A recent publication is doing the rounds regarding the rates of growth (or otherwise) in the LDS Church in 2016. They have been compiled by Matthew Martinich, an independent LDS demographer. You can see his fairly extensive analysis here.
It is a really interesting analysis – albeit statistically a bit “heavy”.
I urge you to have a good look over it. He breaks it down into “Encouraging” and “Discouraging” elements. As a teaser, I will outline my top three from each category.
Encouraging:
- Largest Number of New Stakes Created in a Single Year since 1997. The number of new stakes organized by world region is as follows: North America (45), Africa (21), South America (14), Central America (8), Asia (6), Oceania (5), and Europe (1).
- Rapid Growth Accelerates in West Africa. Rapid growth in West Africa has not only continued into 2016, but it has accelerated from previous years. The Africa West Area reported in mid-2016 that it anticipated the number of convert baptisms in the area would exceed 27,000 in 2016. If correct, this projection would indicate that membership in West Africa would increase by at least 10% in 2016. The Church reports its most rapid international growth in West Africa. The number of stakes has tripled every 10 years.
- LDS Congregations in Syria and Iraq. Despite one of the most complex and intense conflicts in the world at present, the Church has begun to be established among the native population in Syria and Iraq. The Church in Syria reestablished an official branch in Damascus during the year and also appeared to operate member groups in Aleppo and Latakia. No senior missionaries appear to enter or serve within Syria at present and church administration is conducted by district leadership headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon. Senior missionaries assigned to Kurdistan, Iraq noted significant inroads made among the native Kurdish population. At least three cities (e.g. Duhok, Irbil, and Sulaymaniyah) appear to have member groups in operation and convert baptisms have begun to occur on a monthly basis. Although converts and prospective members number only in the dozens at present in each nation, emphasis from church leaders to establish the Church in these nations signals a significant development for the Church’s missionary efforts in the Middle East where no formal proselytism occurs and religious freedom is limited or severely restricted.
Discouraging
- Congregational Growth Slows in the United States
The Church in the United States has reported one of its smallest increases in the number of wards and branches during 2016. There has appeared to have been a net increase of only 69 congregations during the year – a 0.49% annual increase and a significantly smaller increase than most recent years for the Church in the United States. Typically the Church has reported an annual net increase of 100-150 wards and branches and an annual congregational growth rate of 0.8-1.2%.
Slowing membership growth rates in the United States have likely affected congregational growth rates. The Church in 2015 reported its slowest annual membership growth rate since 1989 at a mere 1.0%. To contrast, the Church has generally reported annual membership growth rates in the United States that range between 1.5-2.0% since 1999. Fewer convert baptisms, a reduced birthrate, and inactivity problems among young single adults appear primarily responsible for slowing membership growth.
- Stagnant Growth in Europe
Overall, no measurable LDS growth appeared to occur in Europe during 2016.
Low member-missionary participation, secularism, nominal religious ties to traditional Christian denominations, challenges assimilating immigrant and refugee converts into congregations, and low self-sufficiency in European nations staffing their full-time missionary needs constitute significant barriers towards real growth.
- Lack of Progress in Mexico
Home to the second largest population of Latter-day Saints according to official LDS figures, the Church in Mexico continues to experience essentially stagnant growth. There was essentially no net change in the number of wards or branches in Mexico during 2016. Additionally, no new stakes were organized in Mexico during the year. This points to serious concerns regarding member activity, convert retention, missionary activity, and leadership development – especially considering that the Church operates 34 missions and its second largest missionary training center in the world in Mexico. LDS activity rates in Mexico may be worse than activity rates in Brazil. Although the Church in Mexico reports approximately 68,000 more members than the Church in Brazil, the Church in Brazil currently operates 38 more wards and branches and 35 more stakes than the Church in Mexico.
Looking at this analysis from an overall perspective, the lack of growth in the US and Mexico, appear to be fairly concerning. Even with births, I would have expected higher growth than this – particularly in Utah.
I have three thoughts about the decline in western countries (including Australia).
- The MLM Effect. For a vast majority of my friends and people I associate with, they would never be employed in a Multi-Level Marketing arrangement. This is because they have already made the decision not to. It is not something they would even consider. They perhaps take the advice of Spencer W Kimball when he said, “Develop discipline of self so that, more and more, you do not have to decide and redecide what you will do when you are confronted with the same temptation time and time again. You only need to decide some things once!” (President Kimball Speaks Out on Planning Your Life,” New Era, Sept. 1981, 50). My feeling is that is how many non-members feel about the church. They would never consider joining. Most have had missionaries knock on their door (that’s about all they do here in Australia), most have otherwise heard of the church. They have just made up their mind.
