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You want more clarity from the church so the members can question it and pick it apart like they are doing with everything now?

What happened to separation of church and state?

It took living the Midwest to realize how under utilized our church buildings are. We use them on Sundays, and on mutual night, but the rest of the week they sit there empty. Other congregations actually USE their buildings during the week. Getting people IN the church for other community events might be a great ice breaker for further questions into what we really believe. Why do you think missionaries give investigators “tours” of the church during the week?

Who paid for the polls?

Conner, I’m in CA and we had a threat against us, so now on Sundays & any other time the doors are locked. Always someone watching the doors and opening them for Saints & visitors. It’s sad it’s come to this.

Haha. Shared dislike of Romney!! Haha

Where are they piloting hosting co-ops? My stake has been ridiculous about letting me use the building to do service projects and parties whenever it involves homeschool. The handbook even specifies no homeschoolers…. Where can we give feedback when they are piloting things like this?

Instead of shutting down kitchens in temples and churches, use them to cook good quality meals for the poor. Have paid positions such as cooks and servers, and buy a fleet of food trucks that get meals to the community. Have the trucks say" Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." They could do this on a global scale in time, and i would assume would be an effective missionary tool. Also, encourage health and fitness. The church could provide farmers the opportunity to sell or donate organic food, we have a health crisis in our country. Big pharma and the food industry are causing much harm to our country. The church should be sharing truth and awareness to its members. Conner brought up many great ideas. Well done, i will be sharing this.

BINGO!

A farmers market I have been wanting to set up like a produce exchange for awhile.

The church explicitly allows chapels to be used for organ instruction by private teachers, who need not be members of the church. Those instructors are allowed to charge for their services when utilizing church facilities. There is a precedent for allowing some of these uses, even involving a transfer of funds. I think the requirement for the other groups to have bring-your-own-liability-insurance is a great idea to de-risk the most common concerns. Hopefully more people see this and look for opportunities to move this thinking forward.

Good video. So true and such a problem in the church. I see this only getting worse in the future

Thank you for such a great presentation of insights. I took a recent "LDS Tour" and it was excellent. We did go to the third floor. Emphasis was spiritual things. Even sang "Spirit of God" together as part of the tour. True, there was not Q&A but it's understandable that these sister missionaries cannot be expected to be Kirtland experts after a few months of receiving a call to serve. I did have a few simple questions but there was never a time for Q&A. They are probably trying to tactfully avoid a scene by those with thoughts and feelings that would interrupt the spirit of the tour. Total understandable.

Our ward activity leaders are out of this world amazing at what they do in creating community. I will say that while they magnify their calling in that sphere, I agree with you, Connor, on other needs like homeschool groups or more service. It’s one thing to create fun in the community, it’s another to teach skills and serve. I really wish the church would offer more educational support to families. Public schools are awful

Our ward holds a game night once a month. When our ward time changes and we meet last in the building we have a potluck the last Sunday of the month. The youth meet every Wednesday for basketball/volleyball/dodgeball with the missionaries. Our normal activity day is Tuesday. I feel like our ward building is used fairly extensively. Currently we have one every three months. The issue here is that we are so spread out that it makes it difficult to meet more often. We live in the suburbs of Charlotte NC. Membership is growing but we are still very far apart. Our ward boundaries are probably 60 sq miles.

Sounds good however we need professional building cleaning again as we had years ago. I think members cleaning up after these type of events and uses is not appropriate.

Jacob Hansen did a great video on interest groups at the stake level.

Yup, church used to be 4 hours in 2 meeting times (split). We had road-shows and MIA and the church was used nearly every night of the week for something. Now church is 2 hours and there's no MIA or even scouts... it's a real joke now. So, just go get the jab and if your local government tells you to close the church and stay home the prophet will say "here here!" ... but keep paying your tithing and STFU, k?

