Order Grounded Here    

• Intent of this Program
• Program Overview
• About Student Workbook
• Time Sequence
• Register for the next Grounded Workshop at Salt Lake Theological Seminary

Grounded is an exciting, fast-paced training program that explores ways Christian youth can have honest friendships with Latter-day Saints, while maintaining the integrity of their own beliefs and effectively sharing their faith in Jesus Christ. This fully packed 5-week curriculum includes a movie documentary on DVD, a student Workbook with daily faith-promoting activities, and an extensive Leader’s Guide full of additional resources on the history and theology of the Mormon Church and helpful tips on sharing the gospel.

The Grounded DVD consists of five modules covering the following topics:

1. Truth – Where do we find truth? How do we sort out different truth claims the world offers up? How do LDS truth claims differ from those of a traditional Christian?

2. Differences – Where and when did the LDS Church start? What are some key differences between the worldviews of Latter-day Saints and traditional Christian young people?

3. Friendships – How do friendships between traditional Christian teenagers and Latter-day Saints work? How can Christian teens stay grounded in their faith and open to the issues that deeply concern their LDS friends?

4. Answers – What are some of the answers to the difficult questions our LDS friends may raise? How can we avoid the trap of simply arguing Bible verses with our LDS friends?

5. Sharing – What are effective ways to share the gospel with our LDS friends? How can we use the language of LDS testimony to tell about relationship with Jesus Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

Young people from traditional Christian backgrounds who have LDS friends will see this program as a wake up call to dig deeper into their own faith and get grounded in Jesus Christ. If they join in the class discussions and engage in the suggested weekly activities, they will grow in their own faith and be strengthened in their witness to their LDS friends. Then they will be able to speak the truth in love to them, without fear of damaging their friendships.

    Program Intent    

Grounded is suitable for Christian congregations of all types. The goal of the program is to help Christian teenagers who have Mormon friends strengthen their faith and become better prepared to discuss their beliefs without fear of damaging these friendships.

The program was developed by Salt Lake Theological Seminary, a graduate school that trains men and women for work in the church as ministers, youth pastors, chaplains, missionaries, Christian educators, and so on. The seminary is the only place of its kind in Utah or anywhere else in the Intermountain West. This region of the Western United States is heavily influenced by people of a particular faith: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called the Mormons.

Many people who do not belong to the Mormon Church look at Mormons (or Latter-day Saints as they prefer to be known) and call them a “cult.” But others who belong to traditional Christian churches – both Protestant and Catholic – know that Latter-day Saints belong to a unique and complex culture, distinguished by its own history, beliefs, morals, and social values. To label them as a cult is to limit our understanding of our Mormon friends and their faith, closing the door to fruitful conversations about the Good News of Jesus Christ and God’s saving grace.

This program does not feature people attacking the LDS Church, discrediting its founder Joseph Smith, or disproving the claims of The Book of Mormon. It does not seek to answer questions such as “Are Mormons Christian?” and “How can Mormons be saved?” What it does contain is young people speaking freely on camera about the way they see the world and the value their faith has in their lives. Some are Latter-day Saints. Others belong to traditional Christian church backgrounds. They speak about their friendships and what they value in each other in spite of the differences in their churches’ teachings and their personal beliefs. In this program, LDS teens bear their testimony and young people from a number of different denominations – Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist and more – say over and over again “I wish I could testify to my beliefs as strongly as my LDS friends do to theirs.”

Our prayer is that teens from traditional Christian backgrounds who have LDS friends will see this program as a wake up call to dig deeper into their own faith and get grounded in Jesus Christ. We believe that if they join in the class discussions and engage in the suggested weekly activities, they will grow in their own faith and be strengthened in their witness to their LDS friends. Then they will be able to speak the truth in love to them, without fear of damaging their friendships.

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    Program Overview   

The Grounded DVD consists of five modules covering the following topics:

• Part 1: Truth – Where do we find truth? How do we sort out different truth claims the world offers up? What does it mean to say truth is a person – Jesus Christ? How do our LDS friends’ truth claims differ from those of a traditional Christian? How well prepared are average Christian teens to defend their faith based on teachings from the Bible?

• Part 2: Differences – Where and when did the LDS Church start? Who were Joseph Smith and Brigham Young? How does LDS theology compare to traditional Christian theology on important issue such as the nature of God, the person of Jesus, salvation, and authority? What are some key differences between the worldviews of young Latter-day Saints and traditional Christian teens?

• Part 3: Friendship – How do friendships between traditional Christian teenagers and Latter-day Saints work? How do they find common interests among their differences? How can they discuss – not argue about – differences in beliefs? How can Christian teens stay grounded in their faith and at the same time, stay open to the issues that deeply concern their Mormon friends?

• Part 4: Answers – What are some of the answers to the difficult questions our LDS friends may raise such as the reliability of the Bible, the need for a living prophet, or salvation by works not grace? How can we avoid the trap of simply arguing Bible verses with our LDS friends?

• Part 5: Sharing – What are effective ways to share the gospel with our LDS friends? How does relational evangelism work? How can we develop relationships of mutual trust and underst+ anding that open doors to witnessing? How can we use the language of LDS testimony to tell our own story of our relationship with Jesus Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

Each module runs between 15 and 18 minutes. Each contains an introduction and conclusion by the program’s host, Murph, and a portion of Lea Ann’s story, the real-life story of a woman who joined and then later left the LDS Church.

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    About Student Workbook   

The student Workbook consists of the following sections for each video module.

• Looking to God: a time of prayer focused on the general topic at hand

• Looking at the Issue: a time of orientation and activities to prepare students for the issues they’ll see in the video segment

• Looking Through Other Eyes: watching the video and taking notes on the main topic areas

• Looking Through Our Eyes: group discussion on what was seen and heard, with helpful questions to spur discussion

• Looking Through God’s Eyes: scriptural reflections on the topic at hand, with guided discussion

• Looking at the Big Picture: a concise summary of the topic and lessons learned from the video and scriptural reflections

• Looking Ahead: a brief preview of the next video segment’s focus

• Looking Back to God: a time of closing prayer reflective of the topic and focused on the students’ relationships with their LDS friends

• Getting Grounded: daily activities for the week to come that invite students to dig into God’s Word and get grounded in Jesus Christ

Sample Pages from Workbook (Adobe Reader required to view)

• Pages 2 - 3       Truth                           

• Pages 16 - 17    Differences                 

• Pages 48 - 49    Notes from Video       

• Pages 68 - 69    Getting Grounded      

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    Time Sequence For Teaching  

Each session of Grounded can be taught in as little as an hour. A minimum suggested time sequence follows.

The time allocated can be adapted to fit other needs. For example, a 90-minute timeslot can easily be filled by extending the prayer time with individual prayer requests, and by allocating more time to discussion and Scripture reading after the video.

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