There are Mormons in top positions in many companies and in government.
At the age of eight, Mormon boys join the Cub Scouts (part of the Boy Scouts of America) and Mormon girls join the Activity Day Program, (an LDS program.) In these programs, they learn how to set goals and achieve them, and they learn how to spend their free time in meaningful ways. They develop skills that will make them productive, successful adults.
When they turn twelve years old, they move into the Young Women’s and Young Men’s programs. Using their ability to set goals and meet them, they are now given much harder goals to set and achieve. The boys work through the Boy Scouts program where available, and the girls—and boy who live where Scouting isn’t the approved program—work in a Personal Progress program.
They also begin to take an active role in leading their own programs. The program is overseen by an adult president, her counselors, and three scout leaders or advisors, plus a secretary. However, each class, consisting of youth of two ages, also has a youth presidency. The youth president and his or her two counselors and secretary lead the program. They learn the rules, receive training in leadership skills, set goals, and select activities that meet those goals. The adults provide shadow leadership. This means they are always present, and guide gently by asking questions that lead the youth to understand how to achieve their goals and by helping them learn to evaluate activities for effectiveness. However, it is the youth who are in charge, with leaders only assisting where needed.
The youth are taught Planning With a Purpose. This means they begin by asking what they want to have happen in the lives of those they lead. For instance, they may be concerned about the dress standards of the youth, or worried that some youth don’t have many friends. Then they develop an activity that will address that need, rather than coming up with a fun plan and squashing it into the program. Afterwards, they evaluate how effective the activity was in achieving the goal, determine what follow-up is needed, and decide how to improve based on what they learned.
With six years of leadership training, the youth are well-prepared to move into the adult LDS world, with its many leadership opportunities. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—the real name of the church—is a lay church, and it has a very extensive program. Everyone is able to work who wants to do so, as an unpaid volunteer. Assignments are made and positions are frequently changed, so its members have opportunities to do many different things, each job bringing with it its own set of skills.
Both men and women have opportunities to lead. There are a number of auxiliary organizations, all of which have three member presidencies. Some church positions are filled only by men, others only by women, and some are open to either. There are no promotions—the adult president of the children’s Primary Organization might be the assistant in the baby nursery the next week. However, most people do learn leadership by serving as a counselor to someone with more experience. On the other hand, sometimes a completely inexperienced person is placed in the position of president and chooses an experienced counselor to provide the shadow leadership mentioned above to help her rise to the responsibility.
Unlike the world, the church presumes that if God calls you to a position, He will also qualify you to do it. Members learn leadership, making mistakes, but always progressing until they become skilled leaders. This is one of the ways the church fulfills its responsibility to help God’s children become everything He planned for them to become.
The late Terrie Lynn Bittner—beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend—was the author of two homeschooling books and numerous articles, including several that appeared in Latter-day Saint magazines. She became a member of the Church at the age of 17 and began sharing her faith online in 1992.
