How are speakers for Sacrament Meeting chosen?

A Mormon ward (local congregation) is run by a lay ministry rather than paid clergy, so there are different members of the ward speaking each week. Usually there are 2-4 speakers, and the addresses that they give are called "talks" (Mormon Terminology, Part 1). How are those speakers chosen?

One or all of the three members of the bishopric (the three leaders of the ward) will pray about what topic the ward needs to learn more about, and they will also pray about which member of the congregation should give the talk on that subject. When they feel they have their answer, they call up the person in mind and ask him or her to give the talk. Sometimes they will also provide the person with a General Conference talk or a scripture to use as a reference. The bishopric should try to notify the speakers at least a week early so that the speakers have time to prepare their talks, and sometimes they will make follow-up calls to see how the talk preparation is going.

Once the speaker accepts the request to give a talk, he should start to think about his topic and research it. He should also make sure that he prays that God will guide him in his preparation. The given topic is often very broad, so it helps for the speaker to consider what life experiences he has had that have to do with the topic. Choosing personal experiences to share in the talk helps to narrow down the topic a little, and it might just be why God chose that person to speak on the given topic. Someone, or several people in the ward, might need to hear about what the speaker learned from a life experience. Many Mormons will tell you that they have heard talks before that have completely changed their lives. When the speaker prepares and gives his talk with God's help, it's highly likely that many people who hear the talk will receive significant help for their own lives.

There isn't a prescribed style for giving a talk, but most people start by introducing themselves, and as they get into their topic, they try to teach doctrine using the scriptures, quotes from General Authorities (well-known church leaders), and personal experiences. Each talk should last about 5-20 minutes, depending on how many speakers there are in the program and whether there is an intermediate musical number or not. The speaker will often end with his testimony and close in the name of Jesus Christ. Mormons typically close in Jesus' name as a way to affirm that in all they have said, they have tried to convey a message that the Lord would approve of.

Using a lay ministry to supply speakers has its advantages and disadvantages. Speakers will make mistakes every now and then, so you might hear some false doctrine. But Mormons believe that we shouldn't automatically take everything speakers say at face value anyway, so you want to make sure that as you're listening, you pay attention to whether the Spirit is confirming to your heart or not that what the speaker is saying is true. Another disadvantage is that you might find some speakers' styles very tedious, over-your-head, or otherwise hard to follow. However, it's a new set of speakers each week, and some people are very hilarious and entertaining. Other people have inspiring stories or musical voices that you could spend all day listening to. Probably one of the most beneficial aspects of having different speakers each Sunday is the variety of personal experiences that are shared. When one speaker tells about how God helped him to overcome an addiction, or when another tells of how she came to know that God was actually real, the congregation have yet another reason to believe that their own testimonies about God are legitimate.

The system also serves to benefit the speakers themselves. They will probably be the ones to learn the most from their topic. Speakers also get the chance to practice leadership and public speaking skills in a supportive environment. Speakers might also feel compelled to draw closer to God as they seek to know what God wants them to say. When it becomes your turn to give a talk, you can't deny that it would be nice to have some divine inspiration to help you out. When people start drawing closer to God, lives start changing in wonderful ways.

If you would like to read more about how the church uses a lay ministry, see this related article on Mormon.org: Why don't Mormons have paid clergy?

Why so many tears?

It's true. We Mormons are criers. If you attend a Mormon church service for the full three hours in a ward where there are lots of members (at least 20 in each classroom), chances are high that you will hear at least one person start to choke up while sharing a comment or giving a talk, and it's pretty much guaranteed if you attend Sacrament Meeting on Fast Sunday (usually the first Sunday of the month).

Why so many tears and thick voices? Mormons believe in the Holy Ghost. He is a member of the godhead, but unlike Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who have perfected bodies of flesh and bones, the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. Because he's a spirit, he can literally come and dwell within us. The mission of the Holy Ghost is to comfort, guide, counsel, and teach us. Anyone can be visited by the Holy Ghost. When Mormons say that they can feel that something is true, it could be that they have been visited by the Holy Ghost, and he testified to them that whatever they were thinking or wondering about was true. That's most often how he teaches us, when we're wondering if something is true or not.

When the Holy Ghost comes to be with us, we can feel it. It's a sweet, peaceful, warm feeling of power, sometimes barely noticeable and sometimes like a fire burning in our hearts, and it makes us feel loved and happy. The way the Holy Ghost feels is so wonderful that it alone can make a person cry just from sheer joy. It's pretty cool. When the feeling that the Holy Ghost gives us is accompanied with a reassuring feeling that whatever we were thinking about is true, that new knowledge can produce strong emotion. For example, if you were praying to God about whether the Bible is true or not, and you suddenly felt the Holy Ghost reassuring you that yes, it is true, then you would know that you no longer have to worry about believing in something that isn't actually true. You could then move forward with confidence that to read the Bible would put you on the right path. That new knowledge would make you feel relieved, confident, and maybe a little less stressed out.

Mormons are truth-seekers. We believe that each of us needs to find out if God is real, and if he is, what he wants us to believe and to do. Most Mormons have investigated the possibility of there being a God and have felt the Holy Ghost confirming to them that yes, God is real. We have also made it priority to find out what it is that God wants us to believe and to do. That's why when you go to church and hear Mormons talk about their beliefs, they will get emotional as they remember the times when the Holy Ghost came to them and testified of specific truths. They may also get emotional because they are feeling the Holy Ghost again as they are talking, reinforcing their testimonies of the truth.

The feelings inspired by the Holy Ghost are beautiful and can make us cry, but sometimes we cry out of emotion alone and not because of the influence of the Holy Ghost. Our church services tend to get very personal as we share stories from our own lives. We all experience really painful challenges, and many Mormons feel comfortable enough to share them and to share the lessons God taught them because of those experiences. Some of us will cry as we remember pain, and some of us because we're particularly passionate about something, and some of us just because we have trouble regulating our emotions. Keep in mind that strong emotion doesn't necessarily indicate the influence of the Holy Ghost or that whatever is said is true.