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. Its an opportunity for teaching and learning. I do not know how long it will lastprobably 2 hours or more.I will try to be home at 7 pm. It discusses the different types of meetings organizations should/could have. But in the end there is a planning calendar developed and a year long budget developed. Brainstorming can deplete chunks of time from the meeting agenda. Id encourage you to try it for a few meetings (or ask the presiding officer to try it). Your email address will not be published. If they are in a meeting and playing on their phones, I will agree that can be disruptive. I have attended meetings that were too long at 20 min and at 2hrs plus that were not too long. I believe in the adage that Failure to plan is planning to fail! Handbook 2 ( 4.6) advises ward council should be 60-90 minutes in duration. We expect and sometimes we even demand! Here's your daily dose of what matters most! Nobody enjoys them and they need to stop. Ive seen that in ward council where we discuss needs of ward members for too long and inevitably someone says something a little unkind about someone elses choices. This is easier said than done because creating an agenda takes planning and preparation. Because 60minutes of people being unprepared is still as ineffective as 90min or 2 hours of people being unprepared. Thus, once it is returned to the organization, efforts need to be made at the council level to keep the visits going. I highly recommend the book Death by Meeting. Another problem with ward council is that it tends to be a gossip session about So-and-So familys problems, etc. Deeply entrenched in LDS culture, teachings, and scripture is the concept of councils as a primary tool for accomplishing the work of the Church. It is easy for the person in charge of the meeting to get derailed and go off on tangents. Ive served in the RS and primary presidencies for the last four years. I have a problem with calling everything a meeting. They can call or email participants and ask for businesses to be included. He would be very detailed in asking the ward Council to pray. In a pinch, Ive been able to provide music without any hymn books available using my phone, and yes, it accidentally rang once while I was playing. They were painful. The Primary president represents the children of the ward ages 18 months through 11 years. The stake president moved things around so people werent out so late. Awesome comment! Lets treat each other with love and kindness and understanding. I emailed my counselors this morning and among other things from this post, told them our EQ Pres meetings would not last any longer than 45 minutes from now on. I think it was this thread that put me into the zone seriously. "The laughter of the world is merely loneliness pathetically trying to reassure itself.". President Monson will apparently come late to a meeting, even with all of the general authorities, if he feels prompted to minister along the way. Spiritual Thoughts A Collection of Spiritual Thoughts Hopefully Some That You've Never Seen Before You know the drill. I have been at Church all day. But dont confuse efficiency for revelation. I received a message from Elder Ward, one of the missionaries in my Ward yesterday morning asking me to checkout Twitter. So welcome to my ward council spiritual thought: I love to sing to country music! We also took a lot of notes, and updated agendas on the fly for our next meetings. Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to. lds ward council spiritual thought Truth is, she has never stopped attending her Mormon ward. They have vowed NEVER to do that to their families: The result? If someone on the council has reason to not come to the meeting or, quite frankly, doesnt want to be in the meeting, then they should have the right to not be there. I was the Bishop. In an effort to do this, lets review the 7 Unbreakable Rules of Church Meetings. I believe there are lots of different meetings and meeting agendas for different purposes that could be held in the church. Others might view it as a distraction. Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, the training that many people acquire in the business world or other settings threatens to turn councils into merely a target for delegating tasks as directed by the lone leader in charge. But once a person is teachable, a Spirit-inspired teacher can do wonders in the mind and in the heart. I promise you will notice more engagement and focus on what the meeting is about. We also relied on the Spirit to know what to do. I am not claiming to have it all figured out. I like tech and believe it helps me be more efficient. The most common problems faced in creating a cohesive and inspired ward council may include: I was blessed to work with an extremely inspired bishop who, over the course of time, successfully transformed the ward council from one that looked like the problematic picture painted above into a highly-functioning, vision-driven, and unified ward council. And also include the taskers and asignments from the meeting as well. Apr 18, 2021 - Explore Holly Thompson's board "Ward council spiritual thought", followed by 471 people on Pinterest. For a moment, the picture pulled her attention away from the meeting, and she focused briefly on the day the ward Primary had gone to Palmyra to enjoy the sacred feeling of the temple grounds. One of your comments above says if theres a bunch of missionaries reporting, lets have that in a separate meeting and have ice cream! This is in no way a statement of apostasy. They also help provide an atmosphere more conducive to enhanced communication. As we discussed various topics, the Spirit would guide our conversation as to what we should do, why, and how we should proceed. I would love for better instruction to be given in the church handbook about HOW to conduct effective meetings because people called to leadership positions dont necessarily have any experience in that area at all. I note several spelling errors Please forgive them. They got over it. We can't wait to see you in the morning! Thanks for sharing. And time limits for each one! Our meeting came, we opened with a prayer and scripture study and proceeded to discuss a number of individuals, but more importantly, action plans for those individuals, for the coming week. I wrote the post with the assumption that everyone runs their meetings according to the spirit. I believe many church meetings are a total waste of time. We were having fun and working hard. So much of the information shared is not needful for many in the room to even know! I dont think these authoritiesare trying to torture anyone with more meetings. The Problem with "Old School" Councils. 