“And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually” —D&C 1:30
The phrase “the only true and living church” is a treasured one among members of the LDS church. If true, it lends legitimacy to the church and its claims.
However.
Latter-day Saints have a tendency to focus on the words “only” and “true”. Together, these two words mean our church is God’s church, a claim unshared by anyone else.
But in all the discussions I’ve heard or talks I’ve listened to, very little attention is given to “living”.
Something that’s living, breaths. It grows. It adapts. It makes mistakes. It has successes. It moves. It engages. It interacts.
Something that’s living isn’t stagnant. It isn’t stationary. It isn’t rigid. It isn’t static.
The only true and living church. Yet it feels so lifeless. Someone needs to check its pulse.
I think I can see where you are coming from. When the changes you would like to see are slow in coming it is frustrating. My biggest complaint about the church has always been church culture. By this I mean all the folklore, false assumptions, judgement, and social expectations that are not based on doctrine but culture. It is Mormon missionaries going into the world teaching everyone to play baseball and make root beer. It is the false expectation that everyone in your ward is Republican or Conservative. It is the lower status of single women, etc. versus mothers. It is frowning glances on missionaries who return… even if it is for valid health challenges. It is the mean spirited remarks about transgender children who want to use their own washroom at school, and how that might trigger the apocalypse.
I know the church is not growing in ways you would like but I have seen nothing but change in the last 5 years. The church of today is almost unrecognizable to the church of my youth with multiple church services 3 or 4 times a Sunday with weekly Primary, Relief Society, and Mutual activities, roadshows and fundraising to build buildings.
We have seen changes to home teaching, curriculum, smaller temples, the use of the internet and apps in meetings. The change I dislike the most though is building cleaning!!!!
If my assumptions are right, most of these changes are driven by the church trying to internationalize itself. For me this is the most promising hope for the future. For the first time in history more members are outside of the US than inside the US. We had a Utah Church, then we had a North America church, and we are trying to become an international church. I hope that an international church helps us filter out what is doctrinally based and what is culturally based.
Much of the “life” of the church is internal though. A good prayer life can and should bring life to oneself. A good prayer life is not exclusively LDS though. A good prayer life is good for the
life of the soul. Even if you see the institutional church as dead I hope you still have some “life” inside you because that is really what counts.
It’s not even really about change I want. It’s about seeing change in general. When was the last time, for example, that a completely new doctrine was revealed to the church. Joseph F. Smith, 100 years ago next month?