Speculations for General Conference

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, smac97 said:

I think you misunderstood me.  I think youth meetings are very important.  So a 2-hour schedule could go like this:

• Week 1: Fast & Testimony Meeting + RS/EQ/YM/YW
• Week 2: Sacrament Meeting + Sunday School
• Week 3: Sacrament Meeting + RS/EQ/YM/YW
• Week 4: Sacrament Meeting + Sunday School
• Week 5: Sacrament Meeting + RS/EQ/YM/YW

Or am I misunderstanding you?

Thanks,

-Smac

Ok, I thought you meant only holding YM/YW on 5th Sundays.

[rockpond]

I totally agree with @smac97 on his 2-hour schedule thoughts.  Our ward frequently uses 5th Sundays as an excuse to bring all available adults into a single meeting to discuss something of importance to the bishopric and/or ward council.  Sometimes the youth are invited as well.

Here's another thing:  The Come Follow Me youth Sunday School manuals and the Come Follow Me Aaronic Priesthood manuals track VERY closely to one another.  As much as I love these new manuals (I really do) and all the real-time updates they've been doing (assuming you use the online version), it's been a little bit of a frustration to me to have sometimes have the young men I teach make comments about how they "just talked about this" in Sunday School the previous hour.  I think that a weekly rotation between SS and PH/RS makes a lot of sense.

The one downside I see is with respect to quorum communication... not being in a room together each week makes it a bit more challenging.  But, that's something I'm happy to work around.  Maybe we reduce Sacrament Meeting to 60 minutes and add a 10-minute "ward business" meeting right after.  A 10 minute break would then leave 40 minutes in class/quorum.

[ksfisher]

I'm not sure why people are so down on the 3 hour block.  Is 3 hours out of the week really too much?  Would people do anything meaningful with that hour?

I'm reminded of this scripture:

"And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls." (Moroni 6:5)

Do we not want to be together?  Are we saying we can stand each other for two hours but three is too much?

Edited September 6, 2018 by ksfisher

[ksfisher]

5 minutes ago, rockpond said:

Here's another thing:  The Come Follow Me youth Sunday School manuals and the Come Follow Me Aaronic Priesthood manuals track VERY closely to one another. 

 

6 minutes ago, rockpond said:

t's been a little bit of a frustration to me to have sometimes have the young men I teach make comments about how they "just talked about this" in Sunday School the previous hour.

I believe this will change next year.

[smac97]

Just now, ksfisher said:

I'm not sure why people are so down on the 3 hour block.  Is 3 hours out of the week really too much?  Would people do anything meaningful with that hour?

I'm fine with the three-hour block, but I would also be fine with a 2-hour schedule.  The extra hour could be spent talking in the church building, visiting people in their homes, getting additional meetings out of the way, doing personal or family study, etc.

Thanks,

-Smac

[rockpond]

2 minutes ago, ksfisher said:

I'm not sure why people are so down on the 3 hour block.  Is 3 hours out of the week really too much?  Would people do anything meaningful with that hour?

If it was just a 3 hour block, I'd be fine with that.  But I am normally in 5 to 8 hours of meetings each Sunday.  I'd like a bit more time at home with my family.

[ksfisher]

6 minutes ago, smac97 said:

I'm fine with the three-hour block, but I would also be fine with a 2-hour schedule.  The extra hour could be spent talking in the church building, visiting people in their homes, getting additional meetings out of the way, doing personal or family study, etc.

Thanks,

-Smac

It could be used for that, but would it?  I doubt that the people who are in most need of hearing the gospel message and feeling the Spirit which is present when "two or three are gathered together in my name" would put that hour to the use intended.  Perhaps I'm just a pessimist.

[SouthernMo]

How mad would people here be if church services were expanded to a four-hour block with some kind of ‘ministering hour’ packed in.

Not saying it’s likely, just observing how close three hours is to a ‘threshold of frustration.’  We need to be carful that church attendance does not become our religion.

[bluebell]

30 minutes ago, rockpond said:

Here's another thing:  The Come Follow Me youth Sunday School manuals and the Come Follow Me Aaronic Priesthood manuals track VERY closely to one another.  As much as I love these new manuals (I really do) and all the real-time updates they've been doing (assuming you use the online version), it's been a little bit of a frustration to me to have sometimes have the young men I teach make comments about how they "just talked about this" in Sunday School the previous hour.  I think that a weekly rotation between SS and PH/RS makes a lot of sense.

This is true and I agree, it's annoying.  It's also a little annoying that the lessons don't really change (though the conference addresses that go with them do).

