Family Councils And Family Mission Plans: More Hastening

[bluebell]

No but that I am a project on a list, something that should be changed is.

 

Ok.  

[Yirgacheffe]

We held a "family council" twice a day nearly every single day when I was growing up--it was also known as Breakfast and Dinner.

Us too, breakfast councils were where tasks were assigned and reminders handed out, dinner was a recap of assignments recounting of the day and any new plans in need of being fit in.  Breakfast councils were more hurried and to the point, dinner ones were more lively at a relaxed pace.

[DragonLancer]

The main idea is the suggestion that immediate family members should consider themselves to be members of a Family Council, composed of their immediate family members, and that as members of that council they should counsel with each other about what to do when faced with major decisions. Details about where to meet and exactly when to meet would be up to each Family Council.

It's basically the type of Family Council I envision that we were all part of before we came here to live as mortals. Our parents presided over all of their children who would be coming here and we all discussed things together. Some of our grandparents may have also been in attendance, I think, but our more immediate parents were the ones who presided over all of their immediate children. Might as well start our own Family Councils now while we are here.

 

That is precisely what the visiting seventy used as an example, was the Council in Heaven as a family council.

[Boanerges]

As has been said, family councils themselves aren't new. I recall them being mentioned as far back as the 80s.

 

Our stake president has been encouraging us since late last year to have family mission plans. He has one and shared it with the stake at conference last fall. It is nothing spectacular, just ways in which his family decided they could be a little more proactive in reaching out to others. Their plan also included that each adult and the teen son would go out with the missionaries at least monthly, and our president says he actually goes out weekly (I believe he does). I think this may be a push coming through area authorities to stakes. Our missionaries have talked about it a couple times when they have come to dinner as well. Last month they shared the ward mission plan and tried to get us to commit to developing a family plan. Since such formality is not really our family's style, I respectfully declined. Besides, I'm not real big on "spreading the word" anyway, and my most successful missionary experiences have been when someone asked me about the church as opposed to me telling them without a request.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Boanerges

[Boanerges]

That would cool my friendship toward the person, from that time forward all invitations would be suspect.

 Bingo. And I know many of my friends (if it can be said I have many) who would feel exactly the same way - to the point that they might not want to be around me any more.

[The Nehor]

No but that I am a project on a list, something that should be changed is.

I have been a project. Fortunately I knew how much that person cared so it did not bother me. I think we are already too cloak and dagger and treat the gospel like we are going to break it if we show it to someone or that it is monstrously offensive and we have to sucker people in or they will run screaming.

[Boanerges]

I have been a project. Fortunately I knew how much that person cared so it did not bother me. I think we are already too cloak and dagger and treat the gospel like we are going to break it if we show it to someone or that it is monstrously offensive and we have to sucker people in or they will run screaming.

Good point, but there are plenty of people out there who believe that's exactly what we're trying to do. I recall a sacrament meeting talk a few months ago where the sister talked about her non-member friend in her previous ward. They had become very good friends, BBQs at each other's homes, play dates for the kids, etc. She decided it was time to give her a BoM, but when the time came for her to actually give it to her she got the distinct impress she shouldn't. A year or so later when they were moving here the friend told her how much she appreciated their friendship and how she had been warned by a neighbor that all she really wanted was to convert her. The neighbor told her she'd invite her to all kinds of things, give a BoM, the missionaries would happen to "be in the neighborhood" during a time when the families were together, etc., and as soon as they were rejected the friendship would end. The neighbor/friend told our ward member sister how wrong the other neighbor was and how much she appreciated her for not foisting her religion on them. There is more to the story, like the missionaries really being in the area and feeling like they shouldn't stop there that day, and so forth. BTW, the friend asked for a BoM when they moved (but has not joined the church yet).

 

As a side note, when I was inactive the last thing I wanted was an assigned friend or to be part of a project or program. Fortunately my leaders were wise enough (perhaps inspired enough) to know that and I wasn't - and those things are not what brought me back.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Boanerges

[rongo]

All of this "family council/family mission plan" stuff sounds to me like more of what President Packer calls the Church's tendency of "encapsulating into programs" or "programming" (he has been very outspoken against this for years). It seems to me like what President Benson referred to when he said that the more God has to spell out and command in all things, the less blessings we get as a people.

 

My family "councils/counsels" together all the time. We don't need to start having "regular family council." 

 

I think the whole "stake/ward/family mission plan" movement is akin to the proliferation of "mission statements" in businesses and organizations. It's trendy and in vogue, but it's just fluff, really. 

 

(I know, I know. I will be told in return that "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.")

