Since I'm going to be giving a lesson in church this Sunday, I should probably spend a blog post or two making sure I'm prepared for it, and it would be better to do that sooner rather than later. The lesson I'll be giving is from Teachings From the Presidents of the Church: Gordon B. Hinckley, and the lesson will be on Chapter 1: The Restoration of the Gospel. The trouble is that the group I'll be teaching is the Elders Quorum, which means that they'll have heard all of this before. How can I give an interesting message about the Restoration to those who have already heard the story more times than they can remember?
I could focus on the historical context around the Restoraion. I know that sounds pretty boring, but it could work. I could talk about the Great Apostasy and the Dark Ages, explaining how the centuries after the death of Christ were probably the worst in human history. Then I could talk about the Renaissance and the Reformation, how God prepared the world to accept new ideas and a "new" religion. I could talk about the early history of the United States (especially since I took a class on that a few semesters ago), explaining how this nation was founded on the principle of liberty, particularly religious liberty, and how, even with the principle of religious freedom being one of the founding principles of the nation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints still faced an extreme amount of persecution. The church barely survived here. Anywhere else, it would have been crushed.
So, after the worst era in human history, God prepared the world to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, I don't know much about history, apart from what I remember from my class, so I'll have to do some research to strengthen my message, and there's a chance that the information I gain conflicts with the message I want to share (that's happened to me before when I was writing a paper), so I should come up with a Plan B, just in case history didn't unfold quite the way I think it did.
Another way to keep the message of the Restoration somewhat fresh is to focus on what we gained through modern revelation. The chapter I'm supposed to teach from has a list of doctrines that were given through modern revelation, and thus probably pretty unique to our church. I could highlight the glorious truths that only we have and then encourage the Elders to share these truths with those who may need to hear them. Those who love their families would love to learn how to make their family relationships last forever. Those who have lost children would be glad to hear that departed children are guaranteed salvation. And anyone who feels lost, or could use guidance, or who feel distant from God, would be relieved and excited to learn that the heavens are open, that God still speaks to His children, and that we can have His Spirit with us always, to give us the guidance and comfort that we frequently need.
So I could inform my audience of the historical context of the Restoration, or I could tell them about just how glorious the Restoration really is. Or, if I have a lot of time, I could do a little of both, especially if I could figure out a way to make those two topics work together smoothly. Anyhow, I have a good starting point. I'll start my research into world history tomorrow, using the summary in the chapter from which I'm teaching as a primary source, and I'll familiarize myself with the list of relatively-recently-revealed doctrine found later in the chapter. I'll see about forming tentative outlines, and I'll see which topic is most likely to fill my allotted teaching time with interesting information. Whichever approach I end up taking, this is going to be a good lesson. I'm glad I'm planning ahead.
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