FOUND ZION with systems to promote volunteerism & humanitarian work

With the Church’s Fast Sunday program, we can create an unparalleled system for global Humanitarian work.

The church needs to refocus it’s humanitarian mission and integrate it with Fast Sunday and Fast Offerings. Much like the Church’s JustServe.org portal (made after this reform item) the Church needs to use their immense resources to become the world’s #1 portal to charitable work and giving. They are already fulfil this role in the state of Utah, but can do much more to play their part as as a ‘Joseph of Egypt’ who through foresight and revelation saves the Nations from disaster and starvation.

The primary way to do this is more fully integrating Fast Sunday with Humanitarian programs:
1- Every Fast Sunday, instead of just giving Fast Offerings & Fast & Testimonies, each ward picks a service project to do that day or week (EVERY MONTH), and directs the resources of the fast session, fast offering money, and fast resources TOWARD THAT SPECIFIC CHARITIBLE WORK in a systematized way. Rotating some weeks on a ward level, some on a stake level, some weeks on a global church level. But most importantly, Fast Sunday, the Fast Offering and Fast & Testimony meeting are all integrated with a specific charitable work for that month. Then Fast & Testimony meeting replace travel logs with testimonies on HOW last months fast & charitable event built testimonies, and what is planned for this month’s service or humanitarian project. (currently all these church programs are unintegrated & disjointed.)  And Priesthood/Sunday School that week is devoted with working out logistics of the monthly Fast Sunday service project and watching videos of what the church or other wards/stakes are doing (to catch the vision), and bring back deacons gathering neighborhood fast offerings and inviting non members to the Fast Sunday service project (which will try to be that night or that week)
2- Likewise the church needs to build a framework for humanitarian aid on a mammoth global scale for massive national level natural disasters. Then when something like a Hurricane, Earthquake or War happens on national levels, the church can utilize the monthly Fast Sunday to switch from the usual local focus to the global focus. All fast offering now going toward that cause for a month or two. But more importantly, having a way that people can come to the church THAT FAST SUNDAY NIGHT and bring non-perishable foods, clothing, assemble hygiene kits, assemble needed disaster relief, and then load it on a truck later that week to send to the disaster…
3- And MOST IMPORTANTLY, have the distribution system already in place for this monthly endevor, so the thousands upon thousands of trucks can then make their way to airplanes and then to the area of need.  THIS is a massive endeavor which the church is well on their way to creating with Deseret Industries, The Bishops Storehouse, and Food Distribution System but just needs to be GREATLY EXPLANDED and institutionalized as part of the monthly FAST SUNDAY system.
4- Other churches & institutions need to be employed to make this happen on the scope and scale needed.
5- Somehow a more intelligent and robust system (that the government’s failing systems) to help the homeless and drug addicted needs to be wrapped into all of this.
6- The key to all of this is the SYSTEMS and EMPHASIS, and integration with the monthly FAST. The entire church needs to understand that voluntarily going hungry once a month, and giving a generous fast (which might just be the cost of those meals) on a church (and one-day global level) is the key to ending hunger on earth. And that participating IN the monthly service project is just as important as the Fast and Offering. And that this indeed is what makes our church TRUE RELIGION.
7- Part of the systematization needs to be a monthly rotation between Ward (neighborhood), Stake/Region (city) and Church (global) service/humanitarian work. With literally ONE WEEK (fast Sunday) of every month being devoted to service/humanitarian work. Completing a full integration between weekly worship, Deseret Industries, Bishops Storehouses, stores & warehouses, etc and integrating Ward and Stake Buildings with those systems. 
8- Imagine if every time there was a massive earthquake or Hurricane, if all members (and non-members) understood that, that Fast Sunday the ENTIRE region or church met at the Ward of Stake Center to bring Fast Offerings AND ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING . 
9- This becomes a template for the political nation of Zion after the USA financially fails and the church picks up the pieces of governmental social systems (or other countries without robust social systems), and through this system spreads Christianity and democracy throughout the world. 
10- Every 1st World ward and stake should also be ‘paired’ with a 3rd world ward and stake which they slowly help lift out of poverty through a ‘sister city program’ such as is common in many church’s and schools. Where on a long term basis each ward/stake is in constant communication to meet the needs of that 3rd world ward/stake, learning their language, sending service missionaries to it and 
11- Be sure WOMEN are a major part of this system. This can be one of the greatest ways to make women truly equal in the church, as this system encapsulates the ‘relief society’ and will hold CONSIDERABLE political and social influence at national and global levels.  Also there should be a MAJOR push to involve other non-lds congregations and political organizations in each months project. Also use this to reactivate dissidents of the church and those who don’t love religion, but do love (or proport to love) serving others in non-religious ways.

 

Many churches such as the Seventh Day Adventists and largely grown and spread Christianity through their social services programs (such as building schools and hospitals), its time for the church to step up and do the same at a level never seen before.  With ONE FULL WEEK OF EVERY MONTH literally dedicated to volunteerism in humanitarian and social systems

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves… Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:23,27)

 

Reasoning:

IF the church is worthy, our scriptures prophecy that we will be able to found ZION… a place where all will be FREE & EQUAL and there will BE NO POOR AMONG US.

This is not a pipe-dream or ambiguous metaphor.  ZION will be a literal nation with political borders, administrations systems and governmental structure. The church has made clear that The United States of America is the precursor to that Nation. But once it fails because of their rejection of God, the church’s birthright is to step up, save the constitution, and found Zion again as ONE NATION UNDER GOD. There has perhaps been No Nation in the history of earth that has given as much as the United States to charitable causes around the world… but the church needs to step up right now to make them selves worthy of showing we have the systems and will to step up this process of creating Zion.

For any free system to work people need to feel like they have a voice, and a system or avenue to effectuate change. There are many people with passion burning inside of them who have not yet decided whether they are going to focus that energy on selfishness, selflessness, unity or division. One of the church’s most important jobs in society is to lead people to focus their energy/passion on selfless work which leads to unity. This is one reason why “every member needs a calling.” But more than this the system must allow for advocacy where people can direct their energy toward the things God puts in their heart.

The evangelical community tends to be more effective at starting non-profit service organizations than Mormonism or Catholicism. I believe this has to do with a culture of activism stemming from the lack of centralized authority. In Mormonism, members often feel like they are not authorized to start a radio ministry or an organization which promotes activism in teaching the public.  Because religious activism has the potential to spur divisive (apostate) groups, church leadership has almost ubiquitously shut down such activities. Forbidding members to meet in their homes and talk about church topics or start organizations that might threaten church authority.  This then create an atmosphere of fear and dependence among church members. I believe such a climate does more harm than good.

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[Since making this reform item, the church has made great strides… all that’s left is to integrate it with Fast Sunday, and Fast & Testimony Meeting so that ONE MONTH of every month THE ENTIRE CHURCH focus’s on humanitarian work… which would instantly overwhelm the church’s distribution systems and force them to 10x (or 1000x?) their systems and create warehouses like the SLC one below on regional levels throughout the church. They also need to move more fully into 3rd world social services programs like schools and hospitals, pairing ALL first world ward & stakes with ‘sister’ wards and stakes in the 3rd world to create social service programs that lift THE WORLD out of poverty while spreading the gospel, utilizing the lessons of the so many churches out there which do this better than us.].