March 9, 2008
My ward is in St. Catharines, Ontario, and we got hit big time by that huge snow storm yesterday. It started snowing Friday night, and snowed for about 24 hours straight. We always get snow each winter (remember, we are in Canada), but we almost never get this amount of snow. The Stake President had emailed us and told us to watch the weather in our area and then make a decision on whether or not to hold meetings on Sunday. Yesterday at about 4 pm, I decided to cancel Church.
It always feels weird to “cancel” Church. First of all, Church doesn’t really feel like something you can cancel. I’d go to Church every week, regardless of the weather. If we only had 10 people show up, I’m sure we would have had a wonderful meeting. I just felt that for the safety of the members, it was best to cancel the meetings. Unfortunately, there are people who feel obligated to go to Church. If the weather is bad, I’m sure they feel that God will protect them. I’m not so sure that is the case. If I thought that God would protect us all while driving, then I’d never need to cancel Church, but there are so many variables (weather, other people’s agency, etc). I just felt it was safer to have everyone stay at home.
We had a little Sacrament Meeting here at home. My 5-year-old picked “I love to see the temple” as our opening hymn. I administered the Sacrament. My wife gave a short thought, and then my 3-year-old picked “Follow the Prophet” (the Samuel verse) as our closing hymn. It was nice.
Incidentally, this was the second time this year I’ve canceled Church. In the previous 8 years I’ve been in the area, Church has been canceled a total of 2 times. Now in one year we’ve matched that total. We’ve certainly had some crazy weather!
Posted in Mormon Sacrament Meeting 
2 Comments »
March 5, 2008
I Friday I received a phone call from the Research Information Division of the Church (part of the Correlation Department). This is the division that does the surveys (research) whenever the Church wants to know about things. In this case, they were calling Branch Presidents and Bishops to find out about issues that their members were struggling with. The person did not ask for any names. He asked generic questions asking if since I’ve been Bishop, have I had a member challenged by women issues, the Church and politics, gay rights, etc? How many people? In the last year have I had a member challenged by those issues? How many people?
I was on the phone with him for about 5 minutes, and then he thanked me for my time and said good by. He gave no indication what they would do with the information they gathered, or who it was for.
Posted in Mormon Church Bureaucracy 6 Comments »
March 1, 2008
Essentially every week I get a large envelope with various memos in it from Church headquarters. The packet I got this week had the first memo with signatures from all three members of the new First Presidency. The memo was dated February 6, 2008 and is called “Reissued Statement son Missionary Work”. If you’re into this sort of thing, here are the signatures:
I was impressed with how illegible President Uchtdorf’s signature is (compared to the other two). My own signature is pretty bad, and it’s nice to see someone else who has a signature that isn’t easily read 
Posted in Mormon Church Hierarchy No Comments »
February 29, 2008
It seems that the buzz in the Bloggernacle is about the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. I don’t really anything to add to the discussion which has already taken place, but here are a few links:
Posted in General Religion and Spirituality No Comments »
February 28, 2008
There is an “In Memoriam: President Gordon B. Hinckley 1910–2008″ booklet that we will be getting with the Ensign that has been put up on the Church web site. If you visit the Funeral Services for President Gordon B. Hinckley page, you can download the PDF.
Out of all of the wonderful things that were said at the funeral, the thing that really stuck out to me was from Boyd K. Packer. At about the 1 hour mark of the funeral (the last paragraph on page 25 of the In Memoriam booklet), he was talking about how President Hinckley did not ask for the callings that came his way, but he did not shy away from them either.
In one of the earliest revelations, the Lord said, “That every man might speak in the name of God the Lord,even the Savior of the world” (D&C 1:20) that “the weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones” (D&C 1:19).
With the Church growing very rapidly worldwide, we often go to distant places to organize or reorganize a unit of the Church. We are sometimes asked, “Where on earth will you find the new leaders?” We do not have to find them. They are already there, just as Gordon B. Hinckley was there. The Lord provides them. They are serving faithfully and paying for the privilege in tithes and offerings.
In a separate ordinance following baptism, members of the Church have conferred upon them the Holy Ghost, which the scriptures explain will “teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance” (John 14:26). The Holy Ghost is the Inspirer. Inspiration is always there, if you learn to live with it and for it.
I love the part where he said, “We do not have to find them. They are already there.” What a great way to describe the way the Church is run! I am currently the bishop of my ward. I have no special training to be a bishop, but I love the Lord and the church and I want to help in any way I can. At various times members of my family have been Sunday School teachers, counselor in a bishopric, primary teacher, counselor in a stake presidency, primary music leader, high councilor, Relief Society president, bishop, Sunday program/bulletin coordinator, counselor in a Relief Society presidency, and more. We serve where we are asked to serve, and we pray that the Spirit truly will be “the Inspirer” and help us follow God’s will.
Posted in Mormon Church Doctrine and Teachings, Mormon Church Hierarchy No Comments »
February 27, 2008
Yesterday I posted about a bunch of official Church web sites. I then read a blog posting from ldsWebguy about a new section of the Church web site at JesusChrist.LDS.org:
Using the words of latter-day prophets and apostles as its foundation, the site focuses solely on the life, teachings, and mission of the Savior and how we can come unto Him and invite others to do the same. In addition to the teachings of Church leaders, the site provides links to the scriptures, additional articles, and multimedia presentations.
