The Calling of a Bishop

[smokymountainrain]

For those who might otherwise be worthy of the calling but do not wish for it, I'm thinking these aren't bad strategies. As I've reported before, at least 2-3 times a week, the GA's receive letters from men that read something like, "After many years of managing a successful business, I'm now about to retire and would be willing to serve as a mission president, and I have the skills to be a very good one." None of these correspondents have ever been called to be a mission president.

There are a lot of strange people out there.

[Topper]

Joseph Smith's sacrifice has greatly benefited my family, so it's more than just a matter of your immediate family. I would dare say that a bishop can likewise impact the lives of many more than just his family.

If we're busy looking out for #1, odds are that our lives will be more like #2.

Yes, it is great he blessed your family, but not his own. This is a wonderful message to our members:

Do not bless your own family, take no heed of them, but bless the lives of thousands others, they will praise your name and we the Church will ignore your families as they fall into disbelief. But trust us in the morning

It is truly a recipe for success. I admire it.

[Paperback Writer]

In general it is not a good idea to mix 11-yr-old scouts in with regular scouts on activities, just due to the dynamics of age difference. The older scouts tend to pick on the 11-yr-olds and it can sour them on scouting. Furthermore, church policy (general handbook? primary handbook?) is that 11-yr-olds should only do three overnight camps per year. However that is a general rule for the 11-yr-old programs. Furthermore, leaders are discouraged from bringing younger kids because they can be a distraction and limit the effectiveness of the leader in keeping track of the kids (imagine a leader with a bunch of little kids at camp, for example). However, for wards with really small numbers, it might make good sense to mix up more as long as you have good leadership.

That being said, if a father or scout leader has to go on a campout and he wants to bring along an 11-yr-old son, I can't imagine why anyone would care. Your stake would be nuts to make a big deal about it.

I learned a long time ago that you shouldn't worry too much about overzealous leaders in cases like this. If they nitpick about something just say: "Fine, go ahead and release me." If you are doing a good job overall, that will shut them up faster than anything. The last thing they want to do is find a replacement for an effective scout leader.

Good advice. I do question the 11-year olds being picked on (hazing?) that might occur in LDS troops. Always a concern, but how much of one? I started out scouting in a non-LDS troop (only option for me at the time) and the 11-year olds camped with other scouts, some as old as 16 or 17. The difference was that we had a 15-16 year old patrol leader looking out for the new scouts. Yes, we did endure snipe hunts but nothing close to hazing. And my patrol leader actually protected me from my bully-for-an-older brother on a campout when he tasked me with cleaning his dirty dishes which I refused.

I think the scout driven and older boys mentoring younger ones is a concept that the LDS version of scouting totally misses the boat on (in my experience). Rather than a mature, experienced 16-year-old patrol leader helping 11-12 year old scouts; we get a 13 year-old kid leading 12 year olds. And we end up with a leader driven program instead of a scout driven one. In my view, the mentoring opportunities outweigh the bullying concerns. We have some of the best YM around and yet under utilize them out of fear some 11-year old scout will get picked on. I'm confident that a handful of other scouts would stop the bully in his tracks. If we've somehow raised a troop of bully scouts than we have a far greater problem. (In this example, I'm describing a non-LDS troop with age ranges from 11-17; not the LDS version of mixing 11 year-olds with 12-13 aged deacons).

[Paperback Writer]

It is discouraged to be in the same car alone with a deacon who is not your son, let along taking him camping with you. Taking your son along was the best protection you could have.

Totally agree. And this was good advice given to me from a member of my stake presidency. He would always insist that one of his sons be in the car with him when transporting other scouts. In the LDS world, there's never enough leadership on campouts to be two-deep while in cars. So having at least your own son in the car is a form of protection. All it would take would be for a leader to be alone in a car with another scout and be accussed of slapping him or something worse. That would be the end of that adult's participation in scouting - it wouldn't matter whether that accusation was true.

Something similar happened to a friend of a friend so it's second hand info. A scout was complaining on a hike and ruining it for everyone. After a while, he lagged behing and a leader was sent back to escort him back to the troop who was waiting. The scout accussed the leader of spanking him in order to get him to hike faster. The complaint wasn't made until the scout got home and cried to his mother. The leader denied the accusation but it didn't matter as there were no other witnesses. He was out of scouting.

[Blueintheface]

For those who might otherwise be worthy of the calling but do not wish for it, I'm thinking these aren't bad strategies. As I've reported before, at least 2-3 times a week, the GA's receive letters from men that read something like, "After many years of managing a successful business, I'm now about to retire and would be willing to serve as a mission president, and I have the skills to be a very good one." None of these correspondents have ever been called to be a mission president.

That is hilarious. Campaigning for a higher calling? Such a strange thing to do IMO.

