While church membership has been marinating in a church culture of “follow the prophet” we may be more committed to familiar patterns and traditions. Part of the resistance to embracing a new history of our origins–and the challenges and change in self-identify it may imply–lies with members themselves. The new history, for example, is confusing to many. Did Joseph Smith see two heavenly beings in a grove descend upon him? Or is the reality of what happened much more complex, and how did the popular, simplified narrative come to be if, in fact, the way he recorded the event changes over time as he retells it? What does all of this mean to what I believe and how I feel? These are difficult ideas for some members to embrace, and can create feelings of spiritual instability. At least that is what I’m seeing as our ward works to push forward the new history on the first vision, blacks and the priesthood, etc., and what it means to believers and non-believers.

We are talking openly in our ward and classes both about the new teacher council program and the new information, and how it can be joined with curriculum. We all walked through the church’s app (Gospel Library/Church History/Gospel Topics Essays, and Revelations in Context, and Joseph Smith’s Accounts of the First Vision) on our first Sunday of the year and talked about what it means. I see uncomfortable body language and comments coming from some, and excitement from others.

How this is adopted within wards I believe will depend on the support the idea has starting with the bishop and working through other leaders. It will then require skilled teachers who know the scriptures, our doctrines, and, I’ll argue most importantly, the historical context within which scriptural and doctrinal meaning is formed. Teaching Gospel Doctrine will require a serious student of it, and not someone called who takes the class paragraph-by-paragraph through the lesson.

I’ll add one last thought: I am seeing teachers in my ward embrace the direction given by the new teaching program that unlocks their ability to take greater liberties to roam in class according to the needs and interests of the students and goals of the teacher. Even with the building momentum for change, which I see as being very positive and I might assert mildly progressive, it will take years and years for us to embrace this change culturally. I think we’ll be challenged not only with new information, but with the need to adopt a new way of thinking about our faith and the knowledge which plays an important part in building our faith. While I wish church leadership would move at a faster pace, I also understand doing so risks alienating maybe half of our members. It will take time. Success will depend on the church’s ability to ‘push’ and the local church to ‘pull.’

If I really want to dream big the Church could slowly redo all those useless footnotes and make them useful linking to new resources. Heck, take a few BYU professors looking for a mission and put them on the task.

If you read the “Helps for the Teacher” chapter in the online GD manual, it still lists the out-of-date Teaching No Greater Call and does not list Revelations in Context or the essays. And if you download the PDF of the manual, you’re going to get the old print copy.

The newsroom article indicates that there should be links, but the newsroom doesn’t seem like a very good way of reaching GD instructors. Or really any normal members of the Church. It feels to me like the SLTrib article has made this out to be more than it is (for the simple reason that we all want this to be about more than a few buried links that may or may not exist in a resource many of the teachers aren’t going to use anyway).

As for me and my Sunday School, we’re going to incorporate RiC and the Essays as fully as possible in our curriculum since the Church leadership doesn’t seem to have any idea what they want to have happen. This will take some ponderizing for sure.

It will be interesting to track feedback from teachers and class members as teachers begin to (rather haphazardly) incorporate material from the essays and Rev in Context into lessons this year. I imagine some classes are going to feature some pointed comments and discussions not seen in earlier lesson cycles.

Thanks for your thoughts. I always want to be supportive. However, if you’re right, then there never be any “study” in our church settings — all three hours will be faith-promoting personal stories on a short list of approved topics. No need for a teacher, just a facilitator. To me, that is sad. I love to read and discuss the scriptures. As a people, we’re better when we understand what the scriptures actually say.

Meaningful highlights:

1) Synergy between home and church
It proactively promotes and organizes a meaningful synergy between gospel learning in the home and at church.
The framework has families study the topic for FHE, live and ponder during the week, allow time for spiritual experiences, and then on Sunday classes, everyone is prepared to share meaningful stuff. You don’t have to hire a P.I. to find out what your kid’s primary lesson was on, because you already know!

2) Synergy across callings and responsibilities
Preparing an FHE lesson allows for some good experimentation within your own family. This helps jump start lesson preparation for busy primary, sunday school, and other teachers, and also allows for course correction following the FHE lesson as needed.

I know many will be appalled at the lack of intellectual rigor, but focus on practice and experiences I feel is the best focus for a public church setting. I love both, but I personally feel that “by study” is best for more intimate settings or with a shared interest group, whereas “by faith,” aka practical application in real life, is best for church settings where we need to mourn with and strengthen each other for another week.

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-releases-historical-background-doctrine-and-covenants

But at a certain point one has to study on ones own. It’s not like the information isn’t out there. LDS.org is a huge resource that’s extremely helpful to people if they use it.