The title to this post comes from a FamilySearch.org blog post dated 9 February 2017 which showed up in my inbox on March 27th, 2017 under the title of "Recapping the Recent Name Change Announcement. One important statement from this post is as follows:
Rachel Matheus, senior product manager at FamilySearch, said these changes stress the consultant’s primary responsibility to focus on the temple–family history connection. “Family history and temple work go hand-in-glove and should never be separated,” Matheus said.
Church members may not always see the connection between family history and temple work. They attend the temple and do the work for a name that has been provided by the temple. The members’ spiritual experiences, however, are greatly enhanced if they perform temple work for names from their own families, she said.
“Any temple service is good service, but an increased blessing comes when you are going for your own family. Our Heavenly Father has told us that without our kindred dead we cannot be made whole,” Matheus said.From my own perspective, what has been interesting about the name change is that it has almost no effect, so far, in the Wards and Stakes I am acquainted with. The Ward Clerks have noted the new name change, but otherwise, there has been little discussion or even mention of the name change. Many of the Ward level formerly designated Family History Consultants, are not even aware of the change.
The statement indicates the following:
These calling name changes reemphasize the close relationship between family history work and temple service. The changes also modify the organization of family history assignments at the area, stake, and ward levels.
Additionally, some temple and family history consultants at the stake and ward levels may be assigned as lead stake and ward temple and family history consultants, the statement said.
The stake lead consultants will assist the high councilor assigned to family history and may provide training for other stake and ward consultants. The ward lead consultants will assist the high priest group leader with family history and may also provide training to ward consultants when necessary.A search online for "Temple and Family History Consultant" shows little online notice of the new designation with the exception of initial news reports in the Deseret News and the LDS.org website.
The real question should be whether or not this change in the organization and title mandates any changes in way Stakes and Wards conduct their temple and family history work?
Subsequent to the announcement, information and training resources were made available on LDS.org.
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I totally agree with your take on this change. To their credit, our stake held an all consultant and HPGroup leader meeting explaining the change, but that was it. They did not address lead consultants or training. I was Disappointed. It is so hard for a trained, knowledgeable consultant (especially a female one) to work under an untrained, clueless HPG Leader where nothing gets done.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the problem lies with those who should be training stake and priesthood leaders, who then should be training those on down the line. We'll see what happens. Pray for all.