It’s probably safe to say that most of us shuddered when we heard of plans for 2018 Priesthood and Relief Society meetings: Two Sundays, not just one, based directly on General Conference talks, with the first Sunday “council” meetings and fourth Sunday “doctrinal topics” also likely coming more or less often from the same source.
In our collective imagination, and often in reality, some of the worst talks we ever hear in Sacrament Meeting are based on General Conference talks. Who wants to hear someone stumbling through a clumsy reading of a talk we just heard from the original speaker? or maybe worse, listening to a “book review” paraphrase of the talk with no personalization or insight?
And if you’re a teacher, it can be very hard to turn a talk into a lesson: Do you play the Conference recording that most of your class members have already seen? Do you read the talk to them? Do you drone through yet another quiz of class members’ memory of the talk?
Wake me when this nightmare is over!
It doesn’t have to be that bad, though. Taking it as a given that Church leaders’ messages have value for Latter-day Saints, we should be able to consider them individually beyond their delivery in Conference, when the sheer number of words spoken causes one talk to blur into another.
This post will give some general tips for turning a talk into a lesson. Then, for a while at least, I plan to focus on one talk from October 2017 every Sunday illustrating how that talk can be turned into a lesson for Relief Society or a Priesthood quorum meeting. Because wards will be choosing talks to suit their own needs and schedule, these posts won’t coincide with your ward’s topics – but I hope they will give ideas to those of you who teach, or those of you conscientious enough to prepare for your class discussions.
General Principles for Turning a Talk into a Lesson
You aren’t teaching the talk itself; you’re guiding a discussion on principles addressed by the talk. The reason most talks and lessons based on Conference talks are unsuccessful is because they approach the talk as a document to be studied: What did Elder So-and-so say about this, that, and the other thing? What did he mean by such-and-such? What did he say after that?
This isn’t a high school class where you’ll be quizzed about the talk like you were about “Romeo and Juliet” or Great Expectations. The teacher’s goal is not to have the class memorize the talk, or recall six months from now that it was Elder So-and-so who said thus-and-such; the goal is to have class members pray more sincerely, or be more generous with fast offerings, or take greater joy in the Sabbath, or whatever was the theme of the talk.
You don’t have to cover everything in the talk. Because you are emphasizing principles taught by the speaker, you can select those most appropriate to your ward. You aren’t teaching the talk as a document, remember, so it’s not like you’re leaving a gap in your ward members’ knowledge if you focus on the first and third parts of a speaker’s message and skip over the second part.
Even though the Church’s current preferred teaching style (see Teaching in the Savior’s Way) emphasizes letting class members guide the discussion and relying on the Spirit to teach, rather than on the teacher to provide facts, you still need a lesson goal. Without a general goal, without a definite set of principles to address, classes drift aimlessly, and usually far from the points made by the Conference speaker. When you have a list of main ideas to discuss, then you can guide the discussion back on track when the class has explored one idea to its natural conclusion, or when somebody drags the discussion in an unprofitable direction.
Good questions spur good discussion. Tired, familiar questions get nothing but stock Sunday School responses, if that.
There are, of course, other points that could be made; these are a start.
So, how do you translate that into an actual lesson? First up, Bonnie L. Oscarson’s “The Needs Before Us” coming up a little later today.
I’m looking forward to your lesson ideas!
Anonymous commenter today from a random ward …
I’ve noticed by observation over many years that people allow themselves to get in the way of their responsibility to preach the gospel. They do what they’re comfortable with, what they’ve seen many times before, without actually considering what the class needs, or let social anxiety get in the way. How many of us need a teacher to read quotes and ramble on for the whole hour about who knows what? It’s dreadful to sit through, and I know our ward Relief Society has suffered from the format. Many sisters, especially the older ones, leave after sacrament meeting. And why would they stay? Often, the only reason I go is for the few minutes of visiting before and after the meeting.
We need to get back to our scriptural responsibility. Paul said, “For necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). He then goes into detail about how to tailor lessons to the audience. He uses the metaphor of athletic games and suggests that “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.” Why should we do any less? We need to learn how to teach, how to consider the needs of the class, and how to have the spirit with us when we teach. Some people know how to do this intuitively, but most don’t, and we should teach each other how to pray over a lesson or talk, pray about the members of the ward or class as we write or outline our remarks, and pray before teaching or speaking.
