2 hour block

[mfbukowski]

5 hours ago, smac97 said:

A few thoughts:

A. A two-hour block could either be structured to eliminate Sunday School altogether, or else alternate the second hour (one Sunday would have Sunday School, the next Sunday would have RS/Priesthood, and so on).  

B. A two-hour block could either increase the number of units meeting in a building.  This would probably only make sense in some parts of the "Mormon Corridor," as otherwise this proposal would likely increase drive times for units serving "outlying" areas.

C. As an alternative to item B, we could keep the number of units per building as-is, but encourage members to stay for what would have been the third hour to mingle with each other and strengthen friendships.

D. A two-hour block could encourage families and individuals to study the Gospel more, rather than rely exclusively on the three-hour block (that would be my hope, anyway).

Thanks,

-Smac

i vote for plan C- that is a great idea!  It also goes well with the re-defined idea of "ministry" and would foster unity.

[mfbukowski]

5 hours ago, sunstoned said:

Two hours is a reasonable commitment in time and effort for lesson/instruction type activities.  As a college professor, I know I have to break up my 1:15 hour classes with some activities to keep attention spans from going south.

Wow

Times have changed.

[Scott Lloyd]

6 hours ago, smac97 said:

A few thoughts:

A. A two-hour block could either be structured to eliminate Sunday School altogether, or else alternate the second hour (one Sunday would have Sunday School, the next Sunday would have RS/Priesthood, and so on).  

B. A two-hour block could either increase the number of units meeting in a building.  This would probably only make sense in some parts of the "Mormon Corridor," as otherwise this proposal would likely increase drive times for units serving "outlying" areas.

C. As an alternative to item B, we could keep the number of units per building as-is, but encourage members to stay for what would have been the third hour to mingle with each other and strengthen friendships.

D. A two-hour block could encourage families and individuals to study the Gospel more, rather than rely exclusively on the three-hour block (that would be my hope, anyway).

Thanks,

-Smac

A ward I was previously in tried a “linger longer” after the meeting block. Bad idea! Kids were running around unsupervised. Pandemonium. Extremely irreverent and unseemly. It lasted one week. 

[The Nehor]

I have been hearing the two hour block rumor since a missionary at the MTC's friend's dad was a Seventy and it was imminent....back in 1998. I will believe it when I see it.

[rpn]

Many of the changes have been to address the whole world.    In small branches and places where the church is an oasis of goodness in a world of chaos and bad stuff, going to church is like fresh air that people crave.   And in places where all the materials are not available individually, lesson manuals and that discussion is pretty valuable.  I don't see cutting down the time at church is helpful for the places where the community of faith plays a critical role in surviving well in the rest of the week.

[Hamba Tuhan]

11 minutes ago, rpn said:

In small branches and places where the church is an oasis of goodness in a world of chaos and bad stuff, going to church is like fresh air that people crave.

This.

I think I shall never understand the propensity for some American Saints to crave less time spent together with fellow Saints, enjoying the strength of each other's company and discussing matters of eternal significance.

Edited July 4, 2018 by Hamba Tuhan

[Robert F. Smith]

16 hours ago, smac97 said:

.................

A. A two-hour block could either be structured to eliminate Sunday School altogether, or else alternate the second hour (one Sunday would have Sunday School, the next Sunday would have RS/Priesthood, and so on).  

B. A two-hour block could either increase the number of units meeting in a building.  This would probably only make sense in some parts of the "Mormon Corridor," as otherwise this proposal would likely increase drive times for units serving "outlying" areas.

C. As an alternative to item B, we could keep the number of units per building as-is, but encourage members to stay for what would have been the third hour to mingle with each other and strengthen friendships.

D. A two-hour block could encourage families and individuals to study the Gospel more, rather than rely exclusively on the three-hour block (that would be my hope, anyway).

...................

How about moving sunday school to Wednesday nites, so that the adults (members and investigators) could study the Gospel while the children do their activities (sports, cub scouts, boy scouts, young women, etc.).  The whole family, including nursery.

[Jeanne]

17 hours ago, Tacenda said:

I would much rather it be a Sunday School vs. RS/PH class.

I am surprised...why?  Just curious  as I haven't been to a SS class forever..not since Gospel Doctrine in 2007. 

[Scott Lloyd]

11 hours ago, mfbukowski said:

i vote for plan C- that is a great idea!  It also goes well with the re-defined idea of "ministry" and would foster unity.

If it doesn’t work any better than the “linger longer” I described above, I would want none of it. That was worse than the rowdiest ward party I ever attended, wholly inappropriate for the Sabbath. It was obvious that was why our bishopric never tried it again. 

[smac97]

10 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

How about moving sunday school to Wednesday nites, so that the adults (members and investigators) could study the Gospel while the children do their activities (sports, cub scouts, boy scouts, young women, etc.).  The whole family, including nursery.

I think that could create some logistical problems and added expenses for people who need to rely on public transportation, or who live far away from the church building, and so on.

[RevTestament]

20 hours ago, bluebell said:

I don’t want to give up SS altogether, but I do want it to be way different than it is now. 

What changes do you suggest? Please be specific. 

I have not really enjoyed SS for awhile now, except when we have had particularly good teachers. The material seems to be somewhat superficial, and doesn't engage me - probably because I am thinking been here, done that a couple of times. I also have not felt my comments are welcome. I am not saying that it would be much different in any other church either, but the Church seems to shut down any thinking about a topic - or suggestions outside the lesson material anyway. 

