House Church lessons

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

I thought it would be fun to have a thread on what everyone does for house church each week. It is perfectly fine to contribute no matter what your activities were, even if it was just taking a nap. I thought it might be a nice way to either get ideas for your own upcoming house church meeting, or just to see what others are doing.

Our house church this last week consisted of:
Opening hymn - I need thee every hour
Opening Prayer -
Sacrament
A lesson on the origins of birthstones and the meaning behind each one.
Closing hymn - Come thou fount of every blessing
Closing Prayer.

-lost

[Hagoth]

Our house church this last week consisted of:
Opening hymn - I need thee every hour
Opening Prayer -
Sacrament
A lesson on the origins of birthstones and the meaning behind each one.
Closing hymn - Come thou fount of every blessing

That sounds far more interesting and informative than any chapel meeting. I have a feeling this is one aspect of COVID that many folks are probably not excited to see come to an end. People get to enjoy a less churchy form of church and chalk it up to fulfilling Pres. Nelson's revelation.

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

Today:

Opening hymn - Nearer my God to Thee
Opening Prayer -
Sacrament
A lesson on different learning styles and a discussion on how each member of our family learns best taught by the 13 year old.
Closing hymn - Battle Hymn of the Republic
Closing Prayer.

[alas]

First off, we always listen to the MoTab broadcast, and that has been the only church We have had on Sunday. But starting today, our ward in Hurricane, UT just started having meetings in person and broadcast on line. And our ward was just split. And, so even though we are still in Idaho, hubby tunes in, and listens to see who the new counselors are and to see how on line church is. I half listen while cooking. The speaking is fine, but the music doesn’t pick up at all. The hymns and a bad phone connection to someone listening to their radio while using a chain saw. Then hubby leaves to run some errands and leaves it tuned in. Then the next ward comes on and I don’t know how to turn it off. I try a couple of things and can’t kill the broadcast. So, while still cooking, I half listen to the new ward that got split off of ours. They got a pretty good bishop. I like him. Down to earth and kind. Too bad it isn’t even my ward, I might be tempted to start going to church again. But, so I attended sacrament meeting twice for the first time in three or four years and actually kind of enjoyed listening to two brand new bishoprics.

Our ward here in Idaho is holding brief meetings, but because we are both high risk, hubby hasn’t attended, and I suspect the local ranchers lack the technology to do a broadcast, because there are no plans.

[Hagoth]

A TBM friend today asked me to watch a little Come Follow Me supplemental lesson video from Book of Mormon central. I checked and it's an HOUR long. Even my believing wife is highly unlikely to get cornered into watching something like that. I told him if he expects me to watch it there better be zombies!

[Advocate]

DW wants it more formal here, so our typical Sunday is:

Everyone in church clothes
Opening hymn (we play a hymn and we all kind of mumble along)
Prayer
Sacrament hymn
Sacrament
Lesson (usually come follow me from DW)
Closing hymn
Prayer

DW is annoyed on a regular basis because the kids aren't participating enough, the kids are poking each other, and I'm not yelling at them enough. I feel really bad for DW because she tries really hard on her lessons, but the lessons are awful. No matter how hard she tries to shine up that turd, it is still a turd, the kids know it and respond accordingly.

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

That is sad, advocate. How old are the kids? Would she be open to lessons other than just correlated church material. I mean it can still be churchy...one of ours a few weeks ago was for everyone to find two of their favorite scriptures that were spoken by Jesus and to share those scriptures and why they were important to you individually. It was a good discussion, that didn't center aroun TCJCOLDS.

-lost

[Advocate]

That is sad, advocate. How old are the kids? Would she be open to lessons other than just correlated church material. I mean it can still be churchy...one of ours a few weeks ago was for everyone to find two of their favorite scriptures that were spoken by Jesus and to share those scriptures and why they were important to you individually. It was a good discussion, that didn't center aroun TCJCOLDS.

-lost

Thanks for the reply. Kids range from 5 to 17, so it can be difficult to teach at a level that is interesting for everyone. Believe it or not, I taught last month and it went pretty well. However, the only thing I looked at from come follow me was which chapters I was supposed to review (middle of Alma somewhere), then I read them and came up with my lesson. Not sure that me giving teaching advice to DW would go over very well. She already accuses me of being a know-it-all and would likely think I'm trying to slowly lead her down the primrose path (DW knows of my beliefs, but kids do not beyond thinking their Dad is a little strange).

