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https://www.lds.org/manual/2017?lang=enghttps://www.lds.org/manual/2017?lang=eng” class=”bbcode_url”> SS (gospel doctrine):Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Class Member Study GuideOur Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsI don’t see any indication that they’ve revamped the material. It’s just the same recycled stuff. Serious question. A few years back I heard that a new lesson format was piloted and rolled out to the youth, it was more discussion based and from what I heard it was a step in a positive direction. I also heard rumors that the adults would shortly be piloting a new program and if successful, it would be rolled out to the rest of us. What happened? Was the promise of new material a rumor? Did the pilot not go well?
I can’t say I’m enthused to go over the exact same lesson plan for what, the 5th time now? Where is the new material? We’re resting on effort that was done in the mid to late 90s. If they want to rotate to a new canonical work every year, fine, but the exact same lesson plan? In our classes we always have to study some verses at the expense of others, there isn’t enough time to cover it all. Surely we can extract more than just the same lesson over and over again from the chapters we have to cover each week. At the very least we could have two manuals for each canonical work, only revisiting the same manual once every 8 years. IMO recycling the material like this is pure laziness. Especially in a year where church history will be covered. The youth get to talk (just a little) about the cat that got out of the bag in their updated materials, why not the adults?
I assumed the church had enough resources to actually do
somethingto produce fresh material. I better cut myself off… I could keep ranting about this as long (and much longer) than people would listen to me. PH/RS:Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Gordon B. HinckleyI suppose they had to do another one of these so they wouldn’t leave anyone out but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by the prospect of doing another one of these manuals. Could someone read the next paragraph? You’ll know it is time to turn the page when you hear snores echo around the raised basketball hoop like this “ZZzZzzZzzZZzZZzZZzzZ… ZZzZzzZzzZZzZZzZZzzZ!”
To be fair, the reading directly from the manual thing would be a problem no matter what correlated material surfaced for the new year. That and I have to admit that the manuals
havegotten better over the years. When the first one (BY) came out in 1998 it was just a bunch of loosely correlated quotes. I remember thinking, “what do I do with this?” Now the manuals try to employ small narratives and themes to assist with making the lessons more focused. If everything remains the same, after 2017 we’ll be out of prophets. I wonder what they’ll do? Re-roll from the beginning? Come up with a new idea?
😮 Sorry for the ranting. I’ve been hoping for a shakeup for both SS and PH for some time now and it appears as though it will always be more of the same. I suppose the majority find as much comfort in more of the same as I would find in a shakeup. At least they get what they want for another year.
When i brought this up in our stake’s yearly SS meeting I was told that even though the lesson material was the same, everyone teaches it differently so it doesn’t matter. End of discussion. I am trying to remember how long ago it was we started hearing changes were coming. Well I looked. The change in youth lessons was announced
4 OCTOBER 2012It is making me want to bring in my bluetooth earbud and listen to Mormon Stories in the back corner of the class. I thought primary was torture as a kid at times, but I honestly just can’t see going another year week after week to listen to the same old same old. I actually teach HP group quite often and for years I have all but ditched the lesson manual – occasionally only using the title as a springboard into a (somewhat) related topic. Where I live I seem to be able to get away with it and in fact a few folks tell me over and over they enjoy it as my lessons are “different” (I assume they are saying in a positive way). But I hear in many places I would get called out on this. Maybe my deep silverback voice (see my avatar to get the pun) is just so soothing and smooth that they just fall asleep (which is true for about 50% of the group anyway – I am not joking).
Very discouraging.
VERYdiscouraging. I hear ya Nibbler. I was hoping 2017 would be the year we’d see some change to the adult curriculum, and with the advent of the essays it seemed the perfect time to do it. I am indeed disappointed, and foresee another year of mostly skipping SS. I have heard a similar argument as GBS, but in my ward we have the same GD teacher we had 4 years ago so fat chance he’ll teach much differently. And he’s far from stellar to begin with, mostly reads from the manual and turns on the tears every week in an effort to show how spiritual he is. I have an opinion about the general SS president’s role in dragging this out, but I’ll keep the rest of it to myself (needless to say I’m not a fan). I do like Pres. Hinckley, but I bet we’ll hear more “one pair of earrings” and less “we don’t emphasize that” in the lesson manual. And yes, I think the plan is to just start over/recycle when we run out of presidents.
