President Russell M. Nelson (Apr. 19): "Come, Follow Me"

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The most fundamental role of a prophet is to invite people to come unto Christ and it feels that this is exactly what Pres. Nelson did during this conference, and this talk is a great example of that.  Specifically, this talk speaks to those who are struggling with activity or belief.  As such, it would seem to be a great tool for ward missionaries and those who know and minister to anyone with such struggles.  The activity here reflects the nature of this invitation by asking class members to consider some of the things Pres. Nelson invites us to do.  The activity is fairly simple but will hopefully be a powerful experience for class members.

The Activity:

  1. Explain that today you will discuss some questions that for some members may seem obvious (and that certainly have typical answers that we can spout without a lot of thought).  For other members, though, these are legitimate concerns.  So, as the discussion proceeds everyone should be respectful but also be earnest in trying to be specific about how some of these things work for them as this might help others.
  2. Divide the class into two groups
  3. Ask one group to read par. 17 ("Ever since Adam . . . are outstretched still") and then discuss and jot down some thoughts on the following questions:
    1. How can we know that his arms are "outstretched still"?
    2. In what ways does Christ invite us to come unto Him?
  4. Ask the other group to read par. 32 ("If you are . . . And then listen") and then discuss and jot down some thoughts on the following questions?
    1. What are some things (in addition to what Pres. Nelson recommends) that we can do to put ourselves in position to have experiences with God?
    2. How can we hear his answers to our prayers?
  5. After a few minutes, bring the class back together and ask each group to share their ideas about those questions.  Use this to spark a further discussion about these issues.
Using the Activity:

Of course, you can alter this activity in a number of ways-- especially in the specific questions/quotes you choose to use.  One important variation to note is that if two groups would result in a lot of class members in each group, you can always divide the class into mulitple groups and simply ask half of the groups to do step #3 and the other half to do step #4.  Also, you could have the groups discuss for a few minutes and then ask the class members to get up and reform groups made up of people from other groups to discuss all of the questions in small groups again.
The key to this activity is to invite people to exercise their faith as they participate in small group discussions.  Especially for this activity, it might be important to take some steps to make sure that people feel comfortable sharing some real thoughts, e.g. things they are confused about or thing they have trouble believing.  After all, being a church while experiencing some of these feelings is a huge show of faith and these people should be embraced and welcomed whole heartedly.  In the end, this activity is about helping people to feel Pres. Nelson's invitation to come back or to come closer to Christ and to understand how they might go about this process.  
As always, I hope that this activity is useful.  Please let me know if there are any ways to make this blog more useful or welcoming to you.

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