Indifference, coming to a youth near you?

[_Maxrep]

Anyway, I don't know exactly why the OP led into a discussion of what's the matter with kids today. If Mormonism isn't their cup of tea, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with the kids necessarily.

Thanks for that note. My post was centered around the possibility of change. We could change the youth(and die trying) or adjust the dynamics of the 3 hour block and other church related activities.

My mother in law works at the temple. She has said on several occasions that attendance is way down. This has been the case for many years. Young couples don't attend much at all these days.

I'm not shifting the blame for low temple attendance or lackluster representation in the chapel pews to the young folk. Each generation can try to find fault with the next. Each generation also has attributes that the previous one has lacked. Perhaps todays young people consider traditional worship lacking in its presentation. Maybe they see wasteful busy work where we see opportunities to just obey without question.


Is the church becoming too outdated to meet the needs of this generation?

[_truth dancer]

Hi Maxrep...

I think you are right on here.

I don't think it has to do with the selfishness of youth, just society has changed.

Our world is not like it was 20 (or 50) years ago... it is fast paced, filled with tech, and stimulating.

I think church meetings represent or reflect society in the past but it must adapt to the needs and times of today or it will not flourish. I think other churches are experiencing similar difficulties.

Youth can read the lessons online in like, five minutes, discover every and anything they want to know about any topic possible, text each other for ideas and opinions, communicate with all sorts of experts all over the world.....so to sit there for three hours listening to boring speakers, singing hymns that may be less than invigorating or upliftingl, and being bored out of their minds may not be easy. More than this it may not be fulfilling the spiritual needs of individuals.

Unless folks come away feeing the meeting benefitted their lives, feeling recharged, uplifted, inspired, or something, what is the use?

Even adults (like myself) are finding it increasingly challenging! (smile)

I see text messaging going on all the time... earphones, cell phones, and not just by youth! I once saw an adult bring a little TV to watch the superbowl! I'm not kidding!

~dancer~

[_Blixa]

Thanks for that note. My post was centered around the possibility of change. We could change the youth(and die trying) or adjust the dynamics of the 3 hour block and other church related activities.

Start with undoing correlation. I think that's where it all started to go downhill. I may have not liked the religious part of church, but when I was a kid there were still fun activities like the Relief Society bazaars and other local ward traditions.

[_Mercury]

If it makes you feel any better Ray, the youth in my neighborhood are often outside playing. Unfortunaly they're donig the same thing I did when I was young and played outside. They're lighting off fireworks.

I don't want to create a stereotype, but that's my main observation, that kids today are much more self-absorbed. Youth crime where I live (are you Aussie too?) is sky-rocketing, and no one in their right mind can ignore this. It has even been the subject of parliamentary debates. This never occurred at this level even 30 years ago. We have created spoilt malcontents because they have too much, and no appreciation of what they have.

Ray,

I'm curious about your comments. In your country would you say that there are a significant number of children (with 2 working parents) who are spending several hours in day care?

In Rays country, Testimony has YOU!



(smartarse comments Inc, est. 2005)

[_Scottveg3]

"Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s*** we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." -Fight Club

Sums up my generation and probably the next one.

Nehor. I think Fight Club is one of the greatest books of the 20th century because it sums up this generations lives so aptly. I agree with you completely.

Each generation had different focuses. Gave people meaning. Now, whats the focus? What goves young people meaning now a days? Very little. We are a generation of children in grown up bodies who have been given to much and not taught to appreciate anything. A generation of distration.

[_Loquacious Lurker]

all are overdue in taking on their adult responsibilities of marrying and starting a family.

As opposed to what...getting married in their late twenties, when they have more of a solid financial foundation underneath them? Isn't it better that they wait a little bit, get an education, maybe even save up enough money to put a downpayment on a house? Do you really want them young, poor, under-educated, with many small children? Just because that describes young Mormon couples in the past? Most of them never quite catch up.

Are young people in our church today not stirred as deeply by the doctrine as previous generations?

I do find it interesting that some of the fastest-growing churches are the ones that are somewhat Pentecostal, or that put on a particularly dramatic Sunday worship service, with drums and guitars and so forth. That seems more appealing to teenagers these days.

[_Maxrep]

all are overdue in taking on their adult responsibilities of marrying and starting a family.

As opposed to what...getting married in their late twenties, when they have more of a solid financial foundation underneath them? Isn't it better that they wait a little bit, get an education, maybe even save up enough money to put a downpayment on a house? Do you really want them young, poor, under-educated, with many small children? Just because that describes young Mormon couples in the past? Most of them never quite catch up.

