In which I share one reason why it’s exciting to be a member of the LDS church
Posted by Isabel on January 14th, 2009. Filed under: Churchy Stuff, The New House.Being a member of the LDS church (you know, the Mormons) offers many exciting things. Not only do I get to worship Jesus but I get to learn how to craft aprons out of hot pad holders and purses out of place mats.
I think that one of the most exciting things about being a Mormon is what happens on the first Sunday of every year.
Okay, let me explain. So you know how most churches start their services at the same time every Sunday? Some start at 9:00 and others start at e11:00. Well, in the LDS church we rotate our start times on a yearly basis.
Very exiting, right?
I know you’re thinking of becoming a Mormon. (Do it. It’s cool to be Mormon!)
The reason the church does this is because there are just so darn many of us Mormons in the world. Too many members for the amount of actual church buildings. This means that a typical Mormon church house houses an average of three different congregations on a rotating schedule. This rotating schedule is pretty common church-wide. Either your congregation (or “ward” as we call them) will begin at 9:00 or 11:00 or 1:00. If you live in a particularly Mormon infested area (*cough*Utah*cough*) you might even start church at 3:00 in the afternoon.
If your ward started at 9:00 in 2007 then in 2008 it would start at 11:00 and would move to 1:00 in 2009. It’s just that simple.
Every Mormon has their favorite church time and their reason behind their prefrence. Some like 11:00 because then you can sleep in on Sunday mornings. But others like 9:00 because you can get church over with and have the rest of the day to relax around the house. Some like 1:00, I guess. But personally I don’t know of anyone that prefers a 1:00 start time.
And dude, nobody like the 3:00 time.
(I must also mention that we attend church for three hours on Sunday. So if you start at 3:00 you aren’t getting out of there until 6:00 at night. Dude, that’s late.)
Now that I’m a parent I realize that all of these times tend to fall somewhere in the middle of nap time and therefor I now have no preference.
My parents, who live in Utah, once at an 8:00 Sunday start time. Apparently the old farmers in their ward WANTED it that early. I hated visiting my parents and attending church with them that year.
In the last ward we attended we only shared the building with one other ward, which meant we could, more or less, choose our start time between the two wards. We choose a 10:00 or 12:00 time.
Holy cow, both of these times were magical. I admit I loved the 10:00 one the best…you could still sleep in AND get church over with early enough in the day.
Now that we’ve moved into our new house and thus into a new ward (remember we call our congregations “wards”, right?) we are in a new church building. This building is quite an anomaly in the Mormon church. Not only is it super old building but it’s also small and therefor only holds one congregation.
When I heard that our new building only held the one ward there I assumed this meant we would start church at 10:00 EVERY SUNDAY UNTIL THE END OF TIME. I mean, dude, if we didn’t have to share then naturally church should start at the perfect time.
Right?
Apparently that isn’t the case.
Nope, come January 4th of 2009 we were at church at 9:00 am. Just like the year before and all the years to come.
I’m honestly thinking about starting a petition to start church at 10:00. Heck I’d even take 11:00 over 9:00!
I’m thinking this is the slogan I’m going to use for my petition:
10:00! Because 9:00 is just too damn early for church. Even if you’re a Mormon.
So tell me, can you think of a better slogan?
January 14th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
We just moved to the eleven slot. And I LOVE it.
My parents were on the nine slot for THREE YEARS IN A ROW. Because their ward WANTED it. Crazies.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I’m with you. 9 is way too early to be anywhere on a Sunday.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Dude make some iron-on tshirts and I will definitley buy one to support your cause. Even though I’m not Mormon. But the phrase is so catchy and NO ONE should be anywhere and be expected to be awake on Sunday at 9am.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Amen. 9 is insane, especially when you’ve got kids. We’re at 1 now. Much prefer 11. The best was when I lived in a ward that was the only one in the building and they met at that magical time you mentioned–10. Bliss!
January 14th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
We live in Utah, and we have been designated to the 8:00 time slot. There are no farmers in my ward (that I know of) – it’s a bunch of BYU married students. So what’s our excuse? THERE ARE 9 OTHER WARDS THAT MEET IN THE BUILDING!!
