3-hour meeting block: Too long or not long enough?


Vort
 Share

Recommended Posts

It seems to me that the block makes for less meeting time for even the leaders. Having the old break in the middle of the day then coming back and then having at least two more meetings during the week adds up to a lot of travel for any large area wards. I suspect most of them waited around in town till the second meeting so in essence making it a few hours longer than now. Between each session you get up, move around, have time for water and rr so its not like sitting for 3 hours straight.

I fail to see where the problem is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I have heard a surprising (to me) number of Latter-day Saints over the past decade express the idea that a three-hour meeting block is "too long". As a husband, father, and brother in the gospel who has raised and is raising five children from childhood to adulthood in the Church, I find three hours to be, if anything, far too short a time to spend among my fellow Saints. I gain strength from interacting with them and appreciate the opportunity to serve. To me, Church time seems like a small sample of living in Zion.

When I was deacon-aged and younger, we actually spent more time in Church than today, certainly on a weekly basis. We had Sunday School and Priesthood meeting in the morning, then went home and came back for sacrament meeting in the afternoon. We also had MIA during the week, my mother had Relief Society on Tuesday, and in general it just seemed like we were more involved in Church activities.

I know that the Brethren, led by Elder Packer, worked very hard in the '80s and '90s to do away with much of this meeting overscheduling, and I think the Church is better off for it, so don't think I'm complaining. I am not. But the three-hour meeting block, which was being used by those of us meeting in remote areas where we had to drive 45 minutes or more to get to Church long before it became general policy, seems to be a great blessing.

Anyone else think the current meeting format is a great thing and wonder at the negativity that comes from some quarters? Or do I stand alone (again)?

whether it feels like too much or too little will depend a lot on how well you are in tune witht the spirit for that day.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The block has never bothered me ... I have seen both sides and with price of gas this works great. However we are on the 1-4 PM shift this year ... being a morning person I can't wait until we change back in January! I have to admit tho that after SS with 10 14-18 year olds by the time RS rolls around I am some days more than ready for a nap!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those that do not like the block meeting schedule: I remember in my youth, living in Utah within walking distance of the ward meeting house. But one of my not so found memories was a 6 hour sacrament meeting. Other than taking forever I do not remember anything about the meeting with one painful exception - my parents would not let me go to the bathroom.

The Traveler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm old!!! Older than dirt! I grew up going to Sunday School at 9am, then back for Sacrament Meeting at 4pm and sometimes it was dark when we got out. Primary was during the week. Mutual was during the week too and our building was behind the local drive-in. :D Yes, we sat on the front steps and watched the movies. The Stake President as the drive-in owner to not show R rated movies on mutual nights.

We were always in meetings, going to meetings, planning meetings. etc. The three hour block is a breeze. Even with my grandson its been a breeze. We're on the 9-12 schedule now which is easier. But I'm ready for a nap by 12:15 pm. :) The 1-4pm schedule really ruined nap time....but not because it was too long...because it was 1-4pm. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Between: Bishopric meeting, Ward Council, the 3 hour Block, and once or twice a month home teaching(depending on how I can arrange it) and then the occasional fireside, my Sundays are shot -- I know, I know, blessings in Heaven and all that but you know, I'd rather have the family time myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Church Unveils "Slow-Track" Program

SALT LAKE CITY

In order to better meet the needs of "our most average members," church representative Howard S. Jeppeson announced the creation of a new slow-track membership program. "This program caters to those members of the church who may not be top-level celestial material but who are still willing to put in a nominal effort toward their own salvation," he said.

"

How about the Church of Jesus Christ of the Telestial Kingdom? Sign me up!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I first heard three hours I didn't think I would be able to bear it, none to three is a jump. Now I only feel the spirit strongly when I attend for three hours, I feel high. Although sometimes I dread initially going, after Sacrament I desire to stay for the remaining classes.

I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to take 3 hours, but I look forward to Sunday School so I can learn more about the BoM this year, and I like RS; it's like an hour of women's therapy with a lesson thrown in for good measure. Sacrament Meeting is fine, but I could do without testimonies on Fast Sunday. What has taken getting used to for me is all the singing - and singing all the verses. Whew!

And to show that there's no pleasing me, I complained when I had to get up early to start at 9:30, and now that we start at 11:30, I complain that it breaks up my day too much. By time I get home and have a snack, it's time to start dinner or have a home teacher visit and usually I have to review work before class or meetings on Monday. It's not a major complaint, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't find something to complain about. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're starting at 8:30 this year (3 wards in the building) that's too early. I'm a night person.

