Just a Typical Mormon Sunday School (Joel and Amos)

Well, I wrote about our Sacrament meeting today so I thought it would be appropriate to continue to the trend by talking about our Sunday School lesson.
This year, every congregation's Gospel Doctrine class is studying the Old Testament.  Today we talked about the books of Joel and Amos.  The lesson from the official manual can be read here.
Our Gospel Doctrine teachers do a good job of not following the manual, which I appreciate. They do follow the topic, but what they teach is from their heart, not out of the book. Today Brother Jerry (that's his first name, not his last. He always just calls himself Jerry, so I do too.) taught, he's a great older guy born in (i believe) 1940 who has seen and done some incredible things in his life. I am fascinated by his knowledge of history and science.  He tells wonderful stories about WWII, about working as an engineer and computer programmer in the mid 1960's (reminds me of a Kurt Vonnegut novel every time!), and is Jewish Baptist Native American who converted to Mormonism as an adult, so he has quite an interesting history.  Everytime he teaches I feel like it's a university class!
So today, he got out his big Old Testament map and pointed out where Israel and Judah were located at the time. He gave the historical context for Amos (750 - 800 BC) and discussed how he was from Judah but spoke to Israel. He then gave historical context for Joel (estimated ~800 BC) and how he was from Israel but spoke to Judah.  We discussed the importance of listening to the prophets - both ancient and modern - and how civilization tends to advance rapidly when there are prophets on the earth, whether or not those advancements are attributed to believers or not it is an interesting pattern.  He talked about the advancements in just his time, (doing math by hand and programming by binary in the 60's) and the past 100 years, and how every new technology has in some way helped the work of God go forth.
One of my favorite moments from this class was reading Amos 6:1: "Wo unto them that are at ease in Zion." We need to pay attention to what the prophets say and never stop learning about the gospel and the scriptures, because it will always provide us the direction we need in life.

A Video about Prophets

Just a typical Mormon Sacrament Meeting (Living by Faith)

Today was a great day at church, and the thought came to me to share it.  Perhaps someone someday will find this and be interested to know what a Mormon service is like, or maybe I'm just writing so that I can remember it someday, but here it goes:

We actually made it a few minutes early for once! We sat a few pews from the back row, and because of the school holiday there weren't many people there.  We opened by singing all three verses of 'Come, Rejoice' (click here to read and hear the hymn) which is a somewhat uncommon hymn. After an opening prayer from someone in the congregation (our Bishop has a tradition of asking whoever is there when he walks in to pray - it's a wonder anyone comes early!) were some short announcements - all priesthood holders in the stake (local area) are invited to a special priesthood meeting next week at 7 a.m. and this Friday is a stake couples/relationship seminar given by a prominent local couples counselor- "Everything else you can read in the program."  We then prepared for the Sacrament (communion) by singing 'O Lord of Hosts' (click here to heard and hear the hymn), another uncommon hymn, and the Sacrament was blessed and passed by the Aaronic Priesthood.
Now it was time for the speakers - this week, three young women in their early 20's.  The first was a sister from our ward who just returned this week from her 18 month mission service in Des Moines, Iowa.  Her talk was beautiful as she told stories of living by faith on her mission. She emphasized the importance of praying that God will mold our hearts so that our desires will be His desires, and to live having faith that following Him we will have the greatest chance at happiness and influencing others.  One quote I particularly liked from her was "We have to go through the 'I don't know why I'm doing this' phase before we see the miracle!"  Listening to hear talk, I felt a confirming witness in my heart of the same thing - sometimes I wonder why I'm being a mom, teaching my kids, etc when it is so hard and seems nothing good is coming from it, but I was reminded how right it felt when I made that decision, and have faith that someday I'll see the good.
The next speaker was a new missionary, here for only 10 days, a young girl from South Carolina.  She spoke about her conversion to the church only two years ago.  She was raised Baptist and as a teenager felt unsatisfied in her mother's church, so she began attending a Christian church with a friend and was baptized there.  Only a few months later she once again felt unfulfilled and gave up on religion for a time. In college she was paired with a Mormon roommate, who for months invited her to church and activities until one time she was bored and decided to come.  She met new friends she liked and continued to go to church and activities with her friend.  She went for almost 6 months before realizing how fulfilled and happy she felt, and decided it was something that she would like to pursue.  Some things that touched me were her discussion of faith and whether it is a verb or a noun - "faith is something you seek" and "desire is an action of faith".
We then had a family from the congregation sing a song, called "The Miracle". I had never heard it before, but it was very powerful. The whole family was crying to the point that they almost had to stop singing, and I'm sure there were few dry eyes in the audience.  It spoke of the miracles of Jesus, and how his biggest miracle is "the miracle that rescued me". You can see it sung in another Mormon service on this YouTube video or see the official video from the writer.
Our final speaker was a more seasoned missionary, scheduled to go home to Hawaii just after Christmas.  She got up and said that she had not originally planned to speak about living by faith, but that after coming to church realized what she had written was not what she should talk about. She then began to also tell stories of living by faith, especially in those that she has seen on her mission.  She spoke of a man who converted to the church and attended for two years, but could not get baptized because his wife said "You are Catholic, stop pretending to be Mormon."  She eventually said that if he wanted to be baptized he would have to leave, so he did. He moved from the Philippines to Utah, intending to start a new life as a Mormon.  His parents sent him an email saying they disowned him. His wife sent him divorce papers.  Finally his brother came here and took him to visit Catholic priests to convince him not to become a Mormon, and all the priests said that they were too busy to speak with him - even after he'd explained the situation. That's a lot of odds against him, and while it is heartbreaking that he had to leave his family to do so, I admire this man's courage in doing whatever it took to do what he felt God wanted him to do.
We then closed by singing 'Let us all Press On' (read and listen here) which is a more commonly used hymn, then had a closing prayer offered by some other poor soul who had arrived early and been caught by the Bishop.

