It's not that mad Mattmattctr wrote:Sunday block meetings help us "meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls" (Moroni 6:5). They are a good thing, and I look forward to attending church meetings with the ward. I try to not only learn from the spoken sermons but detect and hear the numerous UNSPOKEN sermons that abound. HOWEVER, for the most part, I believe that while the mainstream, correlated, sanctioned, and approved materials are excellent at providing global consistency and helping to avoid tendencies of teachers to rely on their own angles and introduce the philosophies of men, it is mostly milk and honey. We hear the simple and sweet things of the Kingdom, and I assume this is by design.LukeAir2008 wrote:You have to remember that most of what Joseph Smith and his immediate successors taught is no longer authorized to be taught in Church. About 75% of what I believe, all of which was taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, I wouldn't dream of discussing or even mentioning at Church. Where's it all going to end? Now that's food for thought!
I don't believe the Lord wants to discourage you from growing into the meat of the gospel, but the 3 hour block, general conferences, and other public forums are not necessarily the right forums for it yet. The problem has more to do with apathy among the membership who remain content in only drinking the milk and tasting the honey. I believe church meetings are a broader gateway that consistently point us toward the pathway of scriptures, prayer, service, the temple, etc. (the primary answers), and if we can learn to do those things, the results will bring greater understanding; our minds might be opened and the glorious mysteries of the kingdom unfolded before us--line upon line. Suddenly, we get an appetite for meat and begin studying more--no longer content with only the milk. However, just because we have come to love the meat, doesn't mean it would be properly digested :ymsick: by those who are still on the bottle, and in some principles, I am among "those" on the bottle. :-$
I just re-read what I wrote and realize how ridiculous it must sound. Forgive me, but I'm too lazy to fix it.
I agree with you in concept. We had in several Wards I have been in people trying to use not only unauthorized material, but material put out by televangelists, self-help guru's etc for the lone source in their Home Teaching. NOT good.
I thin the original intent was good in helping people know what was "official" and what wasn't. Unfortunately though with many, it has been turned into a way to stunt spiritual growth.