Over the 49 years that I have been a member, getting access to the cultural hall, has been met with resistance from local leaders. I've been refused permission to hold activities where non members would be involved, because, for instance, "we have no insurance" or "they would be unlikely to have our standard of behaviour...ie Cussing etc. A group of kids in the ward asked me to lobby the Bishop on their behalf, to use the hall, as they wanted to get a band together. The Bishop almost rent his garments at the thought. One thing they could be used for would be "Home Schooling", if there was a demand in the locale.

The Church was banned from have a K-12 church school system as part of the 1896 deal to get statehood. Along with get rid of Polygamy, end the United Order, and stripping women of the right to vote... before 1890, The Presbyterians and Episcopalian churches created public education (free!) as a way to destroy the faith of the kids and uproot them from the LDS Church and Gospel. Free schooling sounded better to the LDS members, than having to pay a modest sum to the Ward school for educating their kids.

Those statistics of young adults vs married vs living at home are shocking. Alot has changed in 40 years. I need to update some of my "assumptions".

My son and his missionary companion recently put on a very successful pickleball tournament in their culture hall. Most of the people who came were not members and they had a good time. It was cheap and easy. Unfortunately, when I was homeschooling my kids, the church specially forbid the use of the buildings for homeschool activities, while simultaneously opening them up for other testing services. So wrong!

Kwaku talked about how the youth is starved for cheap entertainment

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Do you guys seriously think you have a prophet? You church is baptising transgenders. Your church is losing 50% of its youth. Russel Vaxxineilsen removed scouts, home teaching and demonised Jan 6ers. You better follow his example and get vaccinated.

The oven can not be used to cook because it's only meant for reheating precooked food. I don't know why, but perhaps someone else in the comments can explain it to me.

Back to School as it was started by the church 150-170 years ago in Utah. Public education was brought to Utah around 140 years a go to destroy faith and has succeeded after a 100 years.

My mom has bought beautiful new suits, shoes and dresses for her Grest Grandchildren that she has taken to church since they were babies. Recently, she approached the RS asking if they could do a clothing exchange table. The answer was No. I understand everyone is so busy, but what your wife did was a much needed Godsend to many Parents. Sending this idea, in a 60 sec. Clip to my 90 yr. Old Mom. Thanks ❤

The Gym thing would be a huge liability. I guess they could sign a paper like the rest of the activities that they’re not liable.

Many ill informed comments here about this subject and about what the church isn’t or should be doing. We have quite a bit of local autonomy and yet we still desire to live the lower law and be commanded in all things. We are agents that should act and not be acted upon. We are not much different than the earlier version of the children of Israel. Higher and holier should mean just that. BTW - before ranting on about building usage, please read and think about the entire Handbook 35.5. Section.

The Church house is no longer the center of our worlds. My brother noticed it years ago when the youth were too busy to come to YM/YW. The high achievers were too busy with football, dance, and piano. Their parents didn't consider YM/YW a priority. (The biggest connect I have had in my ward this year was when I cleaned the building one Saturday morning. And I still think it is a terrible policy, because the same people who are there all week long are the same ones there on Saturday morning. As a young leader I became resentful, because it was the only downtime I had at home. Now as an old person, it is the highlight of my year?!?) The leaders are overwhelmed and putting in their time, but there is no comaraderity. "Our 2 hours a week are enough". I think the churchhouse should be focus of our world and not our cellphones.

In my area we invite the community to a women’s physical activity like Zumba, yoga, and strength training and hold it up to 5 days a week. Many regulars to Zumba are not even members of the LDS church. We support each other and look forward to gathering together. We’ve been doing this for over 4 years now. It’s free for all and even have a food donation box that we regularly donate to the community.

Frankly I think Nelson has been more worried about outshining GBH’s legacy than actually building Zion and keeping us Mormons a light to the world. We now seem to be working hard to be a mere reflection of the world rather than a source of light amidst the darkness.

