Youn couples as temple patrons & temple attendance

[_harmony]

The notification by mail is pretty bizarre. Is this a geographically huge stake or something? Why not just give them their schedule at some point during church? Or print it in the bulletin like we do?

Here's what our ward's cleaning schedule looks like in the bulletin every Sunday:

The following families are scheduled to clean the church in August:
18th - Kim E, Lance E, Nolan E, Juan E
25th - Karl E, Todd E, Bret E, Jon F

Please be at the church by 8:00am on the assigned Saturday. If the date does not work for you, please trade with another family and call us to let us know of the change. Thank you - Lyman and Peggy S.

The Temple Patron assignment would look pretty similiar, I think.


[/quote]

[_The Dude]

Actually this doesn't surprise me much at all.

:-(

In many areas people are just not going to the temple. This seems like a solution that fits in with the way the church works.

~dancer~

I coulda' sworn that when God told them to build a temple in the middle of that corn field, He promised them: "If you build it they will come."

Now they have to order people to attend. What a blessing!

[_Jason Bourne]

Update: the program is actually only specific to one stake/ward operating on their own accord. It is not a church mandated pilot program. There was a communication error with the individual who told me about the program. My apologies.

Ahh, that makes quite a bit more sense.

Dr. Shades, since this is just a localized policy, rather than an official pilot program, it might be best to just strike the thread altogether. What do you think?

No, let's not strike it. Reporting what we hear, asking for clarification, and discussing things back-and-forth until we all get to the bottom of things is the nature of message boards.

Business as usual.

Ahhh but how interesting it is to see ya all pounce on it then find out later that the report was inaccurate. So typical.

As for temple attendance I think you all need to realize that there are many many more temples then even ten years ago. So each temple may have fewer patrons but over all attendance may be up. Where I live we have had a small temple for a number of year. I know our ward attendance is way up over all but the temple is not as busy as they temple pres would like.

[_Maxrep]

Ahhh but how interesting it is to see ya all pounce on it then find out later that the report was inaccurate. So typical.

As for temple attendance I think you all need to realize that there are many many more temples then even ten years ago. So each temple may have fewer patrons but over all attendance may be up. Where I live we have had a small temple for a number of year. I know our ward attendance is way up over all but the temple is not as busy as they temple pres would like.

You have to admit we are interested in being clear and we do self police here. Think of all the faith promoting rumors that have endured among LDS for decades. Think of all the whitewashing that is passed through church learning materials without objection by those who know better.

Temple attendance is on a downward spiral from my view. Our temple has cut back its hours, and has to call young couples in an official capacity just to accomplish some sort of appearance that all is well with redeeming the dead. Life gets more congested each decade. Fewer people are willing to lose several hours in the busy work of constantly dressing and changing that comes with the endowment sessions. It just doesn't fit anymore.

[_Jason Bourne]

You have to admit we are interested in being clear and we do self police here. Think of all the faith promoting rumors that have endured among LDS for decades. Think of all the whitewashing that is passed through church learning materials without objection by those who know better.

No I do not see clarity here at all in many instances and I see what I saw here. Opportunity to irrationally pounce.

Temple attendance is on a downward spiral from my view. Our temple has cut back its hours, and has to call young couples in an official capacity just to accomplish some sort of appearance that all is well with redeeming the dead. Life gets more congested each decade. Fewer people are willing to lose several hours in the busy work of constantly dressing and changing that comes with the endowment sessions. It just doesn't fit anymore

.

Your view is inaccurate. There is no question that even with reduced hours the sheer number of temples means that more will attend. We used to have to drive three hours to get to the temple. Many ward and stake members went once or twice a year. Now we have small temple close. The other temple lost our attendance but still over all number of endowments are up. Our ward has over 40 ordinance workers for this temple. We have a ward temple night monthly and it is well attended. I am not sure where you live and whether another temple was built that took attendance from yours like the one we used to attend. But I would not be surprised if that was the case.

[_Dr. Shades]

Ahhh but how interesting it is to see ya all pounce on it then find out later that the report was inaccurate. So typical.

Oh, come on, Jason, for the love of Pete! "Pounce on it??" Did I, or did I not, say right from the start that I found it very hard to believe?

C'mon. Give us some credit.

[_Jason Bourne]

Ahhh but how interesting it is to see ya all pounce on it then find out later that the report was inaccurate. So typical.

Oh, come on, Jason, for the love of Pete! "Pounce on it??" Did I, or did I not, say right from the start that I found it very hard to believe?

C'mon. Give us some credit.

My apologies to you. Yes you were skeptical. Others however were not and all to happy to have another stick to beat with.

[_Maxrep]

Your view is inaccurate. There is no question that even with reduced hours the sheer number of temples means that more will attend. We used to have to drive three hours to get to the temple. Many ward and stake members went once or twice a year. Now we have small temple close. The other temple lost our attendance but still over all number of endowments are up. Our ward has over 40 ordinance workers for this temple. We have a ward temple night monthly and it is well attended. I am not sure where you live and whether another temple was built that took attendance from yours like the one we used to attend. But I would not be surprised if that was the case.

Inaccurate? What lense are you looking through? The bretheren are completely confused at the outcome. Dot the world with temples and you see a temporary boost in participation. Once the newness fades, the church clearly sees that members don't want to spend their afternoons changing clothes in the temple. Year after year attendance continues to be lackluster. Sure, endowments are up a touch from before the temple building boom, but that wasn't the projected plan at all. Especially considering the incredible construction and ongoing maintenance costs. We all tightened our belts so that these temples could be erected and endowment sessions were going to sky rocket. How could the failure of this plan be any more pronounced!

[_truth dancer]

Others however were not and all to happy to have another stick to beat with.

Hi Jason,

I would not be surprised at the church attempting this method to get more folks to attend the temple but I hardly think it qualifies as having another stick to beat with.

From my experience and observation temple attendance is very low... I've been in wards where they are trying all sorts of ideas to get the attendance up.

One time they had a big poster in Relief Society with the names of all the women in the ward and a checklist by their names where they kept track of who was going to the temple and how many times they attended.

There are ward monthly temple nights, a stake temple night, and lots of encouragment to attend the temple.

The church requests folks to sign up to clean the building, people don't so they make assignments.
The church asks members to go to the temple, they don't so they "call" some as patrons.

I just do not see it as a big deal.


~dancer~

[_AmazingDisgrace]

The idea of the leadership making unilateral assignments, and then telling the patrons that they have to find their own replacements if they can't go, sounded perfectly plausible to me, because it's exactly what my ward does with missionary exchanges. Apparently, making twenty phone calls when the elder's quorum president decides to put your name on a random date is a duty you accepted when you were ordained to the priesthood.