I’ve heard many people express a positive excitement for the new Come Follow Me Sunday schedule, but I have also heard great concern about how it’s to be conducted and administered. As I have spent years studying the purpose and destiny of our Relief Society, I can testify this new program aligns well with what we can accomplish as a sisterhood. May I offer a few ideas that may help us all catch the vision?
Back in the early days of the church, in the Salt Lake Valley, our Relief Society was full of sisters with spirit, with THE spirit as a matter of fact. I love reading stories of their faithfulness and ingenuity. They understood that with the power of the Holy Ghost, they could literally accomplish anything. And they did!
And we can too!
Our time is full of darkness and distraction. Satan is stealing away our faith, our children, and even our hope in some cases. We cannot let him steal anyone or anything else that we love. Can we? NO! As an organized sisterhood, we have power, real power! to fight against Satan. Next year we can use our Sundays to help us do just that.
The Spirit Must Be Our Teacher
Teachers are now to be facilitators. What does that mean? It means there is minimal preparation and maximum group discussion. It means the teacher needs to be willing to forego any of her thoughts if a sister presents a question worthy of discussion. Lessons can be led by honest questions answered by anyone in the room that has experience or knowledge in her life.
Warning: Don’t let your discussion become opinion-based. Draw from the scriptures as well as our church leaders. As a sisterhood, using scripture search apps, we should be able to find scriptural answers to our questions in class.
Relief Society Council Ideas
Every first Sunday is to be a council meeting with open discussion. This is where most of us are feeling concerned. But this is the very meeting that just may change everything!
What are council meetings?
A group that comes together to discuss mutual concerns.
Why are councils important?
When discussing a group problem many voices can discuss and finally come to an important conclusion.
Ideas for Council Meetings
Our new Relief Society council meetings are meant to unify us. By unifying our thoughts, our power is unified into action. Discussions can be–
- Why is it important to strengthen our youth? How do we do it? How can we keep them active? Or teach them how to work? Involve them in the ward? Build confidence and leadership skills?
- Why should we encourage our husbands to lead in the home? How do we make sure things happen without taking over? Why should we be true helpmates to our husbands? Help those husbands and/or families who are fighting the battle of pornography? Use the scriptures to strengthen our marriage?
We can also go a different route.
- Discuss various words or phrases found in the scriptures: Chain, New and Everlasting Covenant, Doctrine of the Priesthood, Gethsemane, Inheritance, etc.
- How do I sign up for FamilySearch? What apps will help me study the scriptures better? What are ways younger sisters can work with older sisters in creating bonds and unity?
Discussion type questions may get your sisters talking, but ultimately, these council meetings MUST lead to action. It’s all well and good to go home freshly motivated, but ideas meant to work toward the cause for Christ is even better. What can your Relief Society do to bring ward members closer to Jesus Christ?
Encourage your sisters to open up their scriptures and seek answers to further the discussion.
Don’t criticize, but learn to be critical thinkers.
Find solutions!!
Generate ideas for profound, practical, and spiritually-uplifting activities that will bring sisters, families, auxiliaries together in the cause for Christ.
Maybe, as a Relief Society, you need inspiration from past sisters. The church offers inspiring books that aren’t in any of our church curricula but are full of much wonderful spiritually fortifying information. What benefit do they offer? They share stories of faith against difficult circumstances. Just what we need right now!
More Ideas for Council Meetings
- Assign various sisters to study the lives of faithful Saints and let them share in class. These sisters were strong and we can learn from their faith against the odds.
- Discuss the Nauvoo Relief Society Minutes and what Joseph Smith was teaching these sisters about the temple (His words are important!).
- Read and discuss a talk given by someone in At the Pulpit. We need to feel these sisters’ faith.
- Play a guessing game to discover all the projects the early sisters started in the Salt Lake Valley. (You can find them all here on my website.) We can organize needed projects in our day too if we creatively brainstorm together.
Elder Bednar is well known for his rather direct urgings for us to act, and not be acted upon. How can your Relief Society follow this directive?
