How Can Church Be More Fun??????

[Tacenda]

If I am not mistaken, there used to be teacher training classes in wards. At least I remember something along these lines. I think that it is difficult for people to be teachers without some training. Also, these days, people have very little time to do activities outside of work and family.

I've been to both a teacher's class and a marriage class, both excellent! And in one of them the teacher passed out mini snicker bars, I guess we were like the primary kids, needed that reward. Don't get me started on that one. Oops I reread your post again Why Me and I believe now you were probably talking Teacher Training outside of the block on Sunday. I guess I was talking about the classes during Sunday school.

Edited June 28, 2012 by Tacenda

[why me]

I've been to both a teacher's class and a marriage class, both excellent! And in one of them the teacher passed out mini snicker bars, I guess we were like the primary kids, needed that reward. Don't get me started on that one. Oops I reread your post again Why Me and I believe now you were probably talking Teacher Training outside of the block on Sunday. I guess I was talking about the classes during Sunday school.

I was talking about church sponsored teacher training classes, so I think that we are in the same ball park. But I don't think every ward as them. Most people do not know how to teach and so, they rely on the manual which of course can be very bad of the class. I think that we just need to be grateful that people accept the calling. It is no easy task to face a class after having a busy week during the weekday.

[why me]

We could all actually put the Gospel into better action on Saturday night, go down to the local bars, play some pool and have some beers with the rest of the lost house of Israel (inactive members) who we have already chased out through our own arrogance and self righteousness........

Will you be the teacher and are you also buying?

[Craig Paxton]

All I can say is that...the spirit must be really strong in all those LDS meetings...cuz there's an awful lot of sleeping ...cough cough...I mean...people over come with the spirit ...going on

Edited June 28, 2012 by Craig Paxton

[Craig Paxton]

If sunday school was more like this class....it might be more fun...

[Libs]

All I can say is that...the spirit must be really strong in all those LDS meetings...cuz there's an awful lot of sleeping ...cough cough...I mean...people over come with the spirit ...going on

One of the funniest things I ever saw was when one of the Bishop's counselors kept dozing off up on the stand. You could tell the poor guy could barely keep his eyes open. Must have been a late night...or a very early morning.

[KevinG]

I love the Gospel Extrinsics cartoon thanks Craig!

I teach the High Priests, stick to the basics and have yet to have anyone fall asleep in class. If you can make a connection to people by involving them in the discussion and drawing on their experiences it helps keep the class rich and engaging.

Teach Ye Diligently by Boyd K Packer (a lifelong educator) is a wonderful resource.

[why me]

One of the funniest things I ever saw was when one of the Bishop's counselors kept dozing off up on the stand. You could tell the poor guy could barely keep his eyes open. Must have been a late night...or a very early morning.

I think that after a busy week with work and family, during sacrament meeting, because it is sitting time without much energy needed, the body can go into neutral and begin the process of shutting down.

[why me]

I love the Gospel Extrinsics cartoon thanks Craig!

I teach the High Priests, stick to the basics and have yet to have anyone fall asleep in class. If you can make a connection to people by involving them in the discussion and drawing on their experiences it helps keep the class rich and engaging.

Teach Ye Diligently by Boyd K Packer (a lifelong educator) is a wonderful resource.

I think that this book was used in teacher preparation class. But I could be wrong.

[Libs]

I think that after a busy week with work and family, during sacrament meeting, because it is sitting time without much energy needed, the body can go into neutral and begin the process of shutting down.

Oh, I'm sure. Plus all of the meetings they have and individual interviews and who knows what all they have to do for the church during the week, as well. Must be exhausting.

[Calm]

I think that after a busy week with work and family, during sacrament meeting, because it is sitting time without much energy needed, the body can go into neutral and begin the process of shutting down.

Especially if they had gotten up early in the morning for meetings. Plus it is hotter up on the stand than it is down in the pews usually.

[Heide]

If I am not mistaken, there used to be teacher training classes in wards. At least I remember something along these lines. I think that it is difficult for people to be teachers without some training. Also, these days, people have very little time to do activities outside of work and family.

Unfortunately, these lessons were the dullest of them all.

[Libs]

I took the teacher's training class and really enjoyed it. It was a small class with some fun people and we got a chance to practice teaching/lecturing, which I really needed. It was a good confidence building class.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Libs

[Hamba Tuhan]

One of the funniest things I ever saw was when one of the Bishop's counselors kept dozing off up on the stand. You could tell the poor guy could barely keep his eyes open. Must have been a late night...or a very early morning.

