November 27, 2020
New Resource for Seminary Teachers
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
God bless Seminary Teachers. Whether they are full-time, early-morning, or some other flavor, Seminary Teachers are front line troops, first responders in the never-ending battle for the souls of men. Most Seminary Teachers love what they do and are very good at it, but they need all the help they can get. They have a tough job. Young people nowadays have short attention spans and dozens of tempting media options vying for their time and attention. How do we get the rising generation to focus quality time on eternal truth? Discover their way into satisfying answers to hard questions? Feel the spirit? Discern which life choices lead to long-term happiness?
Book of Mormon Central began publishing content suitable for Seminary in 2016. Spanish came on stream in 2017 and Portuguese in 2020. Many Seminary and Institute Teachers over the years have used our KnoWhys, videos, Doctrinal Mastery charts, ScripturePlus mobile app features, and website resources such as our digital archive and blog articles in their classes. In September, 2020, Book of Mormon Central debuted Evidence Central, a fresh approach to communicating the wonder of the Nephite text to a wide audience in a compelling way. Church leaders liked Evidence Central well enough they sent out a mass email to S&I personnel worldwide introducing them to this important new resource.
Book of Mormon Central has now published 585 KnoWhys, more than 1,000 videos, and hundreds of other pieces of content teachers could use in their classrooms. The amount of material is so large it can be hard to find a specific item that would be just right for a specific lesson.
Enter especiallyforseminary.org, a visual index from Book of Mormon Central designed by a Seminary Teacher for Seminary Teachers. Judy Galorath is a veteran Seminary Teacher. She is also a talented software architect. She combined both passions and built a finding aid that makes it easy for a Seminary Teacher to find things from Book of Mormon Central and other trusted sources to enliven and enrich a particular lesson. This is an index that uses Seminary terminology to present material in a way that is convenient for a Seminary Teacher preparing a lesson. Judy has also assembled resources to help students find answers to important questions.
Especially for Seminary will continue to be enhanced for years to come, but it is already very useful. Seminary curriculum schedules align with Come Follow Me beginning January 1, 2020, so it will be easier to stay synchronized. Book of Mormon Central is already a premiere source of Come Follow Me enrichment material in the Church. With especiallyforseminary.org, all that great content is now packaged in a way that Seminary Teachers can more easily incorporate it into their lesson plans.
God bless Seminary Teachers and many thanks to Judy Galorath for creating a major new resource that will help them be even more effective sharing light and truth.