How Did Testimony Meetings Start?-Anybody Know?

[Duncan]

Does anyone have an idea of how testimony meeting got started? I was wondering how it came ot be that we have it and have it once a month

[Freedom]

Perhaps another question is, when did we move away from testimonies to assigned talks. BY used to point to the first person in he row and have them share their testimony, and they would  just do down the row.

[Kadahow]

Answer is in Answer to Gospel Questions, Vol. 1 by Joseph Fielding Smith.  He quotes Brigham Young from a Talk on December 8, 1867.  "The church held the first Thursday in each month we held as a Fast Day."  Joseph Smith started it in Kirtland.  It was in response to helping the poor.  Joseph encouraged a fast day.  It was to held once a month.  "All that was to be eaten that day, of flour, or meat or butter, or fruit, or anthing else, was to be carried to the meeting and put into the hands of a person selected for the purpose of taking care of the poor."  Brigham then wanted to reinstitue the First Thursday Fast Meeting.

 

The fast meeting was continued in Nauvoo and after the saints moved out west.  It goes on to say how the meeting changed from the first Thursday to the First Sunday.  It started with a letter from Hyrum Smith to his father, President Joseph F. Smith, asking if it could be moved to Sunday because of the difficulty it represented to the working class people in England.  It was approved.  I hope this helps.

[Duncan]

Answer is in Answer to Gospel Questions, Vol. 1 by Joseph Fielding Smith.  He quotes Brigham Young from a Talk on December 8, 1867.  "The church held the first Thursday in each month we held as a Fast Day."  Joseph Smith started it in Kirtland.  It was in response to helping the poor.  Joseph encouraged a fast day.  It was to held once a month.  "All that was to be eaten that day, of flour, or meat or butter, or fruit, or anthing else, was to be carried to the meeting and put into the hands of a person selected for the purpose of taking care of the poor."  Brigham then wanted to reinstitue the First Thursday Fast Meeting.

 

The fast meeting was continued in Nauvoo and after the saints moved out west.  It goes on to say how the meeting changed from the first Thursday to the First Sunday.  It started with a letter from Hyrum Smith to his father, President Joseph F. Smith, asking if it could be moved to Sunday because of the difficulty it represented to the working class people in England.  It was approved.  I hope this helps.

 

 

Thank you! how did the bit about testimonies get in there? just one of those things?

[Calm]

Thank you! how did the bit about testimonies get in there? just one of those things?

Isn't it in the D&C?  Can't remember exactly where.

[sdc999]

I always thought they started from the old biddy that went on vacation and came back to tell everyone her travelmony........ And then, And then. And then. And then God let me find my car keys and we made it home safely. Itnojc amen.

[JLHPROF]

I always thought they started from the old biddy that went on vacation and came back to tell everyone her travelmony........ And then, And then. And then. And then God let me find my car keys and we made it home safely. Itnojc amen.

Oh, as a wise man once said, what would testimony meeting be without the travelmonies, weepamonies, thankamonies, and preachamonies.

The real rarity is when someone actually bares a real testimony and the witness that brought it about.

[mfbukowski]

I think they always started same way they do now, with a song and a prayer.  

 

Doncha love language?    I drive my wife crazy pointing out ambiguities.

Edited October 2, 2013 by mfbukowski

[Helen47]

I remember testimony meetings as little speeches in between long pauses. Sometimes an old lady would get up and recite all the "blessings" in her famly for that month, kind of like a brag session.  Do people feel pressured in such a meeting. I think it was that writer Burton who wrote about closet doubters in the LDS church. What about those who love the lifestyle like Michael Quinn does? Does he get up and say "yes I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and yes he might have been married to a woman already married and living with her husband. See his latest response to Hales on this issue.

[Duncan]

I remember testimony meetings as little speeches in between long pauses. Sometimes an old lady would get up and recite all the "blessings" in her famly for that month, kind of like a brag session.  Do people feel pressured in such a meeting. I think it was that writer Burton who wrote about closet doubters in the LDS church. What about those who love the lifestyle like Michael Quinn does? Does he get up and say "yes I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and yes he might have been married to a woman already married and living with her husband. See his latest response to Hales on this issue.

 

 

I say this in the nicest possible way but what are you talking about?!

[cinepro]

A History of Mormon Sunday Worship

[Duncan]

A History of Mormon Sunday Worship

 

 

Great! Thank you!

[Bernard Gui]

Oh, as a wise man once said, what would testimony meeting be without the travelmonies, weepamonies, thankamonies, and preachamonies.

The real rarity is when someone actually bares a real testimony and the witness that brought it about.

I can't remember the last time we had a testimony meeting like you describe in our ward.

[Damien the Leper]

They ran out of topics to discuss. The circulatory was proven to work best over 3/4 of the Sundays in the month. 4 was too much. Imagine the glorious Sunday when talks about prayer, family, faith, repentance, scripture study, steadfastness, etc are replaced with topics such as the history of God, manifestations of the spirit in atypical ways, Periscope Adulterae as more than a casting stones or judgement narrative, the Samaritan woman in John 4, allegorical implications of the creation narrative, etc.

Hymns to no longer be sung:

Love at Home

Called to Serve

There is a Green Hill Far Away

How Firm a Foundation

Come Hear a Prophets Voice

High on the Mountain Top

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

[halconero]

They ran out of topics to discuss. The circulatory was proven to work best over 3/4 of the Sundays in the month. 4 was too much. Imagine the glorious Sunday when talks about prayer, family, faith, repentance, scripture study, steadfastness, etc are replaced with topics such as the history of God, manifestations of the spirit in atypical ways, Periscope Adulterae as more than a casting stones or judgement narrative, the Samaritan woman in John 4, allegorical implications of the creation narrative, etc.

Hymns to no longer be sung:

Love at Home

Called to Serve

There is a Green Hill Far Away

How Firm a Foundation

Come Hear a Prophets Voice

High on the Mountain Top

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

Just as long as we get to keep "In Our Lovely Deseret."

[mfbukowski]

Do people feel pressured in such a meeting.

No one forces them to go.  Vote with your feet.

[mfbukowski]

Just as long as we get to keep "In Our Lovely Deseret."

And of course "Praise To the Man" my absolute favorite.

 

I remember that one well from my pre-convert days, and that totally convinced me that these people were crazy cult members.

 

I got better.  (sort of) 

[JLHPROF]

And of course "Praise To the Man" my absolute favorite.

 

I remember that one well from my pre-convert days, and that totally convinced me that these people were crazy cult members.

 

I got better.  (sort of) 

 

Well, good thing the church changed the words years ago or you might really have thought cult.

"Plead unto heaven" used to read "stain Illinois".

[Damien the Leper]

And of course "Praise To the Man" my absolute favorite.

 

I remember that one well from my pre-convert days, and that totally convinced me that these people were crazy cult members.

 

I got better.  (sort of) 

That's one of my faves. It's about Judas Iscariot.