LDS Come Follow Me Lesson and Mutual Ideas July 2014: Ordinances and Covenants

For July 2014 the topic for "Come Follow Me" is,

"Ordinances and Covenants"

 Here are the links to each organizations page for the month: Young Women, Aaronic Priesthood, Sunday School

Since, each organization has their own outlines and each lesson will need to be specified to the individual class members and there are already amazing outlines that can be used for guidance, I am only going to share some general ideas that can just be used as supplements.

Here is the Scripture for the month:

“In the ordinances ... the power of godliness is manifest”  (D&C 84:20).

Lesson Ideas: 

There are so many topics to choose from this month. I am just giving supplemental ideas to a few of them. Please refer to the church's website for the wonderful outlines they have on there for all of the topics, see links below. 

Young Women: 

- Why are ordinances important in my life?  Here is a great link about ordinances and why they are important. This talk, "Do We Know What We Have?"
BY CAROLE M. STEPHENS, could be used both for this topic and the topic about covenants. Invite class members to share the ordinances they have taken part in and their experiences as well as sharing your own.

- Why are covenants important in my life? Here is a great link about Covenants.  I did a FHE post a little while back on covenants, it could easily be adapted to a class lesson. Here is the link to the post, free printable.  

- Why are temple ordinances important?  "Temple Ordinances and Blessings", was in the July 2009 New Era Magazine, quotes could be cut out and read by class members and discussed as a group. 

- What does it mean to take upon myself the name of Jesus Christ?  Whenever I think of this topic the song, "What Have I Done With His Name?" by Kenneth Cope comes to my mind.  The song speaks of the names we are given and the names we choose to take upon ourselves. One of these names being the Savior's name as become members of his church.  The lyrics to the song can be found here on Kenneth Cope's website, part of the chorus can also be listened to from that site.

Aaronic Priesthood:

- How can I help others have a meaningful experience with the sacrament? Here is the direct link to the outline for this topic. 

- What is the oath and covenant of the priesthood?  "The Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood", CARLOS E. ASAY, is a great General Conference talk on the oath and the covenant. 

Sunday School:

- What spiritual truths can I learn from the ordinances of the gospel? Give each class member a words strip that has on it an ordinance and a scripture about that ordinance. Ask them to each take a couple minutes to look the scripture up, read it and ponder it. Then invite each member to explain what spiritual truths they can or have learned from that particular ordinance.

- How can I deepen my understanding of covenants?  Explain that a covenant is a spiritual contact between one's self and Heavenly Father.  It is a two-way promise.  What happens when one of the people break a contract? The contract becomes void.  Invite class member to discuss what they promise Heavenly Father as they make specific covenants such as, baptism, sacrament, priesthood oath and covenant and marriage sealing and covenant.  Then discuss what Heavenly Father promises for each.  Explain that Heavenly Father is bound to keep his promise if we keep ours. But if we break our promise then he is no longer bound to keep his. 

- How can I make the sacrament more meaningful to me? Here is a link to a FHE I did on renewing our covenants during the sacrament. It worked great to emphasize preparing for the sacrament during the week and then what we should be doing during the sacrament.  It is a nice reminder for everyone.

- How can I prepare to receive temple ordinances? Here is a sharing time I did recently that could be adapted to a Sunday School lesson. I remember being a Young Women and having a lesson on preparing for the temple.  We were each given a small paper that had some things we promised to do to prepare for our temple ordinances. We were to sign it and then it was placed into a temple recommend holder. To help remind us of our goal and what we promised to do to get there.

Idea's for Mutual:

Here is a link to the Youth Activities Planning Site. 

One Idea is that you could have a spiritual night focused on the ordinance path: Baptism and Confirmation, Sacrament,  Priesthood Ordination (for Young men),  Temple Endowment, Marriage Sealing.  Maybe each area in the Cultural Hall or each class room could have a station where there could be a speaker or story/lesson taught on each ordinance.

Another Idea would be TEMPLE Trip. Meeting with the temple President and Matron. Baptisms for the Dead. Or seeing before hand if their is any cleaning or of the temple grounds the youth could do. 

Free Printable:
Printing tip: Click on the image and save to your computer. You will then be able to print the image from your computer.

For previous post of "Come Follow Me" ideas click here.