I'm a bishopric counsellor, and I had this very problem a few weeks ago. I'd been asleep for less than two hours Saturday night when my mobile rang. It was a sister in our ward who, despite having an appointment several days away for a caesarean delivery, had ended up in hospital for an emergency caesarean. Abandoned by her husband months ago, she was alone and scared. She said she didn't think there would be time enough for anyone to get to the hospital to give her a blessing, so she asked me to pray with her. I did pray on the phone with her and then told her to hang on, that her home teacher and I would be there as quickly as we could. I rang his wife and asked her to wake him up and then headed to his house, arriving there just as he stumbled out the door. We arrived at the hospital exactly 20 minutes after the phone call--which seemed like a miracle to me--and made it to the maternity ward in time to give this dear sister the blessing she desired. Just as we finished, the nurses came in to take her to the operating theatre, and, speaking with a new sense of calmness, she asked us if we could please wait just in case there were any complications.

About three hours later, we were invited back into the ward to greet tiny little Miguel, sleeping soundly on his mother's chest. When he opened his eyes, they were jet black, 'like olives', his mum stated proudly. We spent a bit of time basking in the beauty of the miracle of birth--the closest I've ever been privileged to be to it!--and speaking with the mum about what other support we could provide her.

By the time I got home again, there were only a couple of hours of darkness left, and I found it hard to sleep from all the excitement, but I did rest a bit. I can see how a visiting cynic might have thought I was bored in sacrament meeting later that day as my eyes struggled to remain open, but such an assessment would have been mere projection...and far, far off the mark. Sunday is my favourite day of the week, and I cherish every single moment I get to spend worshipping with the members of my ward, even when, as sometimes happens, my flesh is weak.

Edited June 30, 2012 by Hamba Tuhan

[why me]

Unfortunately, these lessons were the dullest of them all.

And that is why we also need to educate the teacher teaching the class: educating the educator. I think we all need to remember that the person teaching is fulfilling a calling and she or he are just normal human beings with jobs outside the church.

[why me]

Especially if they had gotten up early in the morning for meetings. Plus it is hotter up on the stand than it is down in the pews usually.

And this is the same for people giving talks. Their energy level may not be the highest. Church would be much better if members had more free time during the day. But now, much time is taking up at work and within the family Free time can be a luxury. And then whatever free time is left, must be given to class preparation or talk preparation. Not easy at all.

[Heide]

Quite a few posts stating that church services are fantastic and wonderful if you go with the right spirit, or that church is only not fun when the mindset is not right. With no sarcasm intended, good for you!

I do not know if more or less people find church stiff and boring. I do, and it very well may because I come with the wrong mindset. I would concede that if I am predisposed to believe church is boring, that I am more apt to find it boring..

Since I may be crossing the line into criticism and less about the original post, let me offer a few suggestions (some serious some hopefully light-hearted):

1. Church itself would be more "fun" if we went back to making the meeting house the center of ward activities. Unified ward budgets have nerfed adult social activities such that I only see people in my ward during the 3 hour block or church meetings. The consequence is kids grow up as teens deeply involved in church activities, with seminary, mutual, scouts, and young women's, but as adults are left without similar activities. I think there is less community than previously and people are too busy at church to socialize. However, the sharing in janitorial work ironically bring people together to do chores.

2. I respect and revere reverence, but people can loosed their ties a bit and let their hair down, if not just metaphorically.

3. Lesson plans. Centralizing lesson plans has the upside of removing controversial or marginally relevant, sometimes wrong, doctrine from lessons. However, standardized manuals for each class has the downside of making SS and Priesthood robotic in hands of most teachers.

4. Obliterate most meeting and reduce many church callings. Church callings have the important consequence of giving everyone a sense of ownership in the ward and encourages them to be committed to attending church. But, the issue is that too many callings make it too easy for too many people to be "busy" with their callings rather than attend services--I think a ward would be better served meeting in larger groups rather than allowing people to disappear. Meetings are unproductive and bureaucratic and should be reduced in number and length.

5. Speaking of lessons, the best teaching methods are found in primary during sharing time. Priesthood would be much more fun if we taught what comes naturally to kids. Because the lecture style of teaching is archaic, the Socratic method puts people on the spot, and asking for volunteers solicits the same people over and over, priesthood lessons would be more fun if done as follows: teacher gives the quorum a short intro to the topic, presents a problem to be solved, break out into small groups, and report solutions to the problem.

6. And speaking of priesthood--get rid once and for all the idea of taking 20 minutes to go over quorum news/notes and passing around binders of sign up sheets. It's called the internet. Learn to disseminate information to a group and put sign-ups online with shared calendars. Fun is not taking the final 10 minutes to speed through a lesson.