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. Your time is up! (2) when we discuss an issue but the leader in charge doesnt assign any action as a result of it; Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Nope. What a shock when we had an extremely productive 40(!) I think meetings in the church are always a big challenge and a big issue. They dont communicate very well with their counselors. They love to micro-manage everything! I think if we treat the adults like adults, instead of children, you would be surprised how much can actually be accomplished in a meeting even with people using their phones. I cant imagine a bishop cutting off someones testimony because the timer went off and its time to move along. 4 min. We choose and we decide what our attitudes will be! Ive participated in meetings where, at the conclusion, participants couldnt believe how much time had passed because it felt like no time at all. But in our case, its much less intrusive on the time of our members if we have a meeting that goes a little later instead of having an additional meeting that requires them to travel again. When she reached inside her bag for a notebook, she came across a picture of 28 Primary children on the steps of the Palmyra New York Temple. Giving everyone a chance to state randomness unrelated to the agenda is a waste of time. You cant rush the Lord. LDS Church Materials Can Be Purchased and Accessed . The ward council!. They also discuss the annual budget requirements that will be required to run a scout troop. This is a sample of what it looks like with fake names. This was patterned from bishopric training given by our stake presidency at the time. Would he complain and be miserable or make the best out of the situation. A Psalm of Thanksgiving. "We should bear in mind that the success of a given activity cannot always be judged by its size. Id like to reach out to you all and invite ideas of how we can help others implement these principles. Can you help me reconcile Jensens statement with what your saying? I had forgotten that my counselors son was arriving back from his mission a few hours prior to our scheduled meeting. Great point! Removing the Poison of an Unforgiving Spirit . I think we have the mistaken notion that every element of revelation coming to the ward has to come through the bishop. I get the sentimentbut you will notice a recurring theme throughout Handbook 2a lack of hard rules about church administration. #3 No administration allowed is a good thing to strive for, but it only works if the admin is actually accomplished outside of the meeting. The same goes with any point made in the article. Going by the spirit is assumed in every meeting. This forces council members to communicate midweek as much as possible over email, text, etc. The final item on the agenda was to be a discussion on dealing with individuals with mental illness (a topic that was very important to me). These members watched their parents put in so much time in their callings growing up that it turned into resentment. The length of a meeting should be kept to the minimum amout of time need to fulfill the goal of the meeting. (2010 World Wide Leadership Training). People werent made for clocks; clocks were made for people. I do agree the vast majority of our meetings can be done in less than an hour. I know how that feels, because we had 6 missionaries in one branch and branch coordination would last for almost 3 hours just because the way we (the missionaries) were reporting was really inefficient and it would go from there to the brainstorming no-no that dragged it out even longer while people tried to come up with solutions. One last comment. Our leaders and members are not perfect and never will be on this earth! Then implement their feedback. I have read the handbook regarding the meetings and would like to design agendas which help us to better meet the specific goals and outlines for each meeting. They work together in love to serve and strengthen individuals and families in the ward or branch. Ive experienced powerful, spiritual meetings that lasted well beyond the 61 minute mark. Our church Members and Leaders come from all different walks of life and life experiences. I like the 7 rules, though I may not share all of them. To say a meeting is never worth 61 minutes is putting artificial constraints on the spirit and leaders that are not appropriate. They have different levels of education, knowledge, backgrounds, training, experence, culture, expectations, gospel maturity, etc. I think there is some drastic attitude adjustment needed, but since weve worked so hard to have everything come from the top, itll need to come from there before it changes. It takes a very good meeting to be better than no meeting at all., (Said at my stake conference in Concord, NH.). I am still not fluent in Ipad. I have concerns with #5 no tech. See more ideas about spiritual thoughts, lds quotes, church quotes. I used the title in the image Unbreakable Rules as manly a way to intrigue the audience, and it worked. Plus the presidency can delegate and that is one less burden on their shoulders. Hold a meeting to have a meeting. I don't know why I've been so blessed but this experience has been a major part of my adult life. You can also subscribe without commenting. It is easy to get caught up In talking about people in ward council, but our focus should be more on how we can help people take whatever next step they need toward eternal life. I have generally been involved in music and managed to avoid lengthy council meetings. If it isnt, cancel it; it isnt worth holding a meeting that is anything different. The next day at sacrament meeting, the ward member said that he was glad the bishop had his watch as well so he knew he had ended his work on time to honor the Sabbath day. We only did this for 12 or so months, but this was the year our ward saw 20 baptisms and was strengthened by a dozen returning members. His BA in International Studies doesnt do much in the IT industry where he works as a software product manager for Salt Lake City-based Samaritan Technologies. 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