Teaching Gospel Doctrine to CUF

[Indy Coug]

Pelagius is a former GD instructor.

I hope they gave him emeritus status.

[Fiyero]

Next week let's skip church and spend 50 minutes in the chat room.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I am sure you are a fabulous instructor, PAC.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I am sure you are a fabulous instructor, PAC.

Thanks, but I know I am not. I'm pretty good, and I do a good job of keeping everyone's attention, but I fall short, often woefully short, of promoting true gospel scholarship or deep spiritual insights. My style has been likened to that of a game show host, and I'm not entirely proud of that. At least no one has ever complained of boredom, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

[YOhio]

I teach Gospel Doctrine to the 12-16 year olds. We have 12 deacons/teachers and one mia-maid. If we get fifteen minutes of uninterrupted discussion I consider it a success. This only occurs when I have candy as a reward for active participation.

[TripletDaddy]

One thing that the Church might consider...

We have a Gospel Essentials class for those that wish to focus on the basics.

We have a Gospel Doctrine class for everyone else. This broad-based approach doesn't make much sense, as lessons and manuals have to be geared to an array of folks from ages 18 to 80 (or older).

Why not have an "advanced Gospel Doctrine," so to speak. A 400-level GD class. Call it "Gospel Scholarship" or something similar. Make the lessons manuals more focused, instead of broad-based.

Also, limited the manual to maybe 15 lessons for the entire year, allowing for each lesson to take 2-3 weeks. As is, we are given instruction manuals with 40+ lessons in them and then we are given anywhere from 45 minutes to less than 20 minutes (Priesthood opening exercises are ridiculously long sometimes) to cover these topics. There just isn't enough time to get into anything interesting, at least not in my opinion.

For those that enjoy the current format, they can remain in the traditional Gospel Doctrine class.

The Gospel Scholarship class can be for a small subset of ward members, much like the Gospel Essentials offering.

Just a thought.

[creekster]

Thanks, but I know I am not. I'm pretty good, and I do a good job of keeping everyone's attention, but I fall short, often woefully short, of promoting true gospel scholarship or deep spiritual insights. My style has been likened to that of a game show host, and I'm not entirely proud of that. At least no one has ever complained of boredom, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

If you can keep a GD class happy and no members are bored, week after week, then you are fabulous.

[byu71]

Thanks, but I know I am not. I'm pretty good, and I do a good job of keeping everyone's attention, but I fall short, often woefully short, of promoting true gospel scholarship or deep spiritual insights. My style has been likened to that of a game show host, and I'm not entirely proud of that. At least no one has ever complained of boredom, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

That is how I used to teach EQ a long time ago. Just get a good discussion going and then gleefully mock those who thought they were smarter than everyone else but would step into a pile of it often. I am probably responsible for driving a lot of SU's out of the church.

[pellegrino]

My style has been likened to that of a game show host.

So is it more like the "I'll take Kolob for 800", the "I'd like to buy a vowell", or the "Come on down!" style?

I agree with Creekster, if you can keep them interested and content you're doing your job. Don't stop trying to push yourself (and your class) to higher levels though.

[wuapinmon]

I'm teaching Gospel Doctrine Lesson 4 today, and I've told my class this year that rather than re-hash a lesson that they've gotten every four years since the mid-80's when these manuals were first published, I will be focusing on what the scriptures we're assigned to teach them actually say, especially if they relate to Jesus. I've told them that if this is Another Testament of Jesus Christ, we're going to examine, tease out, and delve deeply into how it does so.

Today's lesson covers 1Nephi 12-14. That's Nephi seeing the end game of his "seed's" adherence to the Gospel, so, by extension of what he sees in that vision, I can also talk about 3Nephi 11-14, and 4Nephi. Awesome stuff there.

Over Christmas, we went to the MLKJ National Park in Atlanta, and we went into Ebenezer Baptist Church, and they just so happened to be playing his December 24, 1967 Christmas Eve sermon titled "Peace on Earth," one of the most masterful sermons I've ever heard anywhere. We sat and listened to the entire thing, and when we were done, my wife and I were both misty because it was so moving. I've been itching for a chance to bring its message to church with me, and today's that day. I tried to torture some of the other lessons we've had, but this one doesn't feel that way. So, what I'm going to do is read quotes from "a talk I found" and then read a scripture from the lesson, and then discuss what the scripture means, what it says, differing interpretations, and how we apply it to our lives.

I might tell them at the end who gave the talk; I can't decide. These are really old white Southerners after all.

But, if you've never read or listened to that sermon, I believe it surpasses even his Washington DC "I Have a Dream" speech.

[Lost Student]

The BoM manual was published in 1999. I don't remember what it replaced, though. Were the previous Gospel Doctrine manuals essentially the same?

[Bo Diddley]

When I was the GD teacher, we spent a lot of time in the scriptures.

[outlier]

I'm teaching Gospel Doctrine Lesson 4 today, and I've told my class this year that rather than re-hash a lesson that they've gotten every four years since the mid-80's when these manuals were first published...

I've recently started vainly hoping that one of these times around the church will replace Old Testament year with a Plato and/or Aristotle (as they relate to the gospel, which they often seem to do) year. I think members might actually learn something life-valuable from that.

o

[Commando]

I've recently started vainly hoping that one of these times around the church will replace Old Testament year with a Plato and/or Aristotle (as they relate to the gospel, which they often seem to do) year. I think members might actually learn something life-valuable from that.

o

I was thinking I could use a brush up on my trigonometry, as well.

[wuapinmon]

I was thinking I could use a brush up on my trigonometry, as well.

It is a wicked generation that seeketh a sine.