I have taught mtg. Here is a quick review of the book from the BYU Studies web site: And if you cant or dont understand when there is a need to be flexible, then return to the step one, of seeking the spirit. As Melissa looked at the faces of the members of the ward council, she saw genuine affection and concern. So lets agree that you wont hold another meeting unless you have sufficiently outlined it as a revelatory experience. I finally went to the stake president and told him Id covenanted to support my husband in his righteous endeavors, but that I didnt consider anything that kept him out past 10pm to be a righteous endeavor. Spiritual Thoughts A Collection of Spiritual Thoughts Hopefully Some That You've Never Seen Before You know the drill. I wish you actually provided suggestions instead of full on criticisms. When you have your device in the meeting you can make sure you arent on Facebook but you cant guarantee everyone is doing that same. The bishop recognized that his ideas and experiences alone were insufficient, so he engaged the other four of us (two counselors, clerk, and executive secretary) regularly and without ego. If it can easily be communicated in an email, allow people to read it on their own time and respond with questions when they would like. I have ventured to using the red handbook almost as a weapon to invite them to change and try something new to see how it would work but I have had ward leaders tell me how they dont care about the red handbook. Rifling through papers is inefficient and time consuming. Why should I be inconvenienced so that I can conform to a luddite version of proper meeting etiquette? President Hinckley apparently was really big on being super on time. Your time is up! Thank you so much for this great post. I agree. ' [https://byustudies.byu.edu/showtitle.aspx?title=6997] How would you like to spend council time? She did not remind me, and knowing her, she would have attended our meeting. The branch council finds that the members challenges can often be solved at the local level. I believe, the message that went out about 15 years ago about not having so many meetings and the teachings around Family responsibility (without further tuning of the message) has resulted in some unanticipated consequences. A week before I was called as a stake RS president, I attended a stake/ward leadership training meeting where stake presidents closing remarks were based solely on delegation and among other wonderful words of encouragement and counsel, related the story of Moses & his father-in-law, Jethro (Exodus 18) Being made aware of that principle has certainly helped me to cope and to enjoy serving in whatever capacity I have been called to serve. They had caught the vision! And yet the church handbook used to say all quorum presidencies go visit your members at least annually. Its a waste of peoples time to review a list of announcements, activity details, dates, etc. Everyone is uplifted, it would be unifying, and then go home after 60 minutes. Then implement their feedback. Offer a Handel's Messiah event to the public. Hinckley starting on a Saturday morning and expected to last all day. Russia Yekaterinburg Mission Here are my observations of how this bishop achieved so much: Meetings, callings, the church itself: are all pointless unless there is a vision. You've been asked to share a quick spiritual thought before a meeting, and you wanted to read something a little differentsomething that not everyone has heard 1000 times before. I think one thing that I learned as an Elders Quorum President and a Sunday School President was to send my counselors to the Ward Council and PEC meetings! Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. We can't wait to see you in the morning! That said, there are thousands of AMAZING people doing amazing amounts of service and providing tremendous leadership all across the world just now. In his book Counseling with Our Councils, Elder M.Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gives the following three suggestions: First, focus on fundamentals. Follow the guidelines in Handbook 2: Administering the Church, chapter 4, which can be found online in the Serving in the Church section of LDS.org. (2) when we discuss an issue but the leader in charge doesnt assign any action as a result of it; It all seems a tad presumptuous that you should state unbreakable rules for church meetings. When a meeting is a revelatory experience it doesnt take long, no matter how many minutes pass. "God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. We can offer positive suggestions and ideas. Of all the councils and committees in the Church, I believe the ward council can have the greatest impact in helping our Fathers children.1. Sometimes I think we forget that we are all Brothers and Sisters with lots of faults, warts, weaknesses, and imperfections! He is thinkingman, we just keep going around in circles on this topic EVERY week! I was the Bishop. Our ward is doing so much missionary work and so many inactive and part member families are coming back. In our case, too many items were being discussed that did not apply to the entire council or were seeking input where an email or text would have done the trick. Offer nativity/creche exhibit (s) for viewing. Usually the bishop takes a paper with some notes. See more ideas about spiritual thoughts, church quotes, lds quotes. Ha haIm a bishop actually. Its not the length of the meeting, its the engagement of those at the meeting that tells you if its no longer adding value. Joseph Smith Honesty is the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. With a yearly plan/schedule established and a yearly budget a bishopric would have all of the monthly Sacrament meeting themes established, all of the music planned out. Calling peoples ideas dumb isnt the best way to have an effective dialogue that results in better ideas. The same goes with any point made in the article. I have sat in wonderment at some of the things said about people. Seriously, if you havent figured out how to turn a meeting into a revelatory experience, just cancel it. Instead people are asked to participate and then given the right to exersize their Agency to agree or decline. They were painful. There are so many church members that feel left out in church and being part of an active committee could help make many of these people feel welcomed and needed. Appropriate activities could include: Stage a Christ-centered open house at your local meetinghouse. No Brainstorming: Brainstorming can be powerful, but it doesnt need to happen within a meeting. If you want to keep meetings on target and focused come prepared spiritually to discuss spiritual matters. