Twice a year, we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for a two day event called General Conference. It’s history goes back to the very beginnings of the Church. Two months after the formation of the Church, it held it’s first General Conference at the Whitmer home. 30 members were in attendance, the entire Church at that time. So, now, in keeping with that tradition, the entire Church meets together in April and October to hear from the General Leadership of the Church. Though the ability of the entire Church to actually meet together is not possible. So modern technology has been employed to reach a worldwide audience.
First, the medium of paper was used to disseminate the business and messages of General Conference. than radio was the means of transmitting General Conference to the members of the Church on a worldwide basis. And now, television and the Internet are the preferred methods. In fact, with recorders and DVRs, you don’t even have to attend Conference during the weekend it is happening. Not that this is anything new, but many Church members now view Conference weekend as a weekend away from Church altogether. In some ways, it is good to vary the routine a bit anyway and have a different type of expereince with General Conference then our regular Sacrament and other meetings.
President David O McKay stated the modern objectives of General Conference in 1954:
(1) to inform the membership of general conditions of the Church- including whether it is progressing or retrogressing, and of its economic, ecclesiastic, and spiritual status;
(2) to commend true merit;
(3) to express gratitude for divine guidance;
(4) to give instruction in principles, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel;
(5) to proclaim the restoration, with divine authority to administer in all the ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to declare, quoting the Apostle Peter, that there is none other name under heaven given among men than Jesus Christ whereby we may be saved (Acts 4:12);
(6) to admonish and inspire to continue in greater activity (Improvement Era (Dec. 1954), p. 872)
I enjoy General Conference now more than I used to as a new member. I understand more what it is about. I remember in the first few years after I joined the Church, sitting in the darkness of the chapel, wondering why they were talking about the same things we talked about every Sunday. And it seemed that every Conference, they basically said the same things again. But now, I understand better the messages I hear and how they apply to me. We get to hear from our Prophet, the Apostles and other General Church Leaders. Some talks are good, some not as good. Some are truly inspiring, some not so much. I love the music and I just enjoy the overall experience.
Of course, there is nothing like being there in person. But I also enjoy being able to sit in my home and through the modern technology of our time, watch with my family in comfortable clothes and comfortable surroundings. I like the time off. And I also like gathering with my brethren at the Chapel to watch Priesthood and they give us ice cream at the end, which ain’t a bad deal.
So what will you be doing tomorrow?
Wheat & Tares 
I always like to point out that my week just doesn’t go as well after conference because I wasn’t able to take the sacrament and renew my covenants.
mormon metamucil, that sounds either quite superstitious or rather like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me.
As for me and my house, we welcome the interruption to our “regularly scheduled programming”.
Watching all four general sessions at home, thanks to Al Gore & his internet. 😉
Will make the trip to the stake center for ice cream with my son prior to the PH session.
I’ll be working on my Sunday School lesson. We don’t get our mini-break from church until one week later here in Asia. I plan to read the ‘nacle chatter for highlights and lowlights, and then watch via internet based on a prioritization next weekend. Since I’ll be talks only, no prayers, hymns or administrative stuff, I’m thinking 22 mins tops.
General Conference is a time to serve. Recently, I found a way for me and other mothers to serve right from home (even while watching conference). Check out helpinghandsbank.com
I’ll make it to priesthood session, but multiple kids soccer games will occupy the morning. So, I’ll probably be checking the updates at BCC when I can. Will the rumored temple in France be announced??
I am thinking 4 new temples, Paris being one. Can’t tell you the others, maybe Cedar City, another African and perhaps another LATAM?
Perhaps an announcement about the mystery of the Provo Tabernacle property?
I’ll be listening to conference on the internet while doing housework. Which, if certain comments over at Mormon Mentality are to be believed, apparently means I don’t love Jesus or something.
Since GC is usually carried on the “lower” analog channels (Comcast serving Sacramento), I can have it on and putter about in the garage. Of course, with PH being kept “old school”, I have to get smartened up and wear a tie and go to the Stake Center. I miss taking my sons; they’ve grown and gone. My middle son was the last; we did Spring ’09, before he went to BYU, and he got more than the usual Baskin&Robbins – he wangled the whole shebang at Dairy Queen!
Of course, the well-meaning but often clueless brethren will harp and pontificate about the same things. So I propose that we confuse the ‘heck’ outta them by actually HEEDING their words…e.g., pay your tithes, be nice to your wife and kids, lay off the booze and porn, etc, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseam…
As for new temples, I’ll speculate…
1. Nairobi, Kenya
2. Winnemucca, NV
3. Williamsburg, VA
4. Bakersfield, CA
5. Holladay, UT
6. Dublin, Eire
7. Eugene, OR
Je croye que Le Temple du Paris, France etait announcee! (My French is horrible!)
“sitting in the darkness of the chapel, wondering why they were talking about the same things we talked about every Sunday. And it seemed that every Conference, they basically said the same things again. But now, I understand better the messages I hear and how they apply to me.”
‘better understanding’? Is that what we are calling indoctrination now then? They do essentially say the same things every year, I think now we are all used to it and expect it through habitualisation.
Jake,
“I think now we are all used to it and expect it through habitualisation.”
Speak for yourself. I do not see it that way. I personalize it for me.
jeff and rigel, nice predictions!
pretty close, I’d say.
#11 – A big, fat, “O-FER!” on the temple sites!
#17 On the plus side Douglas, I understood your french, and agree with you. The Paris temple had already been announced in French papers when the church bought some land in Versailles.
It’s amazes me that in these economically difficult times that the pace keeps up with building temples. AFAIK, the Church doesn’t whip out the “plastic”, they are funded before the announcement!
On a further note, I can remember almost thirty years ago there was a severe recession and the mission length for young men was cut from 24 to 18 months. A concession to hard-pressed families. It wouldn’t necessarily surprise me if there had to be a period of “retrenchment”, or at least, say, a three to five year moratorium on Temple building, but thus far, we’re still rolling. Ain’t it grand…
David O. McKay also had the financial accounting open and reported on at that time. Now they hide it. You don’t hide it from members unless you are afraid of what it shows.