Organizing Ministering into Family "pods"

I know this is not a new idea. Since being called to be EQ President in my Ward, I have had a primary focus on trying to fix the broken system. Along comes the new RS President with the same impression. She noted that other Wards (both locally and out of state) were switching to this ministering pod concept. We have grouped families and gotten approval from the Bishopric. The only problem I am seeing is LCR ministering assignments does not seem to support this. Trying to assign member as ministering brother and sisters does not support multiple ministering assignments. Its hard to explain but has anyone found work around? In tools, each member should be able to see everyone in their "pod".

Example: Member A ministers to member B & C
but.......
If I try to assign Member B to member A & C, LCR will reassign the member assignments.

It seems that the first member assigned to another member is the "official" minister, when in fact nobody should be the "alpha" minister.

Maybe the idea is to assign everyone as "companions"?

In ministering, there are three relationships:
Minister
Ministering companion
Being ministered to (Minister-ee)

I'm suspecting that LCR doesn't like it when a pair of individuals have more than one relationship with each other. Essentially, you can't minister to your own minister, nor can you minister to your companion.

If I'm right, you're going to need a bigger pod of six individuals:

A&B ministers to C&D
C&D ministers to E&F
E&F ministers to A&B

Everyone has a companion, everyone has ministers, and everyone has assignments. And all three are different individuals

I'll also note that the Handbook says (21.2.1) "They normally assign two brothers or two sisters as companionships." While married couples are allowed, the phrasing of the Handbook suggest it should be an exception rather than the rule.

AndyCM wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 6:42 pm I know this is not a new idea. Since being called to be EQ President in my Ward, I have had a primary focus on trying to fix the broken system...

Interested in knowing what specifically you are trying to fix in your specific ward situation. As an example (to make it simple, even if it's not exactly your situation) -- referring to @russellhltn's post where he suggests 3 ministering companionships which then you would treat as a "pod" for the group of six members, what does this accomplish in pod-form that you have found is "broken" with separate companionships? And also wondering why you couldn't still have "alpha" ministers that continue to have primary responsibility for a member, while also then having the "pod" concept (tracked outside of LCR) where the "alpha" minister has dedicated available resources from the other pod members?

I don't discount that the pod option is something the Church "could" potentially support (although as other threads state, LCR follows the Handbook which doesn't speak about this concept, so it's up to local leaders to track something like this outside of LCR). But I'm always interested in hearing more about these situations, there's plenty of times where local experiences don't seem to fall into categories that LCR (or even the Handbook) are designed to support.

The idea is to build more "familiar" relationships. Taking extra care to group families with other that can relate. Families with small kids grouped together or people who may have had traumatic injuries paired with someone else with the same life experience.

I think that making everyone companions might be the answer with EQ and RS presidencies as the "Alpha".

Stake EQ had a very good training meeting Thursday night that kinda emphasized that ministering interviews should be more than an opportunity to see how ministering is going but rather for us as the quorum presidencies to minister to everyone. That could potentially spark a fire to get people motivated to become closer. Lets face it...COVID wreaked havoc on society with everyone becoming used to being isolated.

In the context of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "ministering pods" refers to a way of organizing Relief Society sisters to minister to individuals and families, often involving small groups or "pods" of sisters working together to fulfill their ministering assignments. 
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Ministering:
This is the Church's program where members are assigned to minister to other members, focusing on strengthening their faith, discerning their needs, and providing Christlike love, care, and service. 
Relief Society:
The Relief Society is a women's organization within the Church, with the purpose of helping women strengthen their faith and prepare for the blessings of eternal life. 
Ministering Pods:
The concept of "pods" emerged as a way to streamline and enhance the ministering program, allowing Relief Society sisters to work together in smaller groups to minister to assigned individuals or families. 
How it Works:
Relief Society presidencies prayerfully consider assignments for ministering sisters, taking into account the strengths and needs of the members. 
They often assign sisters in pairs or small groups (pods) to minister to individuals or families who have the greatest need. 
These may include new members, single parents, widows, widowers, and less-active members. 
Ministering can be done in a variety of ways, from simple acts of service to more involved support. 
Leaders encourage sisters to seek inspiration from the Spirit to guide their ministering efforts. 
Benefits:
Enhanced Unity: Ministering pods foster a sense of unity and teamwork among Relief Society sisters. 
Increased Support: Sisters can support each other in their ministering efforts, sharing insights and resources. 
Personalized Service: Smaller groups allow for more individualized and focused service. 
Greater Impact: By working together, Relief Society sisters can have a greater impact on the lives of those they are assigned to minister to. 
Examples of Ministering Pod Activities:
Regular Check-ins: Sisters in a pod can coordinate regular check-ins with their assigned individuals or families. 
Shared Service Projects: They can work together on service projects that benefit their assigned individuals or families. 
Spiritual Support: Sisters can provide spiritual support and encouragement to those they are assigned to minister to. 
Sharing Resources: They can share resources and information that can help their assigned individuals or families. 

