One Hour Church

[JVW]

My wife has been reading rumors of some Stakes in America piloting 1 hour church. So far it's all been "I heard someone who knows someone who is in this ward that is part of the pilot program". There's been a few different options being talked about as currently being piloted. States rumored to have participating pilot Stakes so far are: Idaho, Utah, New Mexico.

- 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 1 hour sacrament meeting, then on every other week 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 20 minute sacrament meeting then 45 minutes Sunday School followed by 45 minutes EQ/RS (total of two hours with this pilot)

Again, all of this is rumors so far "sister-in-law knows someone who..." but have any of y'all heard anything about this? What do you think about if this was actually happening? Do you think one hour church would be awesome or not?

[InCognitus]

8 minutes ago, JVW said:

What do you think about if this was actually happening?

It is happening..... on Easter and Christmas  

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/easter-and-sundays-near-christmas-limited-to-sacrament-meeting

[Duncan]

i'd imagine with some wards it takes 20 minutes, or more, to pass the sacrament

[JVW]

1 hour ago, Duncan said:

i'd imagine with some wards it takes 20 minutes, or more, to pass the sacrament

If church was one hours the wards would be smaller, they could easily have 5 wards per building.

[JVW]

My sister-in-law reached out to an area 70 over New Mexico and he hasn't heard anything but said that it could be possible.

[Rain]

53 minutes ago, JVW said:

If church was one hours the wards would be smaller, they could easily have 5 wards per building.

Yes. I visited one church building in San Diego that had 6 wards when church was 3 hours.  They actually cut it to 2 hours and 45 min to get them all in, but if they can do that 5 and 1 hour is doable.

 

[JAHS]

[sunstoned]

I understand the motivation to streamline meetings and to cut down on non-essentials, but I doubt one hour would give enough time to cover the sacrament and basic lessons.

[Devobah]

2 hours ago, JVW said:

My wife has been reading rumors of some Stakes in America piloting 1 hour church. So far it's all been "I heard someone who knows someone who is in this ward that is part of the pilot program". There's been a few different options being talked about as currently being piloted. States rumored to have participating pilot Stakes so far are: Idaho, Utah, New Mexico.

- 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 1 hour sacrament meeting, then on every other week 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 20 minute sacrament meeting then 45 minutes Sunday School followed by 45 minutes EQ/RS (total of two hours with this pilot)

Again, all of this is rumors so far "sister-in-law knows someone who..." but have any of y'all heard anything about this? What do you think about if this was actually happening? Do you think one hour church would be awesome or not?

It hasn’t even been a decade since we cut down to 2 hour church. Seeing as it takes nearly 20 minutes just to get through the sacrament portion of sacrament meeting I’m skeptical. I like my two hour church. it makes the most sense to me. Most other churches have a Bible study with their Sunday service, and those are closer to an hour and a half rather than just an hour. 
So really my reaction to this would be 🤷‍♂️

[Devobah]

45 minutes ago, Rain said:

Yes. I visited one church building in San Diego that had 6 wards when church was 3 hours.  They actually cut it to 2 hours and 45 min to get them all in, but if they can do that 5 and 1 hour is doable.

 

Really? SIX WARDS in one building! I know normally there’s some overlap between wards, but that seems a bit excessive. Do you happen to know if this was a temporary thing or if there was a building being worked on? Even in South Southern Utah Mesa Arizona the most I’ve seen is maybe 3 wards sharing one building. I get it’s a bit apples to oranges based on membership but still. 

[Rain]

2 hours ago, Devobah said:

Really? SIX WARDS in one building! I know normally there’s some overlap between wards, but that seems a bit excessive. Do you happen to know if this was a temporary thing or if there was a building being worked on? Even in South Southern Utah Mesa Arizona the most I’ve seen is maybe 3 wards sharing one building. I get it’s a bit apples to oranges based on membership but still. 

I don't know.  I just remarked to someone that we were getting out really early and then they told me why.  

We did have 4 wards meeting at one of our stake buildings in Utah.  I don't remember the situation, but the ward was in a different stake and they met in a building across the street. It was going to be out of commision for awile So the other ward or two met in building in that stake and this ward came to our stake. I think it was for about a year.

[Dario_M]

I've never heard about this. Is it not so that on sunday it's normaly 1 hour church service and after that 1 hour lessions in the US? And that the men and woman get seperated in the second hour. 

[Calm]

1 hour ago, Rain said:

I don't know.  I just remarked to someone that we were getting out really early and then they told me why.  

We did have 4 wards meeting at one of our stake buildings in Utah.  I don't remember the situation, but the ward was in a different stake and they met in a building across the street. It was going to be out of commision for awile So the other ward or two met in building in that stake and this ward came to our stake. I think it was for about a year.

