First Sunday Meeting — how it went

Our SP, who I can’t imagine would give a topic because that’s just the way he is, is a believer in the curriculum. We discuss it ad nauseum in HC. He asks how it’s going in the wards and in general has been disappointed but patient. I’ll have no problem expressing my own displeasure this week in HC. Oh, and our own ward HC “advisor” rarely comes, even though our ward struggles mightily.

This is simply a visible version of the effectiveness of their quorum leadership meetings. If they can’t transact business with the quorum, can you imagine how ineffective they must be as a leadership team in general? and can you imagine how hard it is to get people together for a plannign meeting anyway — moving it into the 3rd hour block is an operationally effective idea. Now it’s time to get it working effectively.

Nonetheless, I hope they don’t throw out the 1st Sunday concept — that they stick with it even though it’s not effective. The grind of having to do it will eventually give rise to dissatisfaction, intervention, training, or action.

I will say this — I really think the emphasis on chasing inactives is part of the reason people aren’t more committed. If the Sunday was focused on releasing the passions of quorum members, that would make it so much more interesting to attend and be part of it. The assumption of the meeting is that everyone in attendance is as active as the leaders, which is not the case. Instead, use the time to engage the quorum in experiences that they are interested in, or want to do.

As I said before, I’m hoping for the warning every month from our HPGL.

Strange thing is — everyone leaves me alone in my ward. I guess I have a reputation now

In RS we now circle up the chairs to talk. This isn’t going so well. They had a suggestion box. I did suggest we drop the circle thing. We talk better when we aren’t face to face. It’s kind of strange.

In Elder’s Quorum here, we have had the exact opposite experience. When we have rows of chairs, people just sit at the back and say nothing, while people at the front do everything. It brings a level of equality in for us and participation since no one is at the back.

8 people. 3 active participants Everyone else sat there brain dead or on their phones.

I wonder how that dynamic will play out now that there are more people because they combined HPG and EQ. My gut tells me that the more people there are the less active discussion/participation there will be. Sounds odd, right? That’s one of the things I feel holds Sunday School back from having a decent discussion. There are so many people that are so spread out that everyone figures that the next guy will answer the questions so most people sit there unengaged in the lesson. I worry that adding more people to these councils will have the same effect. Instead of three active participants out of eight people, you’ll see four or five active participants out of 30.

How did yours go?

I really can’t abide our 1st Sunday discussions. So far they have all been on topics that don’t interest me. Mostly on improving the ward’s key indicators stats. No actual talk of specifics about how to go about doing it, just a reminder that more people should be showing up… so they can join in on the lessons we have about how more people need to show up.

But these discussions really don’t seem to be aimed at helping me with the challenges that life throws at me, they all seem to be geared toward helping the organization improve some statistic or other.

Unfortunately it’s really inspired me to become a statistic this year. I can’t find any motivation to attend PH anymore. None.

Unfortunately it’s really inspired me to become a statistic this year. I can’t find any motivation to attend PH anymore. None.

FWIW, I find that not attending certain meetings is part of my strategy to stayLDS.

Mine, too. I try to make it to Sacrament Meeting, except on the first Sunday of the month. I can’t deal with Fast and Testimony Meeting. I went today, though, because I missed two weeks in a row prior to Conference due to being sick. I want to take the Sacrament, and maintain that much activity. I haven’t been to Sunday School in years, and I generally try to make it to Relief Society about once a month (the week when the lesson is taught my a really good teacher). I’ve really tried going to all my meetings and having a good attitude, but Sacrament Meeting only seems to work best for me. I can generally get something worthwhile out of it and not end up having to bite my tongue the way I’d have to in SS and RS.

Our branch recently switched R.S. presidencies. Our new R.S. President requested a special R.S. sister’s meeting – they even made arrangements for the brethren to cover the Primary classes so that our Primary sisters can be there. This was all pre-ministering policy updates.

There was some good conversation about what the aim of the change is designed to do. The R.S. President made it clear that changes were underway in the organization with combining our EQ/HP brethren before figuring out how to integrate the ministering elements for both men and women in our branch. Then there was a discussion about how to receive revelation.

I could have been in a better frame of mind (maybe)? I had pushed myself people-wise the day before, so was a little stressed about people. Also, about 15 minutes before it ended, my husband decided to present me with our daughter who theoretically needed to be changed (she didn’t really). So I was mildly entertained watching my 19 month old daughter flirt with the sisters in our circle.

My husband (a branch executive secretary) is nudging that for some ministering families, that the husband and wives be assigned to minister together. In our case, my husband usually winds up ministering alongside me anyways because we do pretty much everything as a family. It would be the most effective method in our situation – but it is rather more radical (on paper) than some people might want to think.

I have already taken the liberty of emailing our R.S. presidency saying something along the lines of, “We love to serve where we can with our limited resources. Here is a list of families that already minister to us, and would be natural extensions of pre-existing ministering relationships to be called to continue to minister to us. Here is a list of families that we already naturally minister to. I figure this information may be useful and may be a source of revelation – but we are welcome to serving if additional revelation is received.” Our new R.S. president was taken back for a minute or so I think (which makes sense given who she is), but when I mentioned the email to her first counselor, the counselor said “Thank you – that information could be helpful” and gave the gist of making their lives easier in the administration side of things.