We also know that he is in-charge of assigning speakers so we suspected he was calling us about that.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint we have a lay ministry. That means all the jobs etc are on a volunteer, unpaid basis. I currently serve with the cub scouts and get no monetary compensation for all the time I spend at meetings, planning things, etc.
This also carries over into the realm of our Sunday meetings.
Our meetings are divided into three 1 hour blocks. First you have sacrament meeting (where the sacrament is presented, and people speak), Sunday school in the middle, and the last is for the gender specific meetings (Relief society or Priesthood).
Sacrament meetings fall into one of two categories or types. Each month on the first Sunday is what is called Fast Sunday and we have our testimony meeting. After business, and the sacrament people member, non-member, visiting or not have the chance to come to the front and give their "two-cents" about the church. Generally, this works out well and people talk of spiritually uplifting things that have happened in their lives. Many reaffirm their support of the church and the principles we espouse.
The other Sundays you will find a handful of people that will speak. Generally, the first speaker is a youth (12-18 years of age). They generally only speak for 5-10 minutes on some assigned topic. In a unit with few youth like mine you will get a lot of testimonies by the missionaries or other less youthful people in this first slot. This can be in jest or simply a special chance to hear from faithful more mature members. Then come the adult speakers.
With the adult speakers you have one that is the senior speaker and the other the more junior. They like to get new couples that have moved in to speak so the wife is the first and the husband second. The first gives a shorter talk but, that is not always the case. As with couples they more then likely will coordinate so as to not run to long. There have been times when the meeting runs long or short depending on the style, and people giving the talk. Some nervous people will speak faster then normal and give their 15 minute talk in 10 minutes. The Presiding authority then has to find a way to fill the time or if it is not to much, excuse everyone to head to class early after the song and prayer.
In almost all cases there is a intermediate hymn or other musical number between the adult speakers. This breaks the meeting up a bit and can be a good to let people stretch and wiggle a bit. This is also the perfect time to take a child out for a bathroom or water break.
There is also one special Sunday that comes about once a month, though may be moved around as needed. This is when a member of the high council (stake level calling) comes and speaks. These people many times like to get a recently returned missionary to be their speaking companion. It's nice to hear of their mission and you get them while they still have the fire and missionary zeal. These high council speakers may hit several units on a given Sunday and present in essence the same talk more then once. In our stake we have 10 unit spread out over 4 buildings. It is not uncommon to have a high councilor speak at all the units in a given building in a month that they are assigned to speak.
So when you add all this up the bishopric councilor that is in-charge of lining up speakers only has to get some for about 24 weeks of the year. That is because you also have to take out 2 weeks for General Conference, and two weeks for Stake Conferences.
So our time has come once again to speak in our unit. Some people talk about how they escape from speaking for years. In larger units you may very well find this to be the case. The same might be true in a unit that has a lot of move-ins and move-outs. With high turn over there are plenty of new people to chose.
Though for special Sundays like Mothers or Fathers day you will get some well seasoned member of the ward to speak.
The wonderful part about this system is that it gives an opportunity for the general membership to present about a wide variety of gospel topics. This helps to strengthen their testimonies and general gospel knowledge. For together we help one another learn.
And their meetings were aconducted by the church after the manner of the workings of the Spirit, and by the bpower of the Holy Ghost; for as the power of the Holy Ghost led them whether to preach, or to exhort, or to pray, or to supplicate, or to sing, even so it was done. Moroni 6:9
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