Here is my first attempt at suggesting ways to turn Conference talks into Sunday lessons. They’ll get better as I gain experience at this.

Sister Oscarson’s Conference address is found here.

It should, but maybe doesn’t, go without saying that both teachers and class members should actually review the talk used as the basis for the lesson, and not rely on their memory of hearing it last October.

Note that this is not a lesson outline for your teaching of this message, but offers one method by which you might prepare your own lesson outline.

The “Come Follow Me” section of the November Ensign (“Come Follow Me” will appear in the Ensign after each Conference, giving ideas for class presentations) gives this suggested class plan:

One way to start a discussion about Sister Oscarson’s message is to give everyone a piece of paper with “Who needs me today?” written at the top. Members of your Relief Society or quorum could take a few minutes pondering and listing answers to this question. Then they could search Sister Oscarson’s message for ideas about how they could serve the people on their list—or add names as inspired. A few could share what they have learned.

If you decide to follow this lead, I have two suggestions:

First, realize that your ward members are coming to your class after other meetings, after chatting in the hallway, and while thinking about Sunday dinner and whatever else they will be doing as soon as your class is over. To have any hope of a meaningful lesson on service, you’ll first have to get their attention and start them all thinking about the topic before asking them to do anything as intimate and empathetic as identifying the needs of other people. Maybe that is telling about (not reading, but telling – you need the eye contact to engage your class) some illustration in Sister Oscarson’s talk; maybe it is something more creative on your part. But you absolutely cannot do this kind of a cold open and expect a successful class period.

Second, although the given plan suggests that this is a “way to start a discussion,” no discussion is called for at any point. Class members are asked to think and write on their own, and then search through the talk for ideas on serving the people on their list – those are both private, individual actions, without engagement with the rest of the class. That’s something for personal study at home, and there is no need for anybody to come to church, sit on folding chairs, and try to write using a book or magazine in lieu of a writing surface. Only the last suggestion, that “a few could share what they have learned,” offers any social engagement, any purpose for calling a class together at all. You’ll have to think seriously about whether this kind of individual effort will serve any purpose in your own ward.

Alternatively, you might turn this talk into a meaningful class through these steps:

Determine an overall purpose for the discussion. This is for your own clarification, not something to be shared explicitly with the class. What do you want them to do after participating? Are you merely imparting data? Do you want to convert them to some idea? Do you want them to take concrete action?

Taking a lead from Come Follow Me and expanding its underdeveloped idea, your purpose might be:

Purpose: Each class member will identify one person in their sphere who needs them and a specific way the class member can help, and make a plan for carrying out that service.

If by chance your ward is heavily involved in contributing to great national or world issues – praise be! – your purpose might be:

Purpose: To identify needs within our own families or our own town that may go unmet while our attention is elsewhere.

In an economically struggling ward, the purpose might be:

Purpose: To help class members understand that “service” embraces little pockets of time, little acts of kindness and personal attention, and need not call for financial involvement.

The purpose can be anything related to service as presented in the Conference message, and should be tailored to your ward’s needs. Having that purpose constantly in mind will shape what questions you ask, what discussion you encourage, what class suggestions you build upon. The purpose gives a focus to your lesson and keeps it from being a scattershot, shallow, wandering and ultimately pointless half hour.

Identify a number of potential principles suggested by the talk, then select 2-4 of those ideas around which to build your lesson.

Doing this well requires you to read the talk two or three times, with enough time between readings to think about those principles and about your ward, to select the best ones for your ward’s needs. (Preparing a lesson like this obviously requires you to start your preparation well before the three-hour block starts. You can wing it, but take my word for it, it shows.)

Skimming through Sister Oscarson’s talk, here are some possibilities. Obviously some are much better than others, both in terms of having an effect on class members’ lives and in their possibilities for fruitful class discussion.

* We are inspired by seeing the generosity and compassion of others’ Christlike service.
* We sometimes feel helpless in the face of great crises.
* We can be distracted by prioritizing other activities over face-to-face service.
* Everyone can find ways to offer Christlike service.
* Consider the effect your service to others can have in strengthening your family.
* Why go to meetings when you don’t get much out of it?
* How can I know who to serve, and how?

Someone whose ward members were demoralized by local and personal problems might best choose subtopics that would inspire the class with the realization that there are in fact ways they can help each other, and from which they themselves will receive blessings. Another ward that had problems with selfishness and in-fighting might best be served by emphasizing the obligations we have to serve each other. Every ward is different, and a good teacher considers conditions in his or her ward while planning a lesson.

