Doing this podcast and being a public voice, people reach out to you to share “secret” information. Today I tell you what I am hearing from inside the Church Office Building is being discussed in regard to future changes. I also share a deeply unhealthy story of how the Church allegedly informed Kem Gardner with inside information about how City Creek Mall was going to diminish the value of his Gateway project and how Kem thanked the Church by allegedly gifting a impressive piece of property to the Church and specifically Elder Uchtdorf.
Below are the predictions I am making based on those inside sources and the story line of the alledged details of City Creek versus the Gateway Project.
City Creek Mall Story
* Gateway Project starts around 2002 and includes a state of the art Mall. This project is headed up by the Boyer Group headed up by Roger Boyer and Kem Gardner
* The Church purchases the land for City creek Mall in 2003 by a private real estate arm of the Church.
* The Church allegedly informs Kem Gardner out of respect for their relationship that he should consider getting out of the Gateway Project as its value is going to be diminished.
* In 2004 Kem Gardner sells his interest in the Boyer Group allegedly for 43 Million dollars
* In 2006 The Church announces is City Creek project
* The Church allegedly gets push-back from Nordstrom’s and other Anchor stores it needs for City Creek to be a success and seeing the writing on the wall regarding City Creek falling flat on their face, rushes in and offers Nordstrom’s and other Anchor stores an incredible deal to lure them in. Allegedly the deal was the first 10 years of the lease of space in City Creek Mall would be free and the employees who worked at that store would have their wages paid for 3 years.
* Kem Gardner allegedly grateful for the information, allegedly gifts a upscale log cabin to the Church, specifically, Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf for a reported price of $1
Changes allegedly being discussed at present inside the Church Office Building
These changes are being discussed which means some will happen and some won’t. Some will likely happen in the next year or two and others will trickle in over the next decade or two. Also simply discussing these compels the Church to push them back
1. Church trying to make room for members to partake of Coffee and Tea
2. Having the Garment worn inside the temple only
3. To revamp the Missionary system making Service Missions and/or Local Missions prominent
4. Decentralize the financial responsibilities of the Church geographically.
5. Women will be given significant increased roles (Women giving blessings to be formally seen as approved), recent change for Mothers of Young Children to serve as ordinance workers for example of a small change heading that direction.
6. Increase dramatically in visible charitable giving to outside charities and outside humanitarian efforts
7. Changes to the office/mode of operation of Patriarch being discussed
8. Heavenly Mother will be given a significantly increased role in the conversation and theology within correlated Mormonism.
9. Significant changes made to ensure Bishops and Stake Presidents receive significant training. (Anything from multiple weeks of in-depth training to even a full-time trained clergy in regards to Bishops and Stake Presidents)
10. RS General Presidency continually has its visibility increased and effort made to add value to their voices and the voice of women. (while maintaining the top 15’s own authority and nepotism to ultimately lead the Church)
11. Create a group of women that would act similarly to the quorums of Seventy (travel and be involved in committees and have a voice in decision making at levels lower than the top 15)
12. Age for women going on missions to be lowered to 18 as well or men moved back up to 19 to make them equal in this regard.
13. Separate Marriages from Sealing to allow a couple to be married publicly and sealed immediately afterward in a separate act.
14. Additional Policy adjustments to protect the Church’s public image in Sex abuse cases.
15. I was missing a #15 in the audio but will add it here – Your going to see further adjustments to the scriptures to remove sections of language from the D&C, heading etc. and or add in language to headings ect. to confront the growing evidence against the former claims of the Church and a growing discomfort with our overreaching.
16. The Ward Library and the calling of Librarian eliminated in areas that have quality access to technology.
17. Adjust callings that have room to not require Priesthood to allow for female leadership (Ex: Sunday School Presidency)
18. Do away with or control who speaks in Fast and Testimony Meeting
19. Allow equivalent aged Girls to pass the Sacrament where the congregation lacks adequate priesthood.
20. Remove multiple cultural boundaries imposed as Mormonism but which are acknowledged as American culture and unnecessary. (Ex: allowing a wider range of instruments used in Church meetings)
21. A New Handbook of instruction is coming
22. Temple Recommend bar-codes will be connected to a photo so the uses of recommends by someone other than who the recommend belongs to can be thwarted.
