What meeting do you enjoy the most?

[RC Vikings]

PEC meeting so I can learn all the dirt on the less active.

[Surfah]

I like Sacrament meeting since it's the only one our whole family is together for.

[Clark Addison]

I generally like Priesthood. We have a relatively small group of guys, usually around 10, who are not afraid to have serious discussions and ask tough questions (similar to some you would see here). It's not good 100% of the time, but it's at least engaging most of the time, and once every other month or so, there are great discussions.

I like Gospel Doctrine when we are studying the Bible, because everyone thinks they are experts on the Book of Mormon already.

[jay santos]

I generally like Priesthood. We have a relatively small group of guys, usually around 10, who are not afraid to have serious discussions and ask tough questions (similar to some you would see here). It's not good 100% of the time, but it's at least engaging most of the time, and once every other month or so, there are great discussions.

I like Gospel Doctrine when we are studying the Bible, because everyone thinks they are experts on the Book of Mormon already.

Good point. I actually loved the year we GD was on the New Testament. The class sucked, but my own personal study made it worth it.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

My wife and I were basically inactive during the first 2 1/2 years of my son's life. We went to Sacrament meeting, and then straight home. My boy already had asthma and several moderate to severe allergies, and the last thing his immune system needed was more snot. No one notice or even cared that we weren't there (and I was glad for that).

My wife and I are primary teachers of the 5 year olds. I can't be alone with the kids during class because of church/ward policy, so that forces my wife to be there with the kids with or without me. If kids continue to turn up sick in class, then my wife and I will ask for a release so we can just go home after Sacrament Meeting. We had our daughter in with us for about the first five months and I suspect she got sick at least 3-4 times directly from the kids in our primary class. My daughter started going to nursery at the beginning of the summer and luckily due to the season, she hasn't gotten as sick as much.

[wuapinmon]

I like SS class with a good teacher. Otherwise, I like chatting in the foyer.

[Pheidippides]

There has been plenty of bandwidth used up on CUF discussing all the reasons many church meeting are worthless boring, unproductive, guilt-ridden, etc. But I assume that those of us who keep going back to the LDS church must at least occasionally get something out of it. I always look forward to General Conference (to sit home all day in shorts and T-shirt watching TV feels like a vacation). The priesthood session is usually one of my favorite meetings, I also like sitting in Jr. Primary sharing time. What church meeting do you generally like the best?

PS For those more experienced than me is it best to avoid the Foyer the week after GC?

The answer is none of the above, and here's why:

We draw near with our lips to Jesus, but our hearts are far from Him.

By which I mean, for all of the hullabaloo we make about being Christian, we spend a piss-poor amount of time actually talking about Christ. This is the most disturbing aspect of our religion to me, more than rocks in hats or multiple wives or denials of priesthood.

Instead, we spend an inordinate amount of time on the excruciating minutiae of what television show we can watch or what music we can listen to or what planets were destroyed to create our own or how many earrings we can have or whether or not cooking with alcohol is bad. As if we have the power and ability to save ourselves through our own good acts, that we can work our way into heaven, grace be damned.

I have made the decision that every lesson I teach, every talk I give, and every comment I make is going to relate back to Christ in some overt way to counter and try to effect change from within. But until there's a shift in tone and practice, I'm not foreseeing getting much out church in the near future, from any meeting.

[Art Vandelay]

I have made the decision that every lesson I teach, every talk I give, and every comment I make is going to relate back to Christ in some overt way to counter and try to effect change from within. But until there's a shift in tone and practice, I'm not foreseeing getting much out church in the near future, from any meeting.

I think we, or more correctly I, could improve meetings in general and more importantly our (my) own spirituality significantly by following your example. An excellent reminded or what is truly important, thank you.

[statman]

Playing with my 2 year old daughter in nursery during the 2nd hour of the block.

I have a 21 month old, and I don't think I'm ever going to take him to nursery again. Literally every other week he comes home with some nasty LDS-nursery-super-bug. for the last 3 months (since he became "nursery-eligible"), he's gone form one sickness to another. The place is a filth-infested cesspool. That's what three wards worth of nurseries with 20+ kids in each of them can do for you - our ward has 3 nurseries, each with 20+ kids. The other two wards both have only 2 nurseries, of similar size.

We're seriously thinking about never having him set foot in there again...

[Sleeping in EQ]

My EQ is excellent. It isn't just a class--it's a quorum. People speak up, aren't hesitant to deal with issues like adults, and support one another. My current EQ is the best I've been in.

