FAIR's Rising Generation

Archive for August 14th, 2009

The FAIR Conference was inspiring and enlightening and I will recommend that everyone buy tickets for next year’s.

At the conference FRG was permitted to set up a table right next to the big names of the FAIR executives like Scott Gordon, Mike Parker, and John Lynch; I have to say that this was pretty cool. I sat at the table during most of the conference and had a lot of people approach me about FRG. They would ask me questions like, “Why does FRG exist? Isn’t FAIR enough?” The fact of the matter is NO! FAIR is not enough.

Don’t get me wrong, the Foundation of Apologetic Information and Research were pioneers in apologetics and they are continuing to serve their purpose, which is to provide researched and intuitive information about the church’s history, doctrine, and practices. They do so for the sake of those people who are unsure if they should still hold on to their testimonies when they find out something they never knew about the church, like polygomy–although I think we’re all used to telling people about that one now. FAIR has helped many people and it continues to serve its purpose admirably, but there are issues that FAIR is not prepared to deal with concerning the youth. The Kirtland Safety Society, seerstones, and DNA are all things that shake the testimonies of adults–things FAIR address–but kids have much more down-to-earth needs. Dating advice, what to say to their friends about their religion, and why they should choose to stay active in the church when parents no longer force them to are the kinds of things that teenagers have to deal with. These issues are just as real to them. Kids need and want advice about this stuff, and FRG is here to offer it to them.

ALL kids need mentoring and instruction, but not all kids will get it at home or at church. Some are just too dang stubborn to listen to mom and dad, and some have designated Sacrament Meeting as “slumbering meeting.” It’s sad and we all are shocked to discover that some kids are not as into church as we are, but that doesn’t mean we should give up on them. It means that we need to try something new or maybe it means that your kids are looking for some space and want to discover the answers to life on their own. If that’s the case, then you’d better pray that your son or daughter will latch on to good people who will help your child become better adults.

Nowadays, people often turn to the internet for answers, and what they may find there is not always something that will enrich their testimonies. But no longer will confusion and doubt rule the internet because FRG is developing media and articles to reach out to teenagers and young adults on the web. We’ll provide rich and fun instruction using our YouTube videos and we’ll back it up with some more in-depth information to be accessed from our wiki. We have some great ideas about how to help kids–who better to come up with ways to reach kids, than kids? That’s me and most of our other members.

So now here is the update on FRG’s projects:

Tommy’s video about dating has been released on YouTube and it’s in serious need of some tlc from viewers. Not many people have seen that video yet and those that have, havn’t posted any comments about it to increase our flow of traffic. So if you’ve seen the video and liked it, leave a comment about it please.

FRG has HUGE potential in what can be accomplished, but we don’t have enough people to make that a reality yet, so we’ve analyzed our goals and broken them down to some realistic ways to reach them. We are focusing on 3 projects: improving the blog and increasing its traffic, designing and publishing videos about dating for teens and young single adults, and designing and publishing content about self-confidence and the destructive nature of cliques and labels. I won’t jump the gun on what we’re actually doing for them until I have more information to give on them.

So there ya have it folks! I just told you that FRG is going to save the world–just seeing if you’re awake now. I really just told you that FRG is needed by young people and what our plans are for the next couple of months. I also told you and I want to emphasize that we needs more volunteer power to reach our full potential. We especially need more teens and college students, so if you’ve got kids or friends that might be interested–who wouldn’t be interested in helping, I mean kids need this–please have them read my post.

Thank you for reading our blog. Have a wonderful week!