Church was way more awesome today than average

[ulmite]

There is some hope, it seems. This Sunday, almost all of the stars aligned, and we got
- a visiting pianist who could play perfectly and also played fast
- a talk by someone who loved Les Misérables (the novel) and went into depth quoting the novel (the subject of the talk was the talk from GC by Renlund), giving a brief biography of Hugo, and gave a much better comparison than Renlund
- a dynamic EQ lesson with intensive use of the New Testament, and awesome questions like "does the phrase 'doctrine of Christ' appear in the Bible or just in the BOM?"

And of course one weird thing : Peter (allegedly, no reference given) asks if a man was blind from birth because if so he had not sinned in this life but before.
Moral of the story? The Bible vindicates the premortal existence

[Give It Time]

There is some hope, it seems. This Sunday, almost all of the stars aligned, and we got
- a visiting pianist who could play perfectly and also played fast
- a talk by someone who loved Les Misérables (the novel) and went into depth quoting the novel (the subject of the talk was the talk from GC by Renlund), giving a brief biography of Hugo, and gave a much better comparison than Renlund
- a dynamic EQ lesson with intensive use of the New Testament, and awesome questions like "does the phrase 'doctrine of Christ' appear in the Bible or just in the BOM?"

And of course one weird thing : Peter (allegedly, no reference given) asks if a man was blind from birth because if so he had not sinned in this life but before.
Moral of the story? The Bible vindicates the premortal existence

Or reincarnation. There are people who believe Jesus was an incarnation of Buddha. Given the time and the fact that Jerusalem was a crossroads city and would have gotten travelers from eastern countries, reincarnation would probably been closer to the original meaning. Especially since mainstream Christians don't seem to believe in any kind of pre-existence.

I once had a Sunday like that. It was so wonderful and so fulfilling, I went home after two meetings. Even though I had been looking forward to the third and it was actually my reason for going, that day. Totally scandalized my visiting teacher, but I was spiritually full. More would have been too much.

Anyway, that Sunday is what inspired the plan I present in the what would change your mind thread, because I really wanted to go to that class.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1408&p=14634&hilit=Stay#p14634

[SeeNoEvil]

Wow, that sound promising! My ward was never like that. I did love the music though. They always seemed to have a nice musical number and that is the only thing I missed when I stopped attending. The last time I was at church was over 3 years ago when my TBM DD asked me to come to her ward and help her with her 3 little ones while her TBM DH was away for some training which I am sure was her attempt to reactivate me. I spent almost the entire time out in the foyer with the baby forcing me to hear all the talks. They were all on "those people" who were falling away, following Satan, How to rescue, How to love bomb, blah, blah, blah. Your ward sounds much more interesting. Let's hope there's more of that in store for you.

[2bizE]

It is always good when there are good speakers and a tolerable topic. I was blessed with a talk on the 14 fundamentals of following the prophet.

[Nonny]

It is always good when there are good speakers and a tolerable topic. I was blessed with a talk on the 14 fundamentals of following the prophet.

[Anon70]

Interesting!

While ours was not as bad as 14 fundamentals of followingtheprophet....we did get a GA wannabe crying and guilting. I can't decide if my kids are just critical thinkers or if I've poisoned them with my own perspective because a couple of them both rolled their eyes and asked if he was trying to be the next Stake Pres.

I wish he had spoken on all the good that people do and how much service and love he sees in or ward/stake/community. I feel they'd get more out of people with praise and encouragement than they do the guilt trips.

[Newme]

Glad you had a good experience at church.

A few weeks ago, we had a good one too. Testimonies were unusually based on God - not Jossph Smith, nor Jesus - but God! And how much God loves us. Warmed my heart. And I helped in primary - enjoyed hilarious comments from kids.

[ulmite]

I forgot : we also got science preached over the pulpit! As in "some of us humans have been sheperds for the past 10,000 years".
Also, before you get too excited about my ward, the 1st councilor really likes to assign the whole SM meeting to ONE TALK from conference. So we get a fifteen-minute talk stretched into an hour. Yay.