I've been in some good GD classes, but the current one is awful. The teacher means well, and is always there to help when people need it, but she has no teaching skills and an obnoxious political agenda. She quotes Glen Beck now and again. Six weeks ago a class member made a comment about Obama being the Anti-Christ. She cut him off, and I thought maybe a correction was going to happen. Instead, her correction was that President Obama was more of "an Anti-Christ."

[Jeff Lebowski]

My EQ is excellent. It isn't just a class--it's a quorum. People speak up, aren't hesitant to deal with issues like adults, and support one another. My current EQ is the best I've been in.

I've been in some good GD classes, but the current one is awful. The teacher means well, and is always there to help when people need it, but she has no teaching skills and an obnoxious political agenda. She quotes Glen Beck now and again. Six weeks ago a class member made a comment about Obama being the Anti-Christ. She cut him off, and I thought maybe a correction was going to happen. Instead, her correction was that President Obama was more of "an Anti-Christ."

That last part was very funny. Thanks.

This is a depressing thread overall. GD and priesthood can be torture under certain circumstances, but it doesn't have to be that way. We have two GD classes with two instructors for each (they alternate). Two of the four are excellent. We also have two of the SS presidency teach every few weeks and both are excellent. Most of our HPG meetings are quite good. I guess I am lucky.

I used to have a more negative attitude about meetings. I decided that the least I could do is make a better effort to contribute rather than sit in the back fuming. It can take some confidence to speak up, especially when you don't always conform to the status quo. But if you do so in a sincere and friendly manner, you may be surprised at the results. A few thoughtful comments can often change the tone and direction of a discussion.

[Solon]

This is a good suggestion, art vandelay.

I don't have a particular meeting that I enjoy, but I used to belong to a ward in Virginia that was straight out of one of those cheesy LDS movies. The first week at church, my wife-to-be and I were invited to two other couples' homes for dinner. I was in charge of getting people to clean the building and routinely had to turn people away since too many had signed up. Everyone pitched in to help everyone else. People from all sorts of countries, backgrounds, social classes, etc. rubbing shoulders like best friends. The whole ward showed up to the rough part of Alexandria to help a single mother move from one side of the project to the other. Millionaire lawyers getting dirty with people on welfare. It really was an amazing congregation to belong to. I always enjoyed going to those meetings.

[SoonerCoug]

I maintain that the fundamental problem with lessons in the Church today is that the manuals have been heroically dumbed down. The lessons oversimplify things, misrepresent facts, quote scripture out of context, and focus almost exclusively on practical applications instead of historical and philosophical issues.

I realize that the Church's primary goal is to make bad people good, but it's hard to do that if people aren't interested in being there. For me, Sunday School discussions are like FOXNews--I am tremendously bored listening to "debates" among people with identical viewpoints. Encouraging open, honest discussion and multiple viewpoints would vastly improve things. They also need better lesson manuals.

[Jeff Lebowski]

The answer is none of the above, and here's why:

We draw near with our lips to Jesus, but our hearts are far from Him.

By which I mean, for all of the hullabaloo we make about being Christian, we spend a piss-poor amount of time actually talking about Christ. This is the most disturbing aspect of our religion to me, more than rocks in hats or multiple wives or denials of priesthood.

Instead, we spend an inordinate amount of time on the excruciating minutiae of what television show we can watch or what music we can listen to or what planets were destroyed to create our own or how many earrings we can have or whether or not cooking with alcohol is bad. As if we have the power and ability to save ourselves through our own good acts, that we can work our way into heaven, grace be damned.

I have made the decision that every lesson I teach, every talk I give, and every comment I make is going to relate back to Christ in some overt way to counter and try to effect change from within. But until there's a shift in tone and practice, I'm not foreseeing getting much out church in the near future, from any meeting.

Well said, meat man.

[chrisrenrut]

Unfortunately for me, it is sacrament meeting. It comes last in our block, and it is the 5th hour I have been in church and I just cannot stay awake.

Another reason is that I have a hard time preparing myself to get anything out of it. I am a big beleive that you get out of your meetings what you are willing to put into them. If I come prepared, having read the lesson before hand (for both Priesthood and GD) I am much more able to actively think about the principles being discussed and participate in the lesson. I will frequently find my thoughts being led to correlating principles, memories from the past, or finding applications of the principles to my life. However, in sacrament meeting you just can't do that, and as a result I usually zone out once the speakers begin.

I completely agree with Nikuman's point on emphasizing the Savior more in our lessons and talks.