Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 10/12

This is the latest invitation for reactions to local meetings, in the vein of my post on September 25th about how we can take what happens in Church meetings—sermons, lessons and anything else—and enter a conversation with them, magnifying what was said or adding what we think.

I’m convinced that even if the speaker or teacher is poorly prepared, we can still find elements in what is said and what happens that inspires and edifies us. Even if church meetings aren’t conducted in a way that reaches us, we can take responsibility and find a way to feel the spirit.

My suggestion for putting this into practice is to write down reactions and thoughts to what happened in Church. You might keep your own ‘spiritual journal’, or, if you like, you can post your reactions below. I’m adding my own reactions and thoughts as a comment to this post — because those reactions aren’t any better than anyone else’s.

Let me emphasize that this is NOT a place to criticize what is wrong with church. The point is to post what you learned because of what happened at Church. Think of it in the format, “They said or did this, and I said that.” Even the things you dislike the most can be turned into lessons for what the gospel teaches we should do.

My hope is that these reactions serve as an example of a better way to treat what happens at Church instead of the perennial complaints about speaker or teacher preparation or ability, or complaints that the Church should do things differently.

[I should also note that I skipped last week because it was following General Conference — the most heavily examined meetings of the year, the best prepared, and the most discussed. I don’t think I need to add more discussion about Conference. Instead, I think we can benefit from thinking about our weekly local meetings differently and finding ways to get the most out of those meetings.]

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Below, I’m adding my “conversation” with what happened at Church this past Sunday in the first comment. Feel free to add your “conversations” with what you experienced below.


Comments

5 responses to “Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 10/12”

  1. Kent Larsen

    Here are my reactions to yesterday’s Church meetings (10/12):

    • Last week, one of the reactions I head to Pres. Nelson’s passing was that he made a lot of changes to the Church. I have to agree. Changing any large organization is a little like turning a supertanker—you turn the rudder and then an hour or two latter you finally see the tanker begin to turn. Making changes in large organizations is hard and takes a lot of time.
    • An example of this is the Church’s Unit History Tool which almost no one knows about, but could make a wonderful impact on many Stakes, districts, wards, and branches.
    • Our ward held fast & testimony meeting this week, and a couple of the testimonies talked about memories of President Nelson and prior prophets. One talked about having mixed feelings about a new prophet because of the prophet’s previous statements and politics, and eventually coming to have a testimony of that prophet’s calling. I think this is a common struggle, and like many struggles, the struggle itself has value.
    • Another testimony talked about seeing people change over time. I love that idea — it takes a certain positive sensitivity to notice that someone else is changing. I hope I can someday learn to have that sensitivity.
    • Our Bishop announced that next weekend the different congregations in our neighborhood—from several different denominations (Jewish, Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, etc.) will all present their sermons or focus their worship on the idea of “Love Your Neighbor”. On Sunday afternoon we will then all meet together for a pot luck dinner. This sounds like a wonderful way to get our neighborhood united!
    • I think that’s quite enough from me. What happened in your congregation? What are your reactions?

  2. Coffinberry

    Ours was a sweet testimony meeting; a child shared the comfort that came when he was concerned about a sister’s injury; a positive personal experience from an older single sister who gave herself a challenge to increase her fast offering: a father who hadn’t in the past considered what personal answer he hoped for from conference, and had coasted on his wife’s plan, only to be surprised when he found himself paying close attention in her place (she had come down with the flu and was sleeping) only to have Sister Browning’s talk speak to his soul answering an urgent question he hadn’t realized he had.

    Wouldn’t know about Relief Society… I run off to Primary. But I can tell you Singing Time is Where It’s At. Man oh man, let me tell you: the Spirit lives there! When Senior Primary begs to sing their favorite “Because”… well, even the choir in the Conference Center would be proud.

    Oh, and a line of multicultural CTR 4s getting brave practicing to do their special unique bit in the Primary Program, singing This Little Light of Mine (Yes, with claps on 2 and 4). That pure joy is truly something to behold.

  3. Taylor Anderson

    In the nursery yesterday, I watched a new little boy (who has just moved into our ward this week) get curious and ask why a little girl made a particular [ASL] hand gesture when she asked for more goldfish crackers during snack time. And then we observed him immediately start to use that same gesture himself to ask for more goldfish crackers. So cool to watch the little wheels turning in his head and see the new learning implemented. Oh, how I love nursery!

  4. Mhermitmom

    We had testimony meeting and relief society. In RS, they took a moment to allow people to share thoughts about Pres. Nelson. One sister said she had grown up being friends with one of Pres. Nelson’s daughters. Nelson had a house rule of absolutely no caffeine sodas in the house. Unbeknownst to him, his wife, the first one, loved diet coke. She hid diet coke under the bed. Her children would bring her cases when dad was out of town. It wasn’t until after she died and the house was being deep cleaned that he found out. He was offended that there was diet coke and demanded to know who brought it in the house. All the kids told them, it’s Mom’s and we helped her get it. I can’t verify the story but it was amusing.

  5. In my ward’s sacrament meeting, it was announced that we needed to start arriving ten minutes before the meeting starts, as the building doors will be locked at that time and everyone arriving after that time will have to pass through a single set of doors where they will be admitted by an usher. In elders quorum, men were asked to volunteer to serve on the security committee, almost jokingly as an excuse to roam the halls instead of attending future sacrament and Sunday School/priesthood meetings. I offered that we don’t need a dollar’s worth of security for a nickel’s worth of threat and I cautioned against overplaying our hand, but I was ignored.

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