Study BYU-TV’s “Come Follow Up” and Become Ben Lomu

I had a recent chance to watch the “Come Follow Up” program on the BYU-TV channel (find it here: https://www.byutv.org/come-follow-up ) and I saw in several episodes a good model of how our second hour discussions could be better conducted.  Every week or so, the discussion leader (Ben Lomu - handsome polynesian host) brings a gospel scholar and a one or two “Random AnySaints” in front of a group of “spectators” and they chat about the week’s “Come, Follow Me” study. Although informative to just watch the episode, I urge you to take a step back from what is being discussed and see how this weekly presentation flows and who fills what role in their “class”.

The discussion leader kicks things off with a very short summary of what the reading was about. I am not kidding, I timed a few of these summaries and they lasted less than two minutes. This is a good lead-in to help people recall their home scripture study and be ready to discuss what they learned and what touched them.

Then, there is the introduction of the gospel scholar and other guests. These are the people to whom Ben poses the occasional question. The bulk of the discussion is between the gospel scholar and the guests and maybe an audience member, with the discussion leader listening intently to what the speaker is saying and smiling and nodding in an encouraging way.

 

The gospel scholar often seems to be making a bit of a presentation, working off preparation for teaching an institute or old-time gospel doctrine class. “Look what it says here and what it means…”

The guest participant usually tells personal experiences that relate to what is being said, almost interrupting the scholar but still getting Ben’s listening smile and encouragement.

As I sit in on second-hour time, I get the impression that the “Come Follow Up” gospel scholar has taken over the stage, dismissed Ben, and is giving their prepared institute topic presentation, just like the gospel doctrine teachers of old. If I am not too obnoxiously repetitive, the brethren in leadership want our second hour time to look more like a “Come Follow Up” episode rather than an institute class. To put it another way, those who lead in the second hour should look and behave more like Ben Lomu and much less like the show’s visiting gospel scholar.  

Check out a few episodes and see the way the discussion leader behaves. Ben doesn’t have a chalkboard or give out hand-outs. For all we know, the scholar wrote the show’s summary and Ben just reads it off the prompter.  Maybe, like so many of our second-hour friends, Ben might not remember what he read during the week or maybe even didn’t read the assignment at all.  Not to say that discussion leaders should ignore the content, but your role is to initiate and forward a gospel discussion from instruction that happens elsewhere.

I have never been in a church gathering of any type that didn’t have a very willing gospel scholar in the group, quite able to take over the time and never give it back. So, in the second hour discussions that you lead, you already have your “Come Follow Up” gospel scholar (you know who they are) who needs no encouragement to fulfill their duties in that role. The discussion leader just needs to help the scholar give others a chance to contribute.

Harder to see during second hour is the “Random AnySaint” that might share their experiences from their own home gospel doctrine instruction during the week.  As the discussion leader, you may have to coax one or two (or more) group members into talking about what insights were discovered in their home study.  Ask questions that help bring out the “Random AnySaint” and their experience.

Each “Come Follow Up” episode also includes a “studio audience”, often painfully quiet, much like most of your second hour participants. The television episode wouldn’t work without the quiet majority in the room and you, as the second-hour discussion leader, should accept that silent group’s role as almost passive listeners. You won’t see Ben spending much effort in getting the crowd to respond, though, when the occasional audience member raises a hand and comments, he is just as attentive and smiling and nodding appreciatively for their contribution as he is to the scholar and featured guest.  Give place and acknowledgement for the irregular contribution without strong-arming to get it.

In any given episode, between Ben, the ever-present gospel scholar, and the guests at the front of the stage, the episode time is taken up with discussion and the entire assembled group gets their promised uplift in their own way. 

Watch Ben Lomu a few times and see how he leads these discussions. Your role is to be a discussion leader like he is. Let others in the group be the gospel scholar. Work out any ”gospel doctrine teacher” urges in your own home, where the real instruction needs to happen according to the brethren.  In second hour, listen to contributors attentively, smile that “Ben smile”, and nod in acknowledgement. The more we lead the group discussions as Ben Lomu does, the closer we come to honoring the Brethren’s charge to us.

Forbidden Marriage and Vegans of False Gods

I haven't met a vegan who didn't think they were more pure than others around them.  Veganism is a religion where practitioners are the gods and get pretty testy when they are not worshiped by others for their superior culinary practices. It is the ultimate worship of the self and they tolerate no other gods meddling in their self-love.

The same sort of self-love informs the modern idea that remaining unmarried is the best state of being.

1 Timothy 4:3

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

This may be the most basic attitude against God in the Western world right now - rejecting what the Lord has given for our use. We are meant to marry and bear children in marriage, which brings us closer to the state of God and our relationship to him.

Eating fruits and vegetables more than meats is actually a good thing, but "religiously" avoiding meat is setting up a false god that demands an abstinence from meat in the place of the true God of the Bible that never commanded such abstinence.

Later revelations from the Lord confirm his attitude about veganism:

18 And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats, that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God;

19 For, behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/49?lang=eng&id=p18-p19#p18

Make sure that you actually obey God and don't set up bizarre counterfeits.  

Apostles rather than Influencers

It's disconcerting when I hear the wisdom of Youtube, Tiktok, and other "outside" sources used in Sacrament talks and lessons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. With the sacrifice and effort put out to safeguard and translate the Bible and Book of Mormon records for our use, coupled with the inspiration and wisdom of Christ-appointed prophets and apostles, the use of such lesser sources as references in Church meetings smacks of ingratitude for the authorities that Christ has already established to give us spiritual guidance.

