Wait, maybe there is. And President Nelson just addressed 60,000 plus Mormons and friends at the Arizona stadium where, on other Sundays, the Arizona Cardinals play the game of football. Once again, Mormonism and football cross paths.
The Mormon Newsroom posted an article summarizing the remarks by Pres. Nelson, Pres. Oaks, and their two wives. According to the post, Pres. Nelson encouraged members to “mak[e] their homes centers of learning and spirituality.” Pres. Oaks noted recent changes to LDS practices and schedules, and is quoted as saying, “The changes that make a difference to our position on the covenant path are not changes in Church policies or practices, but the changes we make in our own desires and actions.”
In conjunction with the visit to Arizona, Pres. Nelson published an op-ed in the Arizona media. He discusses his recent visit to Paradise (the one in California) and his experience as a surgeon, while delivering a nice non-denominational message: “Whatever your faith tradition or personal circumstances, as a servant of the Lord, I invite you to look to Him and make Him the center of your life.”
The SL Trib also covered the visit. Among other points, the article stated that “Nelson emphasized that faith does not and cannot spare people from challenges, sorrow and physical and emotional pain.”
This is neither the first nor the last of these stadium events featuring Pres. Nelson and other speakers. If the signature event of Pres. Hinckley’s tenure as President was the press conference (a practice not followed by his successors), the stadium soiree is becoming the signature event of Pres. Nelson’s tenure. A few questions for readers:
- Have you attended one of these events?
- What was your impression?
- What sort of discussion or directives were featured in your wards before and after the visit and event?
- Whether you have attended or not, what do you think of this push to get out and have direct contact (albeit at stadium distance) with the membership?
Wheat & Tares 
Whether you have attended or not, what do you think of this push to get out and have direct contact (albeit at stadium distance) with the membership? I am neutral on these type of meetings but see very little lasting effect with them. I would like to see is apostles making time on their schedule in different parts of the world meeting with individual members and non members.
It was wonderful and very spiritual. I think it is a great way to reach out to the members of the church. As for the lasting effect. I can only speak for myself. I will never forget it even though I did not go to the stadium . I watched it at my local Church center.
I went to one a few decades ago. The sound was out for 1/2 of the audience, so we didn’t hear a thing.
I served my mission in Buenos Aires. Pres Hinckley had spoken at a soccer stadium in Buenos Aires years prior to my mission. Members talked about it with reverence for years and years.
As a youth I heard Pres Hinckley at a large regional conference at a local convention center (not a stadium). I still think about it because it was a terrible experience. Not Pres Hinckley’s fault; I’m just not a fan of the mega meeting. But there are clearly people that are strengthened by these meetings.
I was lucky enough to get to attend this. It was a very good experience.
Micah, what was the traffic like and wait times for seating, etc?
I will be honest. I am praying for Pres Nelson to stay away from my area. I deeply dislike crowds and hassle and parking and would much rather watch such a thing on a screen. I don’t honestly see a benefit other than for members to get really excited and have something to talk to their friends about.
To Miguel: “I would like to see is apostles making time on their schedule in different parts of the world meeting with individual members and non members.” You may be interested in what is happening in my part of the world at least. Generally every other stake conference a general or area authority visits/presides. Over the last several years because of my calling I’ve been heavily involved in planning the itinerary/schedule for our conferences. Each time a GA is there, many hours on Saturday (it has ranged from 2 – 8 hours) we are instructed to set up 30-45 minute visits with members or people of other faiths to have visits with the GAs in their homes. We’ve also had unusually frequent visits in our area from Apostles–each visit has included some leadership meetings but hours spent on Saturday visiting members or others in their home. I’ve accompanied them in many of these visits. As I am assuming from your comment you think this would have a lasting impact–it definitely has. These leaders are so different in those intimate visits. No space here but could share some stories.
I’ve also attended a “stadium” (indoor convention center) gathering as a child over 30 years ago in CA (President Monson, then Elder Monson). I don’t remember anything he said but do remember thinking it was a pretty awesome sight to see such a large group of people there for the same purpose. In recent years I’ve spoken to several people who have attended the stadium tours. For some they speak of the experience with great reverence and others sort of say meh. For many there is a great excitement in large group gatherings. The D&C instructs the Elders and leaders to hold conferences. I think there are a lot of folks who feel strengthened in these large groups. Some hate crowds.
Something for everyone I guess.
Billy Graham had great success (by evangelical reckoning ) with his stadium sermons.
I didn’t watch at the stadium, but I did watch the broadcast in the chapel. It was a worthwhile devotional, but nothing life-changing. President Oaks talked about the importance of our identity as children of God, and that this identity is more important than how we classify ourselves and others in mortality. Sister Nelson spoke about the process of receiving revelation, and even mentioned that she had a powerful experience that was too sacred to describe twice when her husband became president of the Church. President Nelson spoke on the gathering of Israel, which seemed odd except that my wife and I had just talked about that topic right before the meeting.
RetX. The stadium is in a business and entertainment district that is right by the freeway. Traffic on the freeway slows down a bit after events, but most of that traffic is felt by people attending the event.
President Hinckley made an appearance in New Orleans March 2003, after expressing a desire to go “down south”. I was privileged to be in the choir and his talk was “Be not faithless, but believing”. Many of those attending would have their faith challenged by the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. His visit was timely, and very uplifting.
I’ve attended a few of these arena-sized meetings over the years. I’m not a big fan. They have all of the negative aspects of major sporting events (navigating crowds, parking/transit hassles, etc.) and lack any of the positives (energy of the crowd, lively music, entertainment value, etc.). In most cases, people are sitting so far away from the speaker that they are effectively watching the entire event on a screen, which is better done at home. And in almost every case, the star power of the event overshadows the message, Local members may be talking for years about the time President So-and-so came to visit, but they can’t remember at all what he had to say.