I can only recall one similar situation (excluding the mission of course). My former exceptionally annoying neighbor moved over to the adjacent new development primarily for the opportunity to be in the bishopric in the soon-to-be formed ward. He told everyone he could about that he felt he was called to serve as bishop right away. Fast forward 3 years and he's the YM President and has been since the ward was formed. A great and important calling but I'm sure the campaigning continues.

It didn't help that each and every week he showed up wearing a Utah tie.

[Topper]

Totally agree. And this was good advice given to me from a member of my stake presidency. He would always insist that one of his sons be in the car with him when transporting other scouts. In the LDS world, there's never enough leadership on campouts to be two-deep while in cars. So having at least your own son in the car is a form of protection. All it would take would be for a leader to be alone in a car with another scout and be accussed of slapping him or something worse. That would be the end of that adult's participation in scouting - it wouldn't matter whether that accusation was true.

Something similar happened to a friend of a friend so it's second hand info. A scout was complaining on a hike and ruining it for everyone. After a while, he lagged behing and a leader was sent back to escort him back to the troop who was waiting. The scout accussed the leader of spanking him in order to get him to hike faster. The complaint wasn't made until the scout got home and cried to his mother. The leader denied the accusation but it didn't matter as there were no other witnesses. He was out of scouting.

In light of litigation paranoia, the Church can either require all parents to transport their own sons and disband scouting altogether.

[myboynoah]

It's definitely personalities clashing mixed with a product of strict versus more casual observance. I'm a having a SoonerCoug day so another story. The teachers/priests wanted to do a video gaming night a few years ago. What they really wanted was a Halo interactive competition. But there was a YM who wasn't allowed to play video games and his parents tried to nix the whole deal and they were actually successful - the activity turned into a board game night. But not before the wheels of organization had started moving - XBoxs were comitted and so was my family room. So we just moved the Halo gaming activity to a Friday night and made it non-church sanctioned. Rather than exclude the YM who wasn't allowed to play video games, we mentioned that a TV would also be comitted to playing soccer/football/basketball. So this YM tells his parents that the only games that would be played are sports video games in order to get their approval. The parents had fond recollections of playing pong (I'm not making this up!) so they thought sports video games would be OK.

They were livid when they found out that Halo was also being played under my roof. I was asked how I could possbily allow mature video games like Halo to be played in my home. I just replied, "My house, my rules". I mentioned that there must have been a misunderstanding about this being a sport only video game party as the sports video games were only meant to be an alternative. And I lied about their son only playing sports video games and being a shining example to the rest of his quorum (he was TQ president). The reality was that he played Halo with the rest of the YM...and it wasn't the first time he had played Halo.

Reaching out to the one.

[Xander]

Good advice. I do question the 11-year olds being picked on (hazing?) that might occur in LDS troops. Always a concern, but how much of one? I started out scouting in a non-LDS troop (only option for me at the time) and the 11-year olds camped with other scouts, some as old as 16 or 17. The difference was that we had a 15-16 year old patrol leader looking out for the new scouts. Yes, we did endure snipe hunts but nothing close to hazing. And my patrol leader actually protected me from my bully-for-an-older brother on a campout when he tasked me with cleaning his dirty dishes which I refused.

I think the scout driven and older boys mentoring younger ones is a concept that the LDS version of scouting totally misses the boat on (in my experience). Rather than a mature, experienced 16-year-old patrol leader helping 11-12 year old scouts; we get a 13 year-old kid leading 12 year olds. And we end up with a leader driven program instead of a scout driven one. In my view, the mentoring opportunities outweigh the bullying concerns. We have some of the best YM around and yet under utilize them out of fear some 11-year old scout will get picked on. I'm confident that a handful of other scouts would stop the bully in his tracks. If we've somehow raised a troop of bully scouts than we have a far greater problem. (In this example, I'm describing a non-LDS troop with age ranges from 11-17; not the LDS version of mixing 11 year-olds with 12-13 aged deacons).

When I talked to a local community troop at a scout leader training that's how they ran things. 11-17 year-olds in were all in the same troop. They seemed to have their act together. Why does the church modify scouting and give it their own LDS flavor? Because it fits in their idea of the priesthood and priesthood offices. When did the Aaronic priesthood become just a youth program anyway? In the early days they didn't give it to people until they were adults.

[grapevine]

Hal told of taking his sons on scout trips when he was involved in Scouts. That was when he was scoutmaster in Pal Alto or Rexburg I beleive. May 2001 ces devotional. I don't think you are to do that now. I seen scoutmasters take there kids on camps and family and it can cause distractions and problems. Why should not do it.

some well he probably just graduated from HS but who remembers that kid that got lost on some outing. Found doing something on cellphone type game. Lucky he was found. But there are reasons not to take young sons to things.

As for Bishop I don't know of one that asked for the calling. Humbled by it. Most don't want it. That is why I cringe when I hear of people that hillary about the Bishop. Particularly when they don't want to follow counsel anyway.