Sunday Church History Question #2

August 14, 2010    By: Matt W. @ 10:42 pm   Category: Mormon Culture/Practices

So I’ve decided to continue a series of questions regarding church history that I can’t seem to get google to answer for me. I’ll be asking one a sunday until I get lazy and forget (maybe next Sunday.)

Question #2 is this- What did the church do for converts before Gospel Essentials class? I see in 1958 a “new program for convert integration was adopted” (per the church almanac), but have no idea what it was or how it fits in with our current convert integration efforts.

7 Comments

  1. I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that there was just regular Sunday school.

    Comment by J. Stapley — August 15, 2010 @ 2:20 pm

  2. Actually the class today is called “Gospel Principles.”. It uses the new Gospel Principles manual as it’s course of study. The predecessor was called “Gospel Essentials” and it had it’s own lesson manual with only eight to twelve lessons. My first calling at BYU was teaching Gospel Essentials to the new members in our ward.

    Comment by Jason Richards — August 15, 2010 @ 3:41 pm

  3. Yet there was a convert integration program in 1958. Didn’t Gospel Principles start around the same time we moved to the 3 hour block?

    Comment by Matt W. — August 15, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

  4. Jason, we still call it Gospel Essentials in our Ward, but use the Gospel Principles Manual. What were the 12 lessons?

    Comment by Matt W. — August 15, 2010 @ 3:48 pm

  5. I used to have the old 12 lesson Gospel Essentials manual around here somewhere. I’ll look for it. Had some good stuff in it. There was a GBH story that talked about Ward Budget, Building Fund, among other things. Great story!

    Comment by mondo cool — August 19, 2010 @ 10:06 pm

  6. I’d love to see it. Any opinion on the switch from 12 weeks to one year? Any idea what came before the 12 week course?

    Comment by Matt W. — August 20, 2010 @ 12:07 pm

  7. A little late to the party, but I grew up in a SMALL ward in Arizona, one where culture dominates heavily in such a tight knit ward. Up until I was teacher or priest age, the “other” gospel doctrine class for new members was, like Matt said still called Gospel Essentials, and I was under the impression that it still used a rotating 10-12 lesson manual up until our last bishop was called!

    Comment by Thomas — October 5, 2010 @ 4:33 pm