I wonder if all these creative people that I see popping up--both young and old, could have an an outlet where music, dance groups and/or films/video/showings of humorous sketches, drama, etc. have a Creative Talent night once a month. It is unbelievable the creative ability that is manifesting in this generation seems to be going to waste. The whole family and singles would enjoy something like that I am sure. My daughter has made some that are hilarious and I know that there are many others who could contribute.all kinds of talent.

It's all money and liability. The church stopped the basketball tournaments because of injuries

I think we are going through a period of adjustment, where we got used to having church-wide programs like scouting to fulfill a lot of our social needs. Maybe the answer now isn't that we need another program, But that each ward/stake needs to take more initiative to develop their own programs at a local level. We sometimes want the church to come up with some solution, But maybe that's kind of like asking the government to step in and help - it breeds dependence and may not be the best long-term solution. Also one thing that is underlying a lot of the social breakdown which you didn't mention at all, is the breakup of the extended family unit. Yes, people are a lot more lonely because many people live by themselves, But also people tend to isolate more when they don't have other family members around to hang out with at the activities. I think you'd find that if someone just has one close relative to go to an activity with, They are much more likely to go to that activity than if they are alone. In many ways, I see the Ward family as an imperfect substitute for the true family structure. If everyone's families were perfect and we had communities of our own families, The Ward social structure and everything becomes almost unnecessary. It seems to me like the family will be the structure that we have in heaven not wards and stakes. I think we need to be talking more about the importance of staying close to family. Not just getting married and having kids and the strong nuclear family, but also staying close to grandparents and cousins, which for most of history fulfilled the vast majority of our social needs. One thing about the family that is really important is that they are permanent. You are stuck with family through Good times and through the bad times, you can't just discard family members because you don't like them, at least not as easily as you can most friendships. The church has talked many times about the importance of wards being based on geographical boundaries because of the same effect - not being able to choose at will new social relationships forces people to commit to longer-term relationships. As we transition to more communities based on internet connections or long-distance travel, One of the downsides is that those relationships are also much more replaceable, which causes people to gravitate towards people that flatter them instead of people that are honest with them.

I think we got what we asked for. People not accepting callings or magnifying them. Complaining about all the effort to carry out good activities. The same people carrying all the load. Complaining that families were pulled in too many directions.

I agree that use of the building for more community things is a good idea. Unfortunately, I think a lot of our brothers and sisters think that every kind of activity and community thing needs to be top down rather than bottom up. So they wait for leaders to take the initiative, who themselves are already overextended in their own church/work/life balance. It’s almost like we need to have salaried positions for full time church employees to do these things at a similar level to what other churches do. One of the things that I have realized is that stuff like ministering and the old home teaching was really based on the assumption that you already know these people because they are your neighbors. Trying to force a friendship with someone you are assigned to is often difficult at best. Shared geography isn’t what binds people together outside the church anymore, so it tends not to in church, either. Having a ward be a ward family needs something more. Otherwise you attend church with people you’d never associate with under other circumstances, and it shows. Everyone feels like no one bothers to get to know them now, and you start to wonder why you worship with people who don’t have a real connection to you. I’ve wondered what it would look like if wards were based on voluntary association rather than geography. For example, would we have fewer wards, but larger in membership numbers? Or the opposite?

There's perhaps some insurance and LJAH issues... . but I hope we can see more of this.

Isaiah describes the Savior's second coming as he will make a man more precious than fine gold (from Ophir), whereas the church leaders we have now do just the opposite. They are far more interested in their vast wealth accumulation, gold or mammon, from collected tithing funds than they are in actually aiding in the well being of tithe payers in any way, or members in general. Their elitist attitudes can even be seen in the management of church buildings. Us lowly members have to clean the buildings weekly to save more money for them to invest our tithes in ever more Apple stock for their slush fund, while denying us lowly members any use of these same buildings outside of their prescribed meetings. It is almost as if the communists are running the church now.

