Aaronic Priesthood Activities

1. Aaronic Priesthood Activities

2. What are the purposes and key elements of Aaronic Priesthood activities?

3. What are the important developmental characteristics and needs of deacons, teachers, and priests? And their friends?

4. How important is the training of quorum presidencies? What makes this training highly effective? What makes it really effective?

5. What is bundling? No way! Did you mean bumbling?

6. What are reflections? Why are they so important?

7. Questions and Answers Learn

8. Question 1: What primary factors should quorum presidencies and advisors consider in selecting and planning activities for young men?

9. Answer The activities should be based on the needs and interests of quorum members (8.13).

10. Question 2: How do quorum presidencies and advisers determine the kinds of activities that should be planned?

11. Answer They seek the guidance of the Spirit to plan activities that meet young men’s needs and interests (13.2.1).

12. Question 3: For whom are activities planned?

13. Answer Activities are planned to reach all young men, including recent converts, and those who are less actives as well as young men from other faiths (13.2.3).

14. Answer active young men

15. Question 4: Who is responsible for planning activities?

16. Answer Quorum leaders [quorum presidencies] should participate as much as possible in planning and carrying out activities (8.13).

17. Question 5: Why is careful planning so necessary?

18. Answer Careful planning is necessary to insure that activities accomplish gospel-centered purposes and meet the needs of those who participate (13.2.10).

20. Question 6: What are the benefits of planning a yearly calendar?

21. Answer Planning a yearly calendar helps leaders achieve a balance of service, cultural arts, and physical activities without creating excessive demands on members’ time [13.2.6].

22. What are the salient developmental characteristics of deacons, teachers, and priests? Learn and Share

23. Let’s quickly play the game: Deacon, Teacher, or Priest?

24. They are loyal to group or club. They may prefer boy only groups. They are quite active, with bundles of energy.

25. They are concerned with fairness and rules. They are sometimes sensitive and self-conscious. They struggle with their sense of identity.

26. They want to be "cool," accepted, physically attractive - acne, and changes in physique and voice are perceived as obstacles to gaining popularity and acceptance. They are constantly experiencing changes in relationships with peers and adults. They have increased attention spans but interests change rapidly.

27. They admire and imitate older kids. They desperately want to be normal, but they often feel unique in their emotions and experiences, as if no one has ever experienced the same worries, fears, and heartbreaks. Their emotions are extreme - either really like something or really hate it.

28. They are interested in co-educational activities. They often engage in risk-taking activities. They are developing a community consciousness

29. They desire adult leadership roles and autonomy in planning. They often respond to adults with monosyllabic utterances - frustrating attempts at conversation. They may also be very sensitive to criticism and be resentful of negative feedback making things especially difficult for leaders.

30. They begin to question parental values and beliefs, and shy away from communicating with adults leading to strained relationships and misunderstanding. They want adults to assume chiefly support roles in their activities. They need to understand the purpose and relevance of activities.

31. They are both internally and externally motivated. They want to establish immediate and long-term personal goals. They need opportunities to express their preferences, concerns, and needs--they need to have voice.

32. What did you learn from this game?

33. What about the training of quorum presidencies?

34. What did you learn from this example?

35. What is bundling? • What could we naturally bundle or integrate with our Young Men activities?

36. How about bundling these? • Duty to • God • Scripture • Study • Brotherhood • Service • Leadership • Activation • Come Follow • Me • Missionary • Preparation • Other

37. Now it is your turn to make an activity come to life!

38. Listen carefully to your instructions!

40. There are some who do not learn and who do not improve as fast as they might, because their eyes and their hearts are not upon God. They do not reflect neither do they have that knowledge which they might have; they miss a good deal which they might receive. . . We have got to be wide awake to things of God. Lorenzo Snow

41. What are reflections? Why are they so important?

42. Ground Rules for Reflections: No put downs. Every response is welcome and valid. Show positive appreciation for input given.

43. Some representative, good questions for reflections: • What did we learn from this activity? • What spiritual connections can we make to the activity? • What did we do well? • What did we feel? • How did we grow?

45. Thank you for your active participation and anticipated pondering.