Brutal! I usually go to bed at 2 a.m. Even when I knew I had to get up for church the next day, I still couldn't break my schedule. If I went to bed early, I'd be awake until 2 anyway. Getting up for an 8:30 start would be killer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't mind the three hour block although it can get terribly boring if you have a teacher reading from the manual during the whole class with little room for participation. Sometimes you have no other choice but to sacrifice yourself for a bit and eat some M&M's to keep you from falling asleep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're starting at 8:30 this year (3 wards in the building) that's too early. I'm a night person.

Huh. We have 3 in ours building, but we stagger them with 9am, 11am, and 1pm start times. Yeah, there's an hour overlap, but it works out. But I would rather start at 8:30 than end at 5 or even 6pm like some Utah County wards do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Church Unveils "Slow-Track" Program

SALT LAKE CITY

In order to better meet the needs of "our most average members," church representative Howard S. Jeppeson announced the creation of a new slow-track membership program. "This program caters to those members of the church who may not be top-level celestial material but who are still willing to put in a nominal effort toward their own salvation," he said.

The slow-track program includes the same components of normal church membership, but at a more relaxed pace. Members who sign on for the program are required to read scriptures and have personal and family prayer once a week, attend church once a month, visit teach or home teach four times a year, and watch one session of general conference every other year. If slow-track members can commit to these requirements for five years, they can earn a temple recommend stamped with an S for "slow track," after which they are expected to attend the temple semiannually. According to Jeppeson, the church may create a shorter, condensed version of the temple ceremony for S-track members "in order to better accommodate those members' shorter attention spans and lower levels of ambition."

Social historian Jane Schippen, PhD, a long-time scholarly observer of Mormon society, hails the new slow-track program. "Mormonism pays a great deal of attention to its high achievers, like those who are stake president before they turn forty or women who have eight children and maintain a spotless house," she observed. Similarly, she continued, "Mormons spend a lot of time and energy worrying about those on the other end of the spectrum, the less-actives." She sees the slow-track program as "a way to acknowledge and honor the vast majority of Mormons, those who will never hold high positions of leadership but who are nevertheless active - the sloggers, if you will."

Logan Stake president Gary L. Hackett agrees with Schippen and says that the new slow-track program "will prod the lazy ones into progressing at least a little bit, which is an improvement." He estimates that implementing the slow track will cut administrative tasks, such as nagging phone calls to complete home or visiting teaching, by as much as 75 percent. "It's about time we recognized that not everyone in the church is that top ten percent of the celestial kingdom material," he notes. "And, really, that's okay. I mean the bottom two levels of the celestial kingdom are supposed to be pretty good too, right?"

Most members seem happy with the soon-to-be-implemented system. "Let's face it," says local member Larry K. Whiting. "I'm not cut out for this high-paced, pressure-oriented Mormon lifestyle. I mean, home teaching four families every month? The scheduling alone takes way too much time. And then I have to go over there and pretend I care about these people when I'd rather be home watching ESPN? Give me the slow-track program any day." Local member Kendra Koenig agrees. "Do you know how much fun it is trying to roust five kids out of bed for family scripture study and prayer at 6:30 AM? I am sick to death of nagging them about it, and you can believe it's not doing our family harmony any good." She praised the slow-track system for offering a more realistic temple-attendance schedule. "Like anyone who has a life can manage to get out there twice a month? This slow-track program is the answer to my infrequent prayers."

i sincerely hope the church isnt considering this. the amount of fail present in this idea is mind boggling. while were at it lets just make baptism option good grief. im shocked only one other poster has made mention of this. if this is implemented i suspect there will be a massive shift in leadership as clearly those general authorities have lost touch with anything resembling the scriptures which clearly teach to not settle for mediocrity and that eternal life should be the goal in addition to the fact every current general authority would be a clear cut example of hypocrite the likes not even a devout LDS member could even try and deny and still remain honest.

geez the amount of fail involved is horrible...to quote the all mighty internet OH NOEZ DA HORRORZ I HAZ 2 DO HARD WORK!!!!

on topic....ive never had the block meetings. but something clearly should be done. by the third hour you are lucky to get half the original attendance. home teaching is a failure on nearly all levels and ive never been to a ward that wasnt begging people to home teach/visit teach. the meetings can get downright insane i too remeber a dad as a stake president that spent all day sunday from the crack of dawn to 9 at night or later in meetings. then to turn around and work 6 days a week. and the sunday school block is often cluttered with like 6 different class options. we currently have...gospel doctrine, mission prep, temple prep, family research, gospel principle and probably one or two more i cant remeber. its impossible to round up people in every class and get them all there on time and ya know find where the room should be taught and is the teacher there today. its chaotic and crazy. then you have to get people to stop socializing and goto class.