A Mormon visits Calvary Chapel

A few weeks ago we went on a little weekend trip to a town a few hours from here.  On Saturday, we noticed a sign advertising the local Calvary Chapel’s annual Church in the Park was to be the following day only a few blocks from our hotel, and decided that it could be a fun part of our vacation. (Not to mention there was to be free lunch, which was a pretty motivating factor.)

Now I have to confess, although I've listed to hundreds (thousands?) of Christian sermons, and watched a great many Christian worship services on video, I have never attended a worship service (aside from Catholic Mass) that wasn't a Mormon service.  I did, however, go to my friend's Christian youth group regularly in High School, so that combined with what I've watched/listened to gave me an idea of what to expect, and I was excited for this new experience.  I know a bit about the Calvary Chapel in my town, and occasionally listen to their radio station and shop at their thrift store.  They always seem to be so excited to serve and befriend others, which is something I really admire.  The Calvary Chapel that I visited seemed to be much the same – very welcoming and friendly in a way that is generally not too pushy (I say generally, because there was one usher who was a little over-excited about pushing free Bibles onto people).  That is something I really admire.  It takes guts to extend yourself out to complete strangers when you don’t know how they’re going to respond. I’m much too timid to do that kind of thing!

The service started with over a half hour of contemporary Christian worship music.  I expected the music, I did not expect it to go on so long.  I do sometimes listen to contemporary Christian music on the radio and there are a few songs I really like, but I do not enjoy it in a worship setting, at all.  I prefer calm, contemplative, reverent worship - not a cheerleader for God but a deep, sincere, and personal thank you to God.  But knowing that Calvary Chapel did contemporary music I didn't plan on any quiet, contemplative worship today.  While having a couple songs at the beginning of service is a great idea to be sure that even latecomers get to hear the sermon, (Mormons, take note!) a half hour was just too long. The problem with contemporary Christian is that nearly every song sounds the same - same chord patterns, similar lyrics - even my friend who plays in his church's worship band agrees.  It got boring. Before the music was over, my mom (who usually listens to boring repetitive pop music) said "Is this just a concert? I can't take it anymore" and asked my kids if they wanted to go play on the playground. 

Eventually someone gave some announcements, and I shuffled through the bulletin that was handed out. (I would normally call it a program, but it didn’t really outline the day’s service.)  It involved much more paper than I’m used to, but much of that was due to the lyrics to all the songs being printed.  It was also much more colorful and professional looking than what I’m used to. There were very colorful, professional looking flyers for an upcoming broadcast and a men’s conference, which in my church would probably have been printed up in plain black and white.  Such a small thing but I had mixed feelings about it (yes, it looks really nice, but it also is an extra cost to design and print – something a church running on donations might want to forgo.)  The ‘Statement of Faith’ on the back will have to be discussed at another time.  Before the announcements were over, my dad and brother had wandered over to the playground as well.

