Class Leadership & Devotionals

Class Leadership 

Appointment of Class Leadership 

• A seminary class president, one or more vice presidents, and a secretary may be appointed by the teacher after obtaining clearance from each student’s bishop. They should be announced in class, but not sustained or set apart. These officers may assist the teacher as needed. 

Duties of a class vice-president/s 

• Accept responsibilities for specific tasks e.g., devotionals 

• Assist class president in all responsibilities 

• Fulfil class president's role when class president is absent 

Duties of a class secretary 

• Keep accurate attendance records and inform class president of attendance and absences.  

• Send Birthday cards and Get-Well cards as appropriate 

• Assist class president in contacting students as required  

• Participate effectively in class; be a good example 

• Other Roles: may include – Historian, Photographer etc. 

Zones/ Teams 

• Classes can be divided into groups called zones. Each zone has a zone leader, zones can be rewarded with points for an overall outcome determined by the teacher. 

Devotionals 

In addition, devotionals will allow students to participate and share some of the things they have learned. Generally, they are organised and presented totally by the students themselves, allowing the teacher to focus primarily on their preparations for the lesson. The Class Presidency or Zone Leader is typically responsible to organise and direct the devotionals for the class. 

Devotionals work best when teachers have taught the process of preparing a devotional and demonstrated how to deliver it every day in the first week to help students understand what is expected and point out the spiritual contribution of well-prepared devotionals. 

To achieve the major objectives, the following guidelines may be useful. 

Identify the ‘little changes’ that will make the difference between the casual way and the careful way 

to conduct devotionals. 

President Eyring makes some suggestions as to how this could be done: “There is a casual way to do it and a careful way. The careful way is to think ahead to what the lesson will be for a particular day, to find the central idea which we wish the students to come to know is true, and then to ask a student to select a [devotional assignment] which will help make that happen. That will not seem a small thing to the young person who is asked, when they sense that we really need their help.” (The Lord Will Multiply the Harvest, Teaching Seminary Preservice Readings Religion 370, 471, and 475, (2004), 93–98) 

• The devotional should be a time for special reverence and meditation. It should include a hymn, prayer and scriptural thought (it may be beneficial to use doctrinal mastery verses). 

• The devotional should start on time (you may consider closing the door during the devotional to maintain reverence. The door can be reopened for late students after the devotional). 

• Prelude music - recorded or piano are appropriate. The prelude music should serve as a signal that it is time to prepare for the devotional and the lesson. 

• The principles of Explain, Share and Testify are skills that students should demonstrate when assigned to give a devotional spiritual thought. 

• Devotionals could be assigned one week to a month in advance. A chart used to show the assignments may be placed on the wall of the classroom (where possible). 

• When the spiritual tone of the lesson is set by the students, real gospel learning can take place. 

Examples of Student Devotionals 

The following three suggestions are outlines to train students to give simple but effective devotionals in Seminary classes: 

OPTION 1 – COMPLETE THE STATEMENTS 

Students complete the following sentences to create a brief devotional: 

I really like … [Student gives scripture reference, then Student reads verse.] 

I think it means …  

I like it because … 

Here is how it can help us become closer to Jesus Christ: … 

OPTION 2 - FEAST 

  Find a scripture  

  Explain the scripture  

  Apply the scripture  

  Share a story  

  Testify  

OPTION 3 - TEST  

  Truth  

  Example  

  Scripture  

  Testify