I have yet to meet one person in the ward that likes it. In fact, several members have stopped coming to church all together just cause it’s so freaking early. Maybe I should write Pres. Monson about that….he might be able to switch us to AT LEAST the 9:00 time slot. Thoughts??
January 15th, 2009 at 12:57 am
I LIVE to sleep in on the weekend and we just switched to the 9:00 time. Suck!
January 15th, 2009 at 2:30 am
I would wear a shirt with your slogan. Would it be on sale??
January 15th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Please send me one in L. I like the fitted L shirts. Target. Thanks.
Oh the magic of 10am church….
January 15th, 2009 at 3:28 am
My ward has started at 11:00 for the entire five years I’ve lived here. We were the only ward in our building until this year. Now we share, but we kept the 11:00 session. I wish we had 9:00 because it would work better with nap time.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:20 am
3 hours!! Gosh I used to find 1 hour difficult when I went to church – I guess it depends on whether it inspires you or not… the high anglican church seriously did nothing for me! Honestly though… I find it hard to cope with 3 hours of anything, especially if it’s so early in the day… so I devised not a slogan but a chant for you:
Ten’s the time – it is the best
For we get an extra rest…
And better rested we will be
Better able God to see
Hey – tunes always work for me!
I’m intrigued by this whole sharing a building… how many mormons live in the US ( I’m a bit unknowledgeable *read totally oblivious* about all this!) I don’t know how many live in the UK but it’s really not as well known about the Mormon faith over here as it seems to be over there.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Yep, 9 is a little on the early side. Al and I go to 9:45 church (I KNOW, we crazy contemporary churches and our :15-from-the-hour start times!). That’s ALMOST too early, but close enough to just right.
I love Amanda’s chant/cheer/slogan!
January 15th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Good job, Amanda. I think you should take up the chant, Isabel.
And we did two years of 9am, with a 3 month stint of 1pm to liven things up. It sucked. I’m really, really glad to have 11 this year!! I was always getting up late & rushing everyone through getting ready. Bad luck, friend.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
We had 2-hour church one summer because we had 5 wards in our building…it was beautiful!
Currently I’m at 1 with sac. last…which sucks. It’s like the important part of church starting at 3, which means you can’t skip out early. And I have been on the same schedule for the PAST 3 YEARS!
Lame.
Oh, and I’ll totally support your petition, I think the “damn” makes it particularly effective. Shock ‘em into compliance, right?
xox
January 15th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
I am a Jehovah’s Witness and we have the exact same thing with multiple congregations sharing a Kingdom Hall and rotating times. Last year we met at 1:00 and it was soooo hard to be regular in attendance because it’s right in the middle of the day. Now it is at 10:00 and I am very very happy with that. Woohoo! Once when I was a kid we had 4 congregations meeting at the same place and the latest meeting didn’t start until 6:00 p.m.! It was crazy. But then we built another Hall and so now there’s only 2 congregations in our Hall.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I would totally sign that petition! Oh, except I’m not actually Mormon, so would it still count? But I agree that 9 a.m. IS too damn early for church. Forgive my ignorance, but are you not allowed to switch wards to one with a better start time (or for another, perhaps more legitimate reason?)
January 15th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
We have two choices for Mass on Sunday – 8 am or 10:30 am. Although 8am is a bit hard sometimes (especially after a particularly fun Saturday night), it is nice to get it done early and have the rest of the day to relfect upon God’s word…while napping.
Or we can go on Saturday afternoons at 4:30.
However, if was eligble to vote, then I’d vote with you.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Love the slogan, I say go for it!
The church I grew up in never switched up times, the services were always at 10AM (Sunday School) and 11AM (Service). I think the idea of switching up times is cool.
January 16th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I have a question (and yes, I’ll sign your petition). I mean, I’m sure Jesus would prefer to sleep in then get up an hour earlier! Oh, my question: could you have returned to your previous ward (when you lived in the apt) or did you have to change wards? I was just wondering in case you wanted to stay with the people you had gotten to know. Do the wards within a congregation get together or do you kind of never see them?
January 17th, 2009 at 1:06 am
I’m one with more questions.
How many people are in a ward?
What do you DO for three hours? (can you answer that or is it all private?)
Is Babboo in there for three hours? Because if I’m ANYWHERE for three hours with my kids, they better be able to run around, eat, nap, etc.