How did your 4th Sunday (Keep Sabbath) class go?

[Sunday21]

How did your 4th Sunday (Keep Sabbath) class go? 

Hi! I am teaching the 4th Sunday class so I am trolling for teaching ideas. Do you mind sharing what you did and whether you felt the approach was useful? Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without Mormonhub with respect to teaching! This message board has saved me!

What we did: We discussed ‘Jesus is our Example of How to Keep the Sabbath’. We divided into 4 groups. Each group had scripture references about Jesus performing healing on the Sabbath. No more than 2 scriptures each because we are slow readers. I gave each group two written sets of instructions.

#1 How to run the group: Eg. Step #1, Elect a leader...

#2 How to work through the exercise. Step #1, Read the Scripture aloud....

A list of instructions works well because: 1) many people have hearing problems or English as a second language and so can’t follow instructions given from the front of the class. Also many people have never been in the position of organizing anything so panic if asked to do anything in a classroom situation. They seem to find step by step instructions calming. 

We then ‘took up’ the discussion. This gave younger members an opportunity to talk in public which is a useful way to train future teachers.

Having the sisters work in small groups, encourages long term members to take new converts through the material. I get the sense that the long term members are really burnt out. They are tired of leading classes but don’t mind running a small group if they are not required to prepare and the exercise is well organized. 

So written instructions really worked well!

We have quite a few low mobility people so it really worked well to form groups around the low mobility people and the low mobility people did not mind! 

Successful result! I will have to try and make myself scarce to avoid losing this calling!

 

Edited February 26, 2018 by Sunday21

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

How did your 4th Sunday (Keep Sabbath) class go? 

Hi! I am teaching the 4th Sunday class so I am trolling for teaching ideas. Do you mind sharing what you did and whether you felt the approach was useful? Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without Mormonhub with respect to teaching! This message board has saved me!

What we did: We discussed ‘Jesus is our Example of How to Keep the Sabbath’. We divided into 4 groups. Each group had scripture references about Jesus performing healing on the Sabbath. No more than 2 scriptures each because we are slow readers. I gave each group two written sets of instructions.

#1 How to run the group: Eg. Step #1, Elect a leader...

#2 How to work through the exercise. Step #1, Read the Scripture aloud....

A list of instructions works well because: 1) many people have hearing problems or English as a second language and so can’t follow instructions given from the front of the class. Also many people have never been in the position of organizing anything so panic if asked to do anything in a classroom situation. They seem to find step by step instructions calming. 

We then ‘took up’ the discussion. This gave younger members an opportunity to talk in public which is a useful way to train future teachers.

Having the sisters work in small groups, encourages long term members to take new converts through the material. I get the sense that the long term members are really burnt out. They are tired of leading classes but don’t mind running a small group if they are not required to prepare and the exercise is well organized. 

So written instructions really worked well!

We have quite a few low mobility people so it really worked well to form groups around the low mobility people and the low mobility people did not mind! 

Successful result! I will have to try and make myself scarce to avoid losing this calling!

 

We passed out cheesecake for everyone (real cheesecake, not instant cheesecake).  Taking treats to adult class, and not just cheap candy, pays off big time - it relaxes everyone and kind of helps get the mood right.

Then, I admitted to the class that I was "Sabbath challenged" and they were going to have to help me.

So, I went around the room and asked everyone else how they do the Sabbath, telling them to help me figure out how to both honor the Sabbath and have a good time while doing so.  I like to put a good dose of stand up comedy into my EQ lessons, so the discussion was actually pretty hilarious as well as uplifting.

Then, I read off a list of various activities (both good and bad) of things I do on the Sabbath, and had the class vote on if the activity was Sunday-OK, not Sunday-OK, or maybe Sunday-OK.  It was pretty funny, and people seemed to enjoy criticizing my sometimes questionable past Sabbath activities.

You set the right mood, and people will just open up and discuss!  It is almost more like a dinner with friends than a class, which is how I like it.  I think the smaller size of the quorum (usually about 13 people) really helps. 

Basically, my strategy has always been to try and do away with the formalities, put people at ease, and make an atmosphere where people can get to know each other and befriend each other during the lesson.  If the people don't remember my lessons at all, but have a good solid support system based off of Church to fall back on and draw strength from, then I will consider my calling to be a success.

Also, did I mention I really, really like to try out at least a little stand up comedy in my EQ lessons?  I feel like I missed my calling in life . . . 

Edited February 26, 2018 by DoctorLemon

[Sunday21]

2 minutes ago, DoctorLemon said:

We passed out cheesecake for everyone (real cheesecake, not instant cheesecake).  Taking treats to adult class, and not just cheap candy, pays off big time - it relaxes everyone and kind of helps get the mood right.

Then, I admitted to the class that I was "Sabbath challenged" and they were going to have to help me.

So, I went around the room and asked everyone else how they do the Sabbath, telling them to help me figure out how to both honor the Sabbath and have a good time while doing so.  I like to put a good dose of stand up comedy into my EQ lessons, so the discussion was actually pretty hilarious as well as uplifting.