- US Culture. By and large, those outside the USA are put off by the US culture. It is seen as style over substance, celebrity worshiping and brutily capitalist. This is diametrically opposed to the Australian culture and most European cultures I know. The importation of the US culture into the LDS religious experience is a “turn off” for many in the west.
- Focus on certain issues. The church has displayed relentless focus on the “traditional family”, high profile opposition to all things SSM, significant involvement in Prop 8, opposition to things like medical marijuana and euthanasia. These are all issues that a lot of people support and would represent another “turn off” or barrier in people accepting membership in the church.
Questions:
- What are your thoughts on the article?
- Do you agree or disagree with the authors assessment of some possible reasons for the growth or decline?
- What have you seen in your local area?
- What are your predictions for the next 5-10 years?
One thing about the growth of congregations in North America. Back when gasoline prices were high, our stake looked at the ward boundaries and realized that some folks were driving past one chapel to get to the stake center where their assigned ward met. Thus a new congregation was created and ward boundaries shifted, so that everyone would be as close as possible to their assigned building.
Unlike previous congregation creations, it had nothing to do with membership growth per se. I am not sure if this was a church-wide effort, but that may explain some of the decline in congregation growth, since gas prices are less of a concern nowadays.
Growth in Europe is stagnant, and yet a new temple in France has been built. Interesting.
I agree with your reasoning for US/Europe, etc lack of growth. I’m really curious about Mexico though. Anyone have ideas on what is going on there?
Good post. I think your third thought, about social issues, etc. is spot on. The fact is that most churches (indeed, most institutions) are generally behind the curve on things because a culture generally changes faster than its institutions can keep up with. Though the church continues to play the “continuing revelation” card, it’s fairly obvious, IMHO, that the church isn’t able either to change in ways that make it more appealing to folks or to effectively “sell” its ideas to a generation that is mostly skeptical about the claims/biases of any large institution, church or otherwise.
And I also think the church’s political blind spots don’t do any favors in terms of growth. I think it would be a good idea if we stopped with the whole “the church is politically neutral” nonsense, given that the LDS Church is, along with perhaps the Baptist Church and certain Pentecostal denominations, the most right-leaning church in America. A lot of times, our own myopic and specious rhetoric gets in the way of missionary work.
And I also agree with your second thought. The LDS Church isn’t a worldwide church per se, even though we have congregations in many countries. It’s really still a church whose culture and beliefs are still very much rooted in a kind of mythic, 1950s Mountain West milieu. Again talking about being myopic, it would be great if the church were culturally aware and honest enough to realize (and admit) that its values aren’t eternal, but very specifically and narrowly culturally situated. Becoming a truly global church takes putting a lot more effort into understanding and empathizing with others than the church is currently.
I imagine that countries with the smallest internet subscription rates have the largest membership growth rates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_broadband_Internet_subscriptions
@ReTx “I’m really curious about Mexico though.”
We live, literally, on the border and can walk to Mexico. This is a fairly impoverished area and is very heavily Catholic… not just by the numbers, but very traditional and conservative. We were amazed to attend services and find women wearing head scarves and saying 100 Hail Mary’s while waiting for the Mass to start–that’s hardcore! There is a small LDS presence here, but we’ve heard from our Mexican friends that the missionaries speak very poor Spanish and have no clue about the culture. I think, in particular, Anglo missionaries think that speaking Spanish equates with cultural mastery, when, really, the culture is much, much more important. For example, Anglos don’t understand the “patron system” that plays a huge part in cultural exchanges. We don’t speak perfect Spanish, but we are kind and respectful of Mexican culture, we try to understand it, and we have made some close friends that way. Mexicans tend to view Anglo LDS missionaries about like vacuum cleaner salesmen. They’ll listen politely and maybe buy a sample, then go back to being Catholic. So… that’s a sample size of one. I don’t know how things are going LDS-wise in the interior of Mexico.
The trend in my area (metro Phoenix, AZ) is definitely toward more, and therefore, smaller wards and stakes. There has been ongoing consolidation of some wards and stakes in previously heavily-LDS west Mesa, but further east more units are being created so as to have more of those mythical and magical “small wards.” In North Scottsdale there has been recent action to create more small wards–and most were seeing only 120 to 150 in sacrament meeting before these actions–God is fickle (depending on who is the stake president).
So, here, we have seen some local growth in the congregation count–but it hasn’t been due to convert baptisms. Activity levels are in the 30% to 35% range outside of the Mormon-dense areas of Mesa where the peer pressure accounts for levels somewhat higher.