Because my ward is one that has no trouble offering service, and is particularly generous with fast offerings, contributions to special fundraisers sponsored by the Relief Society or community groups, and offering other financial aid, I wouldn’t need to teach them the basic concept of service. I might choose to recognize charitable acts and acknowledge generosity (but I’d keep that brief – lessons should seldom highlight Latter-day Saints patting ourselves on the back). Perhaps I would choose to spend most of our discussion on broadening the possibilities of service: Writing a check, while welcome, is not the only way to render service; time and attention can sometimes be the only real way to heal a suffering soul.

So, in my case, I might select from my list of possibilities, and polish up the wording a bit, to structure my class time in three main ideas ((Two ideas might be enough in most circumstances, but I like to have something else ready in case discussion is briefer than expected. Also, consider your ward’s recent past: Some wards conduct so much business that a teacher has only 15 or 20 minutes, so two discussion topics may be enough. Other wards might routinely give the teacher 30 or more minutes, calling for preparation of three or four points to discuss.)) drawn from Sister Oscarson’s message:

1. Noting examples of Christlike service can inspire us to greater acts of compassion.
2. No matter what our circumstances – no matter how different they might be from the circumstances of others in the room – we all have something to offer to someone, somewhere.
3. How can I know what is most needed, and then how I can help?

Understand how each of your discussion points should support the main purpose of the lesson, and let that understanding guide the questions you ask and the depth of attention given to each point.

As you choose your discussion points, it is helpful to consider how each point will function in your lesson and help to achieve your overall purpose:

(“Noting examples of Christlike service can inspire us to greater acts of compassion.”) In this illustration, I chose point 1 because of its potential to collect people’s attention and focus it on the topic of service. If the ward (or quorum or Society) has recently been involved in some greater-than-usual act of collective service, I might ask someone involved to give a brief summary of the activity. I would likely give him or her a copy of my purpose statement for this lesson, and ask that the summary include details that reinforce that purpose. But because this is chiefly an attention-getting exercise with the added bonus of reminding class members of the good will they felt while rendering service, I would strongly emphasize to my speaker (ahead of time) that the summary should be limited to one or two minutes, and I’d probably remind my speaker of how quickly that time passes when you’re speaking.

If there has been no recent ward service activity, I might ask someone whom I know has been involved in service as a family or individual to do the same thing – or perhaps someone who could talk about the service of someone else. Or, if I couldn’t make the point more personally, I would reports some story about service in more general terms, just as Sister Oscarson opened her conference talk with a reminder of what Mormon Helping Hands had recently been doing.

After the introductory story, I would probably comment on what had been said in a way that reinforced my overall purpose, and invite a very few class members to comment as well. “I noticed that Sister A described the feeling of unity between our ward’s sisters and the women of XYZ community after working so closely together. What benefits have you noticed after you have given service in other circumstances?” ((You know the personalities in your class; imagine how they’ll respond to questions, and adjust accordingly. For example, I once had a sister who could not restrain herself from making at least one negative comment. If she made that comment at the wrong time, it could destroy the point I was building to. So, if she were in this class, I might first ask “Does serving others always leave you with positive feelings?” and I would call on her whether she raised her hand or not. She would cheerfully say, “No,” and tell about some time when some attempt to serve had left everyone miserable. Then, having acknowledged that she had a point, I could ask my real question, and carry on from there. )) Or, I might prompt a discussion of how, having once enjoyed the spirit of service, people had been moved to continue serving.

But in any case, I would keep this part of the lesson brief, maybe 5 minutes out of my 30 minutes.

(“2. No matter what our circumstances – no matter how different they might be from the circumstances of others in the room – we all have something to offer to someone, somewhere.”) In this illustration, I chose point 2 because it’s what I personally need to hear reinforced, and if I need it, I suppose others need it, adapted to their circumstances. This is the point where a lesson on service – or anything else – tends to turn to marriage and family. Your spouse needs you. Your children need you. You have more obligation, more opportunity, more experience serving your family than anyone else. In far too many Church talks and lessons, all we talk about, one way or another, is our own family

Everyone needs to serve, regardless of circumstances. Everyone needs an opportunity to serve, regardless of circumstances. So, having begun the lesson with a big picture of service, I would turn the discussion, through use of questions or by quoting pieces of Sister Oscarson’s talk, to smaller, more personal service on a day-to-day basis. If class members didn’t respond at first with ideas beyond the family – not that the family isn’t important, but there’s little to no chance that class members won’t bring up ideas directed toward the family without my prompting – I would make my questions more pointed: I would ask about recognizing the needs of ward members, and responding to them appropriately. I would ask about recognizing the needs of people in our wider spheres – coworkers, the young man who shovels our snow, our children’s teachers, our waiters and bus drivers and ticket-takers, even strangers on the street – and responding to those needs appropriately. I would prompt people to volunteer ideas about service that doesn’t require dollars, or that requires very little time, that in any other way suited the limitations I know that certain class members might feel.

