Part 1: What About Our Culture is Holding Us Back? | An Interview with Ryan Gottfredson

[@JPBotero717]

It is so great we have scholars and experts in the church. Thank you Kurt for all your 800 episodes and 10 years of leading

[@MrAaronCard]

Great discussion. Might I caution, a seperate (local) purpose, mission, vision just means we get a whole bunch of different churches (i.e. Utah-ites, Boston-ites, etc.)

[@LeadingSaints]

This is an intriguing question. What would be the downside of having more customized visions?

[@karlj4man]

Great point! I have grappled with the same question. It seems like there is inherent tension built into our church structure with our top-down leadership colliding with our understanding of personal autonomy/agency/personal revelation. If church is mostly SLC driven, I lose my personal autonomy. If it’s all personal driven, we start to lose coherent church structure. Having said that, a Boston ward vision needs to look different than a SLC ward vision because the environment and people are different. From my perspective, if the two wards have nearly identical visions, both wards are probably missing the needs of their members. They are simply regurgitating a vision that somebody else handed them.

[@MrAaronCard]

@@karlj4man I agree with you. A ward in Africa (or Boston) is going to be different than a ward in SLC. I would argue, however, this difference is in the "how" and not the "what". We are given a Mission and Vision from God through his prophet codified as 'Live, Care, Share, Unite'. The prophet, through the priesthood keys he holds, is the only one on Earth who can reveal that. However, stake presidents, bishops, branch presidents, etc. also hold priesthood keys and they have the latitude to determine the how. Thus, we are in alignment with God and we get the opportunity to develop Christlike virtues through the righteous use of our agency.

[@MrAaronCard]

@@LeadingSaints We may fall out of alignment with God's prophet and priesthood keys. A real life example I have experienced is that many are resistant to "home centered, church supported" by increasing the emphasis on youth programs (church) through exercises like creating visions rather than allowing young men and young women leaders to develop ministering in the home. Members are rejecting the shift to home-centeredness and instead following after the 'foolish traditions of their fathers'. I have seen them turn away from God and look toward the institution of the Church for salvation. During our most recent stake conference, Elder DeFeo cited the specific practice of creating visions as something to avoid for the reason of creating multiple churches and disconnecting from the prophet's priesthood keys. There was a time that I was all in on creating missions and visions as I use them all the time in my professional live. They are essential. In a church context though the vision and mission have already been created and anything we come up with will pale in comparison. Our responsibility as leaders is to reconcile ourselves to it and help others do the same (IMHO). Thanks for all you do!

[@karlj4man]

@@MrAaronCard Great points. My understanding of our own theology is that the point of our sojourn is to become more like our Heavenly Parents. Do they want subjects or do they want friends? If they want compliant subjects, then the point of the church is to have members become as obedient as possible to every policy, instruction, and commandment as directed by leaders. If they want friends, I believe that the point of church looks different. The expectation that leaders will give us all necessary instruction feels to me like a garden of Eden existence.