New youth program

[bsjkki]

New information on youth programs. 

“President M. Russell Ballard, the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, will lay out the new initiative to replace those programs in a broadcast on Sept. 29, according to a letter sent Monday to general authorities and officers of the church and local leaders around the world. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will host a Face to Face broadcast about "Children and Youth" on Nov. 17.

"The principles taught in this effort for children and youth represent a higher, holier way to encourage the rising generation to follow Jesus Christ and apply his gospel in all areas of their lives," the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles say in a statement in a guidebook to the program. "This major effort will include gospel learning, the privilege of service, personal development, and exciting activities."

www.deseretnews.com/article/900080061/church-replacement-for-boy-scouts-personal-progress-lds-mormon.html

”A website has been published for leaders in preparation for the change at ChildrenandYouthLeaders.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. The site includes an introductory guide for parents and another for children and youth. Both guides are available only in English.

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by bsjkki

[webbles]

I get access denied when I try and view those links on the church website.  Maybe only leaders can view them?

[bluebell]

Did they tell us anything new?

 

[bluebell]

Did they tell us anything new?

 

[LoudmouthMormon]

I gotta say, I was hoping for some names with a little more zing to it then "children and youth".   Like Moroni's Maurauders, or the Righteous Girls's Standards Brigade, or something.  Anything, actually.

[Nofear]

2 hours ago, bluebell said:

Did they tell us anything new?

There is some emphasis on localization.
The For the Strength of Youth conferences which have been held mostly outside of the US, Canada, and Europe will be available there as well.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/youth/fsy?lang=eng&_r=1

It is possible these are the intended replacements for scout camp and young women camp ... but that is rather speculative and not clear at all.

[Nofear]

Oh, also, the 5th Sunday, Sep 29, is supposed to be the introduction to the membership as a whole during the 2nd hour. Also listed on that date is a broadcast "Children  and  Youth:  A  Special  Broadcast  Featuring  President  M.Russell Ballard". Whether an evening thing or a prerecorded thing to replace the 2nd hour I don't know.

Early October: "A  notice will  be  sent  to  leaders with  additional  information  on  uniformity  and adaptation and name changes for activities and meetings."

Nov. 17: "Children and Youth: A Face to Face Event with Elder Gerrit W. Gong"

Edited July 18, 2019 by Nofear

[Amulek]

I was able to log in and review the PDF for parents. It appears to be a high-level overview of what the program is about - not necessarily a bunch of details about how to actually go about implementing the program or anything (though, admittedly, I just kind of glanced through it). I'm sure more is to come.

Oh yeah, at the end it does mention that mobile, web, and print resources will be made available. The new app will be called "Gospel Living" and appears to not yet be available on the Google Play Store; don't have an iPhone, but you can search for "Gospel Living (Church of Jesus Christ)" if you want and see if anything pops up (though I assume the app won't be published until the fall). 

The website is up, but I don't think it's really new. You can access it here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/youth/childrenandyouth?lang=eng

The leaders section has some links to introductory information, a schedule of upcoming events/info releases/language availability info, and some brief details about some of the things that are staying (and some that are going). 

There's a Beta Test link as well, so that may give you an idea of the direction they plan on going with the site in the future.

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Amulek

[ksfisher]

2 hours ago, LoudmouthMormon said:

I gotta say, I was hoping for some names with a little more zing to it then "children and youth".   Like Moroni's Maurauders, or the Righteous Girls's Standards Brigade, or something.  Anything, actually.

The names need to be able to translate into every language that members of the church speak.

[Nofear]

1 hour ago, Amulek said:

There's a Beta Test link as well, so that may give you an idea of the direction they plan on going with the site in the future.

The beta test appears just to be a different layout of currently available programs and information.

[HappyJackWagon]

2 hours ago, Nofear said:

Oh, also, the 5th Sunday, Sep 29, is supposed to be the introduction to the membership as a whole during the 2nd hour. Also listed on that date is a broadcast "Children  and  Youth:  A  Special  Broadcast  Featuring  President  M.Russell Ballard". Whether an evening thing or a prerecorded thing to replace the 2nd hour I don't know.

Early October: "A  notice will  be  sent  to  leaders with  additional  information  on  uniformity  and adaptation and name changes for activities and meetings."

Nov. 17: "Children and Youth: A Face to Face Event with Elder Gerrit W. Gong"

Does this strike anyone else as a little odd/funny?

It reminds me of TV shows or movies that list the actors and then at the end has a special "Featuring Tom Cruise" or "Special Appearance by Angela Lansbury". It seems a little grandiose and when I see those things I always wonder about the actor's agent who negotiated the "featuring" or "Special Appearance" credit.

Since when do church firesides/Broadcasts "Feature" apostles. Isn't that kind of the expectation?

General Conference: With Special Guest Stars, Pres. Russell M Nelson, Gerrit Gong and Dieter Uchtdorf.

Just feels like they're trying to Up the Hype.

[bluebell]

1 minute ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Does this strike anyone else as a little odd/funny?

It reminds me of TV shows or movies that list the actors and then at the end has a special "Featuring Tom Cruise" or "Special Appearance by Angela Lansbury". It seems a little grandiose and when I see those things I always wonder about the actor's agent who negotiated the "featuring" or "Special Appearance" credit.

Since when do church firesides/Broadcasts "Feature" apostles. Isn't that kind of the expectation?

General Conference: With Special Guest Stars, Pres. Russell M Nelson, Gerrit Gong and Dieter Uchtdorf.

Just feels like they're trying to Up the Hype.

To me it feels like they are telling everyone which apostle is going to be speaking/leading the discussion.  From my perspective there isn't anything hype-y or grandiose about the word 'featuring.' 