[Tacenda]

7 hours ago, Jeanne said:

I am surprised...why?  Just curious  as I haven't been to a SS class forever..not since Gospel Doctrine in 2007. 

It was torture sometimes, not feeling like I am good enough, having some lessons that made me feel guilt. Haven't you heard of others that hate RS for those reasons? And the last ward I was in, I literally felt like a loner in there. Women can be pretty catty sometimes. Or maybe I was a doubt germ because of my inactivity, or I was too use to being in Primary. But even in my TBM days, it was difficult at times. 

[Robert F. Smith]

8 hours ago, smac97 said:

I think that could create some logistical problems and added expenses for people who need to rely on public transportation, or who live far away from the church building, and so on.

Yes, some of the very reasons we went to the 3-hour block.

[carbon dioxide]

They could easily cut 30 minutes off.  Reduce Sacrament meeting by 20 minutes and cut the others by 5 minutes. 

[jpv]

10 minutes ago, carbon dioxide said:

They could easily cut 30 minutes off.  Reduce Sacrament meeting by 20 minutes and cut the others by 5 minutes. 

Could easily do 2 hrs by removing the fluff.

Takes 30 min from SS closing prayer to the start of the lesson in PH/RS.

[clarkgoble]

On 7/3/2018 at 6:43 PM, Hamba Tuhan said:

As pogi himself stated, it's probably just a rumour. 

They did test runs up in Tremonton and a few other areas about 8 years ago. I haven't heard the results but presumably it was deemed to have more negatives than positives. Certainly that's what I'd expect. People are surprisingly ignorant as is. Losing Sunday School would probably mean the typical member never reads their scriptures.

That said I do think a serious rethink of meetings is in order - particularly our overly long Sacrament services.

Edited July 5, 2018 by clarkgoble

[Jeanne]

14 hours ago, Tacenda said:

It was torture sometimes, not feeling like I am good enough, having some lessons that made me feel guilt. Haven't you heard of others that hate RS for those reasons? And the last ward I was in, I literally felt like a loner in there. Women can be pretty catty sometimes. Or maybe I was a doubt germ because of my inactivity, or I was too use to being in Primary. But even in my TBM days, it was difficult at times. 

I hear you...thank you and yes, I understand...sometimes it is cliquish in RS.  My mom hated it...especially homemaking night and stuff.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Jeanne

[HappyJackWagon]

12 hours ago, jpv said:

Could easily do 2 hrs by removing the fluff.

Takes 30 min from SS closing prayer to the start of the lesson in PH/RS.

Seriously, opening exercises for PH are torturous. Such a massive waste of time. Ours are consistently 30 minutes long, sometimes longer. Leaves about 20-25 minutes for class.

Cut out opening exercises and we're half-way there.

[bluebell]

19 hours ago, RevTestament said:

What changes do you suggest? Please be specific. 

I have not really enjoyed SS for awhile now, except when we have had particularly good teachers. The material seems to be somewhat superficial, and doesn't engage me - probably because I am thinking been here, done that a couple of times. I also have not felt my comments are welcome. I am not saying that it would be much different in any other church either, but the Church seems to shut down any thinking about a topic - or suggestions outside the lesson material anyway. 

I don't have any specifics, but I would like SS to be more like seminary and institute, where we can learn more about the context of scriptures, bible archeology, Hebrew and Greek translations, church history, etc.  I recognize that it would be hard to make it work with lay-teachers.

[bluebell]

24 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Seriously, opening exercises for PH are torturous. Such a massive waste of time. Ours are consistently 30 minutes long, sometimes longer. Leaves about 20-25 minutes for class.

Cut out opening exercises and we're half-way there.

What takes so long?  It's just supposed to be an opening prayer, song, and announcements, right?  

[Scott Lloyd]

25 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Seriously, opening exercises for PH are torturous. Such a massive waste of time. Ours are consistently 30 minutes long, sometimes longer. Leaves about 20-25 minutes for class.

Cut out opening exercises and we're half-way there.

That strikes me as uncommonly excessive. It may be a unique problem with your ward leadership. 

[Steve-o]

Maybe it's wrong, but I can't help but feel excited for the possibility of 2 hour church. What a delight that would be.

[Maestrophil]

Why not alternate weeks for SS and PH/RS?  

[HappyJackWagon]

3 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

That strikes me as uncommonly excessive. It may be a unique problem with your ward leadership. 

Quote

Bluebell- What takes so long?  It's just supposed to be an opening prayer, song, and announcements, right?  

I agree. It is excessive. Hopefully it's uncommon.

It is Sooooo painfully long. And I promise I'm not exaggerating. I've taken to leaving church after Sunday school, getting an ice cream cone and chicken nuggets from McDonalds. Eating in my car. I take my time returning but still hear a number of announcements.

Why does it take so long? It's an open mic. Everyone who wants to say anything about anything stands up and talks. We usually have 5-10 minutes worth of "missionary moments" which usually start something like this..."This isn't exactly a missionary moment, but..."

Every quorum president stands to share what they did last week and what they will do next week. It's basically business time for every quorum and auxiliary. Add to that an opening and closing hymn (All verses are required- quirk of the bishop).

[pogi]

3 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

I've taken to leaving church after Sunday school, getting an ice cream cone and chicken nuggets from McDonalds. Eating in my car. 

You McDevil, you!