How do Latter-day Saints maintain personal belief and commitment to the church community in the face of a seemingly inexhaustible series of internal and external challenges to faith?

Time: 

Friday, September 16, 2016, 7:30 pm
We encourage you to come 10 minutes early. The evening will be more productive and helpful with minimal interruptions.

Location: 

Home of Ed and Kristen Iversen
3582 Oak Rim Way Salt Lake City, UT 84109

Please park in the “park & ride” lot nearby. It’s only a block away. See Google map pict at bottom. Car pool if you can. 

B.A.C.: Bring A Chair

The discussion:

How do we deploy theological and institutional resources already within our grasp to foster reconciliation in a church membership seemingly hopelessly divided between the “orthodox” and “doubters”?  Some of the greatest challenges—but also most important lessons—appear while we work in the laboratory of love that we call the church.  Maintaining belief is essential, but Christ also calls upon us to live out our discipleship within the context of a flesh-and-blood community that makes demands of us and gives us assignments and opportunities to take a lively interest in other people.  Perhaps the most important thing we can do in the face of our current challenges is to make the church a more welcoming place for those who struggle, creating the conditions in which they can feel comfortable while they work through questions in the midst of the body of Christ rather than feeling excluded from it.  A more embracing Mormonism may thus be the most important factor in helping people more fully embrace Mormonism.

About Patrick:

Patrick Mason is the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies and associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University, where he also serves as chair of the Religion Department. He is the author or editor of multiple books, including most recently Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt, published jointly by Deseret Book and the Maxwell Institute at BYU. He is the chair of the board of directors of the Dialogue Foundation, which publishes Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Read, listen, watch:

Planted
A Thoughtful Faith podcast with Patrick