Linger Longer

I'm finalizing the calendar for next year and asked the bishop about having linger longer events as we will be the last ward in the building for 2010. He informed me he was directed to discontinue linger longers but could not remember the details or the source of the mater. Any hints?

Al

showseason wrote:I'm finalizing the calendar for next year and asked the bishop about having linger longer events as we will be the last ward in the building for 2010. He informed me he was directed to discontinue linger longers but could not remember the details or the source of the mater. Any hints?

Al

We still do them in my stake, so it sounds like more of a local thing. Check with your Stake Presidency.

I don't know if there has been any guidance out of Salt Lake regarding "Linger Longers" but I know that in our stake it was being discouraged. The main issue we found was that Sisters were missing Relief Society in order to go home and get food for the event. No matter how hard the Bishop's tried to get Sisters to attend their meetings rather than running home to get food there was still a significant number that ignored the plea and missed meetings.

I am not sure that was the entire reason for discouraging Linger Longers but it was definitely one of the issues. Since I don't remember seeing any guidance (letters from SLC) I am assuming that it is a Stake issue whether to encourage or discourage the event.

It might have been a local leaders reaction to talks like this: Dating versus Hanging Out

Young women, resist too much hanging out, and encourage dates that are simple, inexpensive, and frequent. Don’t make it easy for young men to hang out in a setting where you women provide the food. Don’t subsidize freeloaders. An occasional group activity is OK, but when you see men who make hanging out their primary interaction with the opposite sex, I think you should lock the pantry and bolt the front door.

We use to bring our food with us going on church, so we don't loose any meeting.
After meeting we warm food who need it and that's all. No one has something to say.

We were told not to as well to better keep the Sabbath, forgoing any extra work that goes into setup, food prep and cleaning after the meal. It would be better for local leadership if such training items were formalized with a bulletin or letter from Church headquarters. It would cut down on the confusion (and sometimes contention between leaders) who didn't receive the training or don't remember the precise details (which I may not myself other than not to have meals on Sundays.)

But not everything we do should not be covered by a letter from Salt Lake. And not everything one Ward or Stake does, or doesn't do, is applicable to another.

We do them monthly, 5 minute setup, 10 minute clean up, everything is brought before church and kept in the kitchen. We focus mostly on snack type foods, not on making it a meal.

In the Meridian of times Saints gather together for "Dinner of the Lord".
Paul disappointed cause it became a convivial dinner.
Now we have Sacrament Meeting as spiritual dinner and linger longer as social meeting.
I see (as italian we have hundred of years expertise) dinner together is the best way to enforce brotherhood/sisterhood.
As italian we look at "longer" in a very litteral way (this means more than one our)!
So we can enjoy Zion's spirit; speaking on many arguments quietly and funny.
Set up and cleaning are parts of service spirit.

When we were in Boise, Idaho(approx. 2006?) our Stake President read a letter from SLC that stated no linger longers were no longer to be held. I have tried to locate the letter, but cannot find it.
When I was called to be a Bishop, I asked the question of my stake president and he instructed me that linger longers were no longer to be held.

gasedrick wrote:When we were in Boise, Idaho(approx. 2006?) our Stake President read a letter from SLC that stated no linger longers were no longer to be held. I have tried to locate the letter, but cannot find it.

I certainly don't see anything like that in that time frame in Official Communication Library. I would have expected it to be placed in the 2010 Handbook, but I'm not aware of anything like that in there.

The only thing I could find is that it may not conform to Handbook 2: 13.1 Purposes of Church Activities.

gasedrick wrote:When I was called to be a Bishop, I asked the question of my stake president and he instructed me that linger longers were no longer to be held.

I am not aware that there has been any official letter from Church headquarters on the subject. Perhaps your stake president received some guidance from his area authority.

In any event, although they are not called by that name, they are alive and well in some areas of the Church, and they do not exist in others. I believe the holding of these activities would be at the discretion of the bishop under the direction of his stake president.

I remember a letter being read a number of years ago. Linger Lingers were only approved for Single Wards/Branches.

If you remember such a letter from HQ this means that "USA poeple" are not allow to linger longer after Church.
Here in Italy such a letter is never arrived. This is so true that even the military unit (USA Army) is used to do "linger longer" once a month!

I don't remember any such letter either. My (family) ward used to do Linger Longers. I think the reason they stopped is the person organizing it left.

The point is, no one has found anything in current policy/letters about it.

I just feel in my heart that it is not appropriate to set up tables and chairs, to make a mess, for children to be running around in the church, to sweep, to do dishes, to put up tables and chairs on the Sabbath! The Spirit speaks very clearly to me. Those things are wonderful on another day of the week! But not on the Sabbath.

Growing up in San Antonio Texas linger longer were originally last ward in the building were called "break the fast" and always held on the first Sunday.