In response to an email from Jim Lyle, 1st counselor in the Stake Sunday School Presidency:
Brother Jim,
Thank you for your feedback. You have not offended. I hope I can do as well, i.e. not offend.
While the stake president and bishop are ultimately responsible for the effectiveness of the TCM in each ward, the ward SS presidency has been delegated the authority by the bishop to oversee and facilitate the functioning of the TCM in each ward and I am delegating to the Stake SS presidency the task of monitoring and training, as needed, the ward SS presidencies as to the effectiveness of each ward’s TCM.
Hopefully ward SS presidencies do not see you as a spy, but as a resource—someone who is going to observe and help guide them in making the TCM more and more effective without being critical or condescending. Please help them see we’re in this together.
I confess a significant frustration with how well our stake is implementing this marvelous “Teaching in the Savior’s Way” initiative, including the Teacher Council Meeting, which holds such promise and potential for actually making a difference in the teaching effectiveness in our stake. When this initiative was introduced last year, I was encouraged about how clearly and simply the guidelines were set forth…especially on page 3 where the TCM was explained (and that led to our most recent document, which I appreciated the contributions from the Stake SS presidency).
Within a few months, I could readily see (by feedback as well as my own observations) that some wards were turning the TCM into a teacher improvement class, not a council—something I’ve heard you properly point out several times. That’s why I set up in our 2017 Ward Conference instructions that the bishop and stake president would attend a TCM meeting during the 2nd hour of every ward conference.
Thinking that would give wards plenty of time--and motivation--to review carefully page 3 and even go to the Stake SS presidency and ask for guidance, I fully expected to attend some wonderful Teacher Council Meetings. Sadly...no tragically...not one ward has followed the format outlined in page 3, especially the element of teachers counseling together at the beginning and the class ending with an invitation and testimony.
Every TCM we’ve attended in connection with ward conferences have been little more than a teacher improvement class. Hence my email.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me how we make the change. If the Stake SS presidency has a better plan, I’m all for it. What I am asking is for the Stake SS presidency to take ownership of the TCMs in our stake and present to the Stake Presidency a plan on how and when you can give us the assurance that wards are finally understanding how to conduct a TCM…that all in the Stake Council can have confidence that if we slip into any TCM in this stake, we will find wards following the guidelines set forth in the “Teaching in the Savior’s Way” booklet.
That is my expectation and hope. After 9 months with this marvelous program in our hands, we can do better as a stake.
Thank you for yours and the Stake SS Presidency’s support and extra-mile efforts to bless our stake with this wonderful opportunity to improve our gospel teaching at all levels.
President Lewis
P.S. As the Stake SS Presidency contemplates this direction, may I add one more concern that I feel needs addressing?
In my observations since visiting the TCMs during ward conferences (we have one more this Sunday—Damascus), I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the reasons that wards may not be conducting a “council” at the beginning of the TCM is that there are very few teachers attending the TCM. Most of the attendees are the diligent auxiliary leaders. But they’re not getting their teachers to the TCM.
That puts a great deal of emphasis on the first bullet of the “Preparations” heading in the attached document. We expect the ward SS presidencies to remind teachers in advance of the TCM (or remind leaders to remind the their teachers) and to ask them to come prepared to discuss the designated teaching principle. I also suspect that the ward SS presidencies do not know who are the teachers in the auxiliaries beyond SS so it’s not easy or natural for them to interact with the teachers in a council setting.
To this last point, there is a natural tendency for the Stake SS Presidency try to model how the TCM is to be conducted by filling in one Sunday for a ward. I do not recommend this simply because stake leaders won’t know who’s who in the TCM—who are the teachers, who are the leaders. My suggestion is that, if you want to model how a TCM is conducted (and that’s a wonderful principle), then conduct a “mock” TCM in the ward SS presidency meeting inviting the ward presidency to pretend they're teachers.
As a final observation (for today :), you may want to remind ward TCM facilitators (SS presidency) that if they find themselves standing in the TCM, as a teacher does in a class, then that’s a signal they’re teaching not facilitating. Please remind them..they are to facilitate the TCM. A class is taught, a council is facilitated.
I’ve attached again the document that all of you helped prepare as a guideline for wards. Please train from this document, along with the “Teaching in the Savior’s Way” booklet, in all ward SS presidencies, if you have not already.
Thank you again for your devotion to this important cause.
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