybe I'm a jerk but I really couldn't care less about some random people, even if they were in my "ward." And I hated people trying to get close to me and be my friend just because they were "assigned" to. It's fake and frankly insulting.

You can't just assign people to visit some random people who they may not even know and expect them to build up a rapport. There are a great many reasons why some people just don't get along. Add on the fact that it really feels like busywork and yeah... It's not surprising that they finally axed HT.

I just hope they don't enforce "ministering" in the same way. I've heard it doesn't include numbers or reports so maybe it won't be as bad. I'm just glad I'm well and truly done with all the church BS; home teaching is one of the many things that I very much do not miss from my active days.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2018 11:21PM by oneinbillions.

You're the guy who's right.

When I had been inactive for a while, I had a friend from the ward as one of my VT. She had a partner who was a woman I didn't know, but I never thought I could tell them not to come and since one was my friend, I had them come. Then they wanted to change them and I said, "No." I told them that these women knew my story and I didn't want to get to know 2 new people. They went along with it.

It just so happened the second lady became one of my very good friends even if she is active mormon and I'm not. My other friend "VT" died 10 years ago on a day we were supposed to go to lunch.

I hated all the changing around and I always seemed to get those that nobody else liked when I first moved in the ward as all the other women would complain and I didn't dare.

You can help people--really help them--without delving into their private lives.

Mormon VT's and HT's and the new "ministers" are focused on what they can GET from people. Reactivating members, recruiting children, collecting money, drumming up free labor, being a "hero" and bringing sinners into the fold, etc. are self-serving, and ego-driven. These tasks are also carried out, just to get other Mormons off their backs.

It is NOT NECESSARY to spy and pry and manipulate and harass people. Mormons have no idea of what real charity is.

I think there's many valid points.

I became the dumping grounds when I returned from my mission. The EQP set me up with 1 active family and 4 or 5 that hadn't been attending in a long time. I worked hard to locate and establish a line of communication with my in-actives. I managed to build a relation of trust and even coordinate rides to church. No sooner did I get these people to start attending then the asshat HPGL pushed the EQP to have them reassigned to the HP's. Well that really pissed off these families. One of them even called the bishop to complain.

Surprise! When the two families went inactive, then the HPGL received another "revelation" to reassign them back to the EQ. (When I became ward clerk from the assistant membership clerk, this BS stopped for good!)

The other thing is that families should be able to request a particular person to HT-VT. My experience was that I "bumped" a longtime HT from an elite snobbish family. They made it clear from day one that they would not call me if they had an "emergency". So I was the last to know when the son had a soccer "mishap" and I was chewed out for not showing up at the hospital as their PH representative. After a couple months, I was relieved as their HT.