YSAs and Church History Questions

YSAs often have questions and potential concerns regarding the
Church’s history. In this episode, two church historians discuss
how YSA leaders can respond to questions about church history and
what resources are available. At the Table is a new podcast series
produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Listen
and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find
podcasts. Please give us your feedback about this episode by
filling out this short questionnaire:
https://research.churchofjesuschrist.org/jfe/form/SV_bqG61EEsAqjJ9n8
Highlights 1:50 Introduction to Clair and Matt, church historians
2:45 Clair explains what they hope to accomplish by speaking on
church history. They hope to be able to provide helpful tips,
guidance, and resources. 5:10 Leaders should seek to cultivate
trust before they go to counsel someone. Trust is first and with
trust comes influence. 11:20 Asking a question is a position of
vulnerability for the questioner. Leaders should validate that
vulnerability. Leaders should be a continual resource for people
and not just give people a one-time quick answer. They should also
be careful of making assumptions about the questions that people
have. 14:50 What questions can leaders anticipate about church
history? Church history questions can get complicated. Set the
expectation that it might not be a quick answer. Some questions are
going to come with a lot of study and prayer. 16:45 A lot of people
have questions about translation and how revelation is received.
There are also a lot of questions on the priesthood and temple ban
and race restrictions. Not easy to answer. 18:10 The church has
taken the time to create resources to answer difficult church
history questions. Leaders don’t need to feel like they need a
masters in history. You just need to be aware of the resources and
where to point people. 20:30 When it comes to church history, it’s
easy to go down a rabbit hole until all the questions snowball.
It’s easy to lose perspective. It’s like when you hold a small rock
close up it looks like a boulder. Help people take a step back and
see the bigger picture. 22:45 How has learning about church history
strengthened your faith? 29:00 The church historians have been
working on the Joseph Smith papers for 20 years now. Matt shares
what he has been able to learn while working on this project. 31:20
We are in the day and age where people are googling everything.
Sometimes the things that we come across on the internet are only a
tiny portion of a much bigger topic. We have to have the spirit and
search out answers in the right places. 35:00 Where are you getting
your information? Is it reliable? Are there biases? Who can we
trust when everyone is saying something different? We have to be
careful where we are learning about church history along with
asking the spirit to help us. 40:30 What about the church’s
resources? The church historians are very careful with all the
information put out. They provide sources on everything. 43:40 When
it comes to asking questions and for the leader that is answering,
the most important thing is to foster an environment where the
spirit can be present. Kindness, empathy, understanding, and
humility are important on both sides. 47:20 Matt talks about why
it’s so important to have humility as we approach questions on
church history. People in church history had a much different
experience than us that we might not understand. 51:10 The Lord
does his work with complicated, imperfect humans. We have to
approach the people of the past with love and understanding.