Mission connection with Members (IMOS+)

So you have the BIG idea that the Church or community needs to develop. Discuss that idea here. Maybe you just want to make a suggestion on a new forum topic. Let us know.
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MattHanna-p40
New Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 28, 2010 9:28 pm
Location: Lehi, UT, USA

Mission connection with Members (IMOS+)

#1

Post by MattHanna-p40 »

I have been thinking about the following quote from Preach My Gospel page 217

"The full-time mission president holds the keys for convert baptisms. Under his direction, full-time missionaries have primary responsibility for teaching investigators. However, the bishop oversees the progress and friendshipping of investigators as they are being taught."

As a Ward Language Missionary and former mission leader I see there are opportunities for the member missionary work to be more integrated with the formal missionary programs. The missionary work is very dynamic and requires flexible processes and systems to meet the needs of Heavenly Father's children all over the world.

My understanding of the process is this:
Missionaries teach (preferably with members) and track progress of investigators
Ward Mission Leaders coordinate the missionary work of the Ward and participate in the priesthood executive committee to develop and manage a Ward Mission Plan. A part of this plan involves the process of helping new members continue in their path to the Temple and to Christ.

How about a little help from technology to bring the efforts of Missionaries and Ward Mission Plans together?

The idea: What if the Ward Mission Leaders had an online form they could fill out for new members when they are baptized? This form would track important information like Date of Baptism, Date of Confirmation, percent of completion of the new member lessons, Date of Calling, Date of Home teacher assignment, Date of temple recommend, Date of first temple work, etc.
The forms for a specific ward could be printed out on a weekly basis and taken to the Priesthood Executive committee for review and discussion. On the other hand, Mission Presidents, Stake Presidents, and Bishops would also have access to this information to understand the welfare and progress of new members.

Mission leaders and Priesthood leaders could use the information to discuss topics like help needed for a recent increase in new convert baptisms and the need of additional missionaries. Ward Mission Leaders would have a simple way to track the progress of new members.

I understand not all of the world has access to the internet and computers but wanted to see if perhaps I could generate some new thoughts for how formal missionary work could integrate more with the ward missionary effort through the use of technology.

Does anyone have other ideas or projects that have worked in their home ward or on their mission? How about feedback from previous Mission Presidents or other Priesthood Leaders?

Thank you,
Matt
RossEvans
Senior Member
Posts: 1345
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:52 pm
Location: Austin TX
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#2

Post by RossEvans »

The Church recently designed and released the New and Returning Member Progress Form, which is available as a PDF online at lds.org, as well as within MLS. When the form is accessed within MLS for a particular family, the application will populate automatically those data elements that are known in the database.

This data elements and milestones that the Church has chosen to track do not align perfectly with those you have suggested, but there is a lot of overlap. Of course, the automated process does not work over the Internet, as you suggest. But that same shortcoming applies to everything in MLS.
crisa
New Member
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:51 pm
Location: Columbus, OH USA

New Member Report

#3

Post by crisa »

There is also the New Member Report which is used in PEC / Ward Council. It has the home teacher, number of lessons, callings, etc. It is to be used in coordination with the New / Returning Member Progress form in PEC & Ward Council.
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