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Hi. Amazingly, it just so happened that I didn’t have a calling (besides visiting teaching) for a while…during my perspective change. I just got called to a councelor which I’m guessing I’ll be teaching occasionally. This is the 1st time since my beliefs have changed. He really put me on the spot, in front of all of my family, but I’ve also been missing serving, so I accepted, but I don’t know what I got myself into. I often pray to be an instrument in God’s hands & I’ve prayed about this & I feel good, but I know it’s not just about feelings. Please pray for me & if you have any advice, I’d like to hear it. I feel so lost. I don’t know where I belong anymore…not spiritual new age nut, nor am I Molly Mormon, nor am I Rebel Rina. I believe strongly in what Jesus taught – to love God & others, as ourselves…& hopefully I can teach that & keep it simple…is that possible?
I certainly can empathize with you. I’m in the position where I can no longer just sit back and “say nothing”. There is no one left in the branch to take the callings. My dilemma is I’m very concerned about saying something that will damage someone else’s faith. I have NO desire to do so, yet, how can I continue to “teach” and “preach” the concepts that I was taught, when I no longer believe in them? There is a line where what I BELIEVE crosses what is “acceptable” to be talked about in church — and to be honest, it scares me, especially since I don’t even know exactly where that line is.
This might sound trite at first, but my advice is to pray about and try to focus on the fundamental principle at the core of each lesson you need to teach. Use the manual / lesson / talk / whatever as a springboard, but lead a discussion – and be very open about your willingness and desire to hear various perspectives. Funny, I was actually going to post on this – how to teach in church when your ideas have shifted and are no longer 100% in-line with all doctrine. I have two teaching callings in my ward, RS and GD (I have no idea how I got so lucky…) which has caused some difficulty when I have a lesson where I don’t agree with everything in the manual. I like what Ray said about getting to the core principle in each lesson and then leading a discussion. That’s pretty much what I try to do, and if there’s a section of the manual I don’t agree with or don’t feel comfortable teaching, I omit it. Eg) one of the GD lessons earlier this year had a huge section on how we shouldn’t date non-members, and I cut the entire section out. It made for a disjointed lesson, but I would have been a) a giant hypocrite b) lying and c) lacking integrity if I’d taught as outlined in the manual. Go with your gut, and if something is too difficult to teach, gracefully delegate! Your approach also seems really humble, and I find that inspiring. Thanks for your encouragment. It makes me even more grateful for this forum! Some things will always be true like loving God and loving your neighbor. Stick with that and don’t sweat the small stuff and you’ll be fine. I think there are 2 opportunities: 1) For yourself, be honest and do as GB said to focus on the things you do agree with, which you stated:
Featherina wrote:I believe strongly in what Jesus taught – to love God & others, as ourselves…& hopefully I can teach that & keep it simple…is that possible?
Not only do I think that is possible, I think that is critical and is likely why you have been called to serve in that position…because you possess this attribute.
2) Use your experience and learning from being someone who doubts/seeks/questions things to reach out to others who may also feel that same way and feel so alone in their thoughts. How refreshing it could be for someone else if you are able to touch others and tell them (with some filtered or guarded judgment) that you have those thoughts, and yet you still feel like you can stayLDS, as explained in point#1 above. You may have a great opportunity to serve someone else and keep them pursuing love and Christ in their lives that others may not be able to have the unique perspective to do it.
Keep us posted…it would be good to see what you experience through this.
Featherina, you are going to be awesome, seriously! The most interesting and spiritually engaging teachers are the ones that actually think about the lessons instead of simply parroting the manual text. You will be a blessing to the people in your classes. Here are some tips that I figured out over time, teaching lessons as an unorthodox believer:
1. Use the manual as a springboard for class discussions, cut or add as necessary. There is really nothing wrong with this. In fact, the new RS/PH manual is so sparse, you MUST add your own material. You can’t even read through it all out loud and fill the time. The Church curriculum producers know this and must have planned it that way on purpose.
2. Always stay positive, even if presenting something challenging or slightly controversial.
3. Allow in your heart (and in your classroom) for others to find solutions to challenging ideas. You don’t have to like or accept their answers, but happily let people come up with them. In essence, throw them a problem and let them “win.” Of course jump in when some says something inflammatory or un-christlike, but it’s OK if people talk about their traditional and orthodox answers to problems. You challenge this way without being threatening, and it opens up great class discussions.
