Category: Church Leadership and Policies

  • Family Size is The First Thing Reported about Mission Presidents–and That’s Good

    Family Size is The First Thing Reported about Mission Presidents–and That’s Good

    Stephen C

    I noticed the other day when looking up a recently called mission president that the mission president bios follow a pretty standard format: name, age, number of children, past church callings, and background.  Now, this is one of those things that was probably decided by a mid-level official in the COB, so I don’t want…

  • Church Leadership Callings as a Marker of Your Standing Before God

    Church Leadership Callings as a Marker of Your Standing Before God

    Stephen C

      In one of my recent posts I talked about the connection between wealth and Church leadership; one of the issues that naturally rose to the surface in the comments was the connection between Church leadership and one’s standing before God.  On this issue there’s a somewhat uncomfortable tension between different truisms in Church teachings…

  • Why Do Church Leaders Tend to Be Wealthy?

    Stephen C

    An uncomfortable apparent pattern in the US church is that Church leaders tend to be wealthier than average. I say apparent, since I don’t have any numbers, but this pattern is stark and widespread enough anecdotally that I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s true for the purposes of this post.  Assuming this is…

  • “Royal Families” in the Church and Spiritual Special Sauce

    Stephen C

    And think not to say within yourselves,We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. –Matthew 3:9 The mythos of the Latter-day Saint royalty that I bought into while growing up in the Utah of Utah went something like this:…

  • In Defense of Boundary Maintenance at BYU

    Stephen C

    BYU’s recent policy changes that appear to be geared towards reinforcing the institution’s Latter-day Saint character are causing consternation in some circles, so I thought now would be a good time to be the bad guy and make a case for why proactive faculty boundary maintenance is needed for an institution like BYU to fulfill…

  • “Bishop Roulette” vs “One Size Fits All”

    Stephen C

    “Leadership roulette” (or “bishop roulette”) is a common term thrown around when there is some good or bad outcome that depends on the contingencies of who happens to be your local leader. This particular complaint is often aimed at some perceived authority figure in a bubble at Church Headquarters that is supposedly detached from the complexities…

  • What Happens If All the Apostles Pass Away?

    Stephen C

    Many countries have continuity of government plans for what to do if the leadership suddenly dies in some sort of a catastrophe. The United States famously has a “designated survivor” that is in a secure location during the State of the Union so that somebody in the line of succession can be preserved if the…