World Wide Leadership Training Meeting

This years World Wide Leadership Training Meeting was much different than in years past. For starters, the meeting is published on the church's website for all to see time and again rather than being shown to a select few in a one-time meeting. To me this shows how important the council being given is to every member of the church.

The format of this meeting was different than anything I've ever seen put out by the church. For one, the bulk of the meeting was centered around a round table discussion with Dallin H. Oaks (representing the Q of the 12), Julie B. Beck (representing the Relief Society), Susan W. Tanner (representing the YW), and Cheryl Lant (representing the Primary) and Jeffrey R. Holland, who was serving as the mediator for the discussion. I thought this was a great way to hold this meeting because it made the viewer feel like they were apart of the discussion. It was very formal yet casual in that those participating had notes but were not reading from a script but were literally having a discussion. The meeting was held in a very simple room with dim lighting, inviting a relaxed and casual feeling.

I also thought the topic of discussion for the meeting was different than I was expecting. I expected a leadership training meeting would be more geared to church leaders and discuss organizational issues, how to teach better, how to encourage missionaries, etc. Instead they made the meeting applicable to everyone in every stage of life and focused almost entirely on the family and life's decisions from dating to bearing children to the challenges of old age. Throughout the meeting I kept wondering, "how is this a leadership training meeting?" But then I realized that I think what they are trying to drive home is that we are all important in the church, we are all leaders, and that the family is the most important thing in this world.

Overall, I think this meeting was a great step in the church's use of film to include every member of the church in leadership discussions and training.