Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 12/28

Kent Larsen

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How did you react to Church yesterday? What did you notice? Did you end up thinking differently? [In case you missed this last week, I was ill and didn’t post.] Do you think your reactions were what they should be? Were they ethical?

This is the latest invitation for reactions to local meetings, continuing the spirit of my post on September 25th about how we receive 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. In these posts I’m asking us all to think about how we listen and receive what happens at Church. If we only listen for mistakes, or things that bother us, what does that say about us? Is it most important to criticize others? Or to try to change ourselves?

The point here is that no matter how poorly prepared the speaker or teacher is, or no matter how what happens triggers us, or is objectively or doctrinally wrong, 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.

So please, 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 — instead of as a part of this post, because my 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 or your fellow congregants. The point is to post what you learned because of what happened at Church or how that led you to think. It’s about the good things we can get out of Church, not the negative things that disturbed or upset us. It doesn’t have to be orthodox, traditional or even on topic.

If you like, make your response in the format, “They said or did this, and I said or thought 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.

Comments

2 responses to “Your Reactions to Church Yesterday, 12/28”

  1. Kent Larsen

    Here are my reactions to recent Church meetings (12/21 & 12/28):

    • Our chapel was decorated for Christmas—like many or even most others. But I began to think a little about why and how. The chapel is a kind of structure, that we can change by decorations to fit a particular purpose. But most of the time we don’t. I suppose limiting the decorations to a few significant days each year makes those days stand out more. So the question is one of what days do we decorate and why?
    • One performer sang “O Holy Night”, and the first verse was in French. I thought this was a welcome change, one that not only emphasized the song’s origin, but also gave it a slightly different feel. I love the song — I think I cry every time I hear it.
    • One speaker pointed out that there’s no reason why we can’t extend the Christmas season — many cultures do (the whole 12 days of Christmas goes from Christmas Day to Three Kings Day). We can do this if we want — it just requires planning out how to extend the holiday.
    • During Sunday School, in a discussion of the names of Christ, one class member drew the line at ‘cheap’, saying “When has God ever been cheap?” I loved the thought. It points out that too often we tend to think in terms of money. God isn’t cheap just like he isn’t ’expensive’, because for God its not about money!
  2. ji

    A young man of priest age played a viola with his younger sister on the piano, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Very beautiful, very uplifting.

    Then the conducting bishop’s counselor delivered his talk on many blessings and serving the Lord, and mentioned the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — it was wholly unnecessary and sort of ruined the meeting for me. Some would say that is my fault because I should see the good regardless, but somehow I really wished he didn’t bring politics into our sacrament meeting.

    But it reminds me of the statement from a general conference back in the 1960s that we need better music in our sacrament meetings, and more of it, and we also need better speaking in our sacrament meetings, but less of it. Based on where I live in VERY pro-Trump America, I have to agree.

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