I was told we were a week off, so I’m not sure if you had this experience last Sunday, or today like we did. (Last week was Stake conference for us.) Following Sacrament meeting today, we met in the chapel to discuss the new 25 min weekly meeting schedule for both Sunday School & YM/YW meetings. Today we were focused primarily on the youth. I think next week we will repeat this for the adults.
What was striking to me was it took an hour to tell us what to do in 25 minutes. Does that strike anyone as ironic? It was the first thing I said as I left the chapel. Are we really going to accomplish anything in 25 minutes when it took us an hour (and perhaps 2 weeks)? It was funny that the bishopric made a big deal that they were advised to make sure Testimony meeting ended on time, so that we wouldn’t eat into the next hour’s time. And then in this meeting, led by the bishop with a video, the bishop remarked that he finished 5 minutes early. See! We did our second hour meeting in 55 minutes! What happened in your ward?
Wheat & Tares 
Our ward had separate adult and youth meetings last week for 60 minutes. I think the youth parents had to attend the youth meeting. The adult discussion was focussed on what we thought was required to have things run seamlessly for the new programme. Then this week in the Sunday school portion the adults watched two church videos. One a discussion between Bednar and Kearon and then another by the general Sunday School president including clips of a model class being taught. There was very little time to discuss either of these videos and we only started 2 minutes late (even though we were basically still in the chapel – the delay was people realising they had to move forward out of the overflow, and for the screen to be closed). Then in RS (also the chapel) we started 2 minutes early (the men had left pretty promptly for once), and were also shown a video. It appears that RS and EQ saw the same video, since both classes were discussed in the video. It was full of gushing statements about how lovely it is to meet with your sisters/ brothers and hear their experiences with the lesson material (I mean that was happening before they shortened it, so…) and a heavy emphasis on how the lesson and counsel together have become counsel together about the lesson material.
Our bishop decided to teach Sunday School (I’m not sure why he decided to do this rather than have the SS presidency or regular SS teachers teach). He arrived a few minutes late, and therefore started the lesson a few minutes late, because, well, he’s the bishop and was probably distracted with other things on his way from sacrament meeting to the SS classroom. His intention was to show both the Bednar and Kearon video and the general SS video, but because he started late and decided to give kind of a lengthy (given the time we had) introduction, there was only time to show the Bednar video. There was no time for any discussion. In my opinion, SS was largely a waste of time today, but it’s just the first Sunday, so I’ll wait to pass judgment after we’ve had a few months doing this with the normal SS teachers.
I will say that EQ was *so* much better than it normally is simply because it was only 25 minutes long. Our EQ president taught (as he frequently does) a lesson on a GC talk. He said he’d started preparing his lesson late on Saturday night. Unfortunately, this is the normal pattern for our EQ lessons–for most of my life. They are lessons based on a GC talk (or, previously, the church manual) with very little preparation. Since these types of lessons are so common and so awful, it was a relief to only have check the remaining time on my phone for 25 minutes instead of the previous 50+ minutes.
The Bednar video heavily emphasized that members needed to pretty much do all of their gospel study/learning on their own. Gone are the days where you can expect to learn anything from Sunday lessons. 2nd hour lessons are supposed to be a discussion of what you learned from the lesson material that week and how you applied it to your life. I’ve been around long enough to know that the vast majority of people do not read the material for the lesson, so they aren’t going to be in a position to participate in that sort of a discussion. This sort of discussion–if the lesson were to follow this format–would be dominated by a small number of extroverted, highly orthodox ward members. I don’t think I’d enjoy that or get much from that at all. Fortunately, I don’t think that is what is likely to happen. I think the SS teachers will likely try to present some sort of very short lesson each week. Like I said, though, I’ll wait for a few months to pass judgment based on how things actually go.
Maybe I’m off, but I got the impression the bishop was asked to lead the special meeting.
We split into two groups on 30 August. Adults with youth at home and adults without youth at home. The Young Women’s Presidency ran the adults with youth, where I made 2 minutes of comments at the end about the Gospel Living app and how we will utilize “Circles” to post ward info. (It’s great BTW). The adult only class was run by the SS President for the first half and then a discussion about the scheduled Come FM material.
