I remember hearing a talk by Boyd K. Packer years ago, in which he spoke about what happens in meetings. As I remember it (I haven’t found the speech — perhaps someone know which one it is) he suggested that many speakers bring just a small thimble full of the spirit to their talks—they simply aren’t prepared. In contrast, he said that sometimes the audience is resistant to what is said, it’s like they have brought umbrellas to avoid getting wet from what the speaker brought.
While I don’t always agree with Elder Packer, I do in this case. Its all about responsibility.
Most of us are not the speaker. We’re in the audience. Regardless of how much material the speaker brought, we have the responsibility to decide how to react. We can put up our umbrellas, dismissing what the speaker brought as “not good” or “out-of-touch” or “incorrect”, or we can take what was said, process it, and find some way of profiting from it.
Which approach do you think is best?
In these posts I am trying to suggest that each of us can have better experiences at Church if we take responsibility for our experiences. We can choose to find ways to learn and benefit from what happens regardless of whether it fits our perception of what is “good.”
What we get out of any experience depends on how we look at it. Its not different from what many artists figure out—they understand that how you see the world before you is more important than what you see. You might call it ‘active listening’ or shifting perspective. It just means that you see differently.
In my case, I tend to focus narrowly, thinking about groups of words or sentences, sometimes taking them out of context and thinking about what they say, even if the speaker didn’t intend what I heard. It’s not at all like what we’re taught in school, where the focus is on understanding accurately and completely what the speaker or text says. Its about pulling out useful or inspiring thoughts in spite of what was said.
So, if you aren’t thinking this way, maybe try it next Sunday, or the next time you are in a class or meeting. If you have already thoughts inspired by what happened at church, what are they? How did you react to what happened in 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.
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