[bluebell]

25 minutes ago, ksfisher said:

I'm not sure why people are so down on the 3 hour block.  Is 3 hours out of the week really too much?  Would people do anything meaningful with that hour?

I'm reminded of this scripture:

"And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls." (Moroni 6:5)

Do we not want to be together?  Are we saying we can stand each other for two hours but three is too much?

I don't mind the three hour block, I just don't find that I get anything out of Sunday school as it now stands (which seems to be a common theme-with good Sunday school classes being the minority), and that I'd rather have shorter more meaningful experiences at church if that would help.

[bluebell]

24 minutes ago, smac97 said:

I'm fine with the three-hour block, but I would also be fine with a 2-hour schedule.  The extra hour could be spent talking in the church building, visiting people in their homes, getting additional meetings out of the way, doing personal or family study, etc.

Thanks,

-Smac

This is true too.  I already spend 4-5 hours at the church building three Sundays a month due to meetings before and after church.  If there is a way to cut that down by an hour but still get the same benefit, I could get behind that.

[smac97]

11 minutes ago, ksfisher said:

It could be used for that, but would it? 

Honestly?  Yes.  Quite a bit.  Some wouldn't, of course.  But some would.

11 minutes ago, ksfisher said:

I doubt that the people who are in most need of hearing the gospel message and feeling the Spirit which is present when "two or three are gathered together in my name" would put that hour to the use intended.  Perhaps I'm just a pessimist.

We could give them the option and see.

Of course, I will defer to the Brethren on this decision.  

Thanks,

-Smac

[The Nehor]

2 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I don't mind the three hour block, I just don't find that I get anything out of Sunday school as it now stands (which seems to be a common theme-with good Sunday school classes being the minority), and that I'd rather have shorter more meaningful experiences at church if that would help.

Come to my ward. I taught Sunday School on Sunday. We discussed God and Satan’s “bar bet” over Job. I think I weirded some of the class out with that characterization but it led to some good discussion.

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

Come to my ward. I taught Sunday School on Sunday. We discussed God and Satan’s “bar bet” over Job. I think I weirded some of the class out with that characterization but it led to some good discussion.

It sounds very interesting!  Our Sunday school program is struggling right now.  Our Teaching in the Savior's way class is amazing, but the other Sundays with Gospel Doctrine are torture (part of it is the set up in our church which makes it difficult to get a good discussion really going).  

[smac97]

Just now, bluebell said:

This is true too.  I already spend 4-5 hours at the church building three Sundays a month due to meetings before and after church.  If there is a way to cut that down by an hour but still get the same benefit, I could get behind that.

Yep.  I think of all the good people who have leadership callings at the ward level who spend considerably more than three hours on Sundays.  And I think of their families.

Our ward's bishop has been in the bishopric for more than 8 years now (3+ as a counselor, and 5 as a bishop).  And before that he was on the High Council, and so was gone most Sundays on visits to other wards.  Last December he sat in the audience during the Primary's Christmas Program.  His 11-year old daughter, who was excused from the Primary Program for the first time, looked up at him and said "Weird, Dad!  This is the first time I remember sitting next to you in Church!"

The bishopric also has 1-2 hours of meetings before the block, and the bishop also usually has several hours of meetings after.  One less hour might not mean much to other people, but I suspect it would mean a lot to the bishop and other leaders (and their families) who spend much of their Sundays in meetings and such.  

Thanks,

-Smac

[Doctrine 612]

7 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

Is a ward missionary the same as Ward Mission leader? 

Yes and a bit more.

 

they serve as a ward missionary and as a leader to help guide the work in the ward.

[rockpond]

3 minutes ago, bluebell said:

It sounds very interesting!  Our Sunday school program is struggling right now.  Our Teaching in the Savior's way class is amazing, but the other Sundays with Gospel Doctrine are torture (part of it is the set up in our church which makes it difficult to get a good discussion really going).  

Our Gospel Doctrine class had to move into the chapel because it's the only room we can all fit in.  Unfortunately, the chapel is a difficult place to facilitate good discussions.  And, I'm not sure what we will do in four months when we move to the 9am time slot and won't have the chapel available.  We don't have any available rooms to add another class.

If the 2-hour block rumors are true... I have to wonder if one reason for the change is to help with a shortage of building space.

[Calm]

We have four wards in our building, next year we will start at 8:30 unless there is a change.  Some chapels around here may move to five if the building keeps going.  We have had wards not in our stake sharing buildings.

