Beginning Sept. 6, 2026, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will follow a revised schedule for the Church’s second hour of Sunday meetings.
The First Presidency announced the change on March 30, stating that the adjustments will “strengthen gospel learning in homes and congregations throughout the world.” President Paul V. Johnson, Sunday School General President, has explained that gathering weekly can “deepen gospel learning by connecting it more closely to personal and family study.” The revised schedule can increase fellowship, belonging, and community at church by allowing groups to meet weekly.
But the practical challenge is also clear. Online conversations among Latter-day Saints have focused on how to get the most out of the shorter lesson time. Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ have offered several suggestions to make these shorter, more frequent meetings work.
To prepare for this change, this article outlines what’s changing, what’s staying the same, and how to navigate this transition smoothly.
Learn the New Weekly Rhythm
Starting Sept. 6, members will continue to attend sacrament meeting for 60 minutes. Adults and youth will have five-minute transition periods between classes and sacrament meeting.
Sunday School classes will last 25 minutes. After another five-minute transition period, adults will attend elders quorum and Relief Society meetings, and youth will attend Aaronic Priesthood quorum meetings or Young Women classes. Primary is the only organization without major schedule changes.
Although the individual meetings will be shorter, each class will receive the same total time over a two-week period as it does under the current schedule; the time will simply be distributed differently.
This observation makes the central practical question less about the amount of time and more about how that time is used.
Make Every Minute Count
Many leaders have emphasized the increased discipline required to make shorter classes effective.
In an interview on the Church News Podcast, Elder David P. Homer, a General Authority Seventy, described the goal: “Everyone is mindful of the fact that we want church to be this warm and welcoming and very strong place where people belong.” However, members should defer socializing to before or after church rather than during transition periods.
Once in class, teachers should ensure that socialization or “icebreakers” are purposeful and related to the lesson. Nonurgent announcements can be moved to newsletters, social media, or other platforms.
The same principle applies across meeting types. Members should be welcomed to class, an opening prayer should be offered, and the lesson should begin immediately.
Only essential instruction should remain. For example, young women and young men are encouraged to recite their themes at weekly activities, camps, conferences, and FSY, but not during Sunday meetings.
Come to Class Prepared
Shorter classes also place more emphasis on what happens between Sundays.
Sunday School will continue to follow the weekly Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church lesson schedule. Members will benefit from attending class each week after studying the week’s lesson.
Brother Gabriel W. Reid, second counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency, suggested this approach for the new format: “Rather than asking class members, ‘What did you learn at church?’ teachers should be asking, ‘What did you learn at home?’”
President Paul Johnson agreed, saying, “When learning begins at home and is strengthened at church, it blesses individuals, families, and entire wards and branches.”
The same preparation will matter in Relief Society and elders quorum. Lessons will continue to center on messages from the most recent general conference. Relief Society and elders quorum presidencies are encouraged to select talks based on their members’ needs and to share the selections in advance so class members can come prepared to discuss the talks.
The shorter format will leave little time to summarize the talk, so class members should come having read it and prepared to discuss it.
Youth will follow a similar pattern. Weekly lesson plans that focus on principles from the updated For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices booklet will be available in the monthly For the Strength of Youth magazine. Youth have been invited to read the entire booklet before the new curriculum begins.
Focus on Discussion, Not Coverage
Preparation at home can also improve class discussions. Teachers do not need to compress a 50-minute lesson into 25 minutes. Rather than rush through all the material teacher should prayerfully select a few principles to emphasize. As the implementation material suggests, “meaningful, relevant gospel discussions are more important than covering all the material.”
Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson has offered similar guidance for Relief Society. She said that class time should be thought of “as a council or discussion, rather than as a lesson.” She added that class conversations themselves can “increase fellowship and belonging.”
Youth meetings will also emphasize discussion.
The pattern throughout the new schedule is much the same: prepare beforehand, choose what matters most, and use class time to discuss how to apply gospel principles.
Meetings Can Strengthen Belonging
Leaders have said that one of the change’s primary purposes is to create stronger relationships through weekly meetings.
President Camille Johnson said class discussions should foster fellowship and a sense of belonging. Elder Homer likewise emphasized the importance of creating “this warm and welcoming and very strong place where people belong.”
Although the recommendation to limit socializing during transitions may seem at first to work against this goal, it’s apparent that the hope is for classes themselves to be an engine of fellowship. By limiting socialization during class transitions, the new schedule makes fellowship part of class time rather than a separate activity.