7. Start a community garden on church grounds. Every six families get a raised bed, and those six families are each other's home teachers and visiting teachers. Meeting at the community garden counts as home and visiting teaching.

8. Convert scouting into a coed all age outdoor adventure, civics, and crafting club. Everyone in the ward gets merit badges, like the BBQ merit badge, scrapbooking merit badge, scripture chase merit badge, etc. There would be monthly organized hikes, camping, running, cycling, geo-caching, fishing, etc. And paint ball. Every ward has that one person you would love to drill with a paint ball.

9. Create a twitter hashtag for each ward you can update during church. "@bishop9thWard We're out of time and kid has to pee #SLC9thWard"

[Calm]

In regards to #1, there is Enrichment Night (or whatever it is called these days) for RS, do you think something like this should be done for the men?

http://www.lds.org/p...,4690-1,00.html

Love the community garden idea. When we were at BYU Married Student Housing, the empty field at the entrance (across from the MTC that is now occupied by a building I can't remember the purpose of) was given to us for gardening, individual plots but it was fun to see others there and stuff got passed around as well.

I love fresh from the garden stuff, but once the heat hits, I can't go outside to care for it so it would be wonderful to split up responsibility with others, go all gung ho while I can plus be the one to pay for the materials while others donate labour when I can't do it. We have fruit trees our neighbours come over to pick, their payment giving us enough for us to eat (which being just three including one who isn't all that up on fruit and another who hates cherries isn't that much so everyone feels they get their 'money's worth').

Edited June 29, 2012 by calmoriah

[John Ping Pong]

Please can you state were we are taught the people are perfect and programs are perfect ?

When was the last time you heard the Church take responsibility for anything negative?

More and more it seems to me we use the word "The Church" to indicate something removed from people or buildings or anything physical; it has become a Platonic immaterial ideal of sorts. Hence, when we say "the Church is true," we are talking about something that exists not in the real world but only in the mind.

In this way, "the Church" in any (and every) temporal sense may be filled with imperfections, and yet we are justified in continuing the trope of saying it is nonetheless "true."

But since we insist on "the Church" being "true," it must follow that any deficiencies in it experienced by the members must be the fault of the person experiencing the deficiency.

We have seen examples of this mindset already in this thread.

[John Ping Pong]

and attendance is optional as we all have our agency.

We must attend our meetings if we are to be considered "obeying the commandments" sufficiently to enter the temple.

In this way, attendance is not optional.

I am not exactly clear on when or why it was decided to make attendance at all church meetings a commandment. It seems to go beyond what we find in D&C 59.

[John Ping Pong]

The problem is not with the manuals, its with the teachers - the manuals are just outlines with some filler idea's a good teacher can really make a class interesting (and a bad one can make your brain turn to mush - I walked out on HP group last Sunday because of a sub teacher that obviously put the lesson together in 2 minutes - he had a week to prepare)

Here I would agree with you if the manuals themselves did not seek to restrict teacher resources to the manuals or to other Church correlated materials.

And good for you on walking out. Teaching will remain substandard as long as we are willing to put up with it in the name of politeness.

[John Ping Pong]

Please don't under-estimate the gripers and complainers and ark steadiers regardless what the question is in terms of changing the Church. The well from which they draw seems limitless.

I think the "ark steadier" argument is one of the most transparent in existence.

It is a ridiculous story where God acted rashly and ill-advisedly.

But it is a handy club to beat over the head anybody with the temerity to suggest the Church might not be "perfect." (See post above.)

[John Ping Pong]

If I am not mistaken, there used to be teacher training classes in wards. At least I remember something along these lines. I think that it is difficult for people to be teachers without some training. Also, these days, people have very little time to do activities outside of work and family.

Unfortunately, the teacher training classes are designed to ensure and perpetuate substandard performance.

It is a boring class designed to produce boring teachers.

Better prepared, perhaps.

But still boring.

[John Ping Pong]

I teach the High Priests, stick to the basics and have yet to have anyone fall asleep in class. If you can make a connection to people by involving them in the discussion and drawing on their experiences it helps keep the class rich and engaging.

I think you make an important point here.

The most interesting thing for me is how the gospel affects a person's life, and how they relate on a personal level to the gospel.

This is where the rubber hits the road.

Too often, I see people who avoid talking about how they personally interact with the gospel, restricting themselves to what they think they should say rather than what is real for them.

[John Ping Pong]

And that is why we also need to educate the teacher teaching the class: educating the educator.

An admirable sentiment.

But who will educate the educator?