As we have seen, the Duty to God program of the Aaronic Priesthood provides a tool by which the young men may measure their progress and preparation as bearers of God’s holy priesthood. I would now like to turn our attention to the weekly activities of the Young Men organization and how these fit into the broader picture of the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood. The activities for young men (and for young women) are called Mutual, which encompasses all activities of the youth. In the United States of America and in Canada (and perhaps a few other locations around the world), these activities include Scouting. I will focus on the Scouting programs of the Boy Scouts of America and how these relate to the activity programs in the Young Men organization.

While I was serving as the Young Men president, I remember a particular ward priesthood executive committee meeting. The ward mission leader had just spent some time the previous week at Young Women’s camp where his daughters were participating. He came back impressed by the spiritual growth and experiences that his daughters and the other young women had received at this camp. In our PEC meeting, he spoke up and expressed his wish that the young men of the church had a program that could create similar spiritual growth as the young women received at their week of camp.

I have occasionally considered what such a program might look like. Here is my dream response to such a challenge.

(Image fades into a bishop’s office for a PEC meeting...)

Bishop: Brother Walton, what do you have from the Young Men this morning?

YM President: Thank you, Bishop. Our presidency has been considering the challenge you gave us to make the activities for the young men provide the spiritual growth that they need, following the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood. We have identified what we consider to be requirements for such a program. Here is a summary of what we have considered.

(Passes a sheet of paper to the members of the bishopric.)

A meaningful program for spiritual growth of our young men needs to:

• Appeal to the interests and needs of young men.
• Strengthen testimonies and accomplish the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood.
• Provide opportunities for youth to practice leadership principles.
• Engage young men in activities, not more “Sunday school” lessons.
• Encourage young men to set and achieve personal goals.
• Allow for a variety and balance of activities, including service.

Bishop: This looks pretty good.

YM President: Well, we can’t take much credit for most of those. We just looked in the handbook and followed the guidelines for activities.

Bishop: Oh. But how do you think we can get that done?

YM President: Well, I want you to imagine something. Imagine that we were to create a new environment for the young men. You know, take them out of their ordinary world and into a new community, a community centered in their quorums. In this new community, they are citizens in the truest sense. The success of this community relies on each member to carry his own individual responsibilities. And within this community setting, they will participate in challenges---the activities---that will capture their imagination, develop new skills, create a sense of brotherhood, and provide us (meaning the bishopric and quorum advisors) with opportunities to create meaningful relationships as well as (hopefully) to model righteous living.

Every week, the young men would leave their ordinary world behind as they come to Mutual and rejoin the brotherhood of their quorum, united as a force for good in the world. It will be important that the young men feel full ownership of this world, which means that they must not feel as though they are simply attendees or even participants. They should come to feel as though they are the very heart and soul of their world. As a consequence, the activities will need to be more than just activities. They will need to build on each other. A sequence of activities would be like reading many short stories. The stories are fun and entertaining. But this vision of the quorum community would be more like a book, with activities serving more like chapters, each building on earlier events, so that they youth can not hardly stand to put it down.

This is my vision of what Mutual activities should feel like for the young men.

Bishop: Very poetic. That is a lofty vision. It would be nice to see. But you still haven’t answered my question, how can such a thing be done?

YM President: Well, that’s actually the beauty of the whole thing! If we can simply inspire the young men to catch this vision, we don’t have to do anything except use the Scouting programs that are already designed for our young men.

(Fade out of the Bishop’s office. Back to this paper.)

Before I proceed too far into a discussion of Scouting, let me show you where I found some of these ideas. There are three basic references that I believe should be familiar to every adult leader working with young men (including the Bishopric and quorum advisors--which includes the Young Men presidency and Scout leaders by default). These are (1) the Guidebook for Parents and Leaders of Youth section discussing Mutual activities, (2) the Activities subsection of the Aaronic Priesthood section of the Church Handbook of Instructions (Book 2), and (3) the Scouting Handbook of the Church. I would personally encourage you to reread these sections, paying attention to the principles and objectives that they set out. I usually find myself being caught in the rut of looking for details of implementation rather than the vision and then wonder why the details may seem lacking.

You may have found my PEC response a little too glorious. I admit that I may have gone over the top, but I do believe that this is precisely the vision that we should undertake when we consider how and why the Church uses the Scouting programs. Based on my own experiences, I would guess that you may be wondering how on earth Scouting relates to this vision. For example, let’s try an experiment. Write down five things that you associate most with Boy Scouting. In a few sentences, I will tell you what I imagine are the most likely responses as well as what I believe should be the most appropriate responses. If you haven’t made your list, please do.

The Church has officially used the Scouting program since 1913. Various new programs have been created along the way, challenges have arisen, but the Church continues its strong institutional support of the program. In the minds of most members I have talked with, Scouting seems most associated with the following ideas: Eagle Scouts, merit badges, rank advancement, uniforms, preparedness and first aid, fires, knots, hiking and camping, fund-raisers, service, patriotism, and leadership. Others may be more specific, referring to the statements that codify a Scout’s ethic, the Scout Oath and the Scout Law.

The official mission statement and vision statement of the Boy Scouts of America offer what I believe are the associations that we should make with Scouting:

Mission Statement The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.

Scout Oath On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law A Scout is:
Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, Reverent.

Vision Statement The Boy Scouts of America is the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training.
In the future Scouting will continue to

• Offer young people responsible fun and adventure;
• Instill in young people lifetime values and develop in them ethical character as expressed in the Scout Oath and Law;
• Train young people in citizenship, service, and leadership;
• Serve America’s communities and families with its quality, values-based program.

These statements come from the BSA website (www.scouting.org). Based on these statements, I would assert that we should associate Scouting with ideas like: character development, values-based leadership, values and ethics, responsible fun and adventure, service, and citizenship. These ideas reflect what are known as the Aims of Scouting, developing character, citizenship, and personal fitness. The Great Salt Lake Council website (http://www.gslc-bsa.org/aims.cfm) expands on this, clarifying what these three items mean: “Boy Scouting works toward three aims. One is growth in moral strength and character. We may define this as what the boy is himself: his personal qualities, his values, his outlook. A second aim is participating citizenship. Used broadly citizenship means the boy's relationship to others. He comes to learn of his obligations to other people, to the society he lives in, to the government that presides over that society. A third aim of Boy Scouting is development of physical, mental, and emotional fitness. Fitness includes the body (well-tuned and healthy), the mind (able to think and solve problems), and the emotions (self-control, courage, and self-respect).”

I would strongly recommend rereading the first page of the Church’s Scouting Handbook, “The Purpose of Scouting in the Aaronic Priesthood and Primary.” For example, the final paragraph from this section includes the following: “Scouting can help boys and young men enhance close relationships with their families and the Church while developing strong and desirable traits of character, citizenship, and physical and mental fitness, all based upon a firm belief in God. The original aims and purposes of Scouting outlined by Lord Baden Powell were to teach boys and young men spirituality, self-reliance, service, leadership skills, emergency preparedness, and conservation of natural resources.”

With this essential background in the purpose of Scouting, we begin to turn our attention to the methods of Scouting. But without an understanding of the purpose and vision that Scouting offers, the methods become mechanistic and will lack the cohesion necessary to bring together our vision for the broad spiritual growth of young men. Again, from the Scouing Handbook, we read the following quote from Lord Baden Powell: “Don’t let the technical outweigh the moral. Field efficiency, backwoodsmanship, camping, hiking, good works, Jamboree comradeship are all means, not the end. The end is character-character with a purpose.”