Our Bishop Is Revolutionary

And inspired! Oh, I hope I don't get him in trouble, or even my wife. For me, I'd prefer to be in just enough trouble to avoid certain callings in the church - like Hugh Nibley used to wear one black and one brown dress shoe to keep him out of the bishopric. My wife won't even let me go to church if my socks don't match!

It has been the strangest thing but I'm just now seeing the beauty of it. My wife has been Relief Society President for some time. And last November, we were called in to see the Stake Presidency (all three of them which is enough to set off plenty of alarms) and they called me to be High Priest Group leader. That's a comparable position to Relief Society at least for half, or so, of the men in the ward. We have quite a few, actually, being an older ward. And I love those guys! I was tempted to call them my "groupies" the other Sunday (it's called a "High Priest Group" because the Quorum is in the Stake with the Stake President as President of the Quorum) but I figured that wouldn't be good on several levels.

It's been highly entertaining for the Ward Council and PEC+RS to have us both in there to see our little differences of opinion. So far, they have been little and there has been no throwing of hymnals, tablets, or smart phones. But this is the coolest church job I've had yet because I get to work with my wife so much and she does have a lot better ideas than I do - some of the time (sometimes I get some pretty good inspiration and rather than fight her that I'm right, I just quietly wait until the Spirit or circumstances bring her around - or me).

And I have no desire to enter into "priesthood" controversies. But this is a great way for us to prepare to be companions on a church mission - something we've looked forward too. Ordination seems irrelevant when we are working as a partnership. I don't even have priesthood keys in this calling as I explained above, they're with the President in the Stake. And whatever keys the Prophet Joseph turned on behalf of the RS, my wife wields them with power. I can't even remember the keys that I think can get me into the library.

It might be fun, and even spiritually resourceful to have the Young Mens and Young Womens Presidents as married couples. If I've got the RS Prez, I don't know who the Elders Quorum Presidents wife could be but why not Primary President? There are Bishops in challenging wards where their wives are RS Presidents but that is a burden no family or couple should have to bear. Still, they called me and my wife together when I met with the Stake President that time. He specifically said that they can't call a man to be a bishop without a wife who is a trusted partner.

And I don't think this general idea would exclude singles either. There are some great single-sister RS Presidents out there - something that used to be unheard of. The Bishop or Stake President could call a High Priest Group Leader who is single, likely widowed maybe divorced, to partner up. Yikes! I don't mean anything like arranged dating leading to-- heaven forbid (!) but it does a soul good to participate in a male/female moiety (now, there's a cool word) or a yin/yang sort of thing.

Bottom line, my wife and I field phone calls passing them on to the one most appropriate to respond (or the short end of the straw). We can arrange schedules well. We go on visits and do service together. We go to the Temple. And we don't always bicker in Ward Council; sometimes we finish each other's sentences.

There have been people tell me that they would never go on a senior mission because they couldn't stand to be with their spouse 24/7. That made me sad. I think we could handle that just fine.

I hope they call us on a mission! To somewhere exotic and beautiful like THIS!!
But it will probably be Wyoming -- to do Treks :(