Sunday School

Do you always enjoy your church callings, or sometimes do you find that it’s just one of those days? A few weeks ago I was having one of those days with Primary. As a counsellor in the primary presidency my responsibilities are the teachers and music. We have great teachers, who always let me know [...]

Brother Jake writes a guest post (AND makes a video!) on the assumed “simplicity” of the gospel. Is it really that simple though?

Today one of my friends, who is serving as a counselor in a bishopric for a Mormon Church, told me he couldn’t hang out this weekend because of his schedule with a church assignment.  I jokingly told him that the main reason I keep moving around is to avoid getting a “big” church calling.  I’ll [...]

We believe in meetings.  We believe in long meetings, many meetings, and meetings about meetings.  We believe in opening meetings with a prayer, a song, a devotional thoughts, reading of the last meeting’s minutes, and then closing with a prayer and a song.  Actual meeting optional. How do you feel about the 3 hour block? [...]

A former LDS prophet and president of the church, George Albert Smith, stated the following: We might learn a lesson from the ant. He harvests his supplies when they are available and stores them up against the day when it would not be possible to obtain them. The result is that his larder is usually [...]

We all know the Primary song.  What’s your view on Nephi? Discuss.

I remember when they added “I Am a Child of God” to the hymn book.  I felt like I had already graduated from Primary, and suddenly I was back again, as if I were Adam Sandler being sent back to first grade.  For some, I’m sure the addition was nostalgic.  The song is not a [...]

I always find it remarkable from sacrament how comfortable we are to ascribe diabolic motives and influence to the actions of others. Perhaps this is because there is a cosmic war between the devils and angels being waged in the air around us to which we are oblivious.  If we are being deceived and are [...]

This weeks Sunday School lesson was meant to start with a description of how Satan markets misery to people. As the manual says: “answers may include that he could make misery look appealing or that he could trick people into thinking that his product will bring happiness instead of misery.” Later in the lesson it [...]

It is not often that I am prone to blog about scriptures and how they can inspire us. I generally find blogs that are a form of scriptural exegesis rather dull. If I want insipid spiritual thoughts full of sentimentality and devoid of substance I have the Ensign for that, or if I want to [...]

When we do a really careful study of what JS taught about God and gods, when we understand the history of God, and when we understand the nature of God as presented by Jesus in what little we have of his authentic teachings, we see that God is not the platonic ideal.  The LDS answer [...]

A series of alternate Sunday School lessons should include, for the year on the Doctrine and Covenants, some of the more significant teachings of Brigham Young. I thought of that as I was listening to a friend of mine who was serving on the board of a JRCLS chapter.  She came into a meeting of [...]

If we are going to have discussions about doctrine and about things that matter or that truly affect us, it would not hurt to have one on abortion. . . “The Church opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience. Members must not submit to, perform, encourage, pay for, or arrange for an abortion. The [...]