If you come prepared for the lesson, have your facts from “church approved sources”, you can have a lot of fun during a D&C lesson. I’m looking forward to giving the class “the rest of the story” Some ideas
1. Why was the Lectures of Faith removed? Most members have never heard of them, let alone know they were the “Doctrine” part of the D&C
2. Section 89, WofW. Lots of history and back ground there.
3. Section 132. What did “celestial marriage” mean when 132 was publish? What happened to the original section on
Marriage?4. The real story of Thomas Marsh and the Milk
5. Kirkland Anti-Bank
You can find some tidbit of history on every lesson to make it more enjoyable. I have missed SS for over a moth due to a death in the family. When I returned last week, a very TBM brother approached me and said he missed me in SS, as my comments always make him think, and he actually learns something when I sit on the back row.
Now get out there and do your best Sheldon impression in SS!
😆 You are (almost) motivating me to get my “Sheld-on” 
GBSmith wrote:When i brought this up in our stake’s yearly SS meeting I was told that even though the lesson material was the same, everyone teaches it differently so it doesn’t matter. End of discussion.
“If you say so.”
DW came from a ward where the same person taught gospel doctrine for over 12 years.
:crazy: I was once in a ward where the same person taught gospel doctrine off and on for a combined total of 8 years (and as I understand it, they’re still teaching that class).:crazy: In smaller units sometimes it’s hard to find people that are willing to teach and sometimes people have career callings.
Oh, and I did a quick ctrl+f on every lesson in the GBH manual and there were no instances of “earr.” Unless they spelt it ear ring I think we’re in the clear.
:thumbup: Quote:If you come prepared for the lesson, have your facts from “church approved sources”, you can have a lot of fun during a D&C lesson. I’m looking forward to giving the class “the rest of the story”
Some ideas
1. Why was the Lectures of Faith removed? Most members have never heard of them, let alone know they were the “Doctrine” part of the D&C
2. Section 89, WofW. Lots of history and back ground there.
3. Section 132. What did “celestial marriage” mean when 132 was publish? What happened to the original section on Marriage?
4. The real story of Thomas Marsh and the Milk
5. Kirkland Anti-Bank
You can find some tidbit of history on every lesson to make it more enjoyable. I have missed SS for over a moth due to a death in the family. When I returned last week, a very TBM brother approached me and said he missed me in SS, as my comments always make him think, and he actually learns something when I sit on the back row.
Now get out there and do your best Sheldon impression in SS!
😆 Me thinks I see a regular thread coming here….Lesson Prep for Class Attendance. All in favor please manifest.
I’m in Primary and have been most of the last 20 years. I avoid SS for a couple of reasons when I don’t have a primary calling. First, I can’t sit on those hard metal chairs, they hurt me and standing the whole time is painful too (ugh! I might be old). Second, the lessons. If I make it through the whole hour without leaving (assuming I went in in the first place) I don’t pay a ton of attention to the teacher, lesson, or comments (People in there talk about the weirdest things sometimes!) I do my own searches of the topic at hand with Gospel Library on my iPad. Frankly, if I didn’t have a primary calling right now, I wouldn’t stay at church. I’ve wondered why after so many years we still have the same study guide for SS. If there are so many things we can learn from one verse of scripture, why are we always only looking at it in that one way? I remember being a child in primary and being sick of the same lessons year after year. Even the primary outlines are recycling, we’re doing the same one this year that we did 5 years ago. At least THAT isn’t the same every year, haha! I think the kids would outright revolt, especially the older ones who are counting the days until they turn 12. It hope SS changes for the better soon. You can only do stagnant for so long.
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