The reality is, most units do have some good speakers. Sadly, many bishops somehow think they need to have every member in the ward speak at least once a year, whether they are the type to actually prepare for it, or not. I would prefer the bishops figure out who their best dozen speakers are an primarily rely on them for talks. For others who are interested in speaking, I would then have them attend a teaching class, based upon Teaching, No Greater Call.

I am convinced that a one hour in-service meeting once a quarter doesn’t do the trick. If teaching is as important as the Church says it is (and I believe it is), then we should put our efforts towards improving it in our units.

Gerald

Our current and most recent bishops both have stressed to each speaker that, other than the sacrament itself, their talks will be the main factors in whether or not those in attendance will fill the spirit and grow from the meeting. They do it lovingly and gently, but they lay the burden on the speakers directly (including the youth speakers) and expect them to measure up.

It makes a difference, and it has been wonderful to see the impact.

The old Instructor used to publish a couple of 2-1/2 minute talks in almost every issue, to serve as models for other wards. You wouldn’t dare have just stood there and plagiarized such a printed talk, I think, because everybody would have known where it came from. That’s in contrast to today, where rehashing a conference talk is considered good form in many places.

We can do better!

Most of all, he opens with several true, emotionally compelling anecdotes, which waken our sympathies and fill us with admiration for those seeking to recover the bodies those who had drowned — and then puts us right in their position, but with a chance to do an even greater good. It is emotionally powerful without being manipulative or kitschy.

And it was blessedly short. I think one of the great losses of the consolidated schedule is the disappearance of 2 1/2 minute talks (these were given during Sunday School opening exercises, and were typically given by teenagers). In fact, it’s precisely the members who get up to the pulpit and say, “I really don’t have that much to say” that I worry the most about, because they are the ones who tend to go on and on feeling that somehow longer == better.

As I’ve written elsewhere, one of my former bishops, Lou Hampton (for whom I was a counselor), would take all the sacrament meeting speakers aside and explain just how long they should speak, when (on the clock) they should end by, and let them know that he would let them know if they were going over time. And he did, even to high council speakers (as he put it, “I’m still the presiding authority.”). I miss those days. ..bruce..

It was concise, as well. Some of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon are those where the writers could overcome their natural wordiness and get to the point: Omni 1:26, for example, and most of the chapters of Moroni.