[cinepro]

It's basically the type of Family Council I envision that we were all part of before we came here to live as mortals. Our parents presided over all of their children who would be coming here and we all discussed things together. Some of our grandparents may have also been in attendance, I think, but our more immediate parents were the ones who presided over all of their immediate children. Might as well start our own Family Councils now while we are here.

 

Sorry, but the idea that we were organized into our family units before we were born is absurd.

 

Sure, it works if you have a "traditional" family of two LDS parents who have some biological children.  But once you get outside of that cookie-cutter scenario, things get...weird.  Think of all the children who have been born out of wedlock, or as the result of rape or incest.  Did they have "family councils" in the pre-existence too?  If so, how awkward were those?

 

So then you would be saying that only certain families could have pre-mortal councils.  So there's a heavenly caste system where those going to traditional families get to sing, dance and council with them beforehand, whereas those being born into unconventional circumstances aren't allowed this benefit (in addition to all the struggles that await them in Earth life). 

 

It's a nice idea for some scenarios, but in general I'm not buying it.

Edited March 16, 2015 by cinepro

[Buckeye]

...  So there's a heavenly caste system where those going to traditional families get to sing, dance and council with them beforehand, whereas those being born into unconventional circumstances aren't allowed this benefit (in addition to all the struggles that await them in Earth life). 

 

It's a nice idea for some scenarios, but in general I'm not buying it.

 

I see that someone hasn't remembered his promise.

[The Nehor]

Sorry, but the idea that we were organized into our family units before we were born is absurd.

 

Sure, it works if you have a "traditional" family of two LDS parents who have some biological children.  But once you get outside of that cookie-cutter scenario, things get...weird.  Think of all the children who have been born out of wedlock, or as the result of rape or incest.  Did they have "family councils" in the pre-existence too?  If so, how awkward were those?

 

So then you would be saying that only certain families could have pre-mortal councils.  So there's a heavenly caste system where those going to traditional families get to sing, dance and council with them beforehand, whereas those being born into unconventional circumstances aren't allowed this benefit (in addition to all the struggles that await them in Earth life). 

 

It's a nice idea for some scenarios, but in general I'm not buying it.

Then you have people like me who have not found a spouse. Are my children up there yelling that mom is right in front of me and to get on with it?

[Ahab]

Sorry, but the idea that we were organized into our family units before we were born is absurd.

Sure, it works if you have a "traditional" family of two LDS parents who have some biological children. But once you get outside of that cookie-cutter scenario, things get...weird. Think of all the children who have been born out of wedlock, or as the result of rape or incest. Did they have "family councils" in the pre-existence too? If so, how awkward were those?

So then you would be saying that only certain families could have pre-mortal councils. So there's a heavenly caste system where those going to traditional families get to sing, dance and council with them beforehand, whereas those being born into unconventional circumstances aren't allowed this benefit (in addition to all the struggles that await them in Earth life).

It's a nice idea for some scenarios, but in general I'm not buying it.

No, you don't understand what I was talking about.

Our Father in heaven, the one we are usually referring to as our Father in heaven, is the Father of all of us who have ever been sent to this planet, or who will ever be sent here, and we are his children. Before we came here we had what can be called a Family Council meeting, with all of us meeting in council together. Even Satan, before he was sent down here. So even our Father's bad children attended our Family Council meeting, presided over by our one common Father. Our grandparents may have attended too, meaning the parents of our Father in heaven, but our most immediate Father presided over his immediate children because that was his responsibility as our Father, and his wife or wives, our Mother(s), presided with him.

It has been suggested that we form our own Family Councils now. No need to wait until we get to heaven. Our immediate children now will be our immediate children then too, at least as long as we are sealed together as family units.

[Tacenda]

All of this "family council/family mission plan" stuff sounds to me like more of what President Packer calls the Church's tendency of "encapsulating into programs" or "programming" (he has been very outspoken against this for years). It seems to me like what President Benson referred to when he said that the more God has to spell out and command in all things, the less blessings we get as a people.

My family "councils/counsels" together all the time. We don't need to start having "regular family council."

I think the whole "stake/ward/family mission plan" movement is akin to the proliferation of "mission statements" in businesses and organizations. It's trendy and in vogue, but it's just fluff, really.

(I know, I know. I will be told in return that "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.")

Feels like the church or some in it feel like the members are slacking, time to get them motivated or something. And through the years there's always something.

[rongo]

Feels like the church or some in it feel like the members are slacking, time to get them motivated or something. And through the years there's always something.

Without a doubt. I just don't like the "here's a new program we're going to do!" approach.

[SmileyMcGee]

At that day there shall be many who shall say, Lord, we set up many meetings in thy name and planned many things in thy service and spent much time in tedium. And Jesus will say, Depart from me ye accursed. I will not have you pollute heaven with boredom. And there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of meeting agendas.

amen and amen...I vote you as next apostle.

