What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday, 3/1?

Kent Larsen

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In these posts I may be expecting too much. It’s a big change to react to Church in a new way. I apologize if I haven’t been clear enough. I’m trying to suggest that each of us can have better experiences at Church if we take responsibility for our experiences, and 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.

Comments

4 responses to “What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday, 3/1?”

  1. Kent Larsen

    Here are a few of the things I thought about because of attending Church meetings yesterday (3/1):

    • I was visiting a different ward, because I was traveling, and I immediately noticed that the hymns were played much slower than I’m used to, whether because of the organist’s preference or inability to play faster. But it occurs to me that there are advantages to slower hymns—for example, you have more time to focus on and think about the words you are singing. Or, the slower tempo may give the hymn a different flavor or even a different meaning.
    • One of those who got up to speak in testimony meeting talked about timing, saying “God takes his time—It’s ok to slow down.” I agree. Our society today seems to always push us to move quickly. We can slow down.
    • Another speaker was an artist who said he had given out prints of one of his paintings to all the members of the ward. That seemed very unusual — for a visual artist at least. In contrast, we see musicians giving out their work to the members of their wards all the time, and don’t think about it. So I’m now wondering about giving of ourselves: How much are what we give dependent on our cultural understandings of what should be given away? What talents or skills do we have that should be given away like musicians often give away their talents?
    • Perhaps the most impactful statement yesterday was the speaker who said “I’m not perfect, I’m not that kind of musician.” I think there’s a world in that statement. While no musician (or anyone) is perfect, many try, and some musicians are technically perfect, and in that perfection take the life out of what they play. I think that can be extended to our lives. We can focus so much on being perfect that we loose what is worth living for in the process.
  2. cjd

    I always enjoy hearing testimonies as a way to know my fellow congregants. Sunday School, on the other hand is an exercise in tongue-biting. To claim to study Genesis yet only referring to 1-2 verses as proof text for PoGP is very frustrating. But most distressing were the answers to “what does it mean to you to desire to be more righteous?” Most answers from the men sounded to me like: An opportunity to gain more blessings; or, to attain a higher eternal status; or other acquisitive outcome. Transactional or prosperity gospel, anyone?

  3. cjd

    After reading your reminder in the comments to last week’s post, I will now repent and finish my “new way of thinking.”
    After hearing these disconcerting responses, I raised my hand to respond. The question of being more righteous reminded me of my mother whose outlook was always, how can I make someone’s day better or burden lighter? The teacher and many women quickly agreed and expanded and the discussion turned to a serving and relational question rather than an obedience and receiving blessings issue.

    Thank you for encouraging me to reframe my experiences.

  4. RLD

    Our Sunday School teacher focused on covenants in general and the Abrahamic covenant in particular as a relationship of trust rather than a contract that’s null and void as soon as it is broken. The Old Testament is the story of God relentlessly pursuing his covenant people despite their sins (while not protecting them from the consequences of those sins).

    I liked that because we’ve got so many people who are afraid that they’ll lose their relationship with God if they fall short. But for me personally, it got me thinking that if I am more mindful of the loving, one-on-one relationship I have with Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Parents I’ll probably do better than I am now.

    A note of support for your overall project here: In 2 Nephi 32, Nephi follows up on his exhortation to “press forward” and “endure to the end” by turning to the question of what specifically we should do. But he refuses to answer it, because we need to get those answers ourselves from the Lord. He famously tells us to “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” We usually take that as an exhortation to read the scriptures, but the words of Christ he’s referring to are *spoken*, not written: “Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.”

    I’m firmly convinced that a big part of the Lord’s plan for our gradual progression is our going to church each week and listening to people speak by the power of the Holy Ghost and tell us what we should do (something that happens more often in our meetings than some people think, if not as often as it should). Even if they fall short, if we listen with the intent of learning what the Lord wants us to work on and to do that week, it’s my experience that the Spirit will bring something to our minds, even if it’s only peripherally related to what’s said.

    We take our church meetings and what’s said there far too lightly. Thanks for trying to remedy that.

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