I think you both bring up interesting points. With regard to the question of Kirtland–I understand the practicality of what you’re saying, Tom. Tough times lead to tough decisions. To me it all seems to come back to stewardship. How do each of us best steward our resources. Yes, of course we are called to give God 100% of who we are and what we have…but how we do that matters. I don’t know that there are one size fits all answers, but I do know that staying in tune with the Spirit is critical…and only the Spirit has the big enough picture to direct how, where, and with whom we serve, and how we make those decisions. What we have to do is listen well…and risk the adventure.

Is your questions rhetorical or an honest proposal. Either way, I think my response is a couple questions. What does the Lord require of us? What would you give for the sake of Zion?

Matt

Let me refer you to a quote from Pres. Veazey’s Defining Moment sermon. The context is Veazey saying that he realizes that a lot of younger people are frustrated with the slow pace of congregational life in response to mission and with the lack of opportunities to lead and serve as they feel called. (Good insight and I applaud him for recognizing that). Veazey responds with “let me say the church needs the insights and gifts of all ages to be healthy…” and shortly thereafter says, “young adults, the church needs you. We need you now. We need you to help us become who we are all yearning to become.”

What concerns me is this pattern…”we know we haven’t…but the church needs you.” What always comes through to the youth/young adults who are disaffected is WE (the church) NEED not YOU NEED, and YOU HELP us, not WE HELP you to be your best. The first step is to learn to minister without expecting something in return for the church. The point is not to reach the youth and young adults so that they can prop up the church’s ministry. The point is to serve them as we are (each is) called and to help them serve others as they are called.
Veazey says that young adults don’t have an opportunity to live their calling yet asks them to be patient, to sacrifice, so that the church can benefit from the young adults. I’m exaggerating with the analogy but I want to be clear…it’s like Jesus saying, “My mission is too important for me to get up on that cross,” so we need some disciples to do it. And through their sacrifice, the mission can go on and everyone will be better.
Now, obviously there is a place for sacrifice…but what I’m talking about is moving from thinking about what the church needs (the church needs young adults), to what the young adults need (the young adults need to know that they are loved and supported, they need people to support them in ministry, and they need resources to discover and live God’s greatest desire for them) –by the way…this holds true for any age group or culture. I don’t think we disagree on the intention here, but I question the logistics of how this approached because every time I hear about a new effort, like the effort I’ve heard being talked about for evangelists to focus on youth and young adult blessings AND to include the congregation in the blessing preparation, still continues to come across as lets get the young adults involved in congregational life (congregations need young adults, the church needs young adults), not what do young adults need and based on what they need is the congregation the best vehicle for offering that? It’s like the assumption is that the more the congregation is involved with young adults and vice versa, the better things are. I don’t think that holds true, although in some cases it may. In the evangelist blessing example you’re talking about it seems like what is intended is to get the congregation involved in the life of the young adult, presumably so that the young adult feels connected but also so that the young adult is more a part of the congregation.
The danger that I see in trying to get congregations more involved in individual’s blessings that it seems to perpetuate the notion that (a) the best place for youth and young adults to have this support is the congregation, and (b) it destroys the significance of the individual blessing as a individual sacrament not based primarily on relationship to the church as institution. Community is important and we have community sacraments, like communion, baptism, confirmation. But we also tend to talk about community as congregation, rather than recognizing, respecting, and supporting church people involved in communities that are not congregations. It feels like it doesn’t count as ministry unless a congregation is sponsoring it. We’re counseled in D&C to generously share the sacraments…most of the people who need sacraments in the world don’t belong to congregations in our church…they also will probably not be receptive to a congregation participating in their blessing or a blessing that promotes ties to our church. But, I have, for lack of a better word “brokered” a number of blessing for young adults who needed a blessing from an evangelist but weren’t called to be a part of our church. We can’t reach them as congregations…we can reach them as individual people.
As for point a.: In cases where the young adult and evangelist feel that it is appropriate for the congregation to participate in some way in support of the young adult blessing, there is already enough freedom for this to be done. The congregation that knows an individual is pursuing a blessing can intentionally pray for the individual, throw a party, etc. So, coming up with a specific congregational meeting to do this, as is what my understanding of what is being talked about in the evangelist example, doesn’t make any sense to me. If doing so is appropriate, making it a new initiative beyond just saying “Hey evangelists, if this is appropriate and your young adult wants to do it…feel free,” seems redundant…the freedom already exists to do it. And in the cases where the congregation is not the appropriate group to spend more resources participating in the individual blessing, it can cause harm. Here’s what I mean…we make the mistake of presuming that the congregation is the primary or ideally should be the primary community. It may not be. Maybe the young adult wants to invite three or four college buddies to participate in preparation for the blessing who have no affiliation with our church. Maybe the young adult doesn’t want anyone to know about the blessing (I facilitated one with a non-church friend of mine whose parents are Muslim and who would not have approved). Putting an evangelist or young adult (or people in a congregation) in that situation who don’t want it may cause harm either by what does happen through that…or cause harm by the opportunity cost…the preparation that needs to be done or a group that needs to be met with that is not a congregation that isn’t done because resources are spent to get the young adult to participate with the congregation and vice versa. The evangelist example is just an illustration of the larger pattern that I’m concerned about.
One of the things that Veazey says that is really good is, “we want to explore models of ministry, mission, and leadership to open more doors for your participation,” and I think this heartfelt and genuine and one that is supported with the best of intentions from ministers and members throughout the church. And this is a truly WONDERFUL thing. Our church people do an amazing job of caring about the youth and young adults as best they are able. Rather than finding ways to involve them in young adults and engage young adults in church, free them and help them discover how they are each called to serve and to minister.