[SmileyMcGee]

So, in our Stake Conference yesterday, a letter from the First Presidency was read, about the fact that the Church now wants us to form Family Councils in immediate families (kind of like Ward Councils) for major decisions in families. And to go along with that, they want us to form family mission plans. I am not good for relaying details of things that I hear for the first time, so I'm wondering if the letter from the first presidency that was read has been posted online so I can read it again, and if anybody else has seen it yet. There is a lot about this that I don't understand exactly yet, and I was left walking away with a number of questions about it. I was kind of left with the questions about how this is supposed to be implemented. I'm wondering if they are going to leave it to the Stake Presidents and Bishops to give direction to families about the actual implementation details of this stuff. Does anybody have anything else they know about this?

This sounds like bureaucratic hammer and nail syndrome. though it will be fun to hear the ladder climbers at church boast about their family councils...though I would be willing to formalize familial operations if there was a simultaneous 1.5 hour decrease in the Sunday block...

Edited March 17, 2015 by SmileyMcGee

[The Nehor]

amen and amen...I vote you as next apostle.

 

Why do you hate me?

[DragonLancer]

All of this "family council/family mission plan" stuff sounds to me like more of what President Packer calls the Church's tendency of "encapsulating into programs" or "programming" (he has been very outspoken against this for years). It seems to me like what President Benson referred to when he said that the more God has to spell out and command in all things, the less blessings we get as a people.

 

My family "councils/counsels" together all the time. We don't need to start having "regular family council." 

 

I think the whole "stake/ward/family mission plan" movement is akin to the proliferation of "mission statements" in businesses and organizations. It's trendy and in vogue, but it's just fluff, really. 

 

(I know, I know. I will be told in return that "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.")

 

I think that the Church has been struggling to figure out what the "hastening of the work" means for the Church, and how to implement things that may assist in this hastening.  I wouldn't be too negative about this kind of stuff as the brethren and leaders on other levels struggle to figure out what works in really trying to be serious about what can be done to hasten things.  So, I think that something has to be done, and when they figure out what it is, I'm not going to fault them for trying to figure it out, or good faith efforts to struggle to understand what the Spirit is telling them, regardless of what Elder Packer may or may not have said at some other time in some other context that doesn't really fit with this.  If we are supposed to hasten things, we are to do something.  I'd rather try to do something than bellyache about another program.

[SmileyMcGee]

Why do you hate me?

You're right...that would be more punishment than anything. But...you do get chocolates at the end of your meetings...so I hear

Edited March 17, 2015 by SmileyMcGee

[The Nehor]

You're right...that would be more punishment than anything. But...you do get chocolates at the end of your meetings...so I hear

 

You want me to get fat too?

[St. Bookmark]

Our ward has been using this for along time and have found that it works

[Duncan]

You want me to get fat too?

 

 

mind you though you would be last so you'd get stuck with the coffee cremes and the pink flavoured creme, blech!

[The Nehor]

mind you though you would be last so you'd get stuck with the coffee cremes and the pink flavoured creme, blech!

 

Well, based on the Ancient Apostles thread it would not be long before I got promoted to the chewy caramel ones and can push those disgusting things off on the n00b apostles.

[Senator]

So, in our Stake Conference yesterday, a letter from the First Presidency was read, about the fact that the Church now wants us to form Family Councils in immediate families (kind of like Ward Councils) for major decisions in families.  And to go along with that, they want us to form family mission plans.  I am not good for relaying details of things that I hear for the first time, so I'm wondering if the letter from the first presidency that was read has been posted online so I can read it again, and if anybody else has seen it yet.  There is a lot about this that I don't understand exactly yet, and I was left walking away with a number of questions about it.  I was kind of left with the questions about how this is supposed to be implemented.  I'm wondering if they are going to leave it to the Stake Presidents and Bishops to give direction to families about the actual implementation details of this stuff.  Does anybody have anything else they know about this?

 Uugh........

[rpn]

Family councils have been around since forever. (And are different than family home evenings which have also been around for a while, and different from scheduling conferences --- though sometimes families have as hard a time with that as ward councils do).   Families are, after all, the basic unit of church goverance.   In Nov 2010 or 2011 there was a leadership training session on councils trying to get ward councils to work right to help family councils to work.   Family mission statements have also been touted from time to time, as a way to establish the goals of a particular family.   None of this is new.  All of it is designed to assure that children are taught and tutored and have a chance to grow in understanding that testimonies are born and nurtured in families.   That the truths learned and sung about with family are those that endure.

Edited March 17, 2015 by rpn