to put it bluntly in my experience church meetings are chaotic and all over the map with by the end of the three hour block maybe and that is on good days half the original attendance is there and this also has to factor in not everyone attended church that day.

factor in an ADHD TV riddled society and a three hour attention span is a tough one. call us youth crybabies but this is a fact that must be dealt with(older adults are certainly guilty too). the age of IPhones is certainly making this even worse as in every class someone or several people more than likely are playing on their stupid phones. yes i know some are using them to read scriptures and that is fine but a lot of people arent.

devoting just three hours to The Lord isnt enough thats for sure...but we can barely manage to devote three hours to Him so adding more certainly isnt the answer. since well in addition to failing epically at home teaching(im guilty....in fairness my home teaching partner has fallen off the map and my people im supposed to teach never get back in touch with me) but people probably dont scriputure study like they should(guilty its a constant daily struggle for some odd reason), daily prayer(ok im not guilty yay lol), living the gospel(i think im not too guilty here but i can see how this is hard), a whole host of other things.

really i think the issue should be we have these guys/girls for at least ONE HOUR....how can we get them to stay for 2 more and in addition to that how can we get these people to live the gospel(you know do the stuff the scriptures says to do when they leave on sunday) and stay active???? this could invoke missionary work from active members so this wont just be for half active or less people. it should certainly carry the theme of repentence which applies to us all. and for the already active this should at least satisfy our ADHD by doing something different for a while.

oh and let met stress singles wards and family wards are different beasts and should be tailored to different audiences. a 20 year old likely doesnt want to hear a lesson on children just yet just in case anyone thought i might not being taking this into account.

general conference this weekend they went on about the effectiveness of the church...great....where is the effectiveness of our sunday meetings? its clearly lost on me but perhaps im letting personal experience get in the way of the hard facts so perhaps someone can explain it?

and one other thing. night people vs morning people. some of us cant get up at 8 AM some of us can. i think its important we can attend church at a time that is best for us. whether this is rampant insomnia, night classes, night shifts, morning classes, morning shifts and just a personality difference. if you stick a night person in the 8 AM ward...good luck with that youve likely lost him/her for a year. like wise a morning person probably wont like a 2 -5 ward too much and you might lose him/her. considering every other facet of society has a night person version and a morning person version i dont see why we cant have night church and morning church.

good topic addresses an issue i think has long since needed to be addressed. hopefully the GA's will start cranking out the changes neccessary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

on topic....ive never had the block meetings. but something clearly should be done. by the third hour you are lucky to get half the original attendance. home teaching is a failure on nearly all levels and ive never been to a ward that wasnt begging people to home teach/visit teach. the meetings can get downright insane i too remeber a dad as a stake president that spent all day sunday from the crack of dawn to 9 at night or later in meetings. then to turn around and work 6 days a week. and the sunday school block is often cluttered with like 6 different class options. we currently have...gospel doctrine, mission prep, temple prep, family research, gospel principle and probably one or two more i cant remeber. its impossible to round up people in every class and get them all there on time and ya know find where the room should be taught and is the teacher there today. its chaotic and crazy. then you have to get people to stop socializing and goto class.

I'm a little confused. You mentioned in the first sentence you've never had the block meetings but that is what the 3 hours are. The block schedule.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i sincerely hope the church isnt considering this. the amount of fail present in this idea is mind boggling. while were at it lets just make baptism option good grief. im shocked only one other poster has made mention of this. if this is implemented i suspect there will be a massive shift in leadership as clearly those general authorities have lost touch with anything resembling the scriptures which clearly teach to not settle for mediocrity and that eternal life should be the goal in addition to the fact every current general authority would be a clear cut example of hypocrite the likes not even a devout LDS member could even try and deny and still remain honest.

geez the amount of fail involved is horrible...to quote the all mighty internet OH NOEZ DA HORRORZ I HAZ 2 DO HARD WORK!!!!

on topic....ive never had the block meetings. but something clearly should be done. by the third hour you are lucky to get half the original attendance. home teaching is a failure on nearly all levels and ive never been to a ward that wasnt begging people to home teach/visit teach. the meetings can get downright insane i too remeber a dad as a stake president that spent all day sunday from the crack of dawn to 9 at night or later in meetings. then to turn around and work 6 days a week. and the sunday school block is often cluttered with like 6 different class options. we currently have...gospel doctrine, mission prep, temple prep, family research, gospel principle and probably one or two more i cant remeber. its impossible to round up people in every class and get them all there on time and ya know find where the room should be taught and is the teacher there today. its chaotic and crazy. then you have to get people to stop socializing and goto class.

to put it bluntly in my experience church meetings are chaotic and all over the map with by the end of the three hour block maybe and that is on good days half the original attendance is there and this also has to factor in not everyone attended church that day.