23. Young Adult/Older Teen service Projects away from home that give a young member a significant experience making the world better but also connected directly to the Church. A mini service mission per say
24. There are now concrete discussions occurring asking how we move towards more inclusivity towards LGBTQ members.
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Bill, this is kinda like a history repeat: Duling Prophets of the 1800’s. Which is the Reel Prophet? I think that is already apparent?
I think many of these changes seem (if they are legitimately on the table) geared towards keeping members aged roughly 35-55 from leaving. That’s the demographic (US based) that contributes the highest amount of tithing, and that’s the demographic they’re most worried about losing, plus it’s a two-fer if they can keep that generation in. If they successfully keep the “gen-x’ers” in, their kids (millenials and gen-y) will more than likely stay in as well.
The problem with churches losing millennials is not unique to Mormonism and I have yet to see any church come up with any changes that have stopped that trend. I don’t see any of these proposals doing that either.
The biggest reason the youth are leaving in droves is answered by my own children. There is too much focus and attention on the social aspects and the fun than there is on the proper education and cultivation of the youth. And, the problem with this is the mainstream Church has settled on a watered down reversion, almost entirely, to where we are hardly distinguishable from other Christians. In fact, there seems to be this big “we are Christians too” insecurity that we have to attach ourselves to them instead of standing in our own space and place of honor and dignity. Young people want truth and they want to feel empowered to take that truth and accomplish amazing things with it. However, the spirit of apathy and the crabs pulling anyone down who tries to ascend is destroying the culture of the Church. Basically, you are either in on the idolatry everyone wants to be in on or you are treated as if you don’t exist. In the mix of all of this, the sacred and precious truths of the fullness of the Gospel are done away with.
Aka the church is causing brain drain among members.
I have a couple of experiences with temple marriage that tie to Bill’s comments:
– I was really bummed that I had to wait outside while my daughter was married.
– I attended another family wedding where many of the closest friends of the couple had to wait outside. This becomes an issue when there are more people exiled to waiting outside the temple than are able to attend the wedding.
Hello Bill! I’m pretty sure the cabin Uchtdorf received is in Midway, UT.
Well, it will cost you to search for the records!
From: https://www.wasatch.utah.gov/Recorder#73150-remote-access-subscription-service
REMOTE ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
Wasatch County offers a limited number of remote off-site connections into the property tax and document management systems. Remote access provides access to computerized & scanned tract indexes (abstracts), ownership maps, old tax cards, and articles of incorporations, etc. These subscriptions are based on a 12 month annual subscription basis. Please review the contract below for details. For more information please contact Don Wood (435) 657-3196. (Initial setup fees may apply)
Fees:
$1,500 per year (access to property tax system, required minimum service)
$1,000 per year (access to Recorder’s maps, documents and Indexes not available via tax system or public website, optional service)
$1,000 Account Setup Fee (Required for all new accounts or expired accounts)
Remote Access and Public Search Contract – pdf
Following up on #13. My 2nd daughter immediately picked up on its significance and texted me that she is sooo happy that I’ll be able to attend her wedding (when that day happens) and walk her down the isle. She remembers me waiting outside when my first daughter was married.
I think…after going through the Nov 2015 policy fiasco, what could they do to bring me back? They’ve made it clear that they don’t want me or my kids in the pews. What could they do? Manufacture some kind of second-class status and hope we just forget that crap ever happened?
all these changes, whether now or in a few decades, point to a church that is more and more evangelical.
The church is ditching the Boy Scouts in 10 months, but still hasn’t announced what will be replacing it. Have you heard anything along those lines? Is #23 part of that?
Are you hearing who exactly is getting in the way of progress on #24? It doesn’t take a genius to guess Nelson and Oaks, but are there others?
Very good insights Bill – i hereby ordain you to the office of prophet, seer AND revelator. No doubt significant changes are coming, your list probably has a number of winners……….
Wow! At least if members can drink Coffee, they should be able to stay awake during the Temple and sacrament meeting!!!
