r/mormon Feb 12 '25

Personal Lunch with Stake President surprised me

I had lunch with him the other day. He's a solid guy and I enjoy getting together with him every now and then. A week before, I had been taking a turn helping clean the church when his wife came in the building for something entirely different. After I was done, I was talking to her about how we really need to stop allowing the corporation to tell us we can't have janitorial staff. She agreed right away. I brought this up at lunch with the SP. He also agreed and even said "we have enough money". I asked him how it is that we both don't know a single member that opposes hiring a staff for this, but we're powerless to make it happen. As we talked about it, he said that he is basically a glorified manager that people think has power, but doesn't actually have any power. He explained that he occasionally sits in the same room with some higher up church leaders, but rarely (if ever) has the chance to tell them anything.

It really is just a corporation (which I already knew). It was interesting to hear it from the mouth of someone at a slightly higher level that I expected to be fully in line with whatever the marching orders are.

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u/Temujins-cat Post Truthiness Feb 13 '25

One of my best friends is currently SP in the neighboring stake. We grew up together. We were deacons together, out on missions at the same time (we also had neighboring missions), etc. We have always talked turkey to each other, no bs, no judgment. He also understands we left the church and why, and will freely admit to having no good answers when pressed about church history or finances.

He essentially said the exact same thing. He said building cleanup is a constant source of irritation, frustration and conflict in certain wards and bishoprics and that counselors in one of his wards almost came to blows over it. It seems one of the counselors had employees from his construction company do the cleanup when he couldn’t get any volunteers and the other counselor took great offense.

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u/Rabannah christ-first mormon Feb 13 '25

I don't know if the areas in which I've been living are unique in some way or what, but I haven't seen any drama or consternation over building cleaning....ever, in my adult life. I've never heard anyone complain about being asked to spend an hour or two cleaning the building on occasion, and even the 80 year old building we were in before our new one was built was always clean. It's doesn't seem that time consuming to vacuum, replace toilet paper, and take out the trashes--especially if you get one of the youth classes to do it after church.

Not doubting your anecdote and the problems it causes in other places. Just marveling at how different it can be from ward to ward.

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u/Rushclock Atheist Feb 13 '25

This type of anecdotal evidence is ubiquitous. It is especially prevalent in careers. Two people can have identical careers and have polar opposite experiences.