I think that the Church will be trying to answer concerns that the former DTG program felt very North American and tied into scouting. I’ve yet to review the new materials but am excited to see the goals that await the ym.

David

I am rooting for the new DTG program to succeed–I hope you post on the changes.

I’d like to think that the Spanish-language portion was included for inclusion purposes rather than shaming American wards into not complaining. Frankly, I expect complaining.

Was your wards’ roll-out a big deal? The YW rolled-out the new PP program mostly at New Beginnings meetings, which I think was fairly successful (parents present, special night, format of leaders’choosing, etc). I fear some wards will hand the boys the new materials on their way out the door on Sunday and never talk about it again. (Perhaps much of my concern is local: I don’t expect the stake YM president to set a “new and exciting” tone).

I too noticed the multicultural bent to the training videos. It helped that I was sitting next to the leaders from my stake’s Spanish speaking unit at the time. Props to those who made the video.

My concern is that the videos show almost robotic YM who do not resemble any young man that I have ever worked with. While I expect training videos to set a high standard, I was puzzled how I might implement the new program with my youth who actually behave like teenagers. I suppose I am asking for training that is beyond the scope of the videos.

I like the more fluid approach to the program. Rather than checklists, it seems that the program is teaching a lifestyle. Not only is this approach more applicable across cultures, but for those in North America it is also helps separate priesthood from scouting. IMO it seems that priesthood and scouts each need their own space.

BTW – For those interested, the new DTG booklet is now available online: http://www.lds.org/dutytogod/

Sounds pretty good. I’ll look forward to seeing how my ward handles it.

Actually, what’s most interesting about it is that they have to go way out of their way to produce this kind of content. It’s not like the church has ever been racist in the last X number of years and just didn’t want to put a picture of a latino/black/asian person in the various publications or videos. But when your media empire is located in Provo or SLC you’re pretty limited as to the models/actors/members available to you. I’m curious where the video was filmed.

As we’re reading Chronicles and Kings in the O.T. now in Gospel Doctrine, one of the things that stands out to me is that very few of the “good kings” properly prepared their sons for leadership, exemplified with Rehoboam who messed up immediately after taking over from his father Solomon.

Although there are certainly other co-existing focuses and priorities, it occurs to me that the number one focus/priority has to be training the youth to take their places as adults. If one generation doesn’t raise up a sufficient number of righteous and faithful people in the next generation to replace them, no amount of converts will save the organization.

This also has a tie-in to birth rate. If it’s a given that a certain minimum percentage of the youth are going to leave (permanently) anyway (due to agency, even when the parents/wards do everything right) , then the birth-rate has to at least equal the replacement rate plus the exit rate of born-in-church members.

The efforts to retain youth will never (or should never) negate agency, but with the decreasing birth rate, the church can even less afford “preventable” losses of born-in-church members.