Prophet Power Rankings (during your lifetime)

[Green Monstah]

With the passing of President Nelson, it's me wonder where I'd rank his leadership among the presidents of the church since I was born.

Here are my PPRs:

1. President Nelson-a reformer, a gentleman, a bridge builder. I really cannot say enough good about this guy.
2. President Hinckley-Prophet for my formative years. De facto prophet for most of my young childhood years. Do I dislike some of his statements in the press? sure. a few of them were disingenuous and bordered on dishonest. But remember how wild it was for him to state that he wanted 100 temples? A great orator and leader. Big fan. Not a scoundrel (sorry Niku).
3. President Kimball-Maybe it's just because he's from a rural, Mormon community in AZ (like a lot of my family), but he seemed like a kind man. He had the courage to do what his predecessors didn't in 1978. Maybe he should slide in above Hinckley for that alone.
4. President Monson. Confession-his voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me. And I think he's got a little Paul H. Dunn in him (nothing wrong with a parable, though). He was mostly a status quo guy. The 11/5 policy was unfortunate.
5. President Hunter. Short, sweet, to the point.
6. President Benson. I don't want to sell this guy short in some ways. Under his leadership, the church grew in leaps and bounds in the mid-to-late 80s. And he was clearly a talented guy (former Sec'y of Agriculture), but the more I read about him, the further he falls down the power rankings. Is it the John Birch stuff? The fact that he was incapacitated for a significant portion of his presidency? All of the above? Not sure, but he's the only one of the six that gets a big "meh" from GM (why do I have the feeling that someday God is going to re-read this post to me?)

[Shaka]

I think I'd give him number one on the two-hour block alone.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Tough to argue with that list/ranking. 2 & 3 are kind of a toss-up for me. I love those top 3 so much.

[Northwestcoug]

Based solely on how influential they were to the church at large:

1. Kimball by a mile. From what I understand there were some, um, strong personalities in the 12 when he started working to rescind the priesthood and temple ban. He was going against 120 years of accepted revelation persuading those guys. And it still just barely worked. If he hadn't succeeded, I'm sure the odds were low that Benson would have the same drive, delaying the move even more.
2. Nelson. I haven't been actively participating since he came on, but even my mom sings the praises of 2 hour church.
3. Hinkley. Started the temple building craze. And pushed hard to bring Mormonism into the limelight.
4. Benson. Flooding the earth with the BOM, which became the main doctrinal focus for a generation.
5. Tie between Hunter, Lee, and Fielding Smith. Just not enough time to make their mark.

Based on how they influenced my membership:

1. Hinkley. The guy who molded my membership for the first 11 years of my marriage. I loved his talks, his humility, his direction. I saw him give a devotional at the JSB auditorium which seemed extemporaneous, and it influenced me for years after. It was one of a precious few instances which I took as a strong witness of JS, and which I had to reckon with when I stepped away from the church. Later on we and a bunch of other members outside the Moridor shouted hosanna with the mini temple focus, and then did it for reals when he dedicated the Montreal temple. I mourned when he passed.
2. Kimball. The only thing I remember about the end of the ban was watching on TV someone from Idaho saying he was a fallen prophet. I was 9 at the time, so no, I didn't pull over to the side of the road and cry tears of joy. Most of his influence was in my teenage years, and I assume all those awkward sex-focused devotionals were a result of his direction. So it wasn't all positive, but he was influential in an impressionable time of my life. Later after my mission I had a love affair with him, reading his biography twice and just hero-worshipping him. He was a guy I would go to battle for.
3. Benson. I was a missionary during his tenure and I did my part with flooding the earth. Then going to BYU after I became a serious BOM reader, spurred on by religion teachers enforcing the message. He wasn't doing too well during most of his leadership, so I wasn't really moved by his talks. But I did take to heart his messages.
4. Monson. To be honest he was a letdown to me after Hinkley. Most members loved his talks and messages, but I just didn't vibe with him.
5. Nelson. Despite being an apostate during his entire tenure I kept up on his teachings and leadership from you fine folks.
6. Tie between Lee and Fielding Smith. What can I say, I was barely born.