My 2-cents worth.
Baptism rates worldwide were very low in 2015 despite the “hasten the work” push and the bubble it created in missionary numbers. I’ll be curious to see if baptisms per missionary continue to slide in 2016, when the Church releases the few statistics it trusts the members with. From what I’m hearing, the reduction in age has turned the job of mission president into a combination babysitter and mental health counselor. Nineteen-year-olds with a year of college under their belts were immature enough. I can’t imagine what it must be like for straight-out-of-high-school kids to be full-time missionaries. Sounds like a recipe for inefficiency. Whatever. I’m guessing many factors are contributing to slowing growth. The Internet is probably the biggest. There’s just too much to hide now, and much of it is a turn-off.
“Overall, no measurable LDS growth appeared to occur in Europe during 2016. Low member-missionary participation, secularism, nominal religious ties to traditional Christian denominations, challenges assimilating immigrant and refugee converts into congregations, and low self-sufficiency in European nations staffing their full-time missionary needs constitute significant barriers towards real growth.”
I disagree with the tone of Martinich’s assessment here, as it comes off as victim blaming. I’ve lived in Europe twice within the last 5 years, and from what I know of European church members, they would chafe at the idea that they are mostly to blame for their own lack of membership growth. Indeed, that is part of the problem; they have a strong distaste for American leaders (usually mission presidents and area authorities) imposing American conservative culture on them. The social progressiveness of European countries is outpacing that of the U.S., and the Church remains even further behind that curve. The value of a committed LDS life is becoming less and less relevant to Europeans, especially younger ones. Yet, missionary work continues to be done in the same, seldom productive way it is always done.
It’s not the Europeans who need to adjust to fit a narrative, it’s the Church.
My only prediction is that as growth stagnates, what will inversely flourish is conference talks about (1) getting married young, (2) having lots of babies, (3) sharing the gospel, and (4) paying tithing. We won’t change; we’ll just do what we’re doing harder. It’s like a small businessman whose prices are lower than his costs but he hopes to make it up in volume.
In my corner of the kingdom, they recently took 4 wards and made… 4 wards, redrawing boundaries to even things out. I imagine this is emblematic of the Church today; no real growth.
I can’t remember where, but I’ve heard that the number of members required to form new stakes and/or wards has varied (decreased) over time.
I also wonder if the LDS Church’s time/service demand is significantly greater than other denominations and if this could be a factor in some areas or some cultures.
Regarding the MLM effect, if I had not been born into an LDS family (and in Utah) I doubt I would’ve responded to missionary efforts. I’m generally turned off and resistant to hard sales tactics and MLM enterprises.
We have only part of the statistics needed to see the real picture of what is happening and why. That is to say, behavioral norms and values of most nations are what we would call, in scientific terms, a mess. Not just U.S. culture. Eternal truths don’t always fit in a text message and don’t always have the sexy appeal of the latest celebrity twitter scandals that are so very important to most of the planet’s tiny-screen-dazed population. Government programs “progress” to replace family, community, religion, and God. We live in a generation that actually believes as a foundational, primary article-of -faith that this is just the most wisest and bestest and smartiest generation ever. After all, we have progressed so far that fantasy super heroes with good special effects draw more young worshippers than anything published from a real, but ancient God. More sports heroes are worshipped on Sunday than a deity.
Not to worry. The Church is not a business trying to grow market share by creating or appealing to the latest cultural fads. The apostles 2,000 years ago certainly ran into cultural problems and growth problems, too (that got them killed). And 2000 years ago members of the Church complained that the Church was just too Jewish in culture (now just too American).
World circumstances will change. Demographic changes look favorable to LDS growth mid century and beyond.
I’m in the Mormon Corridor and it is clear that our stakes are hollowing out. Basically, wards are mostly older people who are dying over time. Young people move in from time to time but not as many as are dying. Every ward in my stake is shrinking and I understand the issue is regional.
The issue is failure to engage the youth. I don’t think the lower missionary age is working very well. Lots are coming home early. Many go inactive after. One institute leader said that they are only getting about 15% of those eligible to attend. Student wards are mostly inactives.
There are many ways to view what is happening with the LDS church as discussed in this post. My view is that western culture is moving forward as prophesied and before long (don’t know when) the USA and the rest of western culture (also know as Gentiles) will continue to choose iniquity and at some point the judgments of God will come upon them.
It won’t be pretty. My hope is that the Gentiles will repent and will once again flourish, but unfortunately we know that before the