Home Teaching Assignment Woes

Hello, I'm your friendly neighborhood Branch Clerk. The Elder's Quorum President has tasked me with entering some changes to home teaching assignments and here are the things that LCR simply will not do for me:

1.) Assign DeaconX as a companion to teach with High PriestX & assign DeaconY as a companion to teach with ElderY.
Okay, I understand that technically, home teaching begins with being ordained a Teacher. But I also am told by my Branch President that he already checked the Handbook and that there is no prohibition against assigning a deacon as a home teacher. We're a tiny branch and unless there is some strict policy against it, we really need the flexibility to do things like this.

2.) Assign Unordained Adult MaleZ as companion to ElderZ.
We discovered that a fellow by the name of Ed had moved into our Branch. Apparently he has never received the priesthood. Does this mean that he can't be a home teacher? In this case, I believe the Elder's Quorum President and Branch President didn't know that he never got the priesthood.

3.) Assign Single Adult Female with children to ElderZ.
Is this a Church policy thing or just another item that the LCR's default settings won't let you do? As it so happens, ElderZ is me. I was already assigned to be her Home Teacher. I deleted her form my list as I was attempting to make other changes, intending to readd her, only to learn that I couldn't readd her to my list. I did find a workaround for this one. I added myself as a companionship under High Priests. (Odd that you can add a non-HP there, but whatever.) So now I exist as two different companionships without a Home Teaching companion -- one under Elder's Quorum and one under High Priests Group.

thunder9010 wrote:1.) Assign DeaconX as a companion to teach with High PriestX & assign DeaconY as a companion to teach with ElderY.

Although there is no prohibition in the Handbook, the Handbook follows the scriptures in saying home teachers are elders, priests, and teachers, and LCR follows those requirements. You will not be able to assign a deacon to home teach in LCR unless the Priesthood Department decides to make a change.

thunder9010 wrote:2.) Assign Unordained Adult MaleZ as companion to ElderZ.

Same as #1. When he is ordained a teacher or priest, you will be able to assign this prospective elder to home teach.

thunder9010 wrote:3.) Assign Single Adult Female with children to ElderZ.

By design, an unassigned single sister defaults to the high priests group for home teaching assignment. However, even though she will not appear in the drop down box, you can still assign her to an elders quorum companionship by typing in her name.

LCR is written to comply with current Church policy and instructions from the Priesthood Department. As everyone is discovering, it does a much better job of it than MLS did.

thunder9010 wrote:1.) Assign DeaconX as a companion to teach with High PriestX & assign DeaconY as a companion to teach with ElderY.

In handbook 2 section 7.4.2 fifth paragraph down it indicates that the bishopric extends home teaching assignments to teachers and priests. It does not mention that an assignment can be extended to a deacon. In addition, the rules for how these things are implemented are determined by the general authorities in the Priesthood department. So between what the handbook does say and the restriction in LCR, I'd say it is almost surely against policy. However, if your Branch President is concerned about that he should talk with his stake, district or mission president. They can in turn talk to their area leader if necessary to clarify or request changes to the LCR policy.

thunder9010 wrote:2.) Assign Unordained Adult MaleZ as companion to ElderZ.

This is really the same issue. If a deacon can't home teach then an unordained brother would be able to either.

thunder9010 wrote:3.) Assign Single Adult Female with children to ElderZ.

This is a different issue. You can assign the sister to your companionship in the Elder's quorum but you have to type the name manually rather than looking it up in the 'unassigned' list. Once you start typing her name should become available to select.

By default unassigned single sisters are shown in the unassigned list for High Priests but there is no requirement that they be taught by a High Priest companionship. It's just not as obvious how to make the assignment.

My thanks for the quick response. We'll sort through it from here.

I want to second the suggestion that if your branch president feels strongly about being able to assign deacons or prospective priesthood holders to home teaching, his best bet would be to pass it up the chain of command, as it's the priesthood department at headquarters who makes those kind of policy decisions for Leader and Clerk Resources.

thunder9010 wrote:Okay, I understand that technically, home teaching begins with being ordained a Teacher.

We are finding the move to LCR for record keeping has followed the Handbook. Until the Brethren change the business model given to the developers we will not be able to include Deacons as home teachers using the online tools.

thunder9010 wrote:Assign Unordained Adult MaleZ as companion to ElderZ.

"Home teaching is a priesthood responsibility of teachers, priests, and Melchizedek Priesthood holders" (Handbook 2, 7.4). Without the brother being ordained there is little leeway in assigning him to a companionship using the online tools.

thunder9010 wrote:Assign Single Adult Female with children to ElderZ.

While heads of household who are single sisters currently fall into the unassigned list for High Priests the household can be assigned to be home taught by an Elders Quorum home teaching companionship. To do this, use the "Companionships" tab; select a companionship to add the household; and type in the name in the combo box where the household name is normally selected from a drop-down list of unassigned households. As a clerk you can get a complete list of unassigned households by changing the unassigned list from the default quorum of "Elders" to "All".

sbradshaw wrote:I want to second the suggestion that if your branch president feels strongly about being able to assign deacons or prospective priesthood holders to home teaching, his best bet would be to pass it up the chain of command, as it's the priesthood department at headquarters who makes those kind of policy decisions for Leader and Clerk Resources.

Understood. I think it may just be something he didn't know about. It has always been my understanding that you become a home teacher when you are ordained to the office of teacher, but when the Elder's Quorum President and Branch President seemed to "know" otherwise, I just figured I was the one that was mistaken. I'll pass that along to him.

To be fair, the Elder's Quorum President has been a member of the Church of just over a year. It is likely he just didn't know that deacons and unordained prospective Elders couldn't be assigned. That's probably why I got tasked with "making the website work" and entering that information.

Duties of a teacher
D&C 20:57 "And is to be assisted always, in all his duties in the church, by the deacons, if occasion requires."

Yes, per scripture, the deacons are to step up and assist in "all the duties" of a teacher, "if occasion requires", as it often does in a branch of the church.

gudmundsonsc wrote:Duties of a teacher
D&C 20:57 "And is to be assisted always, in all his duties in the church, by the deacons, if occasion requires."

Yes, per scripture, the deacons are to step up and assist in "all the duties" of a teacher, "if occasion requires", as it often does in a branch of the church.

Since he is to assist a teacher, and a companionship would have to have at least one Melchizedek priesthood holder, that would require assigning a deacon to a teacher/elder pair making it a threesome.

And while I'm sure it would be beneficial for the deacon, I'm not sure how much assistance that would be to the teacher. (The only thing that comes to my mind is proving assistance to a teacher who is physically challenged.) Nor do I see much benefit to the branch since it's not expanding the pool of HT companions.

So, while I can see some situations where it might be done, I'm not sure as it would be common enough to accommodate in the HT system, and would likely cause confusion.