In a recent Neal A Maxwell institute podcast, Terryl Givens said,

Well, you know, we’re suffering waves of defection, and there are lots of reasons for that and lots of remedies that have been suggested, but I think it’s unavoidable to acknowledge that one of the main reasons we’re losing people is that we’re boring them to death. I think the job of a Sunday School teacher is to excite the people, it’s not just to reiterate the old formulas. It’s to excite people about the inexhaustible richness of our scriptural canon.

In an earlier podcast on Leading Saints around minute 47, Terryl similarly said,

you’ve got to call the most talented individual [as the Sunday School teacher] and then … inculcate in the Sunday School teacher … to the fact that we’ve got to ask genuine questions. … You know a lot of people leave the church over polygamy, a lot leave over the priesthood ban, or LGBT issues. But you know it’s entirely possible that the majority of people leaving are falling into inactivity or leaving because of boredom. It’s boredom because the Sunday School has become a ritual.

Yeah. “What is tithing?”
somebody raised their hand. “Ten percent of earnings.”
“That’s right.” “Why do we pay tithing?”
“Well, because we’re blessed.”
“Yeah, right.”

Can we admit boredom at church?

There is a bit of Latter-day Saint lore around a quote by President Spencer W. Kimball, where he responds to a question about what he does in boring sacrament meetings with the statement, “I don’t know. I’ve never been in one.” I can’t find the original reference, but it is often referenced by church leaders and in LDS materials.¹

So maybe President Kimball has never been to a boring sacrament meeting. However, President Eyring has admitted to such an event.

Years ago I was sitting in a sacrament meeting with my father, whose name is the same as my own, Henry Eyring. He seemed to be enjoying what I thought was a terrible talk. I watched my father, and to my amazement, his face was beaming as the speaker droned on. I kept stealing looks back at him, and sure enough, through the whole thing he had this beatific smile.

He then explains his father’s solution to boring speakers.

[Dad] said: “Hal, let me tell you something. Since I was a very young man, I have taught myself to do something in a church meeting. When the speaker begins, I listen carefully and ask myself what it is he is trying to say. Then once I think I know what he is trying to accomplish, I give myself a sermon on that subject.” He let that sink in for a moment as we walked along. Then, with that special self-deprecating chuckle of his, he said, “Hal, since then I have never been to a bad meeting.”

I agree with Henry Eyring. I have found sacrament meeting and Sunday School to be enriching when I ponder the message and let the spirit guide me through the dull drum of a rote speaker. However, we have many members that have not trained themselves with a mind like the Eyring family. We need to find a way to break open the dull drumbeat of ‘droned’ Sunday material to help LDS members grow into the minds of Henry Eyring. I believe the first step is to admit that some Sunday meetings are boring.

The path out of boredom

I believe the church is trying with the new Come Follow Me material. However, I have seen too many Sunday School teachers stay within the boundaries of the 3-10 questions in the lesson manual. I see Come Follow Me prodding us to be guided by the spirit to conform the lesson and scripture to our class’s needs. Not to conform our class into its few questions.

Come Follow Me is not exhaustive. I wonder if we should even call it foundational. I think it is a great primer to help us find the spirit in our scripture study. However, there is much more in the scriptures than the few points that are brought out in each Come Follow Me lesson. Sunday School needs to be a school. We should go there to grow in faith and learning. To be inspired. In 2016, Patrick Mason lamented similarly,

I fear for what I call the “juvenilization” of Mormonism, or the “EFY-ification” of the church, or the “Gospel According to Internet Memes.” When it’s adults in the room, let’s respect one another enough to talk like adults. Most people can handle complexity and nuance. We can stretch beyond what we learned in seminary, though we are so rarely invited to. I have a really smart colleague who once invited the missionaries into his home so he could learn more about Mormonism. When they finished their discussion, with frequent references to their accompanying flipchart, he thought to himself, “That’s it?” Indeed, I fear that in too many contexts we’re feeding our members and investigators a low-nutrition religious diet that leaves them not only with the unsatisfied feeling of “That’s it?” but also leaves them poorly fortified against challenges to their faith.

I worry that too many of us are constrained by fear in our scripture study. We are afraid to believe something that may not ‘conform’ or be what we ‘should believe.’ I love asking (and answering) simple but profound questions. I know we have all asked at some time in our lives, ‘Does God exercise faith?’ It was fun to ponder and find an answer to that question. We should inspire students to ask and think about these questions in Sunday school.

Finding space to allow ourselves to be creative is the secret to boredom.² Asking questions that force us to solve life’s problems in fresh ways is one solution to boredom at church. Thorough research with scriptural justification brings the spirit when those types of questions are answered.

I used much of my last post in a recent sacrament meeting talk. I was humbled to have a fairly critical sister in the ward find me at our Christmas party and share that she enjoyed my talk. She then went on to explain that she never tells people that their talks are good and that it would be fine with her if I spoke every week. I am positive that my presentation and speaking ability are not what touched her. It was a simple question with a careful and thorough response. We all want to enjoy the magnificent scenery of the gospel, and we need safe spaces where we can explore and be invited to stretch without the fear of being pushed off the edge.

In conclusion, I agree with Patrick Mason when he says,

We have a theology that empowers each of us to be anxiously engaged in good causes, to be co-creators and co-participants with Christ in the work of redeeming the world. … In our 21st-century secular age, Mormonism will succeed because it stretches people’s moral imaginations, and calls them to a life of faith that is not small and fearful, but rather creative, venturesome, open, and empowering.

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