Help the Youth
In addition to the schedule change, the Young Men and Young Women organizations will use an updated curriculum.
Each month, these lessons will appear in the For the Strength of Youth magazine and will correspond to a chapter from the updated For the Strength of Youth guidebook. On the fast Sunday of each month, the lesson will introduce that month’s doctrinal theme. Elder Homer has referred to this lesson as the “anchor” for the month.
Lessons on the second and third Sundays focus on the doctrine underlying that month’s principle.
Finally, on the last Sunday of the month, the lesson will focus on what it means to be a covenant son or daughter of God. The young women will discuss a woman in the scriptures that exemplifies the principles studied that month, and the young men will discuss a man from the scriptures who exemplifies those same principles. During this lesson, each group will study an identity statement that corresponds to that month’s topic and the broader Young Women and Aaronic Priesthood quorum themes.
Youth leaders should ensure that both the fast Sunday lesson and last Sunday lesson are always taught, even in months with stake conference, general conference, or other scheduling challenges. In months with fewer meetings, leaders may combine the second and third Sunday lessons or omit one of them.
Rather than presenting a totally separate lesson each Sunday, the new curriculum is designed to give the month a shape and rhythm: introduce a principle, study it deeply, then consider what it looks like to live it.
Use Fast Sundays to Strengthen Primary Foundations
Primary is the only organization that will not undergo weekly class restructuring.
However, beginning in 2027, Primary will have fast Sunday lessons that replace the weekly Come, Follow Me lesson on those Sundays.
Rather than focusing on a section of scripture, these lessons address topics such as prayer, scripture study, baptism and confirmation, priesthood power, and temple ordinances.
Primary teachers are encouraged to teach these lessons regardless of when a fast Sunday falls in the month. According to the Church announcement, these lessons are intended to help children become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.
Prepare Youth and Adults Before Sept. 6
To prepare for the changes, the Church has released an implementation guide and designated two Sundays to introduce the new format to members.
On Aug. 30, youth, youth leaders, parents, and Primary children who will turn 12 in 2027 will meet during class time. They will watch an instructional video in which Young Men General President Timothy L. Farnes and Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman explain the new format.
After the video, youth, their leaders, and their parents are encouraged to discuss how the Holy Ghost can guide class discussions in the new format and how the new weekly schedule can help youth build strong relationships.
On Sept. 6, the new schedule will officially begin. During the first 25-minute Sunday School period, youth and adults will watch two instructional videos.
The first video features Elders David A. Bednar and Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles discussing the Sabbath and sacrament meeting. After viewing the first video, members are encouraged to discuss how sacrament meetings can promote spiritual renewal.
The second video features President Paul Johnson explaining the new Sunday School format. Members will then be invited to discuss how Sunday School can strengthen their home-centered, Church-supported gospel learning.
Youth will then attend Young Women classes or Aaronic Priesthood quorum meetings and begin the new curriculum.
Adults will attend Relief Society or elders quorum meetings and watch a discussion featuring President Camille Johnson and Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. The discussion addresses how members can prepare during the week for Sunday meetings and how weekly meetings can strengthen fellowship in a ward or branch.
Keep the Sacrament at the Center
Most of the changes affect the second hour, but many of the materials accompanying the rollout repeatedly emphasize the importance of the sacrament and sacrament meeting. Although the length of sacrament meeting hasn’t changed, the new materials instruct leaders to limit announcements and invite speakers to give brief, Christ-centered messages.
Church materials describe sacrament meeting as a time for members to partake of the sacrament, remember Jesus Christ, participate in worship through sacrament talks and music, and testify of the Savior and His gospel. During the Sept. 6 Sunday School instruction, members will be asked to discuss how they can create sacrament meetings that promote spiritual renewal and growth through Jesus Christ.
That Christ-centered focus has been at the heart of all the videos and additional materials from the Church about the upcoming changes, with leaders testifying that these changes will bring us closer to Christ.
Speaking of the changes, Elder Kearon expressed joy and excitement: “Let it be wonderful. Let us practice and experience this until it is wonderful and beautiful.”
Likewise, Elder Bednar testified, “If we come asking, seeking, knocking, we will always find edification in a sacrament meeting.”
If members approach the new schedule with that same spirit of asking, seeking, and knocking, the shorter classes may prove less a limitation than an invitation to make each Sunday more intentional.
