Starting in January 2019 we will have 2 hour church. Sacrament meeting each week followed by primary each week and alternating weeks of Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society with the bishop directing 5th Sunday meetings.
Decoupling FHE from Monday nights.
There will be a resource for gospel teaching provided to each household before then.
I wish I had been free to focus on this talk. I missed the details of the about changes.
To accomplish these purposes—described by and under the direction of President Russell M. Nelson and pursuant to the decision of the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—the Sunday meeting schedule will be adjusted in the following ways, beginning in January 2019.
The Sunday Church meetings will consist of a 60-minute sacrament meeting each Sunday, focused on the Savior, the ordinance of the sacrament, and spiritual messages. After time for transition to classes, Church members will attend a 50-minute class that will alternate each Sunday:
- Sunday School will be held on the first and third Sundays of the month.
- Priesthood quorums, Relief Society, and Young Women meetings will be held on the second and fourth Sundays.
- Meetings on the fifth Sunday will be under the direction of the bishop.
Primary will be held each week during this same 50-minute period and will include singing time and classes.
Somehow I failed to notice that President Nelson didn’t announce that we would have a 2 hour church schedule. He left even that fundamental detail to Elder Cook. I might have expected that he would announce that Sunday meetings would be 2 hours and then let Elder Cook describe how the 2 hours would be allocated.
With respect to the Sunday meeting schedule, the senior leaders of the Church have been aware for many years that for some of our precious members, a three-hour Sunday schedule at church can be difficult. This is particularly true for parents with small children, Primary children, elderly members, new converts, and others.
But there is so much more to this adjustment than just shortening the Sunday meetinghouse schedule. President Nelson has acknowledged with gratitude how much is being accomplished as a result of your faithfulness to previous invitations. He and the entire leadership of the Church desire to bring greater gospel joy—to parents, children, youth, singles, the elderly, new converts, and those people the missionaries are teaching—through a home-centered, Church-supported, balanced effort. The purposes and blessings associated with this adjustment and other recent changes include the following:
- Deepening conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthening faith in Them.
- Strengthening individuals and families through home-centered, Church-supported curriculum that contributes to joyful gospel living.
- Honoring the Sabbath day, with a focus on the ordinance of the sacrament.
- Helping all of Heavenly Father’s children on both sides of the veil through missionary work and receiving ordinances and covenants and blessings of the temple.
This Sunday schedule allows more time for a home evening and to study the gospel at home on Sunday or at other times as individuals and families may choose. A family activity night could be held on Monday or at other times. To this end, leaders should continue to keep Monday evenings free from Church meetings and activities. However, time spent in home evening, gospel study, and activities for individuals and families may be scheduled according to their individual circumstances.
Family and individual gospel study at home will be significantly enhanced by a harmonized curriculum and a new Come, Follow Me resource for individuals and families that is coordinated with what is being taught in Sunday School and Primary. In January, the Church’s youth and adult Sunday School and Primary classes will be studying the New Testament. The new home-study Come, Follow Me resource for individuals and families—also covering the New Testament—is designed to help members learn the gospel in the home. …
The new Primary Come, Follow Me lessons taught in church will follow the same weekly schedule. The adult and youth Sunday School classes on the first and third Sundays will be coordinated so that they will support the new Come, Follow Me home resource.
I can only imagine the strength that can come by having the whole family studying the same topics each week so that they can grow together rather than being broken by age groups.
World conditions increasingly require deepening individual conversion to and strengthening faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Atonement. The Lord has prepared us, line upon line, for the perilous times that we now face. In recent years, the Lord has guided us to address related core concerns, including:
- Honoring the Sabbath day and the sacred ordinance of the sacrament has again been emphasized for the last three years.
- Under the bishop’s direction, strengthened elders quorums and Relief Societies are focused on the purpose and divinely appointed responsibilities of the Church and helping members make and keep sacred covenants.
- Ministering in a higher and holier way is being joyfully adopted.
- Beginning with the end in mind, temple covenants and family history service are becoming a purposeful part of the covenant path.
The adjustment announced this morning is yet another example of guidance for the challenges of our day.
In the home-centered, Church-supported portion of this adjustment, there is flexibility for each individual and family to determine prayerfully how and when it will be implemented. For example, while this will greatly bless all families, based on local needs it would be completely appropriate for young singles, single adults, single parents, part-member families, new members, and others to gather in groups outside the normal Sunday worship services to enjoy gospel sociality and be strengthened by studying together the home-centered, Church-supported resource. This would be accomplished informally by those who so desire.
In many parts of the world, people choose to stay at the meetinghouse after the normal Sunday schedule to enjoy social relationships. There is nothing in this announced adjustment that would interfere with this wonderful and rewarding practice in any way.
Doing this greatly strengthened my group of friends in high school. Now, more than 20 years later it is clear that we were inspired. Any of us could have said 15 years ago that this practice was inspired.
To help members prepare for the Sabbath, some wards already send an informative email, text, or social media message midweek. In view of this adjustment, we strongly recommend this type of communication. These invitations will remind the members of the Sunday meeting schedule for that week, including the upcoming class lesson topic, and support continuing gospel conversation at home. In addition, the adult meetings on Sunday will also provide information to connect church and home study each week.
The goal of these adjustments is to obtain a deep and lasting conversion of adults and the rising generation. The first page of the individual and family resource points out: “The aim of all gospel learning and teaching is to deepen our conversion and help us become more like Jesus Christ. … This means relying on Christ to change our hearts.” This is assisted by reaching “beyond a classroom into an individual’s heart and home. It requires consistent, daily efforts to understand and live the gospel. True conversion requires the influence of the Holy Ghost.”
The most important goal and ultimate blessing of deep and lasting conversion is worthily receiving the covenants and ordinances of the covenant pathway.
We trust you to counsel together and to seek revelation for implementing these adjustments—while not looking beyond the mark or trying to regiment individuals or families. Additional information will be shared in upcoming communications, including a First Presidency letter and enclosure.
Last week I was called to be a counselor in the Sunday School presidency. With that in my head, this statement about selling revelation in implementing these adjustments strikes close to home even more than just as a parent for my own family.
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