I’m hearing more members complain about how the church is being ran. The biggest complaint is a lack of activities. Many feel the church has become so boring the church is alienating it’s youth.
I agree with the lack of activities being a problem. But I remember something about the church leadership polling the members a few years ago, and the members at that point didn't care about activities. They wanted temples.
Whether or not that story is as I recall, the members are getting temples. Lots and lots of temples. Hope they enjoy them.
The bosses (at my organization) claim that employees would rather work on Saturdays than come in on a Holiday. So guess what's expected now? You had better be willing to work 6 days a week to get projects done.
I don't trust them.
I shared a ward in Arizona that has several campouts. I didn't hear anything about hiking, riding horses, canoeing, or boating. Everything was about testimony building. So they have learned that there can't be any type of church activity without some measurable spiritual activity.
I mean I would expect something to be churchy at some point if it was a church activity. Like lets pay Paintball for 2 hours and comeback and say "see you had faith that your team had your back just like Christ has our back if we have faith in him and that is how you win at life, now lets pray and eat some snacks and go home"
They went the other way. If I wanted a church and was still Mormon, I would be giving the eye to some of those mega churches. If I cared about doctrine over activities, I would be eye a Snuffer group
Mormon leaders seem to be labouring under the delusion that people want to sit through endless conferences. I'm aware, for example, that EQ nowadays does little but study conference talks. Anything else would be better including Mormon history (whitewashed) and scripture study. The talks themselves are so bland.
The current leader is, from my view, more self-absorbed than the few prior. So we get the prophet focus, the jesus rebrand(bathtub jesus logo), the garments are jesus, the veil is jesus and so on. See how Jesusy Rusty is.
And of course, the flow of money is key. Less money at the ward/stake level, funnel it all upstream where we'll dress it up as temples and token charity donations in the public eye.
Monson was already checked out when he took the helm so he didn't have much impact or anything to say really as he tipped over sideways at the pulpit.
Hinkley had a softer touch and could spin the public appearance in a folksy PR way. Without that soft touch, the hard edges of the dictatorship are just more and more apparent. The veneer of pleasantness has peeled itself away.
we weren't supposed to have "activities." Everything had to be based on their goals and I got in a trouble a few times for doing fun things with them like going to the festival of the trees. Once they got wind of me doing that, then all the girls wanted to go, but I got in trouble for stopping at a mall and they got pictures taken with Santa.
I asked to be released. My feeling was that they would lose the young girls as some of them were already rebelling and wanted to do fun things. If the leaders don't have a good relationship with the kids, then they do lose them.
This ward has been having a lot more activities this past year. I should know, I get the notes taped to my door. I'm surprised.
I have a fractured youth where the youth leaders promised to stop for late lunch or early dinner after a youth temple trip. Keep in mind, the temple was 2.5 to 3 hours one way depending on traffic and how fast Brother Blowhard would drive. Blowhard loved to hear himself sing LDS hymns and he was so out of it that he didn't pay attention to slow moving trucks. Remember the days of agriculture trucks moving in the slow lane with onions and tomatoes poking along at 40-45 mph? Yep, our temple caravan would be going that slow. Made a long day.
On the way back home from dead dunkings, Blowhard was pissed. Could it have been the non-stop gabbing of three boys who played "How would survive a third level nuclear war" game? Maybe he was pissed with the Mia Maids pulling each others' hair and bullying nerdy looking girls in their group.
I just remember that my mom's idea of a great youth temple trip was grabbing an apple and banana from a fruit bowl and shoving me out the door. That was breakfast and lunch. And then my mom would give me a dollar and round up some crummy coins (tainted with certs). I had to make do with 1.75 for McD's burger and small fries.
On this trip, Blowhard decided that we would not stop at fast food, only a gas station. While we booed and moaned. He pulled to the side of the freeway and told us to shut up or we would remain parked until we settled down. He would start singing until we became quiet morgbots. Blowhard reminded us that fasting was so good for our minds and souls. That's how the youth leaders broke their promise and failed to keep their word. They would tell our parents one thing, then renege on their words.
At the service station, we were told not to exit the car. We were in the full service lane. This was not a convenience store, but a gas station where service attendants pumped your gas. Two girls bailed out, one had her skirt flop upside. Yeah, she was in a hurry and didn't seem bothered that we all saw what young boys should never see. They entered in the small office to buy chips and 7-up. The gas attendant was hopping around pumping gas.
Blowhard paid. He looked over at the girls and honked once. He made an announcement. "We're leaving and I told them not to get out of the car." Yes, we drove off. They were yelling to stop and Blowhard kept going. One of the girls flipped us off as we all looked back in dismay.