I get great class discussions going by saying “This is a challenging thought, but I am going to throw it out there to talk about. What do you think about this _______________ [different perspective]. Why do you think that works or doesn’t work?” This is just one of many ways to get more viewpoints involved, and to get people talking and thinking, without proclaiming your attachment to unorthodox ideas (you just said it without challenging the system, and let people resolve it their own way).
4. Religion and religious thinking is more about the process of struggling with paradox and contradiction than finding the correct answer. It’s the mental and emotional stretching that produces the results, not the event of finding the answer. Keeping that perspective as a teacher helps me a lot.
Thanks for your encouragment & support. It means a lot to me. You all gave some good ideas that I’ll keep in mind. I love to teach (I think it’s in my blood) so it makes sense to be positive about comments, even if I don’t agree. I think I just need to let go of the need to make others think as I do right now. I need to give room (& a lot of it) for others to learn at their own stage & pace. They don’t have to know everything right now – infact, it would be too much. I’m learning “line upon line” too. I also need to remember to not get offended & that love, apathy or rudeness other express to me is not because I deserve it but it’s where they’re coming from at that moment. Featherina wrote:I also need to remember to not get offended & that love, apathy or rudeness other express to me is not because I deserve it but it’s where they’re coming from at that moment.
BINGO! All those negative emotions tell you about the person expressing them, not about you.
I’m also a teacher of adults in the Church. And yes, I run into lesson topics that I don’t fully accept, or have little testimony of, but just do out of duty. I’m also a full-time teacher of adults. So I know that if I’m not excited about the topic, this will make for a dull lesson for the class members. For these topics, I often ask someone to take the lesson for me and get a Sunday off from teaching. Or, just skip that particular lesson and save it for a time when its convenient for my family to go away for the weekend.
Alternatively, I’ve been known to make up a list of questions that need to be answered about the topic, with scriptures and page numbers from the manual as references. Put these on paper and have one set of printed questions for each member of the class. Then, put everyone in small groups, making sure a seasoned member of the Church is in each group, and let them work through the questions. Also, at the end of the questions, put a question where you encourage the groups to share experiences about the topic that were personal or meaningful, with their group.
At the end, ask each group to share one key point they learned from the exercise to bring some closure.
That way you don’t have to share your opinions, and let the group members teach each other. It also breaks up the delivery of the class from week to week, makes it more interesting, and gives more people a chance to speak.
SilentDawning – Those are great ideas! Thanks! 
So a couple of times in the last several months my bishop has dropped into my Family History class. No particular reason, other perhaps to hear the ongoing dialogue. I took the opportunity to share with him that I wished to retain my current “Specialist” calling until I die. He didn’t give me a high five, but his smile told me he agreed with me. Indeed, with my strong advocacy for civil liberties and social advancements, there are few places he would feel comfortable in having me lead a discussion. Our building is the chosen one in our stake with a family history room, a good bank of computers, half a dozen FH specialists, and a faithful leader who interfaces with and brings greetings from the regional FH center. Everything was hunky-dory till last week. Then an article in the SL Tribute upset our little world. In south Salt Lake County, it was reported that twenty-four (24) FH centers were being closed, with the workers released from their callings. Apparently a survey was taken and it was revealed that few people were coming to the centers. A bean counter in the tall “phallic-looking” building discovered a lot of money could be saved by turning off lights (computers, Internet, etc), and putting out the cats (i.e., specialists). In their place, a single new center will be opened w/seniors called for a minimum of two four-hour shifts (read elderly missionaries), to teach and help the hordes of folks expected to arrive at the new center (gasoline?, language?). Anyhow, I am trembling. I love my calling. I don’t want to drive to West Memphis to keep using my considerate skills and I won’t accept a missionary position of any sort in my life now. I wonder if I could talk Friendship Baptist Church into having a genealogy class on Wednesday nights? Maybe the Greater Light Buddhist Temple? Dang it!
So, I’ve struggled with this too. The standard protocol is teach, then testify. I’ve had to do some wriggling to ‘testify’ in some of my lessons. Thoughts? “Testify” can mean anything to anyone. Share your feelings about the best concept in each lesson. You don’t have ro say, “I testify . . .” That way, you get the best of both worlds.
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