[The_Tick]

I was with TW on Sunday, and I love all of the Prophets in my time. They have all been great.

I will say that I love two hour church from a practical perspective. As someone that has spent 30 years working with the youth, I really miss having YM's every Sunday. That was always one of my weekly highlights.

I will share some of what I think (my own personal thoughts) are misses in the last couple of years:

1. Renaming HT/VT to Ministering. It is just awkward, and I just can't get with it. (How is ministering going?)
2. Getting rid of YM Presidencies. I have been with the Priests Quorum since that change happened, and my personal belief is that things are much less organized in the youth program. Like I love my current ward, my Bishop is amazing. But he has two kids on missions, is the Bishop, and is a doctor with a practice here and in Twin Falls. His time is limited. What slips? Mutual. I am the Sunday guy, the Wednesday guy is a harvest guy....so 6 months or so out of the year he is unavailable. I'd say we have mutual twice a month now.
3. Eschewing the name Mormon. I get it, but you just spend multiple years on an "I'm a Mormon" campaign. Just seemed odd.

Home runs

1. Come Follow Me - This hit right before Covid and was amazing.

[Donuthole]

I was with TW on Sunday, and I love all of the Prophets in my time. They have all been great.

I will say that I love two hour church from a practical perspective. As someone that has spent 30 years working with the youth, I really miss having YM's every Sunday. That was always one of my weekly highlights.

I will share some of what I think (my own personal thoughts) are misses in the last couple of years:

1. Renaming HT/VT to Ministering. It is just awkward, and I just can't get with it. (How is ministering going?)
2. Getting rid of YM Presidencies. I have been with the Priests Quorum since that change happened, and my personal belief is that things are much less organized in the youth program. Like I love my current ward, my Bishop is amazing. But he has two kids on missions, is the Bishop, and is a doctor with a practice here and in Twin Falls. His time is limited. What slips? Mutual. I am the Sunday guy, the Wednesday guy is a harvest guy....so 6 months or so out of the year he is unavailable. I'd say we have mutual twice a month now.
3. Eschewing the name Mormon. I get it, but you just spend multiple years on an "I'm a Mormon" campaign. Just seemed odd.

Home runs

1. Come Follow Me - This hit right before Covid and was amazing.

Agree with almost all of the above. Add to the misses:

4. Personal Development Youth Guidebook. We got rid of Scouts (i'm indifferent on this, honestly. There were goods and bads to being with BSA) but we didn't really come up with a great replacement before doing so, IMO. Maybe we'll get there eventually on this, but for now, it just feels a little rudderless. Seemed like this was the perfect opportunity to beef up Duty to God and come up with a solid, structured plan for youth development. The PDYG feels like something that was thrown together at the last minute and ultimately puts the onus back on the families (and by default, the leaders).

5. Summer Camps. With the church's disassociation from BSA, there have been a ton of BSA-related camps that have closed down. It would be nice if the Church had purchased or taken over some of those and offered some church-based camps where you could book a 4-day stay and go do some high adventure stuff along with some gospel stuff woven in. That said, the church has done FSY, which is great. But that doesn't replace scout camp/YM camp for most wards.


Home runs:
2. Tithing Declaration starting in September. I never understood ruining the Bishop's Holidays with Tithing Settlement. Now it can be mostly done before the holidays even arrive.
3. FSY (EFY) for everyone. This is great, and is a total steal at only $75 for the youth on on years and only $150 per youth on the off years.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Changing 'home teaching" to ''ministering" is nice as emphasizes the purpose of the relationship but, as Tick notes, it's awkward. Saying "I'm X's minister", "You should call your ministers," and 'i haven't seen my ministers in years," is weird. How do you refer to yourself or your Minister Formerly Known as Home Teacher? Another slightly awkward renaming is the change from investigator to friend.