The come follow me lessons are so frustrating. The teaching method of let's pick a belief/principle and then jump around to various scriptures that support it (and add in some dumb questions with the standard Sunday school answers) is a recipe for failure. Most kids are much too intelligent for it so they get bored. But I guess we can't just stick to the text (even using the text of the most correct book on earth!) because it could lead to thinking, and thinking could lead to questions, and questions might lead to doubt. We can't have that!!!

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

Advocate,
I get how you feel. My DW has slowly come around as her eyes become more opened. Our kids are quite spread out in age, but older (22, 18, 13) so a little easier that they all understand on some level. We have had them take turns teachings well, but then the person who taught this week nominates the person to teach the following week (unless there are volunteers). We have had some pretty interesting lessons, including how to swing dance (from the 22 year old) and how that relates to trust, Black Lives Matter and how would Jesus react to our current state of contention, etc. The only rule that we really have with lessons is to listen to understand instead of respond...so people feel like they can share what they really think and believe even if it isn't in line with correlated material.

The crazy part is that before house church my eldest was very anti-church, and my middle not far behind. Now the middle who is away at college, but not too far, requests to come home for Sunday morning or join us via Webex because she likes house church, and the eldest adjusted her work schedule to be there because it is a good discussion. But then again, we have never used CFM for a single lesson, can't tell you the last time that a single LDS prophet or other leader was quoted, and we focus on being better human beings an the best US we can be.

-lost

[Red Ryder]

I can relate to this post.

My wife was in tears the other night because she felt like home church wasn’t being taken serious enough by the family. The lessons never go well, the kids talk back or ask questions that derail the come follow me manual.

I asked her what she expected the lessons to be like. She expressed frustration that she had to take it on herself to gather and rally everyone to participate. She pointed out that when I took over and led that everyone participates and has fun but that I didn’t stick to the manual. she was frustrated by it all. Nothing I said would comfort her. Then it all came out that she feels she has lost the kids as they have become more disconnected from the church.

The church is losing the youth because it stopped being fun a long time ago. The more they squeeze, the more they lose.

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

Honest question because I don't know.

Is there some kind of directive that Sacrament meeting lessons be taken from the CFM* manual? I guess I thought CFM was for Sunday School. Since we don't do Sunday School, we have a sacrament meeting discussion, then no need to follow CFM?

**As an aside this manual is horribly named...come follow me? Who is ME? It isn't Jesus...most of the quotes from the book are from general authorities not Jesus, and ME is singular and General Authorities are plural. Either the content needs changed or the title to something more like Come follow Them.

-lost

[Red Ryder]

Honest question because I don't know.

Is there some kind of directive that Sacrament meeting lessons be taken from the CFM* manual? I guess I thought CFM was for Sunday School. Since we don't do Sunday School, we have a sacrament meeting discussion, then no need to follow CFM?

**As an aside this manual is horribly named...come follow me? Who is ME? It isn't Jesus...most of the quotes from the book are from general authorities not Jesus, and ME is singular and General Authorities are plural. Either the content needs changed or the title to something more like Come follow Them.

-lost

It’s like all things mormon. Follow the latest program that rehashes the last 47 programs. New name, same old stuff.

Every member a missionary
Preach my gospel
Come Follow Me

ME = the church
The church = the brethren

Follow the brethren. pray, pay and obey.

It’s all circular as long as you keep going.

Mormonism = one giant hamster wheel where happiness only comes from running faster!

[Culper Jr.]

Ours has evolved quite a bit, but I am really happy with what it is right now.

There are 3 of us: apostate me, TBM DW, and PIMO 16 year old daughter. We take turns picking the hymn/spiritual thought.
_________________________________
Opening song and prayer.

Sacrament (DW would get mad early on because DD and I weren't taking it seriously enough. We had a running joke where we would do silly things to strategically maneuver to try to get the biggest piece of bread from the plate and end up snickering. I ended up telling DD we needed to stop, that we could at least give that to DW).

Spiritual Thought: Whatever the person giving it wants to talk about. I usually do something from the New Testament, usually from a parable with a generic life lesson. DW does the pick apart a scripture in true mormon fashion and beat it to death with correlated principles thing. DD usually does something she saw on Instagram that she thought was inspiring. So we get a different flavor every week, and it's not too long and helps us to cooperate.

Plan our week.
_________________________________

I really like it. It allows us to respect each others beliefs and viewpoints and sort of find some common ground.

We started off with CFM and it was horrible. One thing I've noticed is that the correlated CFM stuff really focuses in on a verse or a small group of verses, and just sort of assigns meaning to it that really isn't there, completely ignoring context. I'd always like to push back and talk about the actual context of the verse, and then we'd start arguing and it'd end up being divisive and terrible. So we dropped it and everyone is happy with the spiritual thoughts.

