On Sunday I attended a deacons quorum meeting that blew me away. After repeating the theme and spending 10 minutes counseling together on the needs of a quorum member that was moving and one they hadn’t seen in a while, the president launched into a lesson about the Atonement. He started by asking pairs of people to read some scriptures and then he provided some good questions for them to answer. A discussion ensued about the meaning of spiritual death. More scriptures were read, more discussion was had, and a portion of a General Conference talk was shared. The discussion was real and earnest. Each of the deacons were involved and center stage. Sincere doctrinal questions were asked. Invitations were extended to follow up with additional scripture reading and reflection. Throughout it all, the quorum president moved things along. Only once did an adult provide an answer (in this case to explain how spiritual and physical death represent a separation). But while the adults were silent in providing answers, they were expert at periodically asking provoking questions that encouraged a meaningful quorum discussion.
After the quorum meeting finished, I approached the bishopric member and advisor to comment on the quality of the discussion and ask them how the deacons quorum had gotten there. They explained that a lot had changed in the past weeks. In a deacons quorum presidency meeting, the group had been talking about concerns about the quality of their Sunday lessons. A decision was made to spend a weeknight meeting doing an advisor-led training on effective teaching. Soon after, the training happened with the advisors leading it at a weeknight quorum Service and Activities meeting. Since then, the quorum had really rallied around the idea of effective teaching and had been excited to see immediate benefits in the quality of their Sunday quorum discussions. Everyone in the quorum had been pleased. I was blown away.
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