The internal-service model of LDS worship

[MikeWaters]

If you are an active member of this church, you will find that most of the energy and time spent in your activity will be related to service towards fellow members. The examples are voluminous: directing activities for the children of members through YM, YW, primary. Hometeaching. Visiting teaching. Counseling as a Bishop or counselor. Hometeaching. Moving families in or out. Planning social activities for members on the cheap. Giving lessons from a manual that has been prepared in SLC. Preparing meals for the ill or post-partum. Etc.

The question that is not addressed is this: what are we NOT doing?

Well for one, we are not doing external service. Or perhaps more accurately, we don't do much of it, and when it does happen it is pretty haphazard and has no local control. Versus other Christian congregations, where some kind of service outreach ministry may be a huge part of where it spends its time and efforts--everything from local homelessness to medical missions to the 3rd world.

Another thing we don't do in any serious way: support intellectual growth among members. This may be a point of argument for some, but if you can look at the curricula that the church puts out, all the way from primary, to Sunday School, to Gospel Doctrine, Seminary, and Institute and tell me that it supports intellectual growth in any kind of ambitious way, then we are really seeing the world differently. It all has a narrow focus. The church is true. It is led by prophets of God. Always has been, always will. Try to be a good person, as the modern prophets have been.

A deeper approach to all of this does take place in the church, but when it does, it is against the tide. It is someone who looks at the lesson and says "I'm not going to teach it like this." Yesterday in our GD lesson, there was an argument/discussion about whether the Jaredites would be given "another chance" to accept the gospel. I wanted to gouge out my eyes.

So coming full circle here in this post, I ask the question: is this internal-service model of LDS worship enough? Is it a compelling enriching model? Is it the best thing we can do?

It's not like the church hasn't tweaked its mode of worship and its focus of worship in the past. Given the poor conversion rates in the United States, I think there has to be some hand-wringing going on. Perhaps the focus will continue to be on the unfaithfulness of the missionaries and the members as the root cause of this downturn in conversions. Or how wicked the world is.

The last place we will probably look is in how we worship. That much, I am pretty certain of.

[Levin]

Nice post. I would have been gouging out my eyes with you yesterday. (I've left several eyeballs in classrooms where similar "enlightenment" was had).

I doubt we'll move in any significant way to the model implied by your post. I think there's one dominant reason we serve internally first and have a weak curricula -- the desire to control a far flung church and keep it "the same." No other faith has such uniformity, and it takes work to maintain. And the weaknesses you identify are in some ways method of uniformity control, I think.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Missionary work is about internal service as well. It gets young men and women to commit to the Church at a time when they'd probably move on, and helps them martyr themselves when people with 10 minutes to spare can surf the Internet for questions that most missionaries can answer only vaguely and in defiance of common sense.

A quick thinking missionary might try to convince someone of the pre-existence with a handy misinterpretation of Romans 8.

It really is that bad.

[MikeWaters]

there is nothing wrong with intellectual pursuits and the performance of external service.

it's just that they must be attained outside of the church, and even then at least in the case of the former, you may be putting your membership in jeopardy.

The church certainly isn't a case of "if you don't like certain things, then work to change them." There is no suggestion box in this church.

[All-American]

I'm not terribly concerned over the question of internal vs. external service, but I do wonder how effective our internal service is. How much does the average member of the church benefit from the service activities you listed? Home teaching is as much of a chore for the home teachers as the home teachees. If people go to the activities, they do so out of obligation, not because they think they will benefit at all. We give talks and lessons knowing that few if any will benefit, hoping that it will touch at least one soul.

We are a duty driven people, which characteristic per se ought to be praised, but with aim, directive, or objective absent, it is simply less effective, less edifying, and less vivifying.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by All-American

I'm not terribly concerned over the question of internal vs. external service, but I do wonder how effective our internal service is. How much does the average member of the church benefit from the service activities you listed? Home teaching is as much of a chore for the home teachers as the home teachees. If people go to the activities, they do so out of obligation, not because they think they will benefit at all. We give talks and lessons knowing that few if any will benefit, hoping that it will touch at least one soul.

We are a duty driven people, which characteristic per se ought to be praised, but with aim, directive, or objective absent, it is simply less effective, less edifying, and less vivifying.

The idea is to bind people to each other in a social unit.

To a large degree Mormons feel set apart and loyal to each other.

[All-American]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

The idea is to bind people to each other in a social unit.

To a large degree Mormons feel set apart and loyal to each other.

The ones that are sticking around do, yes. Even the inactive tend to exhibit loyalty to Mormonism, long after they've decided that they don't have enough reasons to get to church on Sundays.

[Archaea]

We were sitting in HPG meeting, going through the commitment lesson, so I showed member next to me, my book from Ben Witherington on Acts, which he read and wondered, "why can't we produce some scholarship like that?"

We do a poor job promoting intellectual development. It is sad to me that our form of leadership has all but abandoned that aspect of worship.

[RedHeadGal]

Mike, what kind of service projects do you do with your scouts? That group is one that strikes me as being made to perform community service? So do you get out there in the community?

I can't remember the last time I heard an Eagle scout project announced in my stake that was not some kind of groundskeeping project at the temple. It's always struck me as way to insular for scouting project, but I don't really know the limitations.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by RedHeadGal

Mike, what kind of service projects do you do with your scouts? That group is one that strikes me as being made to perform community service? So do you get out there in the community?

I can't remember the last time I heard an Eagle scout project announced in my stake that was not some kind of groundskeeping project at the temple. It's always struck me as way to insular for scouting project, but I don't really know the limitations.

not a heckuva lot, but some.

last couple eagle projects were to help school and large public park. We have been involved in "scouting for food" to get canned food for food bank. we have volunteered at the homeless shelter.