What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday, 2/22?

Kent Larsen

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Who is responsible for your experience at Church? Is our worship passive, dependent on the skill of the speakers, musicians and those organizing the meeting? Or are each of us active participants, trying to pull worship out of what we’re given?

We claim that we go to Church to worship, but often members talk about Church like it is entertainment. I hear things like “I got bored”, “I didn’t like that talk,” “What they said was wrong,” etc. If you go to Church to worship God, why would you let these issues get in the way? Is the presentation, good or bad, why you came to Church? If you are worshiping, why would you allow the inabilities of speakers or teachers keep you from that?

The simplest model of communication consists of a speaker, a listener and a message. But when we apply this to worship, is it different? Where does God fit in that model? Is he the speaker? If so, how is he communicating and what is the message?

Sometimes, we hear that God speaks through others, if so, are we listening to that? If we are disappointed because we are expecting to be entertained, are we letting that disappointment keep us from hearing God’s messages?

Given this idea, how did you react to Church yesterday? What did you notice? Did you end up thinking differently? Do you think your reactions were what they should be? Were they looking for what God had to tell you? Did your reactions make things better?

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

8 responses to “What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday, 2/22?”

  1. Kent Larsen

    Here are a few of the things I thought about because of attending Church meetings yesterday (2/22):

    • The speakers in sacrament meeting were asked to talk about studying the scriptures, and one speaker mentioned growing up with the old living scriptures set of illustrated Book of Mormon stories. I grew up with those stories also. Since these books were an adaptation of the Book of Mormon, I wondered to what degree they could be considered scripture.

      The stories were the same, and IIRC the words were very close to what was in the Book of Mormon (perhaps made simpler, I haven’t looked at them in a long time). But they left out large portions of the text, and they added images, which gave or implied certain interpretations of the Book of Mormon.

      If these books are not scripture, what changes made them not scripture? Is scripture in the words? In the stories? In the message? In our reactions to scripture? Or our reverence for them? When we use a different Bible translation, is it still scripture? If so, then what about a story that re-tells something from the Bible? Is that scripture? If not, then what change makes the difference?

    • We sang “Lift Every Voice And Sing”, which is not in the hymnal or the new hymns provided on the app. But I was struck by how the language seemed to fit what we use in hymns. What is different in this hymn is its references to the African-American experience. But we have a lot of references in our hymns to the LDS experience, and many of the hymns we have borrowed from other traditions also have references to their experience, so why would the African-American references be a problem?

      Of course, like the musings above about what is scripture, we can ask a similar question about what is a hymn.

    • Drawing on Elder Kearen’s recent conference talk, in our Elders Quorum lesson we discussed new beginnings (the concept, not the YW’s program). It occurred to me that the idea of a beginning is something contested in LDS thought. We believe in eternity, which s without beginning nor end, but we talk about new beginnings in things like baptism. In many ways our lives are full of beginnings, repeated points at which our lives change significantly. The idea of “repentance” is all about beginning again, isn’t it? So I think that it could be that eternity is actually a kind of infinite beginning, repeated change and new beginnings forever.

      So, in the eternities, will we need to accommodate ourselves to a new way of life, a new beginning? Or to the very process of change, of infinite new beginnings? I think we will have to find out when we get there.

  2. Vic Rattlehead

    I learned that God loves to help find car keys, wedding rings, and passing tests more than any other trial. I was also deeply moved by a story of a person losing their shoe as a traumatic experience but God loed them enough because they cared so much that they turned around and it was under their chair.

  3. Jonathan Green

    One of the talks in sacrament meeting was on how prayers are answered – with a quick yes, or a quick no, or a “not yet” – from someone whose career had taken a somewhat different path based on how his prayers were answered. That same path also set him up to survive brain cancer nearly unscathed over a decade later. Some weeks, the quality of the talks is vastly out of proportion to the number of people who are there to hear it.

  4. RLD

    We had stake conference this week, and our stake president spoke on Jesus’s commandment to “fear not” because he would always be at our side. He discussed how pain is real and unavoidable, but the suffering we experience when we dwell on past pain or anticipate future pain can be avoided by most people.

    I’d felt an impression that the Lord would have a message for me in this conference, and that was it. Things at work are not great and there’s a good chance they’ll get worse. (I work for a university supporting federally funded research, which isn’t the whole story but it’s enough.) And I’ve been in a funk about it for a while, for exactly the reasons the stake president described. Now, nothing he said was new to me. But having the Lord tell me pretty directly that that’s why I was feeling what I was feeling and that I don’t have to feel that way has made a big difference.

    It was delightful when our visiting general authority stood up later and said he’d obeyed the stake president’s counsel to take an inventory of his fears, and number one on his list was public speaking. Especially in English (not his first language).

  5. REC911

    A visiting member of the stake pres taught 2nd hour and basically wants to turn ministering back into HT. Ugh. Having said that, I dont think the church even knows what they really want with ministering…

    The problem the way I see it is that the majority of members do not want/need someone to minister to them and church leaders have a problem with that. (holding on to the old way) To me, that is a good thing that you have members that need no ministering, things are well with them, they will reach out if it changes. If there are members who want to be ministered to that are not, then there is a problem. Opt in/opt out deal IMO.

    Vic – love the sarcasm. :) True story: someone stole my wallet while I was playing basketball at mutual with the YM. I was not thrilled about messing with the CC and DL stuff (pre-internet) so I prayed. The answer was really weird. So weird I had to check it out and sure enough there it was, on the roof of a shed in the church parking lot. (took a ladder with me) My $5 gone, but my CC and DL still in it!

  6. Kent Larsen

    Hmmm, I wonder if anyone reads the op?

    Vic, was there no way to think about what you heard that gave you a new or different or inspiring perspective? Or can you see what could be done to help others in your congregation feel like they can share their actual struggles?

    Jonathan, who is responsible for your reaction to the talks? Unless I misunderstand what you’re saying, you are putting all the responsibility on those giving the talks and no responsibility on yourself for what you get out of them.

    RLD: that’s wonderful. My wife also works in academia and has gone through similar uncertainty. Our family has some choice words for the morals of some prominent individuals. I’m glad you found some comfort.

    REC911: ok, you’ve complained, now what? How do you get something good out of that lesson in spite of your disagreement?

    I like what Richard Rohr suggested about complaining: The best response to something wrong is the practice of something better.

    So what is the “practice” that any of you will do to make your own lives and those of others better?

  7. REC911

    Kent: The good I got out of it was a reminder that I love the ministering program as I can tell my ministers that I will call them if I ever need them. I love that one family does not want me to do anything and the other I take to lunch! I love that ministering is to the world and not just my assigned members in my ward. (my thing, not the church’s)

    Thanks for asking and pointing out that I am guilty of complaining which is clearly not the intention of this post. (I am being serious) I will repent.

    Having said that….Can someone start a post about Ministering vs HT here so I can really complain?? :) I will start with ministering interviews….

  8. Jonathan Green

    Kent, sorry for the misunderstanding. I meant that it was an outstanding talk that many more people should have heard.

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