Posts Tagged ‘ church ’

I recently had a visitor in my Sunday School class, a young Beehive who currently lives in Bali, Indonesia.  I know from personal experience that there is no LDS branch in Bali.  This girl said that her family just attends another Christian church that is in their neighborhood.  This reminded me of when I was growing [...]

Salt Lake City sees General Conference every six months. In the CofChrist, “World” Conference occurs every three years, and 2013 is the lucky year. A Community of Christ World Conference is far more of a legislative exercise than its Utah LDS analogue. It features worship, of course, and normally will have approval to changes and [...]

Women are banding together to break unwritten LDS cultural dress codes on Sunday Dec 16th by wearing pants to church.  The church’s PR team responded:  ”Yawn.”  What do you think? Discuss.

Let’s face it. Although morality profoundly impacts American’s political views — making political and election issues an inevitable topic of attention for a Mormon blog — the idea of a Mormon being elected President of the United States has animated discussion on this site much more than would a contest between Barack Obama and a [...]

We all know the drill.  Someone is called and we are asked for a sustaining vote.  Maybe it’s a bishop who micromanages and has a world-class ego.  Maybe it’s a nursery leader who hates kids.  Maybe it’s a gospel doctrine teacher who is the world’s most boring person.  Maybe it’s a relief society president who [...]

Is it better to preach the ideal or to make all feel welcome?  Is it even possible to do both?  Within the church, there seems to be a tug-of-war between encouraging people to live the ideal and trying to be welcoming to everyone.  A “come as you are” approach has merit if we want to [...]

“Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful.” One of the most powerful talks this past General Conference was, for me, Elder Holland’s talk on the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. How simply he unwound the seeming unfairness of the Lord’s treatment of the workers at [...]

We’re going to try something here at Wheat & Tares – call it Sacred Sundays if you will. We want to take a break from politics and social issues to discuss the foundations of our personal faith as Latter-day Saints or people interested in the Latter-day Saints.

In April Conference, Elder Donald L. Hallstrom (Converted to His Gospel through His Church) discoursed on the differences between the church and the gospel. He makes the point that the church serves the gospel as an institution to improve our conversion.

Today’s guest post is from Bloggernacle favorite EmJen who adapted an online quiz for a Mormon audience.  I thought it would be interesting to see what forms of worship speak most to us, the Wheat & Tares audience, individually and collectively.  Also, as you consider the results, are these typical for Mormons?  Are there some [...]

As I was researching a post last summer on some of the organizations that have sprung up in the stead of the RLDS movement as fundamentalist alternatives to the Community of Christ, I discovered that a childhood friend had become one of the leading officials of one such organization, the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of [...]

During a fast and testimony meeting, a new sister gets up to bear her testimony.  She starts off pretty good, but then delves into her past, and explains that her father sexually molested her, and that the church didn’t do anything about it and he still holds his recommend.  You have heard this story before [...]

Francis Bacon said that “a prudent question is one-half of wisdom” but is it equally true that questions are one-half of faith?

Recently a friend asked me to give them a list of talks that I would recommend that they should read.  There is something exhiliarating about making a list of your top five things. In The Sound of Music, Maria lists her favorite things to cheer up her young charges. Lists also play a key role in one of [...]

A recent online group made by YSA in the UK provides a way in which witty comments and cynicism can promote change.

This past Sunday was the 10th anniversary of the events of 9/11.  It was an emotional time for many people around the country.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir had a wonderful broadcast of “Music and the Spoken Word” with Tom Brokaw that morning.  Various sporting games and other events had touching memorials throughout the day.  It [...]

Because I have had my own trials of faith, and have stood in the figurative shoes of those who see things from a non-believing standpoint, I have become increasingly aware of the language we use and the ways in which it contributes to our cultural peculiarities and often times sets people up for failure. Sometimes [...]

My son’s recent experience in early morning seminary caused me to look a little more closely at the church’s stance (or perhaps lack thereof) on evolution.  While teaching about the book of Genesis, his teacher made a few claims: that she is not descended from monkeys that the earth is literally 6,000 years old that evolution contradicts the [...]

The terms “less-active” and “inactive” are slowly being dropped from church vocabulary, but you won’t hear it announced from the stand.  Earlier this year in a training led by the Area Presidency, UK stake public relations committees were informed that the church no longer classifies people as less-active or inactive; everyone is simply just members of the [...]

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” That’s a somewhat simplistic, but nevertheless effective way to teach the law of conservation of momentum, and I think there’s actually some metaphorical version of that law which applies to churches. When someone leaves a church, his/her absence allows/pushes the church that remains to go [...]