A few minutes after the sermon started, I was bored and confused, but was willing to keep listening expecting it to get better. My husband was not.  He muttered something like "wow this guy's not even worth the free lunch" and left me alone to listen while he watched the kids on the playground.  Having seen the rest of my group walk away, pushy Bible guy moved closer and kept his eye on me.  I’ve gotta be honest that I found it a bit sexist that he offered a free Bible to my dad, my brother, and my husband, but not me or my mom.  But pushy Bible guy is what us scientifically minded people call an ‘aberration’, so I am not factoring him into my opinion of the church.  I was honestly trying to follow along, but the pastor seemed to go on tangent after tangent until I had no clue what his point was.  I’m sure he’s a great guy, and he must be a good preacher given the size of his congregation, but today was not his best work.

In only the 20 minutes that I listened, he had managed to fit every stereotype of mainstream Christian preachers that I had expected –

-Talking about how wonderful the Bible is and mentioning that we are really digging deep into the scriptures when he only preaches out of a couple verses in Mark, Corinthians, and Romans.

-saying negative things about specific religious groups (in this case, Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus)

-Backed up his opinions with something nonbelievers can’t connect to. (In this case, the Bible is amazing because it is old.  It is true because it says it is.)

-Talked down to his audience, treated everyone like they were children or skeptics (by spouting random useless facts and explaining even the simplest concepts like we had never heard of them)

-Had “Jesus Saves” as the theme of his talk and “because the Bible says so” as his evidence. 

After I’d had enough, I waited for pushy Bible guy to stop standing behind me to go help someone find Romans and joined my family at the playground. We could hear bits and pieces from there, and it seemed every sentence was so stereotypical that my husband and I were constantly giving each other ‘the look’.  The rolling eyes “I can’t believe he’s really that clichéd” look. (Here, I have to say that the idea of church in the park was great, and it allowed us to casually walk away when we felt like it rather than feel trapped.)

On the way out, we passed the youth group on the far end of the park.  We walked slowly, hoping to catch a snippet of their sermon. What I heard was a story I’ve heard over and over from Christians who preach an absolutely no works salvation – the ‘death bed conversion’ story.  What about someone who accepts Jesus and dies a couple minutes later? They don’t have time for works! That means they can’t be saved!!  This just shows ignorance and an unwillingness to listen to someone else’s beliefs.  No Christian who believes works are necessary salvation would say that this person is not saved.  God knows this man had no time to be baptized, no time to serve God in this life, but God knows his heart!  If he would have done those things, had he the opportunity, God will reward him accordingly.  God is merciful, He is understanding, He is loving, He is all-powerful.  Salvation doesn’t come after completing a checklist of works, salvation comes from God while our works prove our hearts.  Please, please, stop accusing me (and millions of others) of not being Biblical on this point.  Hearing that story was like the final smack-in-the-face blow of everything stereotypical and clichéd, everything I dislike about mainstream Christianity was there. Although I came excited for a new experience, I left extremely disappointed, having lost much of my fascination with all things “Christian” and gained much appreciation for my faith.

Overall, the feeling I had was not what I expected.  Usually at church, while I might feel bored at times, I feel peace, openness, and love. I feel edified and filled. I feel bigger – empowered and renewed.  I honestly leave church feeling closer to God – every single time! Even if I spent most of it in the hall with a whining baby!  At this Calvary Chapel service, I expected to feel some of that, perhaps in a different way, but still feel the Spirit of God as I have listening to many Christian sermons on the radio.  I didn’t. Before the sermon even started I felt like there was a block in my heart. I felt confused, belittled, frustrated, and even a little offended.  The only word I can come up with to describe the feeling I had there is gray. Just blank.

After leaving early, we drove a couple blocks to the local Mormon Temple.  I know it sounds cliché but the second I walked onto the temple grounds I felt peace wash over me. The negative feelings I had from the park vanished and I felt comforted that God’s truth is bigger than the garbage I had just heard.  I felt reassured, comfortable, and so joyful that I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I felt so grateful for the knowledge and faith that I have.

I'm really sorry.  I went excited, I went hoping my expectations of predictable and boring would be wrong, and part of me thought that just maybe this would be an eye-opening spirit-filled experience.  It wasn't. It completely changed my view of mainstream Christianity, and not for the better.  It confirmed all the stereotypes and preconceived notions that I had, and I left feeling sorry for the people that were buying into that garbage.  I really truly hope that once my interest in mainstream Christianity returns I will be able to find the good in it, but for now I feel disillusioned and have no positive feelings toward it.

What's life like behind the Zion Curtain?