In Canada we had five congregations, but one was a student branch. We were renovating our chapel.  Met in the stake building which was quite large. 

[bluebell]

11 hours ago, JVW said:

If church was one hours the wards would be smaller, they could easily have 5 wards per building.

But they'd still need enough people to fill callings and do the service required to take care of the members, and that would restrict how small a ward could be.  More wards means more bishoprics, Relief Society presidencies, primary presidencies, teachers, Elder's Quorum presidencies, etc. in the stake.  And then all the callings under those leadership callings to keep those organizations running.

[CV75]

12 hours ago, JVW said:

My wife has been reading rumors of some Stakes in America piloting 1 hour church. So far it's all been "I heard someone who knows someone who is in this ward that is part of the pilot program". There's been a few different options being talked about as currently being piloted. States rumored to have participating pilot Stakes so far are: Idaho, Utah, New Mexico.

- 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 1 hour sacrament meeting, then on every other week 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 20 minute sacrament meeting then 45 minutes Sunday School followed by 45 minutes EQ/RS (total of two hours with this pilot)

Again, all of this is rumors so far "sister-in-law knows someone who..." but have any of y'all heard anything about this? What do you think about if this was actually happening? Do you think one hour church would be awesome or not?

So with a daylight savings time change, there would be no church?

[JVW]

9 minutes ago, bluebell said:

But they'd still need enough people to fill callings and do the service required to take care of the members, and that would restrict how small a ward could be.  More wards means more bishoprics, Relief Society presidencies, primary presidencies, teachers, Elder's Quorum presidencies, etc. in the stake.  And then all the callings under those leadership callings to keep those organizations running.

If they tried to keep all of the organizations meeting each week in that timespan then there would definitely be some constraints on minimum size, but there would probably be less callings if the time was changed to an hour. Also, if it takes more than 20 minutes to bless and pass the sacrament then the ward is easily over 600 people and cutting it in half wouldn't be felt as far as callings are concerned.

Personally I think that wards should be as small as possible. I'm sure if people did research they could discover what the optimal ward size is. If wards are too small there's not enough people to serve, if they are too big nobody feels like they need to serve. As far as missionary efforts go I think that the smaller the ward the more people in the ward feel like they need to do missionary work. My experience in small town Texas was markedly different than living in a metropolitan area with a ward 4x the size.

[mburgess1982]

I have heard rumors about this on Facebook groups, but haven't actually spoken to somebody in one of these wards. The thought that comes to my mind when talking about this though is that in the Book of Mormon right before Christ comes to the Nephites the Church is broken up

3 Nephi 6:14

14 And thus there became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up; yea, insomuch that in the thirtieth year the church was broken up in all the land save it were among a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Then right before the Nephites are destroyed the Lord tells Mormon in Mormon 3:2-3 to get the people to build up his Church again and be spared and yet they wont

2 And it came to pass that the Lord did say unto me: Cry unto this people—Repent ye, and come unto me, and be ye baptized, and build up again my church, and ye shall be spared.

3 And I did cry unto this people, but it was in vain

Just a thought but since the Book of Mormon was written as a warning for our day I would almost expect the Church Leadership to be preparing us for something like this in the future. Gradually moving towards more home centered study for a very specific reason

[bluebell]

17 minutes ago, JVW said:

If they tried to keep all of the organizations meeting each week in that timespan then there would definitely be some constraints on minimum size, but there would probably be less callings if the time was changed to an hour. Also, if it takes more than 20 minutes to bless and pass the sacrament then the ward is easily over 600 people and cutting it in half wouldn't be felt as far as callings are concerned.

Personally I think that wards should be as small as possible. I'm sure if people did research they could discover what the optimal ward size is. If wards are too small there's not enough people to serve, if they are too big nobody feels like they need to serve. As far as missionary efforts go I think that the smaller the ward the more people in the ward feel like they need to do missionary work. My experience in small town Texas was markedly different than living in a metropolitan area with a ward 4x the size.

Ward size is tricky.  Small wards often mean hardly any youth for activities and that can really be a downer for the few kids attending.  Too big makes things to unwieldy.  I've been in both very small wards (and one branch) and very large wards with 400+ attending every sunday.  The large ward seemed to be much better as far as community went (though it was harder on leadership).  After it was split, and the ward became very small (sometimes only 75 people attending on a sunday), it lost a lot of it's personality and ability to meet needs.  Socialization between members fell dramatically and the youth program became very very hard to manage.

It's a fine line I guess.

[smac97]

23 hours ago, JVW said:

My wife has been reading rumors of some Stakes in America piloting 1 hour church. So far it's all been "I heard someone who knows someone who is in this ward that is part of the pilot program". There's been a few different options being talked about as currently being piloted. States rumored to have participating pilot Stakes so far are: Idaho, Utah, New Mexico.