Yesterday, 6 September, we shortened our sacrament meeting to 55 minutes so that we had 10 minutes of transition time and then proceeded with our two 25 minutes sessions. Gospel Doctrine only watched the Bednar/Kearon vid, with the remaining time on a discussion about “what can I do to make sacrament meeting more uplifting.” A few of the “old timers” wanted to make it about keeping children quiet, which was promptly shut down by other members and our awesome GD facilitator. (She would have been a good drill Sargent😏). The discussion ended with comments about taking personal responsibility for what you individually derive from the meeting. Our priests qm meeting talked about the planned subject matter while helping the ym understand how we will approach the material as discussed the week prior.
I would have to ask my sweetheart how it went in our ward. For me, I decided that since we are responsible for what we get out of the meetings (which there is usually nothing that I can get out of it, even searching for fragments that are uplifting or Jesus based) and since we are expected to totally learn the gospel at home, that I now stay home and read W&T, Exponent II, study whatever scripture I want (yesterday it was Zen) and do other uplifting and spiritual stuff I feel like. Often that is outside worshiping under the great blue dome.
My husband goes to church and spends most of it on his iPad playing games. I know I am getting more spirituality out of my Sabbath than he is….but the church sees me as wicked and him as righteous. 🤷♀️
As someone who stopped attending three years ago but dutifully attended for 43 years prior, I have no idea what it means to take personal responsibility for what I get out of someone else’s talk track.
Is it my failing if I didn’t like the new He-Man movie? I didn’t write it, script it, cast it, finance it, or approve it.
Please someone give me 3-5 useable ways in which a person takes personal responsibility for someone else’s agenda.
Chadwick, I was thinking the exact same thing. How is it my fault for being bored with hearing the same old same old over and over.
Now, if the lessons were actually good, like I remember from before a lot of you were even born, and I failed to get anything out of it because I was trying to figure out dinner and my mother in law coming over and how I am going to keep the grandmother from heck from bragging about my children’s cousins and hurting their feelings because grandma isn’t interested in *them* just wants to brag about their cousins, and how am I even going to get the cooking done with her hovering and criticizing the way I do things….yeah if that were the case then it is my fault for not getting anything from church.
But if the lessons and talks are all reruns of General Conference and I have already listened to those talks, read them, and now we get to review the same talk and there was nothing in it to start with that I haven’t heard sixty thousand times, THEN if I get nothing new out of church, how is that my problem?
Well, maybe it is my fault for having already read the talk, because we shouldn’t be listening to conference and then reading the talks, but wait till they are regurgitated for us and then we can get something *new* out of it. See, it really is our fault if we find those lessons and talks boring, because if we were just as dumb and lazy as they treat us, then it would all be brand new. And we would find church inspiring.[end sarcasm]
I keep thinking about my family growing up and some of the kids I knew in my ward—like my in laws. Our parents were only semi active (enough to get babies blessed and children baptized) and there was nothing at home as far as gospel study. Maybe the blessing got said on the food on Sunday dinner when we were over at Grandma’s. We children went to primary because it was fun, not more sitting still and being reverent. It was after school and we had to walk the 2 miles to the church building, because the school bus didn’t go there and then walk home the additional 2 1/2 miles. So we had to like it in order to go. But back in the 1950s primary wasn’t for church learning so much as it was for fun and socializing young heathens into being reverent for real church on Sunday.
And even most active parents still do not do all the scripture study, FHE, and daily prayers that the church recommends. Most parents are too busy just surviving with both parents working. If it is not a matter of survival, then it doesn’t happen. So, I just cannot imagine all this “home centered” study and religion stuff happening.
So, my prediction is that as the church continues drop in quality, membership will continue to hemorrhage. But the leaders seem determined to make what we get at our meeting all regurgitated conference talks. Busy teachers will always prepare late Saturday evening. The quality of meetings will continue to drop. Home church just will not happen except the very few supper Mormon families. (we will call those families “Bednar families”. ) Getting to know ward members will be more difficult when there is less time to visit between rushed short meetings. Community will continue to deteriorate. And the hold the church used to have on members will continue to weaken. And members will more and more decide that the church just isn’t worth the 10% of income when they get zero out of it.