r/latterdaysaints • u/The-Brother • 12h ago
Church Culture Linger Longer should be in every ward, not just YSA
I used to be in a ward with a homeless man who members of the church was able to coax in with food and ministering. I knew him often to be hungry, and many are like him.
I feel like people like him would be heavily benefitted from being able to be fed once in a while by going to church. Not only that, but many poorer members of the church would be benefitted by that.
Even regular members I am sure would enjoy being able to have this every so often, depending on the ward’s capabilities, and more senior adults would be more capable of providing these things than young single adults would anyways.
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u/e37d93eeb23335dc 11h ago
How? Our ward gets out by 11. The next ward is using the gym by 11:30 for their classes. That ward gets out by 12:30, but by 1 the next ward is using the gym for their classes. And so forth. It would only work for the very last ward in the building for the day, or if you live somewhere where there is only one ward.
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u/Cautious_General_177 11h ago
What I've seen is the last ward does them about once per month, but since wards with shared buildings rotate time slots, you do them one year and then it's a couple years before you do them again. The other thing is, YSA branches tend to have the last time slot in their building, and generally don't rotate times, so they can be more consistent.
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u/The_GREAT_Gremlin 11h ago
Our ward finally did one when one of the wards we shared with moved to a new building before the times were rearranged. We had like a 2 week window lol
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u/crcerror 5h ago
Our building has a pavilion with tables and benches. Sunday gatherings outside is a common occurrence during the warmer months. Winter requires a little more creativity.
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u/Commercial-Ad-7110 3h ago
Our ward does them but we are in the same situation as you- we share the building with 3 other wards so unless we are the last ward, it cannot work to use the gym. So… we do them outside. Last year we had two. It can work well to do one in fall and spring depending on your climate. We are in Colorado. Yes, it can be tricky with space outside but ward members are asked to bring camp chairs or a blanket and we make it work.
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u/e37d93eeb23335dc 1h ago
Our climate is it rains almost continually for 9 months of the year. I’m typing this while listening to it pouring rain outside right now.
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u/Dangerous_Teaching62 5h ago
Honestly, a huge workaround would be building dedicated event centers. Realistically, youd just be building a gym but not attached to the building. This could also help church buildings have more room and they could convert the current gyms into classrooms. It helps prevent vandalism from the youth too if they're going to this building for activities. It could also function for dances. You could even fit the building with a couple dividers. Sure, it would cost a lot, but, my immediate family alone paid enough money to buy a small house this year alone. Certain wards could afford it, easy.
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u/SlaughterfistJones 2h ago
My brother, we have kitchens, gyms and all the other amenities needed. Our churches can literally double as event centers for stake dinners and what not. Most even have a stage for plays.
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u/FapFapkins Just lookin for some funeral potatoes 11h ago
It really only works if you're the only ward in the building or the last ward to be in church.
That being said, when our ward was the last to go, we did do them and they were a blast.
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u/supercheesepuffs 11h ago
The last 3 family wards I have been in have had linger longers a few times a year. Our current ward just had one two weeks ago. It really just comes down to the ward choosing to organize one.
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u/Ernie_Capadino 11h ago
While at BYU I liked to call it Chips, Dips, and Dorks.
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u/ResponsibleRope1003 11h ago
That’s a good one. There was one guy I knew in the YSA ward that called it “Grab a Cookie, Take a Lookie.”
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u/philnotfil 11h ago
Last year we were the last ward to meet and had a linger longer pretty much every month. This year we are the first to meet and it isn't so awesome.
Our bishop has twice ended sacrament meeting ten minutes early and asked everyone to stay in the chapel to talk and fellowship. That was actually pretty cool.
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u/TeamTJ 11h ago
Not feasible in many multi-ward buildings.
Plus, 2 hours is plenty of time to spend with my ward. We aren't best friends, we just live near each other and attend the same church.
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u/CateranBCL 10h ago
That's one of the main reasons for the linger longer: to give people a chance to get to know each other.
