Okay, I’m not really a prophetess. But I am a super good critic of Church programs, as I found the other day when reading some old blog posts. Back in 2012, I used the words “church-supported family gospel study” to describe my wish for a church-wide gospel study program for Seminary coordinated with Sunday School, right here on my blog.
Readers of this blog (I know — it’s just me) also know I *heavily* promoted having daily assigned reading for Seminary students and did little studies to try and persuade others to adopt the practice because it made teaching so easy and effective. Now reading is required for Seminary graduation church-wide.
On the Sunday after they announced the simplification of ministering, I was in ward council and noted that this was the first time in my adult life the Church had actually simplified a program, but that Church programs could not truly be “simplified” until we dropped Scouting. Boom.
I also mentioned to the Bishop, who asked me what other changed I thought might come about during tithing settlements, that with changes to the youth program and given our history of temple worship (it used to be that any baptized member could perform baptisms for the dead — you didn’t need to wait until age 12), younger kids could be invited to attend the temple. Check.
As YWP, it took me about a year and a half to realize that the YW program was hopelessly broken and the only hope would be to scrap it and start over. I had no notion that it could actually happen, but it definitely needs to be done. (My best friend from college is serving as a YWP right now, and she is melting down and having almost identical struggles to mine — it’s been only 3-4 months. It’s the program that’s bad. It’s devouring women.)
I didn’t guess earlier ordinations or the change to all-at-once ordination, and I didn’t really think two hour church was going to be a thing, but if you need your church system analyzed and a solution proposed, I’m your girl.
Just call me Deborah.