Each one of us has different gifts and talents. How can this council meeting be used to strengthen them as we learn to develop them, share them, and work together to make great things happen?
I love the story Sister Hinckley once told about a sister who started taking piano lessons
and played a musical number in Relief Society. It wasn’t perfect but it was an opportunity for her sisters to build her confidence and show her love. Unify through loving and supporting one another.
Some of us are interested in politics or political issues. Council meeting can give these sisters an opportunity to update information about refugees, sex trafficking, the homeless, what is being taught in our schools, etc. We need to help our society as well as our homes. Discuss ways to help and then during the week get together and act on it.
Note: Our Sunday discussions must extend into the week in order for us to change lives for the better. We are being asked to act and we will never accomplish anything in less than an hour, once a week.
General Conference Talk Lessons
(A note to Relief Society presidents: It is your responsibility to encourage your teachers to be facilitators. Give them guidelines, direction, and support as you work together to inspire all of your sisters to discuss ways to make our gospel living an action in our lives.)
We’ve had these types of lessons before but we have a new teaching method to help us move forward with change. Take a look at the new Self-Reliance manuals. Led by a facilitator, these lessons have a spiritual foundation section, a new concept section, a ponder section and a commitment section. How can this be incorporated into the General Conference talk discussions? To be a facilitator, the teacher needs to be willing to let go. Simply set the stage and let words of inspiration come from the sisters.
Allow the sisters to learn to use the scriptures, find answers in the scriptures, and refer to the scriptures during a discussion. Get so excited about a discussion that half the discussion is planning a way to act on it during the coming week. Find a time during the week to continue the conversation. Don’t find a new comfortable, and get stuck in a new rut. Be adventurous and willing to try new things. Demand more from your sisters.
It may be more important than ever before to use mini classes to further the good works of our sisterhood. The typical “Enrichment Night” activity is no longer viable if we are seeking to follow the words of our prophets. If we want to see change, we must change the way we do things. Developing worthy projects allows us to work side-by-side with one another, helping and ministering to one another as we grow and build the kingdom of God together. An observant RS President will learn the interests or concerns of her sisters, create opportunities for spiritual growth, and provide purposeful gatherings as often as is necessary to fulfill the needs of the sisters.
Fourth Sunday Lesson
Topics will change after every General Conference. We will have approximately four lessons on the same topic. The church will offer four areas of discussion, but it will likely be a challenge to keep the topic fresh. This is an opportunity to discover depth in a topic. Learn through the scriptures, prophet’s words, and the experience of other faithful Saints. Practical application must be drawn out from our scriptures. Mostly, we will need to learn our doctrine better. Learn why the doctrine is true, why it’s important, and why God wants us to live it. Only then can the Spirit enlighten us with new understanding and motivation.
Sisters, don’t be afraid of this new program. Take the time you need to gather your inspired ideas and don’t be afraid of failure. Trial and error will be part of the fun as all sisters lend their own inspiration. Find your purpose. Always stay focused on the end result, which is glory with our Father in Heaven. This is our great cause, to build the kingdom of Jesus Christ and prepare all for eternal life.
It is time to put our God at the forefront of our everyday lives. As the early Saints demonstrated before us, we too can be inspired to greatness.
Confession: I’ve seen this change coming for a while now and have written about it more than once. Here’s a list of the posts over the years. Feel free to glean anything useful you might read from them.
Catch the Vision of Come Follow Me
RS Meetings: They Are a’Changing
How To Use the Daughters in My Kingdom Book
Relief Society: An Action Group
A Personal Guide for Sunday Lesson/Scripture Study
List of Relief Society Meeting Ideas
Thanks Jan for your help and insights. I read Women of Covenant when it first came out and thought this should be a handbook for RS leaders. I guess there are two kinds of people in the church, those who read, study and aren’t terribly surprised by changes in the administration of the gospel, and those who just attend church and are caught off guard by changes and advances toward Zion. Thanks for being in the former group and leading. It’s so comforting to me to know I’m not alone.
Yep. We’re in this together, sister!