To get back to Designated Conservative’s original point, there’s nothing that compels the WML to teach Gospel Essentials; it is pretty much up to his discretion as to how that’s handled. As in my case, there are some WMLs who enjoy teaching Gospel Essentials and don’t see it as a burden. ..bruce..

I don’t know where you live, but I have seen that some WML’s go on lots of splits with missionaries (taking much time), while others do not. In my experience the Utah WML’s don’t spent much time going on splits, but one’s outside of Utah do spend more time. Perhaps it also depends on how certain people perceive the calling as to how much time they put into it.

Either way, some WML’s enjoy teaching, and others do not. I can see that some would enjoy teaching Gospel Doctrine, while others don’t, so I think choosing to teach is dependent on the WML’s personal preference. In my ward, it seems like there were quite a few stake missionaries along with the WML who rotated teaching. I don’t see anything wrong one way or the other.

Why is it that some wards have their ward mission leader or ward/stake missionaries doing double duty as the Gospel Essentials teacher? Not one other ward member is capable of teaching? The WML and w/s missionaries need to be attending the class with their investigators and new members, but it doesn’t make sense to me that these folks should be asked to teach Sunday School too! These are very demanding callings, after all.

Ah, you misunderstand several things. First, being WML is not “a very demanding calling” — at least, I’ve never found it such. I’ve been one five (5) times over the past 35 years; I’ve also spent several years as an honest-to-goodness Seventy (back when we had 70s quorums on a stake level) and was even a (stake-level) President of Seventy (yes, stakes used to have their own 7 presidents of 70), and I’ve also been a stake/ward missionary on several occasions.

Second, I love teaching. If I had my druthers, I’d spend the rest of my life as a Gospel Doctrine teacher. Next favorite class to teach is Gospel Essentials. Next favorite after that is Course 17. And, based on feedback from class members over the years, I do a good job of teaching. (When I was released as Gospel Doctrine teacher a few years ago, I had a small group of older ward members come up to me afterwards and tell me that they collectively refused to raise their hands for the “release-with-a-vote-of-thanks” because they didn’t want me released. I was quite touched.)

Third, I tend to be very sensitive about what gets said in front of visitors, investigators, and new members. I’m a convert myself, and I listen to every talk and lesson with a part of my mind thinking, “How would I react to this if I were an investigator or new member?” I often have occasion to wince. I keep that in mind whenever I talk or teach.

So my teaching Gospel Essentials is part self-indulgence and part protectiveness towards the non-members, new members, and newly active members who attend the class. I could very easily have someone else do it, but I don’t want to. There’s a small set of people I will turn the class over to when I have to be out of town, and that’s about it. ..bruce..

Please explain this to me….

1) To partake of the Sacrament. This really is the begin and end of my week, my self-examination and reset point.

2) To be of service to others, which currently means teaching the Gospel Essentials class (as ward mission leader).

3) To see all my closest friends here in Parker, viz., the ward members. I really do love them dearly, and vice versa. My wife and I had about 100 of them over for dinner last Saturday (no, really), along with some of our neighbors and about 20 people (co-workers and customers) from Curves, where Sandra works. We all had a blast.

..bruce..

I now know,from bitter experience,how many attend with broken and hopeless hearts.I try hard to be a friend in the few moments of energy I have.There’s no reason for me to assume this may be my last sacrament meeting,but it could be nevertheless.I’ve spent thirty years alongside these souls.Spent too much time disappointed in other’s behaviour,and not enough time appreciating their struggle.

I try to compliment at least one young family on how great or creative their kids are-anyhow it’s true.

I love the old folk,they’re always so complimentary,and grateful to be spoken to.How bad is that.I’d like to change that.

Inactives.It really,really is good to see them.I know where they’re coming from.It’s OK with me.I’d love to talk about it.

Investigators.Always the meek of the earth.Don’t you just love those missionaries naivete?More interesting people who i would maybe choose never to meet.What an education.

Sorry guys,I think I may just be mellowing.I hope God likes His handiwork.

On the other hand, my Nursing Home ward talked an awful lot about death. The temple attendance was excellent, and there were a few older members caught snoring during sacrament meeting. Every ward is different–I’d love some peace and quiet during sacrament again–we have 200 primary age children in my current ward–it’s much noisier than the Nursing Home Ward.

I went to a singles ward (well, student ward for college kids, but it was surreal), and I will remark that Sunday School was much better from my home ward, but priesthood was WEIRD. It was all about going on missions, for people who hadn’t gone mixed in with advice from those who had gone mixed in with advice about finding a wife ASAP, etc., It was freaky to see some guy who was only like…a senior (ok, so he’s actually older than a regular senior, because of the mission), who was married and had a kid and was lecturing us about getting married now and not waiting until after establishing a career.

I sat there and was like D:.

