How was two hour church?

[Hamba Tuhan]

19 minutes ago, silvermoon383 said:

Huh, weird.

Not weird here. I think we may have only two to three singles wards in the entire nation. Our stake is too small to even consider such a thing.

[bluebell]

9 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Having people stick around for appointments might defeat the purpose, which is to make time for home-centered gospel study. 

If those appointments took hours then I can see your point, but most just take a few minutes.  At GC Elder Cook said that it was still perfectly acceptable for people to stay at the ward building after church to visit, for example, so it doesn't sound like our leaders expect people to be at home the rest of the day after church.

[bluebell]

10 hours ago, Hamba Tuhan said:

I think our bishop takes the change seriously. I reside in a ward where people stampede the pulpit the instant the meeting is opened up for testimonies. I'm not sure what the solution is. Possibly telling people who are sitting behind the microphone that they will have to wait till next month?

Is this a new thing with the shorter sacrament meeting, or did testimony meeting typically go over the allotted time because so many people had queued up?

[bluebell]

10 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

In our building, there is no cultural hall as such. When we have an activity for which a cultural hall is needed, the stake center, within easy driving distance for all of our ward members, is used. 

No basketball hoops??  

[hope_for_things]

11 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Move it to one or more chapel overflows like we did. 

Splitting the class is not optimal. One teacher becomes the more popular, making the other feel like a scrub. 

We had two classes in my last ward before we moved, and I thought it worked well.  You're right that one class was smaller than the other though.  I personally prefer smaller classes as I think people are more likely to participate, especially the ones that don't typically participate.  

[bluebell]

8 hours ago, Bernard Gui said:

Wouldn’t the 14 YM/YW teachers, secretaries, and advisors be in Sunday School now?

Youth still has their own Sunday school classes.  Gospel Doctrine is for 18 and up.

[BlueDreams]

Just now, hope_for_things said:

We had two classes in my last ward before we moved, and I thought it worked well.  You're right that one class was smaller than the other though.  I personally prefer smaller classes as I think people are more likely to participate, especially the ones that don't typically participate.  

Same. When i was a teacher, i always preferred to take tge smaller room and class. It allowed for more individual participation and some great class discussions. 

 

Church was good. I think i was enjoying most being at church at 9 instead of 1 for the first time in several years. Our sunday school was also extremely full. We somehow crammed in there, but i do wonder if they’ll split the class to better accommodate. It may take a moment though. They just finished reorganizing the primary and our bishopric was replaced. Right now in our ward we’re in a cycle of baby blessings and convert confirmations. Those can take up some time. I think we ended close to on time though.

 

with luv, 

BD

[The Nehor]

We have already set up a mix and mingle after the second hour once a month with finger food.

I think we are going with split Gospel Doctrine next time. Class was way too big. I am also okay with being the Schlub who gets a smaller class and I am at least temporarily going to be teaching one of them.

Interviews are definitely still a thing but we banned doing them during the block except for youth interviews on 2nd and 4th Sundays so they have to go before and after church. We actually saw a drop when people could not just do it during the block and we are definitely okay with that.

[VAUFLDS]

10 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Having people stick around for appointments might defeat the purpose, which is to make time for home-centered gospel study. 

Well, any given person except for certain leaders should not expect that to take place very often. It's mostly Bishopric that will be hanging around late almost every week since they now have less time to complete their myriad of tasks during the block. 

[stemelbow]

Somehow it felt like 3 and a half.  When is the next revelation going to come and cut it down more so we can spend more time with our families or do more useful things with our time on this planet?  

just playing...I didn't show up

The first part of the booklet we're supposed to use to teach at home is pretty terrible.  I hope it improves.  

We decided to use it once a week to talk to our kids about the religion that their cousins and many of their friends adhere to.  We got off to a rocky start, with all sorts of adorable tangents.

[mnn727]

12 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Apparently the teacher was the only one who hadn’t gotten the message that gospel doctrine will now be held in the third overflow

3rd overflow! We call that 'the Stage' in our building. 1950's era Stake Center - 1 overflow, the Gym (Cultural Hall) and the Stage.

---

Trying to get over a cold and didn't want to spread my germs, so I stayed home. DW said F&T ended on time and she teaches primary which she said could have been organized better (They just changed the Presidency last week.) We got the 8:30 AM shift which to me is too early. We've had the 11 AM time for 10 of the 12 years we've been in this Ward, it will be nice getting home early, but looks like there will be a nap in my Sundays.

Edited January 7, 2019 by mnn727

[mnn727]

10 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Having people stick around for appointments might defeat the purpose, which is to make time for home-centered gospel study. 

I've had 1 appointment with the Bishop in the last year. 

Now the Bishop has one extra hour for appointments so I kind of doubt he'll have too much more time in.

[Bernard Gui]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

Youth still has their own Sunday school classes.  Gospel Doctrine is for 18 and up.

Noted and duhhed above.