It looks very nice. Check it out!
Posted in Mormon Church Doctrine and Teachings, Mormon Church on the Web 1 Comment »
February 26, 2008
The Church is doing a remarkable job at getting things online. The online missionary recommendation forms are a great example of this. Young men and women are already computer savvy and can go online and fill out the form. Then the Bishop and Stake President enter some other information and it’s done. Within a few days a call letter is sent. I waited 8 weeks for my mission call. The last couple of missionaries that have gone out from our ward have waited about 10-12 days. Amazing! The other sites the Church have also provide great information, both for members and leaders, and even non-members.
- http://lds.org/ - official Church web site… of course you know about this
- http://scriptures.lds.org/ - the standard works available online
- http://lds.org/mss/ - the online missionary application form
- http://tech.lds.org/ - the Church has an official “tech” web site. There are postings from various Church employees
- http://tech.lds.org/forum/ - the best part of the tech web site is the forum. You can post questions or answer other people’s questions about MLS, new Family Search, and more. From the forums I’ve learned about upcoming changes to MLS, learned about how to do certain things, and learned about upcoming test programs the Church is running (new mission tools online, new Family Search, Internet access in clerk’s office, etc)
- http://col.ldschurch.org/ - the online directory of leaders. The Church used to publish a book with all of the worldwide leaders, and then they started to send around a CD. They still send the CD, but the online version is always up-to-date (Bishops de Yong, Ayers, and Olsen already show up). You can search by name or part of a name for either the unit or the person.
- http://new.familysearch.org/ - official web site of the new Family Search. The roll-out of this has been delayed, but it looks like it will go along way in stopping duplication in our temple work. Since it is online, the information is always current, and members will be able to connect more easily.
- http://priesthood.familysearch.org - this web site is for Family History Consultants and Priesthood leaders. I registered here and that is what got me access a couple of months ago to the new Family Search beta. I’m not sure if that is still true today.
- http://ldscatalog.com/ - this is the distribution centre web site. Each unit can login as a unit and see things that the normal member wouldn’t see. If you don’t have a username and password for your unit you can call them and they will mail one to you
- http://ldsces.org/ - the Church Education System web site. From here you can download various manuals and bookmarks
- http://mormon.org/ - the proselyting web site of the Church
- http://josephsmith.net/ - a Church web site all about Joseph Smith
- http://gordonbhinckley.org/ - a Church web site all about President Hinckley
- http://thomassmonson.org/ - a Church web site all about President Monson
- http://scriptures.byu.edu/ - this isn’t technically a Church site, but it’s BYU so it counts. On this site you can look up a scripture, and then find all of the General Conference talks that have used that scripture. It is a great resource for preparing talks and finding a good quote.
Posted in Mormon Church on the Web 5 Comments »
February 25, 2008
Time magazine has a great article on their web site that talks about “Tudor Parfitt, a real life scholar-adventurer” who think he knows where the Ark of the Covenant is, or at least “the last thing on earth in direct descent from the Ark of Moses” (you’ll have to read the article to understand what that means).
There are two questions at the end that are very thought provoking:
What would such a wonder look like in our postmodern world? What might it do?
The Ark had great power. Was it in the Ark? If so, then it should still have the power wherever it is. Was it only because at the time God was with the people? If so, then the Ark probably wouldn’t have any power now. It then makes you think about some of the other physical things that have been used in the past to teach people or receive revelation.
What would it be like to see 10 Commandment tablets? The “golden” plates? The Urim and Thummim?
What about things that aren’t as well-known… a nail that had been used when crucifying Jesus? The “apple” core that Adam and Eve had bitten? Something from Noah’s Ark?
I guess however cool it may be to see something like that, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. We live by faith, and seeing any of those things wouldn’t make your faith any more sure that the faith that comes by feeling the Spirit.
And now as I said concerning faith - faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
Alma 32:21
Posted in General Religion and Spirituality, Mormon Church Scripture No Comments »
February 23, 2008
Apparently the people at The Glue Society created some art for a show last year. The series was called God’s Eye View and has 4 pictures that are essentially images from Google Maps but that are of biblical events.
For example, here is the crucifixion:
There are also pictures of the flood, parting the Red Sea, and the Garden of Eden.
The navigation at The Glue Society web site is kind of odd, but you can see the pictures on the Creative Review blog.
Posted in General Religion and Spirituality No Comments »
February 21, 2008
The National Post had an interesting article last Saturday called ‘Knowledge of religion shallow, commitment deep’ in U.S. I guess it isn’t too surprising that in today’s world people are less-focused on organized religion, but still trying to be “committed”. However, I still found some of his findings surprising:
- Only half of American adults can identify one of the four Gospels
- Most cannot name the first book of the Bible
- Only one-third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount
- A significant number believe Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife
Those are some pretty basic stories/facts/events that I would have expected people to know just because of pop culture references.
Posted in General Religion and Spirituality No Comments »
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