Elder Dale G. Renlund (Apr. '23): "Accessing God's Power through Covenants"

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 What a powerful talk.  I found myself wanting to mark whole long passages from beginning to end.  For me, this talk distilled and clarified a lot of teaching about covenants that we have been hearing over the last few years, since Pres. Nelson emphasized their role to us.  

The Activity:

  1. Write the following words on the board:  exceptionally, represent, mature [verb], and incrementally.
  2. Discuss what each of these words means with the class-- at this point there is no need to connect them with specific parts of the talk or doctrinal points.
  3. Explain that each of these is a word that Elder Renlund uses to explain the role of covenants in our life and our obligations in regards to them.
  4. Divide the class into 4 groups and assign each group a passage (each passage uses one of the words above) to read and discuss:
    1. Par. 7 (exceptionally):  "A covenant is . . . with the covenant
    2. Par. 9 (represent):  "At baptism and . . . represent Him well."
    3. Par. 10 (incrementally):  "We become His . . . a covenantal bond"
    4. Par. 12 (mature):  "By making and . . . and eternal life"
  5. The groups discuss how these individual words impact our understanding of our covenantal relationship with Father and/or other doctrinal points their assigned passage brings up.
  6. Allow the groups a few moments to discuss
  7. After some time, bring the groups  back together and ask a representative from each group to share what they talked about.

Using the Activity:

As do many of my suggestions, this activity makes use of small groups to facilitate and increase participation by class members.  However, the real impetus behind this lesson is the focus on individual words.  In a sense of transparency, it should be noted that I am an English (Education) professor.  So, I like words.  But words are important and these words in particular struck me as being specifically chosen for what they teach us about these doctrines.  The groups are just a vehicle for highlighting and talking about them.  So, a lesson could make use of this emphasis without the groups.

I pray that this is useful to you in your efforts to teach with power and authority.  Thank you for visiting my blog.  

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