[readstoomuch]

53 minutes ago, stemelbow said:

Somehow it felt like 3 and a half.  When is the next revelation going to come and cut it down more so we can spend more time with our families or do more useful things with our time on this planet?  

just playing...I didn't show up

The first part of the booklet we're supposed to use to teach at home is pretty terrible.  I hope it improves.  

We decided to use it once a week to talk to our kids about the religion that their cousins and many of their friends adhere to.  We got off to a rocky start, with all sorts of adorable tangents.

If you are talking about the first chapter of Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families.  I read the chapter with all of the scriptures and the talks yesterday morning before bishopric meeting and had a profound experience with it.  I read the bible verses in the ESV, though I am waiting for the Greek translation by Thomas Wayment to be available again from Deseret Book.  

[Bernard Gui]

9 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Your one building reminds me of the meetinghouse of my childhood. It had a funky design. 

In our chapel in Tacoma, the cultural hall was built adjacent to the side of the chapel. When we needed more seating, we pressed a control button on the stand and a long  part of the wall next to the organ lowered into the basement. The speaker then looked straight ahead to the folks in the chapel and to the right to the folks in the hall.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Bernard Gui

[halconero]

It was decent. Our ward has a chronic issue with starting on time. Yesterday was a bit better, but we still started late. Mostly it's an issue of sufficient priesthood holders showing up on time and volunteering to sit upfront to bless and pass the sacrament. Any ideas about how to improve this are welcome, as I'm currently serving as Exec Sec and it's something we're working to resolve.

Anyhoo, we ended sorta on time. Too many announcements after the meeting was over though, so we didn't get class going until about 25 minutes past the hour.

We also had way too many people stuffed in the class. We're considering either staying in the gym (we meet at the institute building in the gym, no chapel), or splitting classes. Not sure yet.

[Bernard Gui]

20 minutes ago, halconero said:

Any ideas about how to improve this are welcome, as I'm currently serving as Exec Sec and it's something we're working to resolve.

No worries. Just go with the flow. Make the official meeting time fifteen minutes later but don’t announce it to anyone. 

[juliann]

23 minutes ago, halconero said:

It was decent. Our ward has a chronic issue with starting on time. Yesterday was a bit better, but we still started late. Mostly it's an issue of sufficient priesthood holders showing up on time and volunteering to sit upfront to bless and pass the sacrament. Any ideas about how to improve this are welcome, as I'm currently serving as Exec Sec and it's something we're working to resolve.

The most obvious solution is to let  girls pass the trays. It doesn’t require priesthood. 

[CA Steve]

12 minutes ago, juliann said:

The most obvious solution is to let  girls pass the trays. It doesn’t require priesthood. 

The problem with this is it dramatically raises the possibility of infecting the bread and water with cooties, which is known to nullify the sacrament. 

 

[Prof]

10 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

I wonder if some of the increase in attendance is because people are no longer holding the social relations classes out in the halls and foyers. With the block only two hours now, there is less time to be bored. 

I hope that is the case. In my ward, sometimes it was hard to concentrate on the lesson with all of the loud conversations going on in the hall and the foyer. Said conversations were usually not church related. 

[halconero]

19 minutes ago, juliann said:

The most obvious solution is to let  girls pass the trays. It doesn’t require priesthood. 

That's assuming the girls are any better at getting there on time than the guys. They aren't.

We've toyed with Bernard's suggestion. We're tempted to either do that, or simply start the meeting right on time as announced regardless of how many people are there. After a few weeks, people will probably adjust.

[Prof]

21 minutes ago, juliann said:

The most obvious solution is to let  girls pass the trays. It doesn’t require priesthood. 

In my ward, it does require a white shirt and a tie!!!!!

[juliann]

6 minutes ago, halconero said:

That's assuming the girls are any better at getting there on time than the guys. They aren't.

 

It would double the chance of some being on time. 

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, halconero said:

It was decent. Our ward has a chronic issue with starting on time. Yesterday was a bit better, but we still started late. Mostly it's an issue of sufficient priesthood holders showing up on time and volunteering to sit upfront to bless and pass the sacrament. Any ideas about how to improve this are welcome, as I'm currently serving as Exec Sec and it's something we're working to resolve.

Anyhoo, we ended sorta on time. Too many announcements after the meeting was over though, so we didn't get class going until about 25 minutes past the hour.

We also had way too many people stuffed in the class. We're considering either staying in the gym (we meet at the institute building in the gym, no chapel), or splitting classes. Not sure yet.

In our ward the bishop specifically asks each deacon (or whoever will be passing) to be at the church ten minutes early, and if they aren't, then he will continue to go out of his way to remind them and their parents.  I don't know if that would work in every ward but it worked in ours.

[bluebell]

20 minutes ago, Prof said:

In my ward, it does require a white shirt and a tie!!!!!

Then your ward's not following the Handbook, which says that a white shirt is not required.