“Introduction to the Home-Study Seminary Program,” Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Study Guide for Home-Study Seminary Students (2017)
“Introduction,” Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Study Guide
Introduction to the Home-Study Seminary Program
The home-study seminary program is designed to help you strengthen your understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and apply its teachings in your daily life through a study of the scriptures. For your study this school year, you will first complete reading assignments from the scripture text for this course—the Doctrine and Covenants—and then you will complete the individual lessons. Once a week you will meet with a seminary teacher to submit your work and participate in a weekly lesson.
Seminary is a daily religious education program. Prayerfully studying your scriptures should be a daily practice. You will need to work on your seminary assignments each school day, even though you will not attend a seminary class each day. There are 32 units to be completed during the course. The reading chart shows what you should study for each unit. Your teacher will help you understand when each unit is due. The lessons in this study guide should each take about 30 minutes to complete, in addition to your daily scripture study.
You should have two scripture study journals (or two notebooks), separate from your personal journal, in which you will write the assignments from the study guide activities. Each week that you meet with your teacher, you should turn in the scripture study journal containing the completed assignments from the study guide activities you completed for that week. Your teacher will read and respond to the assignments and return that scripture study journal to you the following week. You could also write your responses on paper in a loose-leaf binder and turn in the pages you did that week. Then, when your teacher returns the pages, you could put them back into the notebook.
Using This Manual in a Daily Seminary Program
This manual may be used by teachers and students in a daily seminary program to enhance lessons or for make-up work. However, it is not intended to be given to every daily seminary student. If a student needs to make-up a lesson for credit, the teacher may assign him or her to complete the home-study lesson that corresponds with the lesson that was missed.
Using the Home-Study Student Study Guide
Introduction to the Scripture Text
The introduction gives some background information and a summary of the scripture text for each lesson.
Verse Grouping and Content Summary
Verse groupings reflect natural breaks where a change in action or topic occurs. Each is followed by a brief summary of the events or teachings in the verses.
Doctrines and Principles
As gospel doctrines and principles naturally arise from the scripture text, they are bolded in the lesson to help you recognize them.
Study Helps
Study helps provide insights and explain practices that can enhance your study and understanding of the scriptures.
Scripture Mastery
Each of the 25 scripture mastery passages found in the Doctrine and Covenants is treated separately in the lesson in which it appears, to help you deepen your mastery of it.
Recording Answers in the Manual
You will sometimes be asked to write answers in the manual on blank lines or in a chart.
Scripture Study Journal Assignments
Scripture study journal assignments are to be written out and given to your teacher each week for feedback. Giving careful thought to your answers will help you have meaningful experiences as you learn and apply truths from the scriptures.