Cultural halls are used for the most part anymore for a once a month youth activity(maybe) or ward Halloween party and Christmas party! Funerals family meal gathering, and That’s about it. Scout program is gone. Major MAJOR disappointment, YW program changed and no longer benefits the YW. Now the youth are not being taught skill sets to becoming an adult, I grew up with Roadshows, big ward parties, basketball seasons, weekly youth activists/use of the gym etc. but the dynamics of the church and family has changed dramatically today. Roadshows would be very difficult to pull off today, life if must faster, busy, work and other non church social/sports events are taking over and a larger drain on the adults time. The dad/mom/ 3-6 kids is no longer the norm, but single parent single child families. I don’t see anyway where roadshows would work today, but as far as the youth go, the church is losing them. Todays stats show that by the time they become adults, the church has lost over 50% of those youth. And probably 25% out of the remaining 50% are much less active. Church seems to be heading down a dangerous road of extreme loss! Leaders today can’t expect the kids to want to work on service and or testimony building week after week, they need socializing and fun. Don’t even bring in the covid experience and how the church handled that😡😡🥲

One change that has taken place is that we now have (certainly in some areas) is that we have multiple wards meeting in the same building. When you have four five (from possibly two or more stakes) and perhaps more wards meeting in the same building it becomes less conducive for cultural activities, So unless they combine activities which could be an option, the cultural hall has many demands on its time without much actual utility of use. Ten kids can really rattle around in a cultural hall without much actual utility.

Two issues we see in Indiana are 1. Getting permission only to be denied via church attorney and 2. Faculty management. Our adult singles and young singles fhe groups had to change from using the chapel on Mondays to be hosted by a member in their home.

Our ward in North Las Vegas used to have activities for the ward in our cultural hall such as a ladies workout class every morning. They were quite popular. There weren’t any non member activities, but it was a beginning.

AMEN! We have beautiful chapels here all over AZ, but it is locked during the weekdays. Once a while, they have youth mutual activities. But, mostly it is locked! Especially here in AZ, 4 and half months are over 100 degrees even at 9 pm. All the youth and adults are settled at home because it is too hot to be outdoors. The church building will serve great places for the people to hangout and connect with each others. But, that will never happen!

The solution is let God choose the apostles, you know like Jesus did. Were any of the current apostles were nominated by God? The prophet Joseph received copious revelation from God. Saith the Lord”… “. Not let’s get together and we hammer it out until we sign off and call it inspiration.

For years my wife operated several preschools for low income children. One of the preschools was located in a small United Church of Christ from which she rented a number of rooms during the week. There were less than 100 active members of that church and they welcomed the modest rent money that they received from the preschool. In addition to the rent money, it was just as important to their membership to utilize their church building for the good of the community. This little church allowed a number of community groups to use their building as a meeting place. A real example of the Christ-like service. I often thought that we were missing an opportunity to bless our community by simply opening our buildings as a gathering place for deserving organizations and activities. Either Church leadership lacks imagination regarding this issue (doubtful) or the church attorneys have raised objections due to liability issues (probable). In either case I think that we may be missing out on an opportunity to bless our community as well as our members.

Where I grew up, we had a dance hall. It was built to have a bouncy floor and a dance was held every weekend. Now... TV has taken over entertainment and every time anyone plans a consistent activity the attendance drops to practically no one attending.

Trump 2024

who gives a crap?? obviously, the mormon church doesn't. today's kids have their own jungle in which they must fight to survive. years ago, we had our own particular jungle in which we had to fight to survive. and since, according to today's mormon leaders, today's kids are supposed to be so "special" and "reserved" for this day and age prior to the 2nd coming , these kids obviously have the tools they brought with them needed to win the battles of their age. today's kids have exactly the culture they need........it's called "opposition in all things" and the mormon church can go on amassing its huge fortunes without the unnecessary expenditures of former traditions. kids today have sabrina carpenter, taylor swift , and many other talented cultural icons who give them uplifting joy , and entertainment . so, culturally, what more could possibly be needed ??