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I just want to point out, again, the relative luxury from which we look at the issue of church length. Eliminating Sunday School from the series of meetings might be fine and dandy for people who have had years to study with other people, but what about members who have no support and help at home – or seniors who crave time to study and talk with other members – or pioneer members in countries with no church history to support them – or anyone who craves more time and more instruction at church – like many thousands of new converts around the world?
I think my students get a lot out of Sunday School, and I don’t want them to lose that – and I’m not conceited enough to think my students are unique in that regard. I wouldn’t mind having some classes not be held, because I know what is taught in them, but to eliminate all classes (including excellent ones that are needed and wanted desperately by lots of members) . . .
I can’t accept that.
Finally, we complain all the time that the Church doesn’t do enough to teach our history, especially to our youth, and then we call for the elimination of the one meeting on Sunday where that history has been taught to those youth – and often taught very well?
It’s a Catch 22 but three hours is too long. I feel it. You’re right, I don’t think church history is well taught, but I would argue that is as much a consequence of the textbooks as anything else.
I think the heart of the matter is that Sacrament Meeting is just a set of lectures on the same topics we get in SS and PM/RS. As has been talked about in earlier threads, I think making SM 50 minutes and orienting it as a meeting of worship, with more music, less talking, and talking focused only on topics related to the atonement, sacrament, new life, redemption, sanctification, justification, etc… not informational talks, but worshipful talks, then a follow-on SS meeting would be more appreciated. The author of the referenced article falls into the same trap that I think the LDS Church does, and that we ourselves sometimes do: equating the accumulation of information with spirituality. I agree with what others have said, that all the INFO you need is online. But that’s not why believers should be going to church, IMHO. We cannot discover spirituality by listening to a retelling of the history of the Lamanite Wars. There are spiritual tidbits that we can locate, but most teachers will spend 90% of the time telling the story and 10% drawing spiritual parallels from it.
I will add, however, that I don’t believe it is as much the teacher’s fault, in most cases, as we generally assume. I believe completely that the “student”, for lack of a better term, brings with them the inclination toward whatever end they eventually receive out of a lesson. Yes, I’ve seen some painfully bad teachers. But I can pretty much guarantee that most of us would have an enjoyable experience if we went to SS prepared to participate in the lesson, with some level of excitement about something that we had studied up on that is covered in the material. That’s why I think truly great teachers first instill a love of learning and of the material being taught, and then draw the class into a guided conversation.
On Own Now wrote:I think the heart of the matter is that Sacrament Meeting is just a set of lectures on the same topics we get in SS and PM/RS. As has been talked about in earlier threads, I think making SM 50 minutes and orienting it as a meeting of worship, with more music, less talking, and talking focused only on topics related to the atonement, sacrament, new life, redemption, sanctification, justification, etc… not informational talks, but worshipful talks, then a follow-on SS meeting would be more appreciated.
This would be heaven. I can imagine people saying that it’d look too much like mass, too liturgical. And that’s bad because why?
:thumbup: We’d need to revamp our approach to music. We’d need to get
allthe praise/worship hymns out of the dustbin. Fantastic as it is, Redeemer of Israel is not the only one. High on a Mountain Top, Come Rejoice, Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise, Come Thou Glorious Day of Promise, Come O Thou King of Kings, All Creatures of Our God and King, On This Day of Joy and Gladness, Rejoice the Lord Is King, All Glory Laud and Honor, A Mighty Fortress, Sing Praise to Him, Praise to the Lord the Almighty, For All the Saints, Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah, etc. It’s just a few of the ones we never sing because we have this obsession with correlating the hymns to the talk subjects. Families Can Be Together Forever as the opening hymn in sacrament meeting??? I’m here to worship! Ann- :clap: Quote:We’d need to revamp our approach to music. We’d need to get all the praise/worship hymns out of the dustbin. Fantastic as it is, Redeemer of Israel is not the only one. High on a Mountain Top, Come Rejoice, Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise, Come Thou Glorious Day of Promise, Come O Thou King of Kings, All Creatures of Our God and King, On This Day of Joy and Gladness, Rejoice the Lord Is King, All Glory Laud and Honor, A Mighty Fortress, Sing Praise to Him, Praise to the Lord the Almighty, For All the Saints, Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah, etc. It’s just a few of the ones we never sing because we have this obsession with correlating the hymns to the talk subjects. Families Can Be Together Forever as the opening hymn in sacrament meeting??? I’m here to worship!
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Can we add, Master the Tempest is Raging, the 23rd Psalms, and The Lord’s Prayer. I know the last 2 are not in our hymn book, but there are some gorgeous instrumental and choral versions.
Amen – To You.
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