I completely agree with you! I should have been more clear. I was just reciting the bretherens chastisement of those young people who were not married by 25 or so. A couple waiting to have a solid educational and financial base from which to start a family is smart. How did so many of us allow ourselves to rush headlong into matrimony when we were much less prepared than we could have been just two years later.

[_The Nehor]

"Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s*** we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." -Fight Club

Sums up my generation and probably the next one.

Nehor. I think Fight Club is one of the greatest books of the 20th century because it sums up this generations lives so aptly. I agree with you completely.

Each generation had different focuses. Gave people meaning. Now, whats the focus? What goves young people meaning now a days? Very little. We are a generation of children in grown up bodies who have been given to much and not taught to appreciate anything. A generation of distration.

This generation has it's own problems. I think the inability to see past your own was epitomized by one of my friend's grandfathers telling us how much better things were in the good old days. He then went on about all the advantages we had including, "you should be grateful you weren't born Black or Oriental." I wouldn't trade problems with his generation. :)

One of our biggest ones is a lack of purpose. In the U.S.A most of the battles have been fought. There's no space race to support, no Cold War to fight, no Nazis, no threat from Britain. The War on Terror means about as much to us as the War on Drugs meant. More than any other generation in history we can tune in at any time and see everything we don't have. I'm the child of millionaires but I still know material envy. The gap between the wealthy now and the scraping by is a larger gap in terms of comfort and possessions than between a king and his serfs in medieval times. I'm not sure what the answer is. Changes in institutions (government, economics) are decades behind advancement.

[_harmony]

Is it any wonder we've lost our children to a world of technology and selfishness?

First: Everything in Mormon worship is designed around adults. Everything. Primary is simply a miniaturized Sacrament meeting, complete with talks, prayers, and scripture reading. There is no unstructured play, no treats, no laughter. Reverence! is the main concept, with a constant "shushing" and stern looks. Not at all like the churches I grew up in, with treats every Sunday in the foyer as we left, and lots of laughter, and Daily Vacation Bible School, and revival. (The LDS church has nothing like revival, but that's another thread.)

Second: Everything in Mormondom is based on money. From constant preaching about tithing to the insane building of McMansions, the Mormon world revolves around money. Why would our children not pick up on that? For the most part, they aren't being farmed out to daycare, so any values they project are the values of their homes. And what do they project? The importance of things in their lives and the lives of the parents and families, neighbors and friends. We pay lip service to service and humanitarianism, but until our church leaders spend the vast amounts of money they accumulate on service-oriented activities instead of transplanted hunks of granite, city parks, and shopping malls, I don't see much changing.

Third: our leaders are old. Old. OLD. They have no idea what it's like being young today. Our church is stuck in the 1950's, and until our leaders die, we're going to continue to be stuck.

[_The Nehor]

Is it any wonder we've lost our children to a world of technology and selfishness?

First: Everything in Mormon worship is designed around adults. Everything. Primary is simply a miniaturized Sacrament meeting, complete with talks, prayers, and scripture reading. There is no unstructured play, no treats, no laughter. Reverence! is the main concept, with a constant "shushing" and stern looks. Not at all like the churches I grew up in, with treats every Sunday in the foyer as we left, and lots of laughter, and Daily Vacation Bible School, and revival. (The LDS church has nothing like revival, but that's another thread.)

Second: Everything in Mormondom is based on money. From constant preaching about tithing to the insane building of McMansions, the Mormon world revolves around money. Why would our children not pick up on that? For the most part, they aren't being farmed out to daycare, so any values they project are the values of their homes. And what do they project? The importance of things in their lives and the lives of the parents and families, neighbors and friends. We pay lip service to service and humanitarianism, but until our church leaders spend the vast amounts of money they accumulate on service-oriented activities instead of transplanted hunks of granite, city parks, and shopping malls, I don't see much changing.

Third: our leaders are old. Old. OLD. They have no idea what it's like being young today. Our church is stuck in the 1950's, and until our leaders die, we're going to continue to be stuck.

First: I think kids need more unstructured play on other days of the week. At my last job many of the women would talk about all the things they had to take their kids to after picking them up from school. I had more fun with a refrigerator box and a hill or water guns and some trees than I ever did at soccer practice. Looking back I would have chosen to play Final Fantasy over playing outside but I had much more fun outside. Such illogic.

Second: Tithing is given more than passing mention maybe twice a year in my ward. I don't think the Church spending money on humanitarian aid helps the members much to develop charity. The way I learned charity is helping at the soup kitchen once a week, cleaning up flood damage, volunteering at the Children's Advocacy Center, and helping out starving college students by taking them out to dinner. Those are the kinds of things that make me want to up my Fast Offerings which does go to help others. I don't expect my tithing money to do that.

Third: I like having old leaders. It means I'm not likely to be one for a while.