Then the bishop got on me for being at the wrong ward (two student wards for the university), and we worked out an arrangement so I could get a ride with someone else, but that fell through with a few weeks of being stood up LOL.

and that’s when I realized how much stuff you can get done in a 3 hr block on a Sunday.

But I will say that but for the marry-now-ask-questions-later weird, I agree about the better preparation.

I also enjoy listening to my kids tell me about the things they learned in primary. I think these lessons are incredibly valuable to help them understand right and wrong.

Ok, so maybe there is value in going to church to stir it up and watch all the TBM stare with their mouths open?? Ok, maybe that isn’t a virtuous reason to go to church after all (even if that sounds deviously fun to me!).

I’m sure there would be no long-lasting value to that motivation.

Interesting post. I can relate to your experience and understand how you feel.

I have a great deal of respect for your attitude and willingness to accept the Bishop’s decision. I don’t agree with his decision, but I sustain decision I don’t like because to do otherwise creates dissension and contention in my heart and the Lord has warned us that that is the greater concern (3 Nephi 11:28-30).

The Bloggernacle is composed of many who cannot understand this simple lesson. They allow their hearts to get hard and become critical of those things that matter least, and let those things that matter most slip away from them. We need to do whatever it takes to keep our hearts in tune with the Spirit. It can be very difficult to do and requires repentance, faith, humility, and persistence.

Heber13, maybe I’m stone cold-hearted, lol, but no, I don’t really see much value there. Or rather, I don’t see much value that couldn’t be achieved elsewhere, or value that is persuasive. If I taught, participated, and interacted, I would probably get axed for heresy (Mormon Heretic likes to talk about heresy like “using non-KJV Bibles” and that makes me chuckle) and raising seeds of doubt and dissent.

On the other hand, don’t you see there is value in going to church so you can serve others in a calling (teaching, participating in class, interacting with others)?

I’m with you. I still feel an importance of the sacrament each week, the rest is fluff.

Because I have 4 kids, I feel we benefit as a family by going together. They learn things, we talk about lessons over the dinner table, and it is a good to be doing as a family.

I NEVER feel bad when I don’t go, but there are some Sundays I feel better having been there.

Why do/don’t you go to church?
I don’t go to church because I don’t feel it’s important. I don’t feel I’m learning anything there, particularly. Or rather, what I am learning is not related to the gospel. If I enjoy something in church, it’s some kind of gossip or social news I’ve found, or something stupid/funny someone said. I’ve said this before, but if the church were like the Bloggernacle, I think things would be more fun as far as religion actually goes.

For the non-religious types, does the Bible/BoM/Koran trouble you?
Not really. I know a lot of people who are really bothered by a lot of things in the scripture, but I’m not. Rather, what gets me about the scriptures is that to me, it is either boring or intensely inconsequential to my life. If something in the Bible/BoM/Koran/other religious text bothers me, it’s actually because I’ve started reading in that day-dreaming kind of way, where I’m not really thinking about the words on the text, but I’m going on a tangent. Like, if I see something about steel in the BoM, I’ll think, “Wow, that BoM guy must’ve been really misinformed to think it was steel.” and then I’ll go, “unless it was just Joseph Smith’s translating.” and then that’ll go off on a tangent of what it means to translate, etc., and I’ll want to read more about translation. From there, I’m not really in the mood to read scriptures and it’s difficult to get back into things.

Does religion in general trouble you?
Not really (or maybe), but for different reasons. I think that religion doesn’t trouble me because I already recognize that it is humane. So, it’s not like God is doing stupid things. It’s that people are doing stupid things. And I think people have a track record of doing stupid things so it doesn’t really faze me.

Are my reasons good/bad/off-base?
I think it all gets down to one thing. If you want to go to church and go, you have good reasons. If you don’t want to go to church and don’t go, you have good reasons. Whatever it is that makes you, not your mom or dad, not your bishop, not the Lord, not the Prophet, but makes YOU want to go to church is enough.

Funny, similar thing happened to me. I basically announced in class: “Okay, I’m not going to use non-KJV texts anymore. But if there is a scripture that I feel is particularly twisty or confusing, I’m going to call on random people to explain them in plain English, so I can be sure we all understand before we move on.” I was still frustrated but that solution at least helped me meet my teaching objectives (to study and understand the Word, and bring people closer to Christ).

As for your question: I go to Church 1) because I have to, in order to remain a member in good standing, and 2) to fulfill my calling. When I’m between callings (say, after moving into a ward) my attendance has become a bit spotty from time to time. I’ve only ever been in 2 or 3 wards where the fellowship was strong enough for me to consider that a reason for going.

Only rarely have I actually felt closer to the Savior as a result of going to Church. I’m one of those lunatic fringe types who’d rather take the Sacrament outdoors and then spend Sunday doing community service work than in Churn.