[stuck]

DW wants it more formal here, so our typical Sunday is:

Everyone in church clothes
Opening hymn (we play a hymn and we all kind of mumble along)
Prayer
Sacrament hymn
Sacrament
Lesson (usually come follow me from DW)
Closing hymn
Prayer

DW is annoyed on a regular basis because the kids aren't participating enough, the kids are poking each other, and I'm not yelling at them enough. I feel really bad for DW because she tries really hard on her lessons, but the lessons are awful. No matter how hard she tries to shine up that turd, it is still a turd, the kids know it and respond accordingly.

Advocate,

My wife (tbm) and myself have found Latter Day Kids on you tube that follows cfm. It is pretty good for young kids because it gets on their level. The only thing I don't love is that it can be a bit more orthodox than we "enlightened" ones would like.

[Corsair]

I treat the CFM manual as my weekly obstacle course to find a message that does not annoy me and also does not reveal my own spiritual charade too openly. It's also no secret that my wife simply enjoys that my son has blessed the sacrament every week for six months.

The further humor arises because my children largely know that my beliefs do not coincide with LDS correlation. My wife knows also. But for her sake everyone is polite enough to sit in a circle, take the sacrament and listen to Dad talk about some ethical, Christian message out of the authorized Book of Mormon message. Most Sundays I will add in some other other bit of non-LDS philosophy or theology as circumstances warrant.

Also, I make it a point to refer to the story in the Book of Mormon and what each character is doing. I am treating the Book of Mormon like it is religious fiction. Think of it like teaching from "Lord of the Rings" and pulling out thematic and ethical messages. 10 minutes is all it takes unless we get into discussing something more interesting, which does happen about half the time.

The CFM manual does not openly treat the Book of Mormon is historical reality. This is implied, but not stated because any material claim would be quickly destroyed. Old Testament and New Testament do not get that level of abstraction.

As in all things, my goal is to support the family I love, not tear down a church that historically and theologically annoys me. The LDS church gets the short end of the stick in so many ways.

[Mormorrisey]

My wife was in tears the other night because she felt like home church wasn’t being taken serious enough by the family. The lessons never go well, the kids talk back or ask questions that derail the come follow me manual.

I asked her what she expected the lessons to be like. She expressed frustration that she had to take it on herself to gather and rally everyone to participate. She pointed out that when I took over and led that everyone participates and has fun but that I didn’t stick to the manual. she was frustrated by it all. Nothing I said would comfort her. Then it all came out that she feels she has lost the kids as they have become more disconnected from the church.

I suspect this is the exact reason why my home church consists of:

1) Opening Prayer
2) The Sacrament
3) and...that's it.

I suspect that if we had ever tried to do more, it would devolve into consoling my wife in this manner. Hence, my home church rocks.

Sorry to all those who've had a theological call of duty break out, instead of home church.

[græy]

DW wants it more formal here, so our typical Sunday is:

Everyone in church clothes
Opening hymn (we play a hymn and we all kind of mumble along)
Prayer
Sacrament hymn
Sacrament
Lesson (usually come follow me from DW)
Closing hymn
Prayer

DW is annoyed on a regular basis because the kids aren't participating enough, the kids are poking each other, and I'm not yelling at them enough. I feel really bad for DW because she tries really hard on her lessons, but the lessons are awful. No matter how hard she tries to shine up that turd, it is still a turd, the kids know it and respond accordingly.

This is EXACTLY what happens in our house on Sundays. Some days, I honestly think church was better.

edit: kids range from 3-10.

[græy]

Also, I make it a point to refer to the story in the Book of Mormon and what each character is doing. I am treating the Book of Mormon like it is religious fiction. Think of it like teaching from "Lord of the Rings" and pulling out thematic and ethical messages. 10 minutes is all it takes unless we get into discussing something more interesting, which does happen about half the time.

I have been doing this more the last couple of months. "According to the story in the BOM." "What can we learn from this story?"

There are things we can learn from the BoM. But one of those things HAS to be not to take it seriously.

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

Opening Hymn - Families can be together forever
Opening Prayer
Sacrament
Lesson - by the eldest daughter (22). What are families? Is the Family Proclamation an accurate representation of families. What about families by adoption, or families by friendship? We talked about 3 ways people can be family (by blood, by marriage, by choice). We also talked about what happens when individuals are toxic in our lives? Do we still have a responsibility to interact with them just because they are "family"? We read scriptures showing that Jesus was raised by what was effectively his step dad, and that Moses was raised in a culture different than the one of his nativity.

Closing song: Love is spoken here
Closing prayer.

-lost