We handed out cards and called them villages. It’s your family all in one spot. In the computer each companionship ministers to the one below it with a few less active members at the bottom but visually they all minister to each other. See image attached.

I removed the attachment as it seemed like it had real names and this is a public forum.

It's an interesting take on Ministering, but I hope that it's still done as 2-on-1 visit, not as a 6-way group session. While I don't see anything in the Handbook about it, that doesn't strike me as being in the spirit of ministering. I'd think it would be hard to open up about challenges in such a setting. It's not the image presented at http://ministering.churchofjesuschrist.org. I certainly can't see the bishop going along with the Elders doing the same thing with ministering to families.

I can see the value in a having everyone together at the same time when you're dealing with the farmlands of the mid-west where it can take hours of driving to see another member. But the need isn't there when you're talking about a Utah ward that's all in walking distance.

But if the goal here is to do the traditional 2-on-1 visit while everyone is at the building, you might want to consider going with 4 pairs. Why? With 3, if Team A is ministering to a member of Team B, no other ministering can happen unless the other member of Team B decides to go solo in ministering to a member of Team C.

With 4, Team A can minister to a member of Team B, and at the same time Team C ministers to a member of Team D. All in all, you can minister to 8 sisters in just 4 time-slots instead of 6 sisters in 6 time slots.

russellhltn wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 8:28 pm I can see the value in a having everyone together at the same time when you're dealing with the farmlands of the mid-west where it can take hours of driving to see another member. But the need isn't there when you're talking about a Utah ward that's all in walking distance.

Just curious if you have lived outside of Utah? I live in Columbus GA, a pretty significant metro area (second most populated metro area in Georgia after Atlanta), and we have people in our ward that live about an hour from the church. We live near the middle of our ward boundaries (north to south, close to the western border but the church is pretty close to the western border as well) we have families that are a 35 minute drive north of us and a 45 minute drive south of us. My ministering assignments used to be on the east end of the ward boundaries and it was a 45-60 minute drive depending on the family. All of those drives are one-way. We used to live an hour from the church, now we live 25 minutes from the church.

I have lived in a lot of places (to include Clearfield/Layton Utah) and other than Utah, everyone of them has had a significant commute time.

tonynocchi wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 8:55 am Just curious if you have lived outside of Utah?

I've never lived in Utah, but I have visited. I've heard the stories about what it's like both in Utah and in the mid-west. I've seen both when traveling.

If you want an eye opener, compare a map with the location of meetinghouses against a map of the population density in the US.

russellhltn wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 12:05 pm

tonynocchi wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 8:55 am Just curious if you have lived outside of Utah?

I've never lived in Utah, but I have visited. I've heard the stories about what it's like both in Utah and in the mid-west. I've seen both when traveling.

If you want an eye opener, compare a map with the location of meetinghouses against a map of the population density in the US.

I'll have to give that a try. One crazy thing about Utah, when we lived in Clearfield (Clearfield 9th Ward), we actually had a 10-minute drive to church and we drove past multiple church buildings to get to ours. There was a huge stake center about two blocks from where we lived, but we didn't go there. Our ward building was in Layton near the Layton Hills Mall.

One of the things I appreciate about ministering when compared to home/visiting teaching, is that distance is truly lessened (or even removed) as a factor for effective ministering. And when a member needs in-person support, the ministering brothers/sisters can work with others to coordinate help. I've always found that "delegated" responsibility (I'm responsible, but I ask others for help), is different than "shared" responsibility (Me and a few others are all equally responsible).

Pods just seem like a more organized way to provide additional pre-determined support, so that when the assigned ministers need help, they've got others who are already aware that they're the first line of support. But if the idea of pods is to have ministering responsibilities truly be shared, that seems less ideal from my perspective. That said, local leaders do have flexibility to organize the work of salvation, under counsel and coordination with their priesthood leaders.