How to Teach a 25-Minute Sunday School Lesson (New 2026 Schedule)

Starting this September, the second hour of church is changing. Sunday School, Elders Quorum, and Relief Society will all meet every single week, but the classes themselves are getting shorter, just 25 minutes. When our ward first heard the news, I think half the room was excited and the other half was doing the math on how they were supposed to fit their lesson into that.

It is not uncommon for a teacher to feel like 45 minutes was barely enough. We have all sat through lessons where the discussion finally got going right as the clock ran out. So the idea of 25 minutes can feel like we are being asked to do the same job with half the tools. Personally, I don't think that's what is being asked at all. I think we are being asked to do a different job.

A Different Job

The guidance from the Church on this has been pretty clear. Meaningful discussion matters more than covering all the material, and the Sunday lesson is meant to supplement what is happening at home, not replace it. That changes the assignment. We are not responsible for teaching everything in the chapter anymore. We are responsible for one good conversation.

As a teacher, that requires a mindset shift. When I prepare a lesson now, I try to pick one principle and build everything around it. One principle, two or three real questions, and maybe a story to open with. That's the whole lesson. And honestly, the lessons I remember most from my own life were never the ones that covered the most ground. They were the ones where somebody in the class said something honest and the room went quiet for a second.

With that, the hardest part of a 25-minute lesson is having the discipline to cut. You will prepare things you love and you will not get to them. That is okay. A lesson is not a container we are trying to fill; it's more like an invitation, and the class does the rest. If we can end on time with people still talking about the question in the hallway, that is a win.

Start Strong

There is also a practical side to this. Transitions are only five minutes now, so lessons need to start strong instead of spending the first ten minutes warming up. I like having my opening question ready before anyone sits down. Get the chairs, get the question on the board, and go.

For Elders Quorum and Relief Society, there's another change coming with this, and I think it's the bigger one: classes will be studying talks from the most recent general conference every week. That is a new lesson every single Sunday for those teachers and presidencies. The preparation load just went up, even as the class time went down. Preparing our lessons takes time, and as many of us are juggling kids, work, and callings, that math gets tight fast.

A Good Baseline

That is honestly where ComeFollowMe.io has been helpful for me. You can set your lesson length to 25 minutes, pick your class or a conference talk, and get a lesson plan that is already sized to fit, with key points, discussion questions, and a flow that leaves room for the Spirit to take the discussion where it needs to go. It's a baseline, not a script. The teaching is still yours.

The shorter second hour is going to be an adjustment. But I think it's going to make us better teachers, because it forces us to figure out what actually matters in a lesson. And most of the time, what actually matters was only ever going to take 25 minutes anyway.