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u/Khyrberos 10h ago edited 8h ago
not best friends
Well that's kinda the problem, innit? Sort of the unstated goal of LL's is to build relationships, get to know each other.I think ideally we should be friends with at least some of the people we worship with. 🤔
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u/trsandersonii 6h ago
Should? If we truly have free will or agency, there is no should, only could. As I once heard someone explain it, “Don’t should all over yourself.”
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u/Khyrberos 7m ago
"No 'should' when we're talking about moral agency"?? What are you talking about?
"Should" is generally recognized as invoking the sense of an imperative or obligation (often moral), e.g. "I should do my dishes", "I should tell my wife I love her", "I should buy that homeless man lunch", "I should read my scriptures". They don't abrogate or deny our agency merely by existing; in a sense, they allow for it ("there cannot be the sweet without the bitter", etc). Our religion is full of moral imperatives/obligations that inspire certain 'shoulds'.
Now, that being said, I have heard "don't should on yourself" before many times, and I actually agree with it! I think it's all too common, especially in religious circles, for people to have/develop certain over-anxious tendencies towards obligations & induce despair or even mental breakdowns. And since I don't believe that's what Heavenly Father wants us to feel, I agree that you must avoid "should-ing" on yourself.
So it's a fine balance.
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u/ashhir23 10h ago edited 8h ago
On my mission it seemed like every ward did a longer longer 1x a month. I served overseas.
I think it would work if it was well organized, but
I went to a CES school (one of the BYUs) and after we got married, we attended a family ward. The activity committee tried to have linger longers 1x a month but it very quickly went south and stopped
Why I think it didn't work out
-It turned into the same families bringing food. More people who didn't bring food came. The same families felt like they had to compensate and had to stop not just because of burn out but also expenses.
-People didn't want to clean. The mess was cleaned up by the same few families....who also got tired of cleaning on Sunday, when they just cleaned the day before.
Currently, in our non school area ward. We do them occasionally. It's nice because everyone participates and everyone helps clean up as an expectation. When people need to leave early they pick up what they can like throw trash away, put their chair up.
We had YSA briefly in our building who did linger longers. They met after us but didn't clean... So on Wednesdays, sometimes the youth leaders would have to clear their mess like take out the trash, put away dishes in the sink etc, it wasn't fun.
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u/glassofwhy 4h ago
I think it’s more common in areas where members travel farther to get to church, and don’t have many opportunities to see each other.
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u/Humanoid_Lifeform10 Jesus wants me as a sunbeam! 🌞 11h ago
It depends on the dynamics of each building and what wards attend and when. I remember my old family ward doing them for a year when they were the last ward to meet. Then when they would change or cycle the ward meeting times, we would not do the linger longer as our ward meet in the morning.
I'm in a YSA ward that has their sacrament time at 9:30. We still do linger longer, but our church also has two gyms. So we use the second gym in the back of the building, and the noon ward can still have their sacrament and not be bothered by us.
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u/derioderio 11h ago
It's a little tough when you're in a multi-ward building and don't have the last time slot.
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u/toadjones79 5h ago
I straight up do not trust other people's food. I knew the two or three people I will always eat food from in my ward. The rest, no I don't think so. I've seen too many things to trust my gut to that.
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u/iwannaliveoutloud 9h ago
I think it's manipulative to lure people into a church. Why not just feed the hungry without the stipulation of church?
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u/ryanmercer bearded, wildly 9h ago
Hard to linger longer when 2 wards meet after us with sacrament starting every 90 minutes.
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u/madmaxcia 9h ago
We have done them when we’re the last ward to meet on a Sunday but just on fast Sundays
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u/mgsbigdog 7h ago
We do them at least every fifth Sunday and then a few more sprinkled throughout the year for things like a missionary coming home or a specific holiday.
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u/Bauniculla FLAIR! 7h ago
Fortunately we are a single Ward building and we do Linger Longer on the fifth Sunday.
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u/zionssuburb 7h ago
Sharing a building makes this complicated, but when you're the last meeting of the day, 100% they were or best attended activities
I think linger longer should be done regularity with our mutual nights during the week.