Have you heard of the Zion Curtain? It's like the Iron Curtain, except that communism is replaced by Mormonism.  (it also refers to a glass wall blocking a bartender from the customer... but that's another story) That's where I live.  That's where I've always lived.  That's where I'll probably live my entire life.  My ancestors have lived here since the first settlement - 1847 - and I anticipate most of my descendants will live here until the Second Coming.  Not because we can't leave, but because we can't see a reason why we should.  Now don't get me wrong, I've thought about moving away.  I've dreamed about moving away.  But now, I love it here, and I'm fine staying put. Why? Because I realize how unique it is, and I like that!

The town I live in has a population of about 40,000 (10,000 of those are technically in the neighboring city's boundaries, but are usually considered part of our town since a 4-mile wide farm and a highway separates them from the rest of their city.)  Guess what? Up until a year ago, there were NO non-Mormon churches in our town. Not one. Not even home churches or Bible study groups. Seriously.  Last fall some church planters heard our secret and moved halfway across the country to take advantage. They've got about 50 regular attenders (including the 15 who moved here to start the church).  There's also a small Baptist church trying to get off the ground, meeting in a home with about 10 people. So, does that mean there are 39,940 Mormons and 60 Christians? No.

Life behind the Zion Curtain has a culture all it's own, for sure.  Anyone who's spent some time here will attest to that. But the interesting thing is that most people are either Mormon or not religious. We like it that way, and for the most part, we leave each other alone.  My street is a pretty good example:

There are 12 homes on my street.
5 of us are practicing Mormon families and attend the local ward (congregation).
1 is a gay couple, both of whom grew up Mormon but are no longer practicing.
1 couple drives 20 minutes one way to attend a moderately sized Assemblies of God church.
1 family attends a Christian church, I assume they're pretty involved as they host a weekly Bible study group at their house.
4 families don't attend church. It's pretty safe to assume at least one of them is Catholic, as the Catholic population here is relatively high.

Total: 4 Mormon families, 2 Christian families, 5 non-religious families.

Up until recently, the only place you could buy alcohol was a can of beer (but no wine) at the grocery store, there was not a single place to buy a cup of coffee, and the only place open on Sunday was the gas station.  I never even noticed until I had some Catholic neighbors move in from the East Coast (now gone) who were shocked. No coffee shop? No bars? One liquor store within a 10 mile radius? What are we supposed to do on Sunday?  We let our kids leave school for one class period to walk barely off campus for religious classes (this doesn't just apply to Mormons).  Most of the neighborhood parties are hosted at Mormon church buildings.  The department store clearance racks are overflowing with tank tops.   Grocery stores hold semi-annual bulk food sales.

That's the culture. We like being special.

5 things Christian Churches do that drive this Mormon crazy!

I have to start out by saying that these opinions are purely my own.  They are not in any way representative of the opinion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or of Mormons in general.

source for raised hands image

Call me crazy, but I have an obsession with mainstream Christianity.  Why?  Simply because I find it fascinating.  As someone who has only been a Mormon and only lived in a Mormon-majority community, mainstream Christianity is sometimes like a foreign country that is similar to but not exactly like my own. (Perhaps like Canada? I wouldn't know, I've never been there.)  I know the names and locations of many of the non-Mormon churches in my county and visit their websites regularly.  I also follow the websites of many large churches throughout the country, and I get so excited to find a new fascinating church to virtually follow (stalk?).  I've noticed some trends in many of these churches that drive me absolutely bonkers, and I just have to get a few things off my chest:

#1: "Love on".  That just sounds creepy, guys.  Why not say "we're going to serve these people" or "we're going to show God's love to these people" or "We're going to be charitable toward these people"?  Why "we're going to love on these people"?  One trend I've noticed is that 'love on' is often used when the congregation is offering service to people who neither needed or wanted any help.  They 'love on' a local middle-class neighborhood by offering a cookout or party of some sort (i.e. an advertising opportunity) rather than 'love on' those at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.  I get that service is great, and serving people who don't ask for service isn't a bad thing.  But please stop 'loving on' them. It's really creepy sounding.

#2: "No perfect people allowed".  I see so many churches who say that 'no perfect people are allowed' at their church.  I get that you're making the point that nobody is perfect and church is a 'hospital for sinners to be healed and not a museum of saints' or however the quote goes.  But here's the thing - at first glance, it sounds a little unwelcoming.  On second glance, it sounds like you don't want people to try to improve themselves, but that they should be content to stay where they are.  And on third glance, I always think "uhhhh... Jesus?"  Was Jesus not a perfect person? Would He not be welcome in your church?  Is He welcome there now?  I know you can argue that Jesus isn't a mortal man and such, but come on - Jesus was/is a man/half-man (depending on your interpretation of scripture) and was/is perfect. Just don't say no perfect people - it's dangerous territory.