[The_Tick]

Changing 'home teaching" to ''ministering" is nice as emphasizes the purpose of the relationship but, as Tick notes, it's awkward. Saying "I'm X's minister", "You should call your ministers," and 'i haven't seen my ministers in years," is weird. How do you refer to yourself or your Minister Formerly Known as Home Teacher? Another slightly awkward renaming is the change from investigator to friend.

And lets be fair....I have 5 families. None of them are active or go to Church. When I reach out to let them know that I am their ministering brother, they all say "I don't want anyone to minister to me. If I did, I'd go to church. I know where the building is." These folks are all older than I am....now, if the program was Home Teaching, they'd still probably tell me no...but the conversation wouldn't be as abrasive.

That being said....I could be much better at it.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Changing 'home teaching" to ''ministering" is nice as emphasizes the purpose of the relationship but, as Tick notes, it's awkward. Saying "I'm X's minister", "You should call your ministers," and 'i haven't seen my ministers in years," is weird. How do you refer to yourself or your Minister Formerly Known as Home Teacher? Another slightly awkward renaming is the change from investigator to friend.

What would be a better term? Assuming you wanted to drop "home teaching".

[Jeff Lebowski]

And lets be fair....I have 5 families. None of them are active or go to Church. When I reach out to let them know that I am their ministering brother, they all say "I don't want anyone to minister to me. If I did, I'd go to church. I know where the building is." These folks are all older than I am....now, if the program was Home Teaching, they'd still probably tell me no...but the conversation wouldn't be as abrasive.

That being said....I could be much better at it.

We used to minister to a part member family (my wife and I). I don't think we ever told them it was a ministering assignment. We just treated them as friends (still do).

[LVAllen]

This topic seems like a sneaky way to try and figure out who is the oldest.

[PaloAltoCougar]

What would be a better term? Assuming you wanted to drop "home teaching".

No idea. Maybe “home visiting,” but also clunky.

[PaloAltoCougar]

This topic seems like a sneaky way to try and figure out who is the oldest.

Maybe not, but how many here remember “ward teaching”,”HT’s predecessor. Each WT companionship pair had a ringed binder that included tear-out message cards

[SteelBlue]

1) Hinkley. He was a close, lifelong friend of my grandpa and my grandma was couples friends with his wife. Was in a lot of family stories so I was predisposed to love the guy. His style of leadership kept me around a lot longer than maybe I would've stayed.

2) Honestly this is where the list ends for me. RMN was prophet after I left the church and so I don't really have an opinion on how that went nor should I. But I'll put him as my #2 because I respect the amount of shaking up he did. I also dug that he took a science stance on covid in a church that had a ton of anti-vax sentiment. I was also happy for my friends and family that got an extra hour of their Sunday back (though I suspect it probably got reclaimed in some alternative ways).

Not ranked: Benson. He was the prophet of my HS days, mission and first year of marriage. He was not for me. Since I don't have anything nice to say, I just won't rank him.

Hunter: Seemed like a great guy. Can't remember anything about his tenure really EXCEPT that I was present for the Cody Judy hostage situation (Edit: this was before his actual presidency) so I guess I trauma bonded with HWH a bit. Still, don't remember enough about anything he did to rank him. Oh, I also remember a crazy microburst in Provo the day he died.

SWK: He was the prophet of my elementary and junior high years. I remember how much my parents loved him but I don't remember much about him affecting my life in ways that I understood at the time. I do remember the one horrible sex fireside in like 1982 with the river rafting. I left that fireside thinking I was going to hell for some things that had been occurring with the Sears catalog. I think of him the way some people think of Radiohead. They know they're supposed to love them, but they just don't get why. I do give him a ton of credit for the "revelation." Being a Mormon would have been untenable past 1978 without it.

JFS and HBL: I don't remember them at all because I was 0-3 years old. So, no ranking.

Monson: He loved scouting, I didn't. His conference stories were not for me. No ranking.

[Moliere]

Maybe not, but how many here remember “ward teaching”,”HT’s predecessor. Each WT companionship pair had a ringed binder that included tear-out message cards

Holy crap you are old!