I wrote this for another thread, but it is buried deep and I thought some of you may be interested in this:

L Tom Perry came and visited our stake a couple about 3 years ago.

In so doing after meeting with the stake presidency on Saturday he came back with a bunch of goals (mandates) written on a napkin from his hotel room.

This included a list of 8 or so things that they stake was supposed to accomplish within the next year - it was all packaged as a "rescue".

The goals were ridiculous and unattainable. Of course they came from an "apostle of the Lord" so the stake presidency has spent the last 3 years stressed out trying to attain these goals. They have often been overbearing and annoying the the rest of the stake - but they see it as necessary to fulfill the mandate of an apostle.

This is not unique to our stake - L Tom Perry has been going around doing this all over the place. He does tailor the goals the the current stats of each stake.

Some of the goals as I can remember them:
Increase home teaching percentage to 72%
100 convert baptisms in the next year
Increase sacrament meeting attendance to X%
Increase the number of temple recommend holding member by X
Increase the number of active Melchizedek priesthood holders by X (with the ideas they would bring their families along)
There were 2-3 other goals but I can't remember them.

L Tom Perry's way he expected this to happen is that every active member of the stake was supposed to spend a minimum of 6 hours a week helping with the "rescue" effort - the bishops & stake presidents and such weren't supposed to have to spend any extra time. The high council was supposed to be the big catalyst to make all this happen.

The only thing that actually changed was the stake presidency realigned all the ward boundaries after 2 years of not have any success and not knowing what else to do.

Home teachers could stand to show up more. They only have to do it once a month and many are downright pathetic about visiting people, at least in my old ward.

It annoys me when church leaders (which are usually Amway types) set goals (which are usually unrealistic) for the members to reach. They usually come with very little instructions...just state what the end result needs to be.

I saw this done repeatedly in our wards. Fortunately most of the members just ignored it, but a few overzealous types would go gungho and then crash and feel like crap when they were unable to accomplish what the church leaders said they would.

I also dislike goals that have an end result that is out of my control. I can have a goal to baptize 10 people, but unless THEY agree to being baptized, I'm sol.

They forget that others have free agency. That is why it looks even more like a pyramid scheme. There is a lot of pressure to force others down a path they don't want to go so that you can meet your quota.

BTW, I have a personal letter from L Tom Perry. He thanked me for the work I did on the music for a regional PH leadership meeting. That particular meeting combined with an experience with GA on my mission showed me that the church work was nothing more than a business sales pitch. Meetings with GAs chastising "volunteer" workers was a definate turn off for me.

This type of goal-setting is for corporations, not churches. In the NT parable of the gospel being like a seed, sometimes it survives and flourishes in good soil, other times it is eaten or discarded or choked by weeds.

You can't "manage" the spreading of the gospel. A real church knows this and doesn't measure its success via metrics.

L Tom Perry is a genius, just like most MORmON ASSpostHOLES,
just like Gordon B.S. Hinckley was a genius !

phttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSUWHvpev4