Abstract

ABSTRACT Our central thesis is that of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nicknamed Mormons, has created a culture which is not only friendly to but which also encourages change. This culture grows out of doctrinal preferences which recognize importance of change to processes of personal and institutional growth, and which has therefore been receptive to administrative practices which encourage same behaviors, albeit under a different nomenclature, that OD theory, practice, and interventions support. INTRODUCTION The of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a history of adapting to change. It was, in fact, created with idea of change in mind, and structured accordingly. founder Joseph Smith compiled, for instance, a group of revelations in a book of scripture called The Doctrine and Covenants, which is divided into 138 sections, or chapters. In writing preface to this book, as well as in what until recently was final section, missionary work was principal emphasis. This mandate to grow, or change, is at foundation of everything does, and a great deal of administrative experimentation has shaped successive missionary approaches over years. Nothing has focused attention more directly on institutional and individual change processes more than missionary work, and it has all had effect of creating a very adaptive system. Based on our life-time experience with Church, we suggest changes within seem most probably to be facilitated by: 1) an underlying belief that it is destiny of to grow, and that it therefore must be adaptive. A central mission, if not central mission, is growth. 2) The doctrine that God continues to speak, by revelation, to Apostles and Prophets in this day. A God who continues to talk is one who wants people to change. Otherwise He would be silent. 3) An underlying doctrinal theme that men and women are agents of Deity, responsible to Him for conduct of earthly affairs within His Church, and accountable to find most effective ways to get things done. This too implies need to change constantly. Because shares common goals and purposes with so many other organizations, it is not surprising that common elements of culture are also shared. This creates somewhat of a curiosity. On one hand, we choose to think we are unique, individual, and therefore different from all others; on other hand, we share much in common with many, creating what Joann Martin et.al. (1983), in another context, has called a uniqueness paradox-we think we are unique, but paradoxically, we are vastly similar. Our identity is found in both similarities and differences. In world of religious and spiritual preferences, for example, who is to be surprised that Protestant community shares much in common with Catholic community from which it broke, or that both Protestant and Catholic orthodoxies hold much in common with earlier Judeao-Christian ethic from which they both descend? The Catholic Mass, for example, is child of Jewish Synagogue service, and carries therefore some of values and preferences of parent. One unique expression of religious values is that expressed by of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes called by nickname Church (hereafter called the Church), because of belief that The Book of Mormon is sacred scripture, in exactly same sense that Bible is scripture. In 1820's and 1830's Joseph Smith announced that in answer to his search for religious truth, he received a number of visions and revelations, through which knowledge of God, once preached by Jesus and His apostles, but lost through generations of apostasy, was restored. In making this announcement, Joseph charted a unique course in Christian community: 1) he announced that he was a prophet, not in some social do-good sense of helping solve social problems, but in sense that he received revelations from God in harmony with which men and women might be saved in Kingdom of Heaven; 2) that same revelations which he had received others might receive as well, and thus come to know independently of his prophetic station, and 3) that church he established was a restored church-not reformed, as Protestant community asserts, nor a continuation of an ancient inheritance, as Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic communities assert, but a return to ancient but eternal truths, as word restore implies. …

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