{"id":54514,"date":"2026-09-14T14:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=54514"},"modified":"2026-09-13T21:43:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T03:43:04","slug":"others-in-our-meetings-or-what-did-church-lead-you-to-think-about-yesterday-9-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/others-in-our-meetings-or-what-did-church-lead-you-to-think-about-yesterday-9-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Others in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 9\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Regardless of what we think the ideal Church meeting is like, others are there. While our purpose in going to Church is to worship, we seem to believe that others need to be there. I am not aware of anything that says that we can\u2019t worship by ourselves (and many of our worship practices\u2014prayer, scripture study, meditation, etc. are often done alone), we still gather to worship together. There is something important that happens when we worship together.<\/p>\n

So, how much do we think about others when we think about what should happen in Church? Are we focused on what would be best for us? Or on what would be best for others as well? And if the latter, how do we know what would be better for others? Have we asked? Or just assumed that what we think would be better for everyone?<\/p>\n

Should we expand how we think about Church to make sure that everyone has an uplifting experience? If so, how do we do that?<\/p>\n

In this and in many previous posts in this series, I am trying to suggest that each of us can have better experiences at Church if we change our perspective, seeing not only our own interests, but those of others as well. When we do so, we will find that our own experience is better\u2014simply because we have a broader view of what is going on, and the details behind what others are doing at Church. For some people it might seem that looking at what others are doing at Church might make our experience less, since adding the needs of others might \u201cdumb-down\u201d Church to the \u201clowest common denominator,\u201d I think its actually the opposite, we gain from the differences in opinion, and even from less sophisticated ways of seeing\u2014such approaches often inspire new thoughts about our worship, not unlike when the actions or statements made by children or those unfamiliar with a topic open up new ways of thinking about a topic.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

So, if you aren\u2019t 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? What did others do that you found interesting or different? 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?<\/p>\n

This is the latest invitation for reactions to local meetings, continuing a series of weekly posts that started with my post<\/a> on September 25th, 2025 about how we receive what happens in Church meetings\u2014sermons, lessons and anything else\u2014and enter a conversation with them, magnifying what was said or adding what we think. In these posts I\u2019m 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?<\/p>\n

\n
\n

So please, write down reactions and thoughts to what happened in Church. You might keep your own \u2018spiritual journal\u2019, or, if you like, you can post your reactions below. I\u2019m adding my own reactions and thoughts as a comment to this post \u2014 instead of as a part of this post, because my reactions aren\u2019t any better than anyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s about the good things we can get out of Church, not the negative things that disturbed or upset us. It doesn\u2019t have to be orthodox, traditional or even on topic.<\/p>\n

If you like, make your response in the format, \u201cThey said or did this, and I said or thought that.\u201d Even the things you dislike the most can be turned into lessons for what the gospel teaches we should do.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regardless of what we think the ideal Church meeting is like, others are there. While our purpose in going to Church is to worship, we seem to believe that others need to be there. I am not aware of anything that says that we can\u2019t worship by ourselves (and many of our worship practices\u2014prayer, scripture study, meditation, etc. are often done alone), we still gather to worship together. There is something important that happens when we worship together. So, how much do we think about others when we think about what should happen in Church? Are we focused on what would be best for us? Or on what would be best for others as well? And if the latter, how do we know what would be better for others? Have we asked? Or just assumed that what we think would be better for everyone? Should we expand how we think about Church to make sure that everyone has an uplifting experience? If so, how do we do that? In this and in many previous posts in this series, I am trying to suggest that each of us can have better experiences at Church if we change our perspective, seeing not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":54516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_4453-e1789353905104.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54519,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54514\/revisions\/54519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}