Church schedule changing - 25 mins for Sunday school and auxiliaries

[drumdude]

https://www.youtube.com/live/JyEE4SrmQiA

The new schedule this fall will be:

1 hour of sacrament meeting
5 minute break
25 minutes of Sunday school
5 minute break
25 minutes of priesthood/relief society

I’m guessing in a few years it will be a single sacrament meeting. This is essentially a tacit acknowledgement that there isn’t enough meat to fill a full hour during these post-sacrament dull and boring meetings.

[Fence Sitter]

I don’t really understand this change. They still have the same amount of time to fill, but instead of alternating Sunday School with Priesthood/Relief Society every other week, both meetings now happen every week in a shortened format.

It almost feels like an attempt to boost attendance by requiring those who conduct or teach to be there every week. Beyond that, it doesn’t make much sense to me. How much can someone realistically learn from a 15–20 minute lesson?

[drumdude]

I don’t really understand this change. They still have the same amount of time to fill, but instead of alternating Sunday School with Priesthood/Relief Society every other week, both meetings now happen every week in a shortened format.

It almost feels like an attempt to boost attendance by requiring those who conduct or teach to be there every week. Beyond that, it doesn’t make much sense to me. How much can someone realistically learn from a 15–20 minute lesson?

Many are speculating it’s intended to give the speaker an easy 15 minute lecture, straight out of the lesson manual, deliberately leaving little/no room for deep discussion or questions at the end.

The church continues to be a mile wide and an inch deep.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

It feels a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s hard to imagine that twenty-five minutes is enough time for real fellowship or learning. It sure seems like this is just a desperate attempt from Dallas Oaks to keep people in the building while the ship slowly sinks and the band plays on.

[I Have Questions]

It feels a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s hard to imagine that twenty-five minutes is enough time for real fellowship or learning. It sure seems like this is just a desperate attempt from Dallas Oaks to keep people in the building while the ship slowly sinks and the band plays on.

But it won’t be 25 minutes. Sacrament meeting will over run, it will take longer than five minutes to get the kids to primary etc after Sacrament meeting, then you’ve got opening and closing prayers…you’ll be lucky to have 10 minutes actual lesson time for Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society. It’s another step towards destroying any sense of ward cohesion and community.

[sock puppet]

https://www.youtube.com/live/JyEE4SrmQiA

The new schedule this fall will be:

1 hour of sacrament meeting
5 minute break
25 minutes of Sunday school
5 minute break
25 minutes of priesthood/relief society

I’m guessing in a few years it will be a single sacrament meeting. This is essentially a tacit acknowledgement that there isn’t enough meat to fill a full hour during these post-sacrament dull and boring meetings.

And they can get home in time to pull the roast out of the oven before it overcooks.

[sock puppet]

Maybe when they weekly alternated between Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society, etc. attendance during off weeks by leaders and teachers was low. This way, it makes the "church job" weekly again.

[I Have Questions]

Church Announcement

“Gathering weekly in every class helps deepen gospel learning by connecting it more closely to personal and family study,” said President Paul V. Johnson, Sunday School General President. “It also enhances the spiritual support that members get.”

Unfortunately Brother Johnson doesn’t go on to explain how the changed schedule connects the lessens more closely to personal and family study, more so than alternating the Sunday School part. Are members struggling to hold their learned knowledge across two weeks?

And if that is the case, why did they instigate an alternate week schedule in the first place? Was the inspired decision behind the two hour schedule less inspired than this change? What are the metrics that God could not foresee when taking an hour off the three hour Sunday schedule?

This feels like a totally unnecessary change that will make the Sunday School leadership group feel great about themselves, but will make no material difference to anyone at all local level, other than some people having to teach a lesson every week instead of every other week.

[malkie]

Church Announcement

“Gathering weekly in every class helps deepen gospel learning by connecting it more closely to personal and family study,” said President Paul V. Johnson, Sunday School General President. “It also enhances the spiritual support that members get.”

Unfortunately Brother Johnson doesn’t go on to explain how the changed schedule connects the lessens more closely to personal and family study, more so than alternating the Sunday School part. Are members struggling to hold their learned knowledge across two weeks?

And if that is the case, why did they instigate an alternate week schedule in the first place? Was the inspired decision behind the two hour schedule less inspired than this change? What are the metrics that God could not foresee when taking an hour off the three hour Sunday schedule?

This feels like a totally unnecessary change that will make the Sunday School leadership group feel great about themselves, but will make no material difference to anyone at all local level, other than some people having to teach a lesson every week instead of every other week.

Brother Johnson doesn’t need to explain anything. The faithful will hear, obey, and opine how wonderful it is to have modern-day revelation, while the cynical and jaded (looking at you, IHQ ) will never be satisfied, no matter what improvements the church makes in people's lives.

In any case, times have changed and the church changes to meet the new challenges. Or Mormon god was testing us. Or something else. Don't you know by now‽‽

[I Have Questions]

You are probably right malkie, but I wonder what the measures of success are. Or will it be labelled a success regardless of outcomes?