Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People

By Living in Zion

May. 14th, 2012 at 8:14 am

I have had lots of Bishops in my life. Most of them have been your usual, garden-variety church leaders. I’ve always had white, middle-aged guys as my Bishop. I think having an African-American or some other minority as Bishop would be cool. That could take a while. Iowa isn’t known for its racial diversity. In the meantime, I want to tell you about the most interesting Bishops I’ve had.

1. My current Bishop seems to be pretty great. We have only been here a year and I haven’t dealt with him in any leadership role, but from the back of the chapel it feels like he radiates calm, loving support. So far so good. The thing I am most intrigued about is his hobby. He is a long-distance bicycle rider. He is passionate about riding and has been known to miss an occasional church meeting while racing. I admire that. Iowa does a crazy annual ride called RAGBRI (Register Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) that goes 7 days, over 450 miles. It is done the last week of July, when the heat and humidity is in full force and only complete wackos are out doing exercise. My bishop participates every year.

2. When we lived in rural Illinois, we had a semi-inactive guy called as Bishop in our small ward. He and his wife had 5 grown kids, all inactive. His wife was Stake Relief Society President when we moved in. I hadn’t seen him at church in over a year when he was called to serve. His big thing was hunting. He loved hunting every weekend and often traveled to hunt animals not in our area. Shortly after his reluctant acceptance of the call, he bore his testimony about how he felt closest to Heavenly Father while sitting out in the woods. He talked about how he carried a buckeye in his pocket as a talisman to remind him of God. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up for the congregation to see. We were in the back and I couldn’t tell what it was. I was confused. What is a buckeye? How does carrying that thing help him? I asked Rob after church what the heck a buckeye was. He laughed and corrected me. It was a buck eye. A preserved buck’s eyeball. Yuuuuucckkkk.
While serving, he became fierce about the Temple. He got all 5 of his kids back at church and baptized grandchildren who had fallen through the cracks. Good things happened with the roughest-around-edges guy I’ve ever seen in leadership.
Rob’s favorite thing was the Bishop instituted a priesthood potluck before General Conference meeting that was called a “Wild Game Supper”. All the hunters in the ward brought game they killed and everyone ate them. It is amazing how many inactive guys attended the Priesthood General Conference meeting just because they got to share their secret Armadillo Marinated Stew.

3. While in Colorado we had a Bishop who had creativity oozing out of his pores. Every winter he created an ice rink for his kids and the ward in his backyard. The youth loved it. He made wooden strip canoes in his garage and the Scouts used them for their adventures. He was constantly cutting wood for Relief Society craft projects and once taught a RS class on using power tools. He and his wife were fearless about trying out new things. The best Christmas program I have ever attended was under his leadership. It took 3 months of work by the youth and transformed the Cultural Hall into Old Testament Jerusalem. Every ward activity was over the top fun because he encouraged spending time and money on socials. All of the Young Women got their Personal Progress Recognition by working on Ward projects. I really like a guy who knows how to party.

As I think about what made these Bishops special, I realize that it wasn’t their amazing testimonies or correlation skills. It was they each had personalities that flavored the call. They didn’t do what many people do, which is drop all extra-curricular activities and make Church their only focus. Instead, they integrated their passions into the call.

Even though I have no intention of ever eating squirrel or rattlesnake, I like it that there is room in our church for folks who do.

1. annegb

Mon, May 14, 2012 @ 11:37am

Wow. Great post.

I find myself drawn to leaders who are extra human (as opposed to super human).

Once, James came home cracking up because our bishop, who lived across the street, had uttered a lot of curse words while up on a ladder trying to get a bird’s nest out of his chimney.

I haven’t had bishops as interesting as yours, but I did have a few whose release gave me a sigh of relief.

2. Naismith

Mon, May 14, 2012 @ 3:43pm

“They didn’t do what many people do, which is drop all extra-curricular activities and make Church their only focus. Instead, they integrated their passions into the call.”

I think a lot of it depends on the ward, though, and what the welfare needs are and how many people die, and what the capability of your counselors are. At one point in his tenure, my husband became bishop over a ward in which 80% of the people were new, and he had to get to know them all at once. My husband *did* drop all extra activities, and sacrificed a lot from his job, where he turned down all travel requests that were not absolutely required, which hurt his career a lot. We never went on a vacation that took us away more than one Sunday, which was hard on our bodies and not cost effective when it came to international trips.

But we were sure that is what we should have done at that point in time. Criticizing him for making that sacrifice comes off as unfair. There is no one-size-fits-all way to do the job.

I think the bigger lesson is that every ward us different and every bishop brings different skills and talents and outlook to the position. It can be done well in so many different ways.

3. annegb

Mon, May 14, 2012 @ 5:37pm

“Criticizing him for making that sacrifice comes off as unfair.”

I didn’t get criticism of anyone from this post, just remarking on some remarkable bishops. On the other hand, I did have several bishops (all served shorter than average as bishops) whose focus on other parts of their life made it difficult to reach out to them when we needed them. One’s wife was sometimes rude when people called, making her resentment clear. I understand it must be very hard, but I didn’t notice that with the other bishops.

“I think the bigger lesson is that every ward us different and every bishop brings different skills and talents and outlook to the position. It can be done well in so many different ways.” absolutely right.

4. Aaron R.

Tue, May 15, 2012 @ 5:23am

This is a great post and I love the insight you bring to this.

5. living in zion

Tue, May 15, 2012 @ 1:24pm

Naismith – I think you are right, each wards needs sets the tone for what kind of work the bishop will do. I am glad you and your husband were able to fulfill the needs of the people you served. It is a tough job, one I personally wouldn’t ever want.

Honestly, my feminist girlfriends who rail about not having the Priesthood, not being able to be the bishop, etc. I think they are crazy. My hands are full dealing with all the stuff my husband can’t do. I am so not interested in looking for more work to do.
Besides, as a bishops wife you know better than anyone the ugly truth – people are crazy.

I have been lucky to be in a few wards where the welfare/sickness/funeral needs were low so the bishop could focus on other things. It seems to me the trick is to live in a ward boundary with lots of rich members. There no poverty in the members, sickness was covered privately and funerals were pre-paid.

Makes life much easier than the wards we have been in that were full of low-income apartment complexes of poor elderly, single parents and disabled members. That is where bishops are pulled to the end of the rope.