Future of Mormonism Series


Moksha
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You know Moksha, it would serve the church best interest of those brethren (Seventies), who health is failing, for the church to create a site like this but have them blog and be part to help the many Saints who want help but afraid to approach their local ward Bishops. I have did some pressing in the background to get the church to look into this issue over year now and seems like always, the church grinds slowly but efficiently. Seeing Elder Cook on the web and allowing people to respond to his posting is a wonderful beginning.

Now, is there going to be 144,000 high priest future missionaries? I await your answer with a blog! :P

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There's some great articles there, I just read the Future of Missionary work, point 3 stood out for me.

The Future of Mormon Missionary Work

When I was investigating the Church my wife was adamant that no one from the Church, not members or missionaries, were allowed in the house. I always had to ask the missionaries to arrange meetings and lessons for me in the homes of other members. It was totally embarrassing and quite stressful all round, yet it became a blessing.

How so? It was in part the connection to those that allowed me into their homes that helped me become strong in my testimony. This is the point that struck me from the article;

Consistent implementation of higher standards is needed to ensure that converts are well integrated into local congregations through regular church attendance and member fellowshipping before baptism,

Attending church before I was baptised and just being part of the Sacrament meetings, lessons, etc. just as 'me' was a wonderful experience. I learned that the Church wants you to engage in so much but forces nothing on you and that removed a 'scary' possibility that might have stopped me joining the Church.

Visiting members in their homes allowed me to see what being LDS would mean day to day, not just the in-church perspective. I got to see real families living the gospel. On two occasions the youths in the families came in and I thought here we go, I bet they hate it when their parents do this. But no, they sat with us and expressed their own love for the gospel, I was shocked but filled with joy. To see these beautiful young women and friendly, outgoing young men with such high values and good character was inspirational.

Fellowshipping meant that when I was baptised I was simply joining people I'd grown to love and respect, people who I already felt were my brothers and sisters.

Consider the contrast, perhaps just being taught by the missionaries and attending Church, randomly (but warmly) being greeted by people. A completely different experience.

Mark

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Guest mormonmusic
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I read this article about future of Mormons on the Internet:

The Future of Mormons on the Internet

I thought the stat that blogging is on the decline by the younger generation was interesting. I can understand it -- I get weary of always being at my computer all the time, and people don't read half of what you write if it's long. And some ideas need time and development to be fully explained. Sometimes online discussion forums create as much pain as they do joy and you can get disillusioned with them.....and then people slowly drift away....

I thought the author's comment that Mormons have thriving Internet communities because we have such strong limits on the extent to which we can share our doubts or concerns within Church-approved contexts. The Internet provides a place where you can connect with all flavors of Mormonism (my take), from deeply disaffected Mormons on some sites, to True Blue Mormons here on LDS.net -- something you can't do at Church where the association is largely only True Blue.

His article lost me, however, when he started going on about the future of hte Internet and social networking. I don't think he offerred much in the way of really compelling insights about how MOrmons will use the Internet in the future. Perhaps the only thing he said about the future of blogging is that it will integrate different forms of media such as sound, video, and text, and that's pretty much self-evident as it is.

Personally, I think we'll see Internet socializing go through phases; there will be a time when one of the formerly internet-heavy age groups will return to a desire for face to face interaction. This will be prompted by computer-fatigue, or the desire to experience things you can't experience online. LIke many popular ideas, facebook, twitter and these other mediums will no longer be "cool".

There was a cartoon I saw once -- it was a carpenter looking at a stool (the kind you sit on). He envisioned arm rests on it, and built it. The next generation carpenter visualized the seat swivelling and built it. This continued with 5 more improvements/generations, eventually ending in a space-age chair with drink holders and other techno-features. Then, a carpenter looked at the techno-chair and started visualizing a simple stool.

I think internet socializing will go through such phases over time.

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