If you’ve had a chance to read Matt’s paper “We, Children of the Temple…” in Theology 14: Religion and Public Life, look at the next chapter in the same volume “Growing the Church to Impact Public Life.”

Boy, that sounds 19th century, but I guess I’m okay with that.

“President Steve Veazey is aware that in some cultures of the world, it is expected for the leader of the organization to take responsibility for people losing their jobs. During a staff meeting held at the Temple and webcast on the Internet on April 8 he said, “Since our staff is listening all over the world, I want to accept that responsibility as the president of the church. I need to say that today to all of our staff throughout the world. I take responsibility for the financial condition of the church, and I am deeply sorry for those who will lose their employment. It is a personal pain, we apologize for it, and I will carry it as a burden in the days ahead.”

Since I’m not from one of those cultures, I want to say that none of this is Steve’s fault and it is not a burden that should be borne by anyone. These financial declines are rooted in decades-long trends in membership (particularly leadership numbers) that are controlled within the larger cultural setting and are immune to ANYTHING that does or does not occur within the church itself.

The future of the church is being decided outside of the church, and the only thing that the church can do to matter is LET their people go and give generously WHEREVER God is prophetically calling them to affect that future. The institution is expendable for the sake of the kingdom and the souls who will and do inhabit it.

Having known both Steve and Dave for over 25 years, I keenly sense anew their shared roots and wings combination that allows someone like myself to listen and follow and feel called.

Matt, your last two sentances were very powerful – I don’t think I have ever heard this stated quite this way, but is something I have believed most of my life.

Ultimately, I can’t imagine any Christian faith community NOT believing that following the teachings of Christ is the most important thing. I know a great many non-Christians who treat things I regard at the core of Christ’s mission and teachings as the central elements of their lives. But the Body of Christ is nothing less than a planetary civilization (and actually a lot more).

The prophetic involves hearing the Spirit about how, who with, and in what manner one dies to give that planetary civilization and the souls who exist within it new life. Blending the differences in what we each bring to that task in personality, understandings of how the world works, and our own gifts and limits is where the prophetic task starts.