I also would have read Sister Oscarson’s talk so many times, or even have pulled out sentences listed conveniently in my notes, so that I could respond to class members’ comments with an acknowledgment that they were echoing suggestions made by the speaker. (Just because you are teaching principles rather than teaching a talk doesn’t mean you shouldn’t refer back to the talk from time to time.)

Point 2 is an important part of my imagined lesson – after taking 5 minutes for the introductory section, I would divide my remaining class time almost evenly between points 2 and 3. If my overall purpose is to have people leave class with a specific idea in mind to serve a specific person, they first have to buy into the idea that they can serve someone, and who that someone might be.

(“How can I know what is most needed, and then how I can help?”) In this illustration, I chose point 3 because because I see little point in talking about any aspect of the gospel if we can’t motivate ourselves to live it just a little more fully. This is the most important point of the lesson, so I would use every effort not to cut it short by letting other parts of the discussion eat up the time.

As class members discussed point 2, I would have been taking mental notes about specific comments to help develop point 3. If someone had recognized a need of some kind but said she hadn’t known how to meet it, I would bring it up again here, asking the class to brainstorm suggestions. (Possible solutions may already have been discussed when the sister first raised the point – you can’t be rigid in your outline, but need to let discussion flow naturally, as long as it is pertinent to the overall point of your lesson.)

I might bring up points in Sister Oscarson’s talk about not letting our screens become a barrier to meeting the needs of flesh and blood people right there in front of us, and build off class responses to keep a lively discussion going. I might toss in a reflective question, not one I expected to be answered openly, like “Does Sister B’s description fit someone in your life? How might you help?”

I might also raise the question about how we can be certain our service really is service – that is, that it meets the needs of the person we’re thinking about – and is not merely self-serving because it’s something easy or that we like to do. In that regard, I might bring up Sister Oscarson’s point that we go to meetings not only to get something out of them ourselves, but also to “watch out for one another, encourage one another, and find ways to serve and strengthen each other. We are not just receivers and takers of what is offered at church; we are needed to be givers and suppliers.” Because I have struggled with this point ever since hearing the talk at Conference, I would certainly bring up this point in the talk:

Another area of focus for our service can be in our ward families. Occasionally our children would ask us the question, “Why do I have to go to Mutual? I just don’t get very much out of it.”

If I was having a good parenting moment, I would reply, “What makes you think you go to Mutual because of what you get out of it?”

My young friends, I can guarantee that there will always be someone at every Church meeting you attend who is lonely, who is going through challenges and needs a friend, or who feels like he or she doesn’t belong. You have something important to contribute to every meeting or activity, and the Lord desires for you to look around at your peers and then minister as He would.

And I would ask in particular about contributing Sacrament Meeting. The first response I would expect is that we should greet people, make them feel welcome through our friendly speech, sit with them, and otherwise not let them “be lonely.” But that’s exactly what I dread – the chatter, the noise, the forced chitchat, when all I want to do is sit quietly, listen to the prelude music, and get myself centered for worship. I wouldn’t make that the sole topic for discussion, but I would use it as an illustration to ask how we can know what someone needs, and what they do not, want, so that our service is truly service. (Or maybe I wouldn’t bring it up at all, now that I’ve had the chance to get it out of my system here.)

As I wrapped up discussion at the end of point 3, I would include the elements of my purpose statement and each of the three main points of my lesson. It might be a little heavy handed, but I could say: “I appreciate the contributions you have made to our discussion. In summing it up, I would say that you have acknowledged some of the rewards of Christlike service to be A, B, and C; you have made it clear that each one of us have people who need our help, regardless of our family situation, our resources, and our opportunities to interact with others; and, especially, you have discussed ways to recognize the people who need you, and the service they need that you can offer. Now go forth and serve.”

Summary:

1. Identify an overall purpose suitable to your ward’s needs. If you let that focus guide your lesson, you won’t lose time wandering off in some other direction.

2. Identify 2-4 points made in the Conference talk that are especially pertinent to your ward. Understand why those points are important to your ward, and write questions that will reinforce your purpose.

3. Allow the class to discuss as they will, but keep an eye on time, and rein in discussion that goes too far afield. As you acknowledge contributions by class members, be especially attentive to statements that support your purpose, and build on them to guide further discussion. (Of course you can still thank class members whose responses go off on tangents, but don’t let them derail your lesson.)

4. Close by summarizing your lesson in a way that organizes what has been discussed in a way that brings it all into focus for class members, including a pointed reminder that this isn’t theoretical, and that they really ought to follow up on the principles discussed.