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. What are the most important things we can discuss? If few want to show up, it isnt a problem with those absent,its a problem with your leadership. Our Deacons quorum presidency is new, so while the meetings might not last more than an hour, we are going to need more of them just now until the new leadership understands their role. While we worked to renew temple recommends, reactivate, baptize, etc., our focus was to help members cultivate their relationship with God. They can also learn how to become better speakers, better leaders, and better people persons! As an example of having seen that years ago our bishop asked each auxiliary presidency to fast, attend the temple and pray about a specific scripture and consider its application to their stewardship and how they could ultimately help their members grow closer to the Lord. I like tech and believe it helps me be more efficient. and then start running their meetings based on real needs, and so forththe productivity in the Church would really go up. All EQ/HPGL/YM/YW/P/RS presidency meetings are held during Sunday School (SS holds them during the 3rd hour). Keep pushing for shorter meetings. tentative speakers identified for the year, etc. Some leaders are great at running meetings and others really need to work on keeping meetings to an hour or less. In these latter days, given the forces of the adversary and the darkness, no one person in the family and no one person in a ward is going to be the conduit through which all of the answers come. Thats just an idea that really helped us to have more effective meetings. IMHO, this topic could be a great teaching/training subject for many leadership meetings (both in a ward & stake). This meeting can last a couple of hours. #2 Anyone can cancel and #4 Agenda required are both good rules. #7 Cancelling meetings If you find that not much is impacted by fewer meetings, then you should definitely be cancelling more meetings. We can also choose to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Learn, share then go & do is my motto with this stuff. The 12th Article of Faith states, "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." In honor of the Fourth of July we have compiled 10 patriotic quotes from various leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 1. They also help provide an atmosphere more conducive to enhanced communication. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. ), The ward clerk keeps a record of assignments and decisions made during ward council meetings. Like Elder Bednar said there are Administrators and Ministers in the church. I whole-heartedly disagree with your guideline of no tech. The Relief Society president represents the women in the ward over the age of 18. Sixty minutes is too much if anything. Leaders need to give autonomy to those they lead. But I think well all be better off going by the spirit instead. We spent a lot of time on tablets / laptops reviewing spreadsheets and docs we created. Handbook 2 ( 4.6) advises ward council should be 60-90 minutes in duration. Committe members need to be trained and encouraged and follow up is required. These are some valuable suggestions for how to help a meeting run more efficiently and help prevent some of the activities that can really bog down our council meetings. I'm so excited to be able to serve my Lord and Savior to the best capacity I can. I couldnt agree more! This is a very important meeting.. This shouldnt be a vague 60 minutes that grows to 90 minutes with the presiding authority stating, oops, looks like we went 30 minutes over. This is a hard 60 minutes. 22 reviews. Have a night when the stake presidency and the high council bring their wives and listen to 60 minutes of missionary reports while eating ice cream. We have over half of our ward that is less active! The short story for me is to ignore the hyperbole of the article, and embrace the tips that make me a better meeting leader. Prepare all the information you need from your device prior to the meeting and then see how it goes. I promise you will notice more engagement and focus on what the meeting is about. He will achieve His goals through our works.. This is not a step to take if a member simply expresses a dissenting idea! Br. We have a stake that requires two hours to drive from one end to the other. AGENDA. In time, the Bishop asked his counselors to have one-on-one discussions with ward council members to receive their candid feedback on the ward council meeting, specifically: One hundred percent of the responses were right in line with what he had hoped for: by this time, council members really wanted to spend meeting time discussing the progress of individuals and families. Meetings are for reporting. I think we need to do the best we can with what we have. I get the sentimentbut you will notice a recurring theme throughout Handbook 2a lack of hard rules about church administration. I do not know how long it will lastprobably 2 hours or more.I will try to be home at 7 pm. Leader. Of spiritual Thoughts Hopefully some that you & # x27 ; s Messiah event to the other hours drive... Leaders, and then given the right to exersize their Agency to or! 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