Callings vs. Assignments

[nuclearfuels]

Have any of you seen in your branches, wards, stakes people receiving assignments instead of callings?

Perhaps due to the quarantine or due to the dissolved High Priest's Group, YMP, etc.?

[bluebell]

Growing up teaching seminary was an assignment and not a calling.  We didn’t have access to CES teachers so it always had to be someone (not a professional teacher) from the stake.

[Kenngo1969]

2 hours ago, nuclearfuels said:

Have any of you seen in your branches, wards, stakes people receiving assignments instead of callings?

Perhaps due to the quarantine or due to the dissolved High Priest's Group, YMP, etc.?

It would make sense, since callings are subject to common consent/a sustaining vote, while assignments are not.  Alas, I'm quite far outside the loop in my ward, so I haven't heard any specific scuttlebutt: "Hey, Brother Jones got an assignment instead of a calling to do [x].  Weird, huh?"

P.S.: I wonder if anyone's ever tried to do a sustaining vote by sending out a text or an email: "If we don't hear from you by Sunday at 5 p.m., we'll assume you're not opposed."

Edited December 7, 2020 by Kenngo1969

[e-eye]

Yes - when i was on the high council we occasionally sustained by email or a phone call if it was really urgent. 

[rpn]

Lots of things in the church have always been by assignment:  ministering, which class in Primary you taught, early morning seminary, cleaning the church/temple, setups for activities, service projects, RS nursery, for example.

The handbook says what things are callings, and for those sustaining and setting apart is what gives the authority and help for that calling.   If you are in one of those roles and haven't been sustained or set apart, I'd make sure I took that  up with the bishop/counselor who called me.  (In my area, sustainings were done by email except when actual sacrament meetings are being held (no matter how few are attending in person, compared to zoom).  Members are told to email if they are voting "no".

[ksfisher]

15 hours ago, nuclearfuels said:

Have any of you seen in your branches, wards, stakes people receiving assignments instead of callings?

Perhaps due to the quarantine or due to the dissolved High Priest's Group, YMP, etc.?

What kind of assignments are you talking about?

[Ahab]

15 hours ago, nuclearfuels said:

Have any of you seen in your branches, wards, stakes people receiving assignments instead of callings?

Perhaps due to the quarantine or due to the dissolved High Priest's Group, YMP, etc.?

Yes I have seen that.  A calling is given when the caller intends to set someone else apart for a task so that the person who accepts that calling can be more dedicated to that task.  That would be that person's main job in the Church, so to speak.

An assignment is more like a second job (assignment) that could either be associated with what that person has accepted a call to do or it could be some other unrelated task.  

[MrShorty]

Perhaps mine is an interesting case. I am called to conduct the music in sacrament meeting. When our area decided to go back to church, it would be on alternating weeks, and they asked me to find someone assigned to attend on the weeks I am not to conduct the music in sacrament meeting. So I am officially called and set apart to the position, and I have asked other(s) to fill in for me when I am not scheduled to attend.

Same task, but one is called and others are assigned.

[Kenngo1969]

19 hours ago, e-eye said:

Yes - when i was on the high council we occasionally sustained by email or a phone call if it was really urgent. 

True, but getting a sustaining vote from twelve gentlemen is a little different than getting it from an entire ward or stake.