[HappyJackWagon]

30 minutes ago, bluebell said:

To me it feels like they are telling everyone which apostle is going to be speaking/leading the discussion.  From my perspective there isn't anything hype-y or grandiose about the word 'featuring.' 

Fair enough. We can disagree.

Quote

"Children  and  Youth:  A  Special  Broadcast  Featuring  President  M.Russell Ballard".

In support of your view, I think they overuse "special" so that it really doesn't mean a whole lot anymore even though I think they are truly suggesting that it is something more special than the usual. It seems we have "special" firesides, "special" meetings, "special" everything. And now it's "special" and "featuring" an apostle. Good times   

[cinepro]

42 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Does this strike anyone else as a little odd/funny?

It reminds me of TV shows or movies that list the actors and then at the end has a special "Featuring Tom Cruise" or "Special Appearance by Angela Lansbury". It seems a little grandiose and when I see those things I always wonder about the actor's agent who negotiated the "featuring" or "Special Appearance" credit.

Since when do church firesides/Broadcasts "Feature" apostles. Isn't that kind of the expectation?

General Conference: With Special Guest Stars, Pres. Russell M Nelson, Gerrit Gong and Dieter Uchtdorf.

Just feels like they're trying to Up the Hype.

And when there is a vacancy to be filled, they could add "...and introducing...Gerrit Gong as Apostle #15!"

[Calm]

14 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Fair enough. We can disagree.

In support of your view, I think they overuse "special" so that it really doesn't mean a whole lot anymore even though I think they are truly suggesting that it is something more special than the usual. It seems we have "special" firesides, "special" meetings, "special" everything. And now it's "special" and "featuring" an apostle. Good times   

In the past firesides have had the feel for me as intended for a certain limited audience, whether this was intended or not. Or it was considered a nice, but not necessary attendance kind of event.

“Special” for some reason signals to me they intend this for everyone as they are trying to attract people’s attention. 

I do agree using it frequently diminishes effectiveness. 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Calm

[bluebell]

31 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Fair enough. We can disagree.

In support of your view, I think they overuse "special" so that it really doesn't mean a whole lot anymore even though I think they are truly suggesting that it is something more special than the usual. It seems we have "special" firesides, "special" meetings, "special" everything. And now it's "special" and "featuring" an apostle. Good times   

I see the use of special to mean "out of the ordinary" and having one of the Apostles lead a broadcast on a 5th Sunday seems pretty out of the ordinary and more special than the normal 5th Sunday lessons.  Have they ever done it before?

But yes, I agree, it is good times.  

[Amulek]

50 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

It seems we have "special" firesides, "special" meetings, "special" everything.

I've certainly sat through my fair share of "special" musical numbers that were anything but...  

[blueglass]

From what I can tell there is no program(s) replacing scouting.  There is no replacement youth program.  It's just mutual like usual 2 weeks/mo and the other 2 weeks the program was dropped.  Home based activities.

[bluebell]

4 minutes ago, blueglass said:

From what I can tell there is no program(s) replacing scouting.  There is no replacement youth program.  It's just mutual like usual 2 weeks/mo and the other 2 weeks the program was dropped.  Home based activities.

So weekly activities two times a month instead of four?

[Traela]

7 minutes ago, bluebell said:

So weekly activities two times a month instead of four?

WhatI have heard is that there is to be a minimum of 2 activities per month.  Hopefully most wards would choose to continue with every week, unless time/distance concerns make it difficult.  If my ward decides to do only two per month, I am thinking of starting a Frontier girls group for the off weeks. 

[blueglass]

18 minutes ago, bluebell said:

So weekly activities two times a month instead of four?

Yes - will find the link where I read this and report back.

 

[blueglass]

13 minutes ago, Traela said:

WhatI have heard is that there is to be a minimum of 2 activities per month.  Hopefully most wards would choose to continue with every week, unless time/distance concerns make it difficult.  If my ward decides to do only two per month, I am thinking of starting a Frontier girls group for the off weeks. 

Each time I read a headline on DN about "new details" it reads like click bate to be honest.  The new program does not exist.  A guidebook will be released with general activity ideas like the church has in Spain and Brazil. 

"unlike previous programs, children and youth will “choose their own goals to help them grow spiritually, socially, physically and intellectually.”

Edited July 18, 2019 by blueglass

[bluebell]

10 minutes ago, Traela said:

WhatI have heard is that there is to be a minimum of 2 activities per month.  Hopefully most wards would choose to continue with every week, unless time/distance concerns make it difficult.  If my ward decides to do only two per month, I am thinking of starting a Frontier girls group for the off weeks. 

It’s an option right now in the handbook to do less than 4 activities a month if it’s better for ward dynamics, so I’m not sure how what you’ve described would be any different than how it is right now. 

As the Pres. who works with the laurels, I could get behind two activities a month because laurel schedules are so busy it’s really hard to do four. I could see how the younger girls could be better with more. 

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, blueglass said:

Each time I read a headline on DN about "new details" it reads like click bate to be honest.  The new program does not exist.  A guidebook will be released with general activity ideas like the church has in Spain and Brazil. 

"unlike previous programs, children and youth will “choose their own goals to help them grow spiritually, socially, physically and intellectually.”

I feel the same way. 

[Nofear]

New update. The For the Strength of Youth camps, modeled after EFY, will be multi-stake, biannual events starting in 2021/2022 (though quite a few stakes are part of a 2020 pilot). They will not replace young men and young women camps which are to be held as usual (though usual is different next year for the young men). Pilot stakes, however, are asked to skip treks next year.