- 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 1 hour sacrament meeting, then on every other week 20 minute sacrament meeting + 40 minute 'class' time.
- 20 minute sacrament meeting then 45 minutes Sunday School followed by 45 minutes EQ/RS (total of two hours with this pilot)

Again, all of this is rumors so far "sister-in-law knows someone who..." but have any of y'all heard anything about this? What do you think about if this was actually happening? Do you think one hour church would be awesome or not?

I had some experience with a 1-hour service.  I was in Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in August-September of 1991.  I was allowed to attend services, but they were only one hour.  There were 2-3 senior couples who conducted the services.  We had an abbreviated Sacrament Meeting of 30-35 minutes, followed by about 20-25 minutes of just talking and decompressing with the senior couples, who were very kind and encouraging to us.  This was only possible because the number of attendees was small (25-30 trainees).  We had a welcome from the brother presiding at the meeting, and opening hymn and prayer, then the Sacrament hymn, then the Sacrament, then one talk, then a closing hymn and closing prayer.  

These meetings were important to me, as I was 17 at the time and was pretty lonely, scared, etc.  It was the first time I had ever wanted to stay longer in church.  Looking back, the experience was an important one for the development of my faith, but I would not want such an abbreviated service to be replicated now.  Two hours seems to be working quite well.

Thanks,

-Smac

Edited October 29, 2024 by smac97

[MustardSeed]

17 minutes ago, smac97 said:

Looking back, the experience was an important one for the development of my faith, but I would not want such an abbreviated service to be replicated now.  Two hours seems to be working quite well.

Agreed 

[Nofear]

A bunch that I've been assigned to visit often has sacrament meetings that don't go the full hour. With attendance ranging from 8-30, at least the past two weeks, they only have one speaker during the meeting. With a short sacrament, they don't have their one speaker go on for 45 minutes. Their second hour meeting would usually be a bit over one hour though.

[JVW]

2 hours ago, bluebell said:

Ward size is tricky.  Small wards often mean hardly any youth for activities and that can really be a downer for the few kids attending.  Too big makes things to unwieldy.  I've been in both very small wards (and one branch) and very large wards with 400+ attending every sunday.  The large ward seemed to be much better as far as community went (though it was harder on leadership).  After it was split, and the ward became very small (sometimes only 75 people attending on a sunday), it lost a lot of it's personality and ability to meet needs.  Socialization between members fell dramatically and the youth program became very very hard to manage.

It's a fine line I guess.

My wife is one of the people that dislikes two hour church and wishes it was still 3, and she also doesn't like the direction the youth program and primary program has been going. Over time the church supporting community socialization has been steadily declining. When we pulled out of Boy Scouts we didn't replace it, now EQ and RS don't even meet weekly anymore and there are far less activities and events on ward calendars. If the church gets any shorter there will be little to no socialization going on. I imagine by every metric the church would lose out if they switched to one hour church. Less tithing received, less activity rates, less ministering, etc. So I can't see any good reason why they would consider reducing the time to an hour unless there's something the prophet can see coming down the road that we can't. But I can't imagine what would be coming down the road that would require one hour church now. Again, this is all rumors, no idea if it's really happening.

[MiserereNobis]

The sung/high Mass I attend lasts about 1 hour 15 minutes, which includes a homily of about 15 minutes. The rest is the ritual. Religious education is offered separately and often on weekdays.

In many ways, the Mass itself is a type of religious education, as every action and symbol teaches.

The few times I have attended LDS church (it was the 3 hour block then), I was very struck by how much overt teaching is going on, from speakers to lessons to discussions. Y'all like to talk  (and shake hands! Holy cow! Did the pandemic affect that custom at all?)

[bluebell]

11 minutes ago, JVW said:

My wife is one of the people that dislikes two hour church and wishes it was still 3, and she also doesn't like the direction the youth program and primary program has been going. Over time the church supporting community socialization has been steadily declining. When we pulled out of Boy Scouts we didn't replace it, now EQ and RS don't even meet weekly anymore and there are far less activities and events on ward calendars. If the church gets any shorter there will be little to no socialization going on. I imagine by every metric the church would lose out if they switched to one hour church. Less tithing received, less activity rates, less ministering, etc. So I can't see any good reason why they would consider reducing the time to an hour unless there's something the prophet can see coming down the road that we can't. But I can't imagine what would be coming down the road that would require one hour church now. Again, this is all rumors, no idea if it's really happening.

I agree with you.  I can't see how it would be a benefit to anyone or the church as a whole.

[2BizE]

Are there any doctrinal requirements to have sacrament meeting on a weekly basis? Could church rotate between sacrament meeting and Sunday school for 1 hour each week?