#3: "Bible-based". This is just redundant.  When does a Christian church not say that they are 'Bible-based'? I get that some churches are super watered down and might not fit your idea of what a Bible-based church is, but guess what - anyone who says they are a Christian, or any church that claims to preach Christianity, will say that they are Bible-based.  Saying that you are 'Bible-based' is not only redundant, but also kinda seems to imply that other churches are not Bible-based and therefore not Christian, even though they say they are.  Also - have you ever seen a movie that is 'based on' a real event? Was it completely accurate? Was it a thoroughly detailed retelling of the story? [no, it wasn't.]  I just hope that "Bible-based" is different than "based on the Bible", if you get my drift.

#4: Contemporary worship time.  It is so popular these days for churches to have a rock band playing contemporary worship music, often they have a full half hour of this "worship time" where the band plays and people sing along with their hands in the air.  Don't get me wrong, I love contemporary Christian music and listen to it fairly often. I also think worship time is a great thing.  But I've got a few issues with this.
a.) 'Worship time' seems like a cop out. The Pastor (who is making much more money than the probably-volunteering praise band) didn't want to prepare a longer message so we're going to listen to music for a half hour instead.  I want to go to church to learn something new, not to sing with my hands in the air. I can worship whenever I want and don't particularly want to do it in a large group.  If you want to offer a worship time, it might be best to offer it as an optional separate time before or after the regular service, so people can get in the right frame of mind to listen to the sermon, take time to think about what the sermon had to say, or take some personal time for prayer/Bible reading in a spiritual environment.
My second problem is that b.) when I envision myself worshiping God, I think of God sitting on His heavenly throne and me kneeling at his feet in speechless, tearful gratitude.  It's usually pretty silent, because nothing has to be said - maybe some angels singing Hallelujahs in the background, perhaps me choking out 'thank you thank you thank you!'.  You know what it isn't like when I imagine worshiping God in His presence? A dimmed room lit by colorful beams of light, electric guitars, drums, loud music, (I've actually seen churches advertise that they are loud!) people jumping up and down or waving their arms in the air screaming "How great is our God!?".  And there most certainly is not a basket being passed around for donations!  In short, worship can and should be joyful, but not irreverent.  Yes the rock concert environment is fun, but is it appropriate for worship?

#5: Separating the family.  I get it, it's hard for kids to sit still during a half hour sermon. (We Mormons make them sit through 90 minutes!) They might wiggle and whine and distract people.  But if you take them away for a 'kids church' while the adults listen to the sermon, you're doing them and their families a disservice.  Kids need to see their parents worship.  Parents need to share that moment with their kids.  They need to be able to take home that common worship experience together.  Worshiping together is vitally important.  It's a great idea to have a special service or Sunday School geared to kids.  Its a great idea to have a time for adults to focus and learn without being distracted by their kids - do that separate.  Have a family worship time and an age-segregated time. Please.

Visiting a Mormon Church: What to wear?

So, what should you wear if you visit a Mormon Church?

Well, technically, you can wear whatever you want. You aren't going to be turned away.

Most people like to have some guidelines so that they don't stick out, though. Unlike many Christian churches today that have adopted a 'come as you are' casual worship culture, most Mormons wear 'Sunday Best' (think business attire), even children. How you dress for worship often reflects your respect for God and your attitude toward faith.

Men:
Most men wear slacks with a white shirt and tie. Suits and sport coats or blazers are also common. You will see men wearing colored or even patterned button-down shirts with or without ties, but white is the standard. If you wear a hat, please remove it when entering the chapel.

Women:
Most women wear dresses or skirts that reach at least to the knee and tops that cover the shoulders.  Dress pants are rarely seen, but acceptable.  Dress styles range from more casual knit skirts and t-shirts to structured business-like suits and blouses.

Children:
Young children don't typically dress as formally as their parents. For boys, colored or patterned button-down shirts or polo shirts are quite common, but you will also see boys wearing suits or white shirts and ties. Teenage boys usually dress like the adult men.  Girls usually wear dresses or skirts like the women.

Examples of typical 'Sunday Best':

What if I'm attending an activity, not a worship service?
'Sunday Best' is only worn for Sunday worship services. If you were invited to attend a congregation activity, community event, youth group, or other non-worship activity, you can wear whatever you want. Most Mormons wear jeans and t-shirts to non-Sunday activities held at the church, unless a special type of dress might be needed (i.e. dances or sports)

*All photos in this post courtesy of the LDS Church (https://www.lds.org/media-library/images/)