This question is kind of a possibly dual question,
or a dual answer from one or both of you.
But we do--in the process of the learning experience
of the youth, we still have a curriculum that we are not
trying to cover, but we're trying to deepen and experience
and help them to do so.
The question I have running through my mind as we have
a sweeping change in the Church curriculum--and home centered,
Church supported--what is the role of seminary in this
process?
What are the Brethren seeing with seminary teachers
and institute teachers to be that help
and that hope for the daily religious instruction?
Good.
I think Brother Webb should go first.
Elder Johnson should go second.
Please.
So I think of two things, right?
If things are happening as we hope they will in the home with
Come, Follow Me, then seminary could be--if we're ahead
of the home study in our seminary lesson--could be
an opportunity for a student to learn and then bring
into their home what they've learned and bless their family.
If we're behind the schedule, then
they take from their home study and bring that experience
into their seminary experience and bless the seminary class
because of a discussion of what they've
learned from their families in Come, Follow Me.
Unfortunately, the ideal is not the situation
for so many of our youth, so seminary then
becomes that chance for them to engage in learning and sharing
and discussing, because it's not happening always
in their homes.
So in either scenario, I think seminary
is either a support to what's happening, or, unfortunately,
maybe even in some places almost a replacement
for what's not happening.
So either way, it has its place, right?
And its role.
But Elder Johnson will give you the right answer.
I thought that was the right answer.
Well, I think that--I think we're really hoping that
the seminaries and the institutes are tying more
closely; we're gathering all things as one in Christ.
And we see the changes in the Children and Youth.
I hope we're moving so that we're on the same page,
we're working together.
And the home-centered, Church-supported that we start
thinking about--what does that mean for us?
And we start adapting so that we're really
all in this together as a Church and as a kingdom
to bless these lives.
It doesn't change our objective.
Sister Cordon, hit it.
That was not to stop you.
But I just--as we talk about the home-centered
and Church-supported and these youth, they also--in seminary,
you can invite them to take all this good information,
all the things that they--the revelatory experience that
they've had in seminary and bring it home,
because you'll find, if they're not having a home-centered
experience, they can be the catalyst to be
the home-centered experience.
And so as we see these youth for who they really are,
let's invite them to lift and build
their homes in ways that will help
strengthen those around them.
So, hopefully, seminary can be a catalyst
to strengthen also their resolve to be an influence at home.
Are you ready for a really weird answer?
We haven't changed anything in the Church;
we're making some adjustments, OK?
And when they began, the first one was ministering.
And as I would participate in priesthood leadership
conferences and leadership conferences, people would say,
"Well, this is all well and good,
but most homes don't have the structure to make this work."
And my answer to them has always been "Well,
why do you think ministering went first?"
If you take a look at the sequence of the adjustments
that have been announced, why do you
think ministering went first?
If you've got somebody in a ward--a single sister,
divorced, lost a husband, whatever it might be--and that
home needs that help, well, that elders quorum,
that Relief Society, and that bishop better have the best
ministering brothers and sisters in that home.
And you don't have enough to go around,
but you send them to the ones who need it the most.
Why do you think ministering went first?
Seminary is a venue for ministering.
You know, it's interesting to think
about that answer with the other conversation about timing
of revelation.
We talked about changing the calendar
of the seminary curriculum for--
Well, I was on a committee in the early 1990s.
Yeah.
That was the first one I was on.
Yeah.
And we went from "Sorry, Sister Cordon, this will never work,"
to implementation in about two months,
because it was the right time, right?