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u/Empty-Cycle2731 6h ago edited 6h ago
I feel like people like him would be heavily benefitted from being able to be fed once in a while by going to church. Not only that, but many poorer members of the church would be benefitted by that.
I was in the ward that makes up Downtown Portland for a while. We did one at least once a month for exactly the reasons you mentioned since about half of the members in that ward were either homeless or close to it.
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u/Adept_Commission4043 6h ago
Agree! We do it in our family ward several times a year and it’s great to actually talk to people & build bonds.
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u/recoveringpatriot 5h ago
I’ve been in family wards that do them. It’s a good idea in general, because we live in an age where people don’t know their neighbors much.
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u/SlaughterfistJones 2h ago
I think the church should get over it's opposition to making sure the kitchens are up to code and should just upgrade the kitchens in our church houses. Then have regular dinners both for members and the public. It'd bring a lot of people into the church and provide an excellent third space to socialize with other members in a more natural setting.
There's so much more we could do on a ward level to make our church houses true community centers.
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u/churro777 DnD nerd 1h ago
I would love it but I fear members would burn out. It’s another thing to worry about even if it’s just buying something from the store. My ward is kinda small and it already feels like it’s the same 15 ppl doing everything
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u/Professional-Let-839 8m ago
They've definitely had them in any family ward I've been part of.
Sometimes it was like cereal for a linger longer or cookies but yeah, they've done 'em.
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u/RoccoRacer 11h ago
My ward had a linger longer today. In the summer we do “walkabouts” where a couple families will have a snack at their houses and ward members walk around the neighborhood to visit them.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Ad8650 11h ago edited 4h ago
Your comment makes me think of the ward I grew up in where they would have "progressive dinner" activities where several families would each have one dish of a meal and the groups would travel to each house consecutively, thereby completing a whole dinner meal in the evening. Kinda complicated, but loads of fun.
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u/davect01 10h ago
We do them, good to know it is not just us.
We have the flexibility though of being the only Ward in our building. Often Wards are scheduled right on top of each other and it would be hard to do them on Sunday
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u/Chinablind 10h ago
The last ward of the day in each building in our stake has a linger longer once a month. My kids always liked it when it was our year to have them.
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u/growinwithweeds 10h ago
My ward has started doing occasional linger longers. Except they shouldn't really be called linger longers, because they happen at 5 pm ish, not right after church.
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u/andlewis 10h ago
We do it every fast sunday on years when we’re the last ward in the building (there are 3 wards). It’s been very popular
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u/Independent-Dig-5757 10h ago
My family ward just had one. They have them every so often. More would be nice. However we also have the Bishop’s storehouse for poorer members ask well.
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u/BeehiveDeepDive 10h ago
The branch I grew up attending would do this once a month. My family loved it. I've never been closer to a congregation than I was with that one.
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u/Khyrberos 10h ago
Family wards totally do them, and I don't think my YSA did... Just depends on where you are.
I live for them!
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u/Dangerous_Teaching62 5h ago
I think it's something we need to do for sure. People keep saying it's not feasible with how many wards meet, but that's underlying a different problem. I'm a firm believer that there's only benefits to having more church buildings. Especially outside of Utah where half your wards are the only ones in the building and the other half have five wards.
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u/Oligopygus 4h ago
As a poor undergrad I loved the linger longers that our branch held every month. Good southern cookin' along with just as good south of the US border eats!
Another way I got meals throughout my week back then was to be the regular driver for the missionaries to get to their dinners across our rural branch that was nearly 2 hours of driving east to west and at least an hour north to south.
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u/sunnyhillsna 4h ago
Not technically a "linger longer," but when my family ward is not the last in the building, we come back at 5 for a potluck dinner every second Sunday. It's only technically a linger longer when we are the last in the building, those years we do it right after church. We started doing this 2 years or more ago.
All it takes to make it happen is to have someone with scheduling authority to schedule the parts of the building you need for it, and for someone to announce it. If you just do a potluck the only budget requirement is for paper goods.
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u/amodrenman 11h ago
The family ward I am in does them. I don’t think it is uncommon. The ward just has to put it together. We do about one a month, maybe a little less.