Modern social media provides compelling voices and personalities the opportunity to reach broad audiences that only accomplished and recognized leaders and theologians could muster in the past. Although more people have the chance to be seen and heard more widely via the internet, the messages presented have a greater tendency to be tailored toward "itching ears" rather than inspired truth. 

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/2-tim/4?lang=eng

When bringing knowledge into church settings such sacrament talks and second hour lessons, it is important to use the Lord's appointed authorities rather than popular personalities or favorite teachers.

Peaceable Christians on a Peaceable Walk

I have been spending time in very foreign places lately and the difference in culture are stark. Although I feel this way in most situations every day, the contrast to the stranger feeling is far more stark some four thousand miles away from my wife!

Santiago in Chile has no particular enemies as far as I can see, unlike the United States. Border control is a simple matter in this part of South America compared to the grilling I will get when I re-enter the USA. I suppose more terrorists are interested in attacking "the land of the free and home of the brave" as they say, rather than the longest and skinniest country around.

It is interesting to see the people on the streets of Santiago, stopping often, shaking hands, pairing off and often kissing each other. if you can get past the frustrated drivers that regularly toot their horns, it is all very (in a word) peaceful. It isn't very noisy for a congested city center and I don't see a lot of anxiety in anyone's faces.

Perhaps such a situation was what the prophet Mormon was talking about:

3 Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven.

4 And now my brethren, I judge these things of you because of your peaceable walk with the children of men.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/moro/7?lang=eng&id=p3-p4#p3

This is an interesting situation for Mormon to speak this way.  His people and especially his fellow Christians are being annihilated, fighting a running retreat to nowhere. The record kept now by his son Moroni is written for people many centuries in the future, including those who will shortly slaughter his father and himself. Yet, here is this word "peaceable".

What does it mean to be peaceable? Walking the streets of Santiago, I think it might mean to wish and do no ill to others. No one here is getting in my face or in my way, and the language barriers here are handled with mutual shrugs and gestures, enough to get money, food and services exchanged.

More broadly, It could mean to "live and let live". To hold one's standards yet not force them on others. To promulgate the doctrine of Christ among Latter-day Saints and to invite others to do likewise without compulsion if they want to join in.

Christ is surrounded by the idea of peace. It is proclaimed at his birth and he displays it as he is escorted to his death. The resurrected Jesus leaves his peace with his disciples as he ascends to heaven, rarely to return. Outside of cleaning up the temple and clashes with those who attack him, the Savior walks city streets and country paths in relative peace with others. He is civil and even likable, which makes the actions of leaders who have him put to death most bizarre. They certainly were not very peaceable toward him.

Though we cannot pay for the sins of others or initiate the universal resurrection as Christ did, we can manage to walk more peaceably among others as Jesus did. That is powerful way to show that we are followers of Christ in our daily "walks". 

A Few New Lessons from Single Parenting

Women become the most vaunted victim/heroes when they are anointed single mothers. And it is a bequeath, complete with a judge that raps a gavel to make it happen. 

I was just watching a video where a single mom was talking about how hard it was to parent alone. They are beautiful and endurant and sacrificing, which means the cast-away husband/father must have been blind, abusive, and self-centered, right? That was why this most wonderous and beatified mother could ever divorce or so it seems
.  It is an accepted sociological fact that men are monsters and if a woman hasn't divorced random man yet, it is only a matter of time before the monster reveals itself and a new saintly single mother is born.

If single parenting is such a hard task and requires so much above and beyond mere human ability, that should speak volumes about the absolute benefit of keeping husbands around. Women shine up both mother and father badges when they say they wear them both with crushing heaviness, it begs the question of why a reasonable woman would put herself in the situation of raising children largely alone. Perhaps it has more to do with many women enjoy bathing in victim/hero status that society bestows on the single mom after her late (might as well call it what it is - the killing of a man) husband/bedmate/monster is legally crucified.  Society is perfectly happy to have men practically murdered to mint a new single mom/goddess who can never do wrong again.

Wouldn't it be better to keep marriages and families intact? Society might do family a favor by spending even a fraction of the resources applied to broken families to setting more realistic expectations with women and men, appreciating (even just a little) the contribution of fathers to families, eliminating silly no-fault divorces that often tear a family to shreds for no justifiable reason beyond selfishness. Women could put aside the cultural hatred and distrust of all men and be the main driver in building model men as protectors and providers.

Homeschooling Gospel Learning

The essence of home-based church-supported gospel learning is what I call homeschooling. Parents guiding the discussion and teaching Christ and his gospel to their children.

The Sunday church second hour is content review - sharing with your peers what you learned in your home study.

The quarterly Teacher councils is a style review, for parent and teachers,  sharing How we teach. Again, home is for study and gospel doctrine style teaching, the What we teach.

"...the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them,..."

I have heard many authorities say something like - It is never too late to repent. True, but...

This is one of those scriptures that let you know that a person can divorce themselves so completely from the Lord that:

But behold, the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people; for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed; wherefore they went again to battle. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/ether/15?lang=eng&id=p19#p19

We can go so far away from the Lord that the Spirit will stop working to save us.  I tie this to my axiom of "don't count on it", that someone tests Christ's ability to overcome a pretty slimy and unrepentant personal nature.  We all need to do our best to come to Jesus humbly and fully repentant, not to challenge him like some sumo wrestler for how hard we can make it for him to redeem us. What an idiotic concept.

Any of us can go beyond the Lord's willingness to save you, irrelevant of his ability to do it. We would all do better to work to make our redemption worth Christ's while.