Gospel Doctrine - Going Out With A Bang

[cinepro]

4 hours ago, mnn727 said:

You had time for all of that?

I talk fast, and kept things moving at quite a clip. 

[toon]

23 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Bearing testimony is stating what you know to be true.  I would hope nobody would be teaching something they believed to be false.

There's a large gap between knowing something to be true and believing it to be false.

[Rivers]

On 1/2/2018 at 10:50 AM, cinepro said:

A friend of mine teaches Gospel Doctrine in our ward,  but asked me to substitute last Sunday (12/31).  In counsel with the Sunday School President, we decided that since there wasn't any actual lesson in the manual for that week, that I should end our year-long study of "Church History" with a lesson that fills in some of the gaps, focusing on the Gospel Topics Essays. 

At the beginning of the lesson, I explained to the class that I was a substitute, there was no manual so I can't be accused of going "off manual", and I already had a calling in Scouts so I can't be punished. 

And away we went.   I went for a mix of interesting trivia and "meat" from the Gospel Topics Essays.  I used PowerPoint slides to present visual aids.

"Gospel Doctrine - Lesson 47"

1. (Attention-Getter - Madam Pattirini) - Showed the picture and asked if anyone knew who it was.  Lots of raised eyebrows when her real identity was revealed.

2. Gospel Topics Essays overview.

3. First Vision - Different Accounts.  Excerpt from the 1832 account discussed.

4. Book of Mormon - Story of Alvin being "the right one", but dying.  Joseph Smith sr. ad in local paper denying digging up Alvin's body.

5. Book of Mormon scribes.  What happened to the original manuscript?

6. Book of Mormon translation method.  Brought a hat and rock from my front yard as visual aids.

7. "Pop Quiz" - Showed the commonly used picture of Joseph and Oliver "translating."  Class members easily noticed the numerous inaccuracies. 

8. Then showed the picture of President Nelson touring the Harmony recreation of Joseph's cabin, including the hat on the table.

9. Trivia: Code names used in the D&C until 1981.

10. Trivia: Different names of the Church over time.

11. The Story of Vienna Jacques.

12. "The Plat of Zion"

13. Far West Temple Site - Prophecy about Apostles leaving on mission in 1839.

14. "Plural Marriage in the Church" essay.  One older class member talked about how when they were growing up in the Church, "no one knew Joseph Smith practiced polygamy."  One orthodox member offered her opinion that "it just doesn't matter at all to my salvation."  Talked about Hyrum taking section 132 to Emma.  Mentioned Joseph Smith being sealed to women with living LDS husbands (a few eyebrows went up).

15. (Planned to talk about the Council of 50, but ran out of time)

16. Ended with the story of the Steamship Saluda.

17. (Didn't have time to talk about the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham).

 

The power point I used is attached.   I had a lot of very positive feedback after the lesson!  Lots of people saying "wow"; several asked for a copy of my notes so they could read the parts I skipped. 

It was definitely a fun way to end the year.  I'll be the first to admit it would be impossible and inappropriate to teach like that every week, but once every four years sounds about right.

 

Cinepro "Lesson 47" Powerpoint

 

 

 

I want to be in your ward.

[Calm]

3 hours ago, cinepro said:

I talk fast, and kept things moving at quite a clip. 

A fast-talking Yoda is hard to picture for me.

[pogi]

14 minutes ago, Calm said:

A fast-talking Yoda is hard to picture for me.

Speaking of Yoda...

 

[Scott Lloyd]

On 1/2/2018 at 4:42 PM, Bobbieaware said:

Yes, the bearing of one’s testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel principles one is teaching should always be present and neglecting to bear ome’s testimony in these situations is a either a serious act of neglect or one of deliberately negative calculation. Listen to any LDS General Conference address and you will quickly learn that the bearing of testimony is always present. Further, in our lesson manuals we are constantly reminded that testimony-bearing is an essential element of effective gospel teaching.

In addition, our scriptures teach us that if we “have not the Spirit, ye shall not teach.” And since, by very nature, the Spirit constantly testifies as it teaches, the failure or refusal to bear testimony is an indicator that something might very well be seriously amiss in the one who is teaching or preaching. The Spirit of the Lord invariably testifies of the truth to those who have the Spirit, and testifying to what the has Spirit testified to you is perfectly natural and necessary in a teaching and preaching session where testimony building and edification is the goal.

Now with regard to the opening post on this thread, any Church leader will tell you that during those rare forays into teaching controversial topics it’s even more essential to bear testimony and lay one’s spiritual witness out into the open, for all to see, so that the congregation will be strengthened by the Spirit and not come away with the impression that the preacher or teacher is, in reality, wavering in their faith and actually trying to drag others down into their own world of doubt and spiritual alienation. Misery loves company. So now you know.

Virtual rep point 

[cinepro]

On 1/2/2018 at 3:42 PM, Bobbieaware said:

Now with regard to the opening post on this thread, any Church leader will tell you that during those rare forays into teaching controversial topics it’s even more essential to bear testimony and lay one’s spiritual witness out into the open, for all to see, so that the congregation will be strengthened by the Spirit and not come away with the impression that the preacher or teacher is, in reality, wavering in their faith and actually trying to drag others down into their own world of doubt and spiritual alienation.

You do have a point, but it should also be noted that I didn't teach anything that was even the slightest bit "controversial."

"Controversy" is rooted in disagreement.  And at no point in my lesson did I teach anything with which anyone could reasonably disagree.

Certainly, there could be disagreement over whether or not the different versions of the First Vision matter, but I didn't teach whether or not they do (it was certainly implied that they don't).  And reasonable people could disagree over whether or not the "face-in-the-hat" translation method for the Book of Mormon matters, or should be faith demoting, but I didn't teach that it mattered or should affect faith in any way.  I simply taught that that is what the Church essay teaches and that Emma and David Whitmer both made statements that supported it.

And to that point, during the lesson and since then I haven't heard of a single word of "controversy" or disagreement over the subject material.  No one in this thread has raised any controversy about whether or not anything I taught was true.

I'm certainly open to the argument that there are other things that could have been taught during that class period.  But like I said, there was no lesson manual for that week, and the idea for the lesson was whole-heartedly endorsed by the Sunday School President and the teacher I was subbing for.  The subject of the class was "Doctrine and Covenants and Church History", and the subjects I taught all fit well within that scope.

So I don't buy into your characterization of the lesson topics and risks involved in not bearing the kind of testimony you describe.

Edited January 8, 2018 by cinepro

[Danzo]

23 hours ago, cinepro said:

 

And to that point, during the lesson and since then I haven't heard of a single word of "controversy" or disagreement over the subject material.  No one in this thread has raised any controversy about whether or not anything I taught was true.

 

The big Question is, does anyone remember it?

It would be interesting to do a survey, in a month to see if anyone remembers it.

[cinepro]

5 minutes ago, Danzo said:

The big Question is, does anyone remember it?

It would be interesting to do a survey, in a month to see if anyone remembers it.

From 2008 - 2012, I was an EQ instructor.  I would start each lesson with four or five trivia questions related to the subject.  By the fourth year, I started recycling the questions, and from what I can tell, no one ever realized it.  I expected the long-timers to easily recall that a year earlier I had told them that "patriarchs were once paid to give patriarchal blessings", but it always seemed like they were hearing the trivia for the first time.

So while I would expect that people will at least remember that Brother Cinepro had a hat and a rock in Gospel Doctrine,  I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.