In other words, these events play right into the “GA worship” culture in the Church, and even depend on it to draw capacity crowds. I’ve never found these events to be spiritually uplifting.
I attended with my 4 oldest children, ages 9-15. As a lifelong active member, RM, BYU grad, someone who believes the church’s truth claims, etc, and believes that Pres. Nelson is a prophet, I was deeply underwhelmed, and I know my children were as well. Sis. Oaks talk was by far the worst. She seemed zoned out, and the content was GA worship at its most slavish. Oaks spent the bulk of his time repeating cherry picked quotes, without attribution, from last conference. Wendy’s talk was at least an interesting insight into Pres. Nelson’s approach to revelation.
There was little to inspire. If you are going to hold an event like this, the content should be tailored to the audience and worth the time and cost. I was hoping for more testimony of Jesus; more “feel-good” which is the kind of content suited to a stadium.
Huge banners in the stadium encouraged attendees to “share their experience” with a hashtag. I found it crude and distasteful.
I live near Paradise, CA and attended the event in Chico, CA that Nelson speaks of. I can attest to what Jack Hughes says. This isn’t the case for everybody, but for me, the “starpower” definitely overshadowed the message. Wendy Nelson’s ridiculous and constant fawning over the awesomeness of her husband made sure that the nice spirit that had been set by regional and stake leaders was quickly disposed of.
The Arizona event was broadcast to every Stake center in Arizona. It could also be viewed online at home through a special link to lds.org. It’s interesting that the MormonNewsroom (and consequently the Salt Lake Tribune) somewhat misrepresented what President Nelson said. His talk was about the Abrahamic Covenant and the gathering of Israel. He requested: “Pray each day intentionally about what you can do that very day to help gather Israel.” Then to help us know what our part in gathering Israel might look like , he suggested that one of the possible answers to our prayers could be a prompting to make our home a center of spirituality and learning.
Even though it was “local,” I did not attend. Tickets went to the youth first and foremost, to the adults last if at all. However, I know many people who did attend. What I heard varies from person to person.
On the upside, there was a camaraderie people seemed to enjoy, a strength-in-numbers of seeing their fellow Mormons filling a place as large as Cardinals Stadium. When you may feel like the oddball for being a Mormon (not true in the east valley like Mesa / Gilbert / Chandler, but true enough elsewhere in Phoenix), events like this make you feel like you are part of a large group. People saw old friends and connected at the event.
On the downside, I heard that the messages weren’t new or terribly interesting (LOTS of recycled material which doesn’t work that well when all our lessons are recycled talks), there was a big leader-worship vibe (Sis. Nelson’s talk was mentioned by quite a few), and lots of feeling that it was not that spiritual an event. Couple that with the extremely long drives for some (over 2 hours for the east valley folks), the traffic jam to get out of the parking lot (45 minutes!), and the very cold temperatures in the stadium–well, that’s not really a recipe for a great meeting.
Just thinking about it, I wonder if Pres. Nelson’s visits wouldn’t have more impact if they were much, much smaller. We had a surprise GA visit in December. The surprise was that we didn’t know who was coming until that day (it was otherwise all scheduled). How much fun would it have been if we’d gotten there and had Pres. Nelson at the pulpit? And how much more intimate would be his message if the room was just a regular stake center.
I loved reading the reports of the meeting in the newspapers. I loved that President Nelson called the members the Arizona Battalion. It uplifted me.
Many years ago we went to sort of a mega event in Mississippi featuring then Elder Hinckley. We had to drive for about 3 hours as I recall.
A pair of our friends had just gone through a bitter divorce because of her infidelity, although they had previously repented of being swingers, so go figure. The ex-wife got one of their rattle-trap cars and was driving to this event with their 4 children when it broke down. Although she was wearing her mini skirt a bit too high, she got out and lifted the hood and was leaning way over to try and figure out what was wrong. I am not kidding, the hood came down on her and trapped her with her bare legs kicking out the front. This must have happened only a few seconds before we came zooming by and of course we recognized the car and stopped to rescue her.
A couple other carloads of members joined the effort. but we could not fix the car. We took her and the youngest child and farmed the other 3 out to the other cars. We left the broken one on the side of the road for her ex to deal with later. We soldiered on dutifully to the conference. I don’t remember a thing about it except it didn’t seem worth it. Arriving late, we were seated so far back we couldn’t hear very well. It was hot and humid like usual. Crazy times.
I’ve been wondering if it might be better if the GA’s wives stayed home or kept quiet? Maybe in favor of hearing from the general RS, YW, or Primary presidency members. Heck, why not a RS Presidency tour with their husbands “fawning over the awesomeness of” their wives. Whadd’ya think?
RE: “Whether you have attended or not, what do you think of this push to get out and have direct contact (albeit at stadium distance) with the membership? ”
So long as the GAs continue to speak primarily (solely?) in their conference pulpit voices–general, non-specific, pious, lyrical, KJV wording, pedastal-led-by-God tone–it is a waste of my time and the Lord’s money. They can do all that with broadcasts. So long as their propinquity does not bring more pertinent words addressing member’s actual daily lives (meaning: social issues…including LGBTQ, teen suicides, gender issues, recent (and long-term) issues of sexual abuse, leader roulette, etc. then it is not of value to me.
As for pre-event in my ward: The normal, fawning, hero-worshipful, “a chance to be with the prophet” kind of pap.
Did someone say “Joel Osteen Part II”. Perhaps we’ll someday have people come forward to the stage in order to be healed.