By the way, the fourth Sunday lessons are from the First Presidency. Between now and General Conference, it’s on the topic of Sabbath observance.
Really looking forward to your series.
By the way, just in case that sounds callous about social anxiety, I don’t mean the kind of crippling social anxiety that needs professional assistance; I mean the rest of us who forget that the class or sacrament talk isn’t about ourselves and our preferences; it’s about preaching the gospel and ministering to the members of the ward. Sometimes our own needs do come into play, but again, see Paul’s comments about that.
Agreed, Anonymous. So very, very, very agreed. I am so hungry for real preaching, real gospel, real teaching that just does not seem to be happening anywhere.
I have extremely low expectations for this new format, especially given the abysmal “helps” published in the Ensign in November, and the track record in recent years of teachers trying to present Conference-based lessons one week each month. I’m also under no illusions that anything I write in this series will improve things much, even to the limited extent of Keepa’s circulation. But I feel like I have to try something, even if it merely gives the poor Keepa’ninnies tasked with presenting those non-lessons somewhere to start.
Thanks for reminding me that the First Presidency designates the fourth Sunday topics. I wrote what I wrote thinking that whatever topic they might choose next would likely get special attention in April, anticipating those fourth Sunday lessons.
I think this will be a great series. I have been the fourth Sunday Relief Society teacher two different times since the conference-talk format has been in place. I always enjoyed teaching from the talks and felt my lessons were quite successful with lots of discussion and personal experiences shared. From what you’ve touched on so far, it appears we share the same approach to good teaching, as everything you’ve written in this first post describe how I planned and executed my lessons.
High five, Lisa! I taught in that role a few years ago, and usually found it successful if I put in the effort to find some approach that adapted the talk to the class (a talk addressed to deacons-as-future-missionaries took some heavy adapting when I taught in the rest home in our ward boundaries, I du tell yu!). But I’ve also sat in some classrooms where the teacher, no matter her willingness and her desire to fill her calling, had no idea how to proceed other than to read the talk and pause every few sentences to ask “What does that mean to you?”
Do feel free to chime in on any of these posts, giving illustrations from your experience or proposing alternate ways of approaching some point.
I was asked to substitute in Primary today. The lesson was on Strengthening our Testimonies, and it didn’t look very riveting, I’m sorry to say. But yesterday’s General Conference talk du jour was the one on the eclipse and making gospel applications. I’ve taught this group of 10 year old girls several times in the past, so I do know them. First I wrote a list of food on the board–bouillabiasse, bortch, sashimi, marzipan, etc.–and asked them if they would eat these foods. We discussed how you can’t decide about a food until you know what it is, and you’ve tasted it. One girl asked, “What does this have to do with our lesson?” I told her to wait. Then we talked about the eclipse–which they explained very well–and someone else asked, “Why are we talking about science?”
Then I told them the topic I was supposed to teach–strengthing their testimonies. They pulled out all of the analogies I wanted them to, and taught the rest of the lesson.
People learn more from what they say than from what the teacher says, so it was a win.
That sounds terrific, Laura. The discussion in which they themselves and the Spirit taught wouldn’t have happened without your planning and guidance. There’s still a real role for good teachers.
I taught the last lesson in the Gordon B. Hinckley manual yesterday in our EQ class. It felt strange to ponder that we’ll no longer be using any manuals going forward
This series intro is so timely and helpful. I hope it gets wide circulation.
God bless us all!
I enjoy putting a lesson together from a conference talk, especially if it’s one of the ones (like Elder Cook’s) that has lots of interesting references and notes. Plenty of material to draw on. Working in Young Women when the Come Follow Me curriculum was introduced there, I have got into the habit of organising my lessons in a similar way ever since. If you haven’t ever looked at them, it’s worth going to the youth CFM website to see the resources that are provided for each of the lessons, as well as the ideas listed for building lessons around pretty much any topic. Some of the learning activities are obviously aimed at young people, but others can be used successfully for any age group to help them engage with the texts of conference talks.
Ardis, I also have low expectations about the new format, especially what we will be doing on the first Sunday of the month. Most men have lots of experience going to classes where there is a vague topic, no leader, no preparation, and everyone just offers up opinions and half baked thoughts. I guess we now call that counseling together but to me it’s always just been Elders Quorum.