Then, I read off a list of various activities (both good and bad) of things I do on the Sabbath, and had the class vote on if the activity was Sunday-OK, not Sunday-OK, or maybe Sunday-OK.  It was pretty funny, and people seemed to enjoy criticizing my sometimes questionable past Sabbath activities.

You set the right mood, and people will just open up and discuss!  It is almost more like a dinner with friends than a class, which is how I like it.  I think the smaller size of the quorum (usually about 13 people) really helps.

 

 

Great ideas! Sounds fun and got everyone involved!

[SilentOne]

We did break-out groups as well, but for Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, and answered, "What is this verse saying in plain English?" and then two questions relating to the specific passage. Then we had somebody report back from each group and discussed each a bit more in the large group.

[Sunday21]

@DoctorLemon. Are you also teaching the next two Sabbath 4th Sunday classes?  

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

@DoctorLemon. Are you also teaching the next two Sabbath 4th Sunday classes?  

I am not.  I am usually the teacher on the 3rd Sunday.  Which is good, because my style is not good for drawing out one topic over multiple weeks . . . I guess I could do something like have the second Sunday be something like "honoring the sabbath through taking care of your home/visiting teaching assigned families and the blessings that come from that" and "honoring the sabbath through magnifying your callings"

Edited February 26, 2018 by DoctorLemon

[zil]

In January, our discussion (our lessons are always a discussion) revolved around the first topic from the guidelines provided in the November 2017 Ensign - "The Sabbath is a day to remember what God has done for us."  Why that's important, what exactly He has done for us, how we can remember these things on the Sabbath, etc.  I also asked in that lesson what topics (not just from those guidelines) the sisters wanted to discuss, and used that feedback for yesterday's lesson, which was about:

1) What types of blessings do we enjoy from honoring the Sabbath (I tried to identify types of blessings rather than get bogged down in too much detail).  A lot of this came from or was tied back to scriptures, particularly the odd-numbered verses in Isaiah 56:1-8 (starting in v3 really; which I had to provide a little help to get things rolling, but they caught on).

2) Then we talked about what we can do to prepare to receive those blessings on the Sabbath day - the sisters had lots of good ideas here.

3) Then (in the 5 lousy minutes left - I could have used another 2 hours), we went through the even-numbered verses in Isaiah 56:1-8 and talked about the types of activities that are good for doing on the Sabbath day - again, trying to avoid the details and instead identify types or a measuring stick one could use to determine whether any activity is good for the Sabbath day.

It was great, and I wish we could have spent 3 hours in a row on it, because there's no shortage of scriptural guidance on this topic, and breaking it apart with 3-4 weeks in between lessons makes it difficult to continue the same discussion across multiple lessons.

One sister really wanted to get down into the details of exactly what to do on Sunday with little kids, but we were already down to where we had no time to sing the closing hymn (we did one verse), so I noted this as something we would have to address in a future lesson.  It would be nice if she could simply use the measuring stick identified in Isaiah, but it's pretty clear she needs more concrete ideas than that, so I'll probably allocate 10 - 15 minutes for it in April (unless the Bishop chooses to cover that in March - he's teaching RS in March).  And right now, I'm thinking I'll try to get more details from her about what exactly she's looking for, and then ask the sisters to come up with things outside the lesson, so we don't have to spend too much time figuring it out during the lesson (as I'm assuming she literally wants a "do list" and a "don't list" and I don't think we should try going there - for various reasons).  I'm also going to suggest she initiate this as a discussion on the Ward Facebook page - it's used primarily for announcements, but I think it would be nice to use it for discussions too.

[An Investigator]

My first lesson was about how other faiths celebrate the Sabbath,  I got them into groups and they had various statements which they had to sort into different faiths,  I also made Indian sweets.   The younger people loved it, the older ones were a bit of a mixed bag.

 

This week we just discussed what was appropriate on the Sabbath and how our families celebrate, obviously me being married to a non member and I work Sundays too as a student, gave for some interesting discussions.

Next month we are doing the Sacrament.

[Guest MormonGator]

14 hours ago, DoctorLemon said:

Basically, my strategy has always been to try and do away with the formalities, put people at ease, and make an atmosphere where people can get to know each other and befriend each other during the lesson. 

And with that attitude, you'll have a successful class every time you teach. We could all learn a lot from you @DoctorLemon.

[Morrkai]

Our 4th sunday lessons have been wonderful and inspiring.  Our instructor is a teacher by profession and knows who to get us all engaged and discussing.i try to get my instructors a month notice of lessons so they can prepare

[wenglund]

On 2/25/2018 at 10:42 PM, Sunday21 said:

How did your 4th Sunday (Keep Sabbath) class go? 

The class went great, but  ironically, I had my least restful Sabbath in years--four hours of meetings, two driveways to shovel, two home teaching visits, a 4-hour service project, etc., which left me no time to meet my Indexing and family History goals as well as low blood sugar levels.. But, I am not complaining. All is good!

Thanks, -Wade Englund-