Two Ideas to Make Church More Fun

One of my goals in life is to make going to church more bearable. (Well, I guess it's not really a goal. I don't have any authority over how church is set up or how to change it. Maybe we should just say it is an "interest" of mine.) I keep telling Hal to ask the Stake President if we can shorten church, even by a half hour. I think three hours is just too long, even for me and I'm at the point in my life where I actually want to go to church (most of the time).

Last night on the way to the dance we were discussing why Mormons always feed people at every activity. One of the big reasons is to get people to go to things. I was saying that there should be a way to reward people who always show up because it's the right thing to do and not because they are being bribed by the prospect of a cookie or two.

I do have to admit, I have been guilty of trying to find out what the treat is ahead of time and then deciding if I'm going to go or not to certain meetings. That has only happened a couple of times for meetings I consider semi-optional.

While I'm in a confessing mood, I might as well fess up to Womens' Conference last year. My mom and I found out that her Stake was having better food, so we went to her dinner before the meeting, skipped the meeting altogether and then went to a movie. We also considered then showing up at my Stake Center to have the post Womens' Conference treat that they always have, but we decided that that would have been pushing it a little. (For the record, I did tape the Womens' Conference, as I always do, so I could watch it later at my leisure.) My mom is a convert, so maybe I should have set a better example. I'll have to work on that. That can be an actual goal.

Anyway, back to what I was saying. Last night Hal and I were thinking it would be fun sometime if, on an ordinary Sunday, when church started at 9:00 he could get up and say "Since you showed up today, instead of having Sacrament Meeting, we're all going to have ice cream." (More refreshments, we can't seem to get away from it, can we?)

I actually think that would raise attendance in general if people knew that once in a while, at random, the Bishop would reward people who showed up.

The second idea came to me during Sacrament Meeting today. We had a couple of youth speakers, one that was actually really good, and then a husband and wife spoke. The last talk started getting a little too long for my short attention span. It was actually a pretty good talk, I just think he may have gotten off the subject a little.

I started thinking it would be kind of fun if church was like The Gong Show (google it). If someone went on too long or got off subject or started teaching something that wasn't quite right they could get "gonged". I actually pictured myself sitting there with a little mallet ready to hit the gong. Don't you think that would be a good calling for the Bishop's wife? (Then he could overrule me if I was wrong. Well, maybe not. That might kind of make me mad.)

I started trying to think if there was a downside to this whole scenario, but I honestly couldn't think of one. Even if I were giving a talk and got "gonged" that would mean I wouldn't have to finish my talk. Works for me.

That's all the bright ideas for today. I need to go get ready to go to New Beginnings with Morgan for the Young Women.

I wonder what they'll be serving for refreshments.