This was quite a fascinating podcast for me. I really would like to know how verifiable the Gateway story is. I live in Heber City and dieter f. uchtdorf has a very nice house in our ward located in the upscale Red Ledges development. I wonder if that is the ‘cabin’ he was given. I guess you could research Wasatch County Land Records to know. I don’t think there are any homes in that development under $700k. For the record, there are 4 general authorities living in that development and in our ward. Elder Craig C. Christensen, Elder Elder Kim B. Clark, Elder Adrian Ochoa, and Uchdorf. Glad to see the tithing dollars buyig
Lipstick on a pig
Nice work Bill! Why would the church only inform Kem and not other members of the Boyer group? Do you think Kem would withhold information from his partners? That doesn’t make sense…
I can confirm that the church formed a number of committees to address people leaving. One such was headed up by Elder Ballard and was focused specifically on young adults, with the statistics of 75% of all YA’s being out of the church by 21 and 50% of returned missionaries leaving shortly after their missions. The committee sought to mine the common membership for ideas as to why this was occurring and what could be done to turn things around. Particular individuals were given special callings in various Stakes by Area Authority 70’s and were directed to research the whys and hows. I was personally invited to participate by a friend who was called by the local AA70 in Utah County. I talked about the project with just about everyone who would listen (and since I was serving as a GD teacher in SS at the time, that included a large captive audience). I gathered a lot of interesting ideas and suggestions and compiled them into a report which was incorporated into my friend’s report which went back to Elder Ballard via the AA70. One of the more radical suggestions I received came from a well-known CES Director who has been intimately involved with the youth for 20+ years. He has always struck me as prototypical TBM, but his vehement input was that it was time to scrap the Word of Wisdom. He told me that it has become a huge wedge between young people and church activity and faith. He said that it clearly wasnt intended to be a commandment, just read the first verse of it. Why use it as a false standard of righteousness and a burden of guilt when it really has no bearing on the fundamental morality or Christianity of an individual? Anyhow, I was encouraged by the fact that the project happened at all, and by the honest and insightful responses of the people I spoke with. I was disappointed in the watered down nature of the report that went back to Ballard though. It seems that in order to maintain status within the ranks, there are certain subjects that you cannot broach or appear to endorse. However, many of the changes that we have already seen, and are apparently being discussed, appeared in the report that I helped to compile. Even if it is not openly acknowledge, it is apparent that “revelation” has a bottom up component to it.
I couldn’t help but get the impression we are listening in to the board of directors of a corporation trying to make more profits, rather than listening in on men who are prophets.
The recent missionary calls that have gone out the past few weeks have no timetable of time to be served and it States will be announced in general conference.
shorter missions for males are coming
How soon will these go into effect? Specifically the whole garment thing?
I have no idea. Only yhat they are being discussed. I would make a list and watch over the next decade
Hey Bill, do you have any updates on the predicted changes? The “blowback” effect of the Church delaying proposed changes as a deterrent to “leaks” notwithstanding, have any of the predictions firmed up or been taken off the table, according to your sources?
Hi Bill I love your podcast I just started listening
Two things I wanted to bring up. one have you thought about how much money the church could be saving by changing to two hour meetings ?
I think if you overlap them an hour you can get five or six wards Meeting in one building fending by four 5 o’clock
More boards in one building would cut down on the number of buildings needed and save a huge amount of money for the church
The other thought I had was the six-month missions for the missionaries. it certainly will be nice for the missionaries but I have found that most of the changes the church are calculated for one of three things : public relations including member retention
financial benefits
or legal benefits
Having six-month missions that are humanitarian become very newsworthy items the best way to get on the good side of the people in the foreign country and also the best way to get support from its members this is a huge PR move But I have to say if it happens I will be deeply grateful for my grandson who will only have to go for six months
What do you think of those ideas
I would love to see an update on this
I would love to see an update to this as well, Bill. Could your sources give an update on what is happening?
Congrats to you Bill on another prophetic hit!0
It looks like 5/21 of these came true… not too bad.
Do you have any updates on this? I’m very interested in #1 and #2 on your list.