But it seems strange to alter the world based on purely Utah's needs.  More likely to just have shorter hours for the buildings that need it like they have done in the past (former ward had 6 including a student branch meeting at a stake building, while renovating our old ward ( which had four including the student ward iirc, but it might have been three).

Edited September 6, 2018 by Calm

[bluebell]

3 minutes ago, rockpond said:

Our Gospel Doctrine class had to move into the chapel because it's the only room we can all fit in.  Unfortunately, the chapel is a difficult place to facilitate good discussions.  And, I'm not sure what we will do in four months when we move to the 9am time slot and won't have the chapel available.  We don't have any available rooms to add another class.

If the 2-hour block rumors are true... I have to wonder if one reason for the change is to help with a shortage of building space.

Gospel Doctrine classes in the chapel are so hard.  

[Doctrine 612]

Why would you want to have two hour church, what are you going to do, it’s the sabbath a day to learn about the Lord, pray, meditate etc..

i for one would love a 4 hour 

 

[SouthernMo]

5 minutes ago, Doctrine 612 said:

Why would you want to have two hour church, what are you going to do, it’s the sabbath a day to learn about the Lord, pray, meditate etc..

i for one would love a 4 hour 

 

Would you ever max out?  How do you balance your time (in this hypothetical) between group and personal worship?

Would you appreciate a 5-hour block?  6? 8? ...

[rockpond]

9 minutes ago, Doctrine 612 said:

Why would you want to have two hour church, what are you going to do, it’s the sabbath a day to learn about the Lord, pray, meditate etc..

i for one would love a 4 hour 

 

I would bet that there are opportunities for you to add to your Sabbath experience:

Do you have a ward choir you could join?

Our Stake has Sunday evening classes that they are always encouraging people to attend. 

You could ask a bishopric member if there are committees you could serve on. 

Help the missionaries?

Offer to teach a Bible study class in a local assisted living home for those who aren’t able to get to church services. 

Just throwing out ideas.

[rockpond]

13 minutes ago, Calm said:

We have four wards in our building, next year we will start at 8:30 unless there is a change.  Some chapels around here may move to five if the building keeps going.  We have had wards not in our stake sharing buildings.

But it seems strange to alter the world based on purely Utah's needs.  More likely to just have shorter hours for the buildings that need it like they have done in the past (former ward had 6 including a student branch meeting at a stake building, while renovating our old ward ( which had four including the student ward iirc, but it might have been three).

I’m not in Utah and we are suffering from a building shortage.  Demographics in our city have shifted which means that many members are now driving to buildings outside of their stake to attend church.  That’s fine... I haven’t heard anyone complain (not seriously, at least), but it hasn’t fully solved the problem of not enough space for our current meeting schedule. 

[Calm]

12 minutes ago, rockpond said:

I’m not in Utah and we are suffering from a building shortage.  Demographics in our city have shifted which means that many members are now driving to buildings outside of their stake to attend church.  That’s fine... I haven’t heard anyone complain (not seriously, at least), but it hasn’t fully solved the problem of not enough space for our current meeting schedule. 

Good to know.  I have lived in places it took longer than an hour to get to church with two wards sharing it, but even in my teens in California we managed to live even closer to our chapel than we do now and I walked home from church on occasion when living in Canada, it took about 20 minutes.  So I may not as easily see wards sharing buildings when stakes cover more than a couple of neighbourhoods.  The most crowded building I was in was in Canada and our ward there has to change boundaries as it shrunk a great deal because members were moving to the outskirts of the city for cheaper housing.  Even when we were there it was mainly student housing and members who had living in their homes for decades already.  I can imagine they have the same problem in that stake we have here in our corner of Utah Valley as they were discussing shifts before we moved.

I wonder how many LDS dense areas there these days are outside the Mormon corridor.  Seems like it would be easier to find more active areas when moving these days with all the social media so that can be taken into account, put higher on the list of desired attributes of a new home perhaps.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Calm

[HappyJackWagon]

35 minutes ago, Calm said:

We have four wards in our building, next year we will start at 8:30 unless there is a change.  Some chapels around here may move to five if the building keeps going.  We have had wards not in our stake sharing buildings.

But it seems strange to alter the world based on purely Utah's needs.  More likely to just have shorter hours for the buildings that need it like they have done in the past (former ward had 6 including a student branch meeting at a stake building, while renovating our old ward ( which had four including the student ward iirc, but it might have been three).

I love the 8:30 or 9:00 time slots. I'd prefer it over any of the afternoon times. Afternoon is the WORST. Except for maybe the rare evening slot.