factor in an ADHD TV riddled society and a three hour attention span is a tough one. call us youth crybabies but this is a fact that must be dealt with(older adults are certainly guilty too). the age of IPhones is certainly making this even worse as in every class someone or several people more than likely are playing on their stupid phones. yes i know some are using them to read scriptures and that is fine but a lot of people arent.

devoting just three hours to The Lord isnt enough thats for sure...but we can barely manage to devote three hours to Him so adding more certainly isnt the answer. since well in addition to failing epically at home teaching(im guilty....in fairness my home teaching partner has fallen off the map and my people im supposed to teach never get back in touch with me) but people probably dont scriputure study like they should(guilty its a constant daily struggle for some odd reason), daily prayer(ok im not guilty yay lol), living the gospel(i think im not too guilty here but i can see how this is hard), a whole host of other things.

really i think the issue should be we have these guys/girls for at least ONE HOUR....how can we get them to stay for 2 more and in addition to that how can we get these people to live the gospel(you know do the stuff the scriptures says to do when they leave on sunday) and stay active???? this could invoke missionary work from active members so this wont just be for half active or less people. it should certainly carry the theme of repentence which applies to us all. and for the already active this should at least satisfy our ADHD by doing something different for a while.

oh and let met stress singles wards and family wards are different beasts and should be tailored to different audiences. a 20 year old likely doesnt want to hear a lesson on children just yet just in case anyone thought i might not being taking this into account.

general conference this weekend they went on about the effectiveness of the church...great....where is the effectiveness of our sunday meetings? its clearly lost on me but perhaps im letting personal experience get in the way of the hard facts so perhaps someone can explain it?

and one other thing. night people vs morning people. some of us cant get up at 8 AM some of us can. i think its important we can attend church at a time that is best for us. whether this is rampant insomnia, night classes, night shifts, morning classes, morning shifts and just a personality difference. if you stick a night person in the 8 AM ward...good luck with that youve likely lost him/her for a year. like wise a morning person probably wont like a 2 -5 ward too much and you might lose him/her. considering every other facet of society has a night person version and a morning person version i dont see why we cant have night church and morning church.

good topic addresses an issue i think has long since needed to be addressed. hopefully the GA's will start cranking out the changes neccessary.

Plus you do realize that article was a complete joke..meant totally in humor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and one other thing. night people vs morning people. some of us cant get up at 8 AM some of us can. i think its important we can attend church at a time that is best for us. whether this is rampant insomnia, night classes, night shifts, morning classes, morning shifts and just a personality difference. if you stick a night person in the 8 AM ward...good luck with that youve likely lost him/her for a year. like wise a morning person probably wont like a 2 -5 ward too much and you might lose him/her. considering every other facet of society has a night person version and a morning person version i dont see why we cant have night church and morning church.

You know what you need? You need a Casual Church. Someplace where you can go to a Sacrament Meeting anytime during the week when it suits you, and then you wouldn't have to be bothered by going at a certain time on Sunday at all if you don't feel like it. As far as that goes, they should create an App for that so you can log in and attend church and do your other callings from the comfort of your home or fishing boat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know what you need? You need a Casual Church. Someplace where you can go to a Sacrament Meeting anytime during the week when it suits you, and then you wouldn't have to be bothered by going at a certain time on Sunday at all if you don't feel like it. As far as that goes, they should create an App for that so you can log in and attend church and do your other callings from the comfort of your home or fishing boat.

while funny. clearly missing the point of people that work 10pm-8AM shifts that get screwed by either pulling a 40 hour day or flat out missing church all together forgive me for thinking of these people some of which are doctors saving lives. i was unaware of the gospel was only for morning people on sunday mornings.

Edited by kayne
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have a couple of nurses in my ward who have 7-7 shifts. Yet, they both come to church very regularly. A former stake president was a physician.

If there is a will, there's a way--may not be the easy way, but it's possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

while funny. clearly missing the point of people that work 10pm-8AM shifts that get screwed by either pulling a 40 hour day or flat out missing church all together forgive me for thinking of these people some of which are doctors saving lives. i was unaware of the gospel was only for morning people on sunday mornings.

It may surprise you to know that in many areas, the Church has wards that don't start early in the morning. As has been pointed out in previous posts in this thread, some wards won't start until 1 or even 2 in the afternoon. I'm pretty sure that if a member could not attend their home ward because of conflicts with their work schedule, their bishop would approve of them attending another ward that meets at another time, even if they were only attending Sacrament Meeting. If a person is determined to attend church meetings and partake of the Sacrament so that they can renew the sacred covenants they made, they usually can find a reasonable and workable way to do so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share