sacrament themes

[rawhidejohnson]

Ive just been called on to the bishopric and have been given

the assignment of assigning talks. I just wounded if anyone had

a list of themes and topics I could use as a resource.

[selek]

Speaking in total ignorance here- but isn't there a Church-published list of recommendations week-by-week?

[rawhidejohnson]

No it seems that it is assigned by the bishopric other than high council week which the theme is assigned by stake

[selek]

Huh- okie dokie then.

Given how often my ward discusses the same topics as my ex-wife's ward (separated by more than a dozen miles and twice that many wards), I just assumed there was a common curricula.

[rawhidejohnson]

Here in the uk it seems not if im wrong maybe someone can point me in the right direction

[Drpepper]

Grab a copy of the Gospel Principles Book from your library and start looking at the sections and headings. You may also want to review the recent conference talks and looks for patterns and themes through different talks. Rather than give someone a topic like Faith or Tithing you might want to present them with a question like. How has having faith in christ blessed my life? What have I learnt from paying tithing?

You could also use the scriptures as a question. What do the scriptures teach about forgiving others?

No doubt you probably have to arrange 3 talks on one day so pick a topic as an overall theme for the day like Prayer and then invite each speaker to speak on something relevant to that topic.

Speaker 1 How can prayer bless my life? 5 min (normally youth speaker)

Speaker 2 How can i recognise answers to my prayers? 10 min

Speaker 3 What the scriptures teach about how and why prayer is essential in this life? 20min.

Ohh and getting people to accept speaking assignments ummm cant help you there :)

Ps the only common curricula is fast sunday testimonies, you should have some stake speakers 1 a month or every other month, ward conference topic is decided by the Bishop, Stake conf, general conf, primary presentation and seminary presentation are the others sundays you wont have to worry about speakers.

Psx2 You may want to also touch in with the Bishop every now and then and ask him what concerns he has about the ward. From time to time he may recognise a pattern that may need to be addressed in a particular ward. This is why the brethren leave it up to local leaders for revelation within their own wards.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Drpepper

[applepansy]

When my husband was in the bishopric there wasn't a list of topics. It's up the Bishop and his counselors to select topics which will be beneficial for their ward. Our last Stake President's suggestion was to study and pray and listen to the Spirit. :)

Our current Bishopric uses the Conference issue or the Ensign/Liahona as a resource frequently.

[MarginOfError]

Huh- okie dokie then.

Given how often my ward discusses the same topics as my ex-wife's ward (separated by more than a dozen miles and twice that many wards), I just assumed there was a common curricula.

There is a common curriculum in Priesthood and Relief Society where the stake is responsible for choosing the topic on Fast Sunday (sometimes this gets kicked to the ward), 2nd and 3rd Sundays are from Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, and 4th Sundays are Teaching of our Times (I might have Fast and fourth Sunday mixed up). Fifth Sundays are determined by the ward council, normally.

Sacrament meeting topics are usually left up to the bishopric, although a stake president that is really into uniformity may chose to set the topics at the stake level.

Sunday School lessons are pure chaos.

For the OP, we did a couple years where we pulled topics from Gospel Principles, Conference talks, scripture masteries, and Preach My Gospel. We also made a list of all of the parables Christ used and made each of those a topic.

[Jennarator]

seems we are always assigned to talk about conference talks. Like given a talk to talk about....weird since the GA that gave the talk always seems to get it just right so it's hard to not want to just read it. LOL!

[EarlJibbs]

We also use conference taks as a guide for the topic. I just gave a talk based off the "We are Daughters of God" from the most recent conference.

We are instructed not to just read the talk at the pulpit, but rather to use the conference talk as a guide, and then branch off from there based on the spirit. It works really well in my opinion.

[Leah]

Ive just been called on to the bishopric and have been given

the assignment of assigning talks. I just wounded if anyone had

a list of themes and topics I could use as a resource.

Our ward doesn't assign themes/topics. We're simply told to pray about it and let the Spirit guide us. I think it's an awesome approach.

[Anddenex]

I am only able to speak for myself and my ward:

At the end of last year we decided on 12 themes for the year. The themes correlate with the YM and YW themes.

If you were delegated to assign talks I would speak with your bishop and discover what topics or themes they have already decided upon. This will make it easier for you.

Congrats to the new calling. Make sure you read the Church Handbook and become familiar with the roles and auxiliaries the bishop assigns you to have stewardship over.

:)

[Guest]

I read the OP wrong and thought you were assigned to give a talk on assigned talks. I thought maybe your bishop was being a wise guy.

[rawhidejohnson]

Thanks for all the replys all very helpfull

[Guest]

I personally enjoy the topics given each week in the Primary Outline for Sharing Time.

[Drpepper]

Our ward doesn't assign themes/topics. We're simply told to pray about it and let the Spirit guide us. I think it's an awesome approach.

You mean the bishopric member just assigns the talk and then leaves the topic up to the individual, is that correct? Just want to make sure I read that properly.

[rustedhart]

We discuss sacrament topics in ward council. The members of the WC ponder and pray (we hope) the needs of the ward and bring suggestions to WC meeting. Then we counselors take those suggestions and build themes and specific topic assignments from them. For example: "Having faith and trusting in the Lord's timetable when things aren't going your way."

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

I would suggest that listening to the Spirit would be more advantageous, when selecting topics for speakers, than a list. Every ward has different spiritual needs and the Holy Ghost can give you more insight than some committee created list. I would focus on topics that encourage members to actually live their religion instead of coming to church to salve their conscience or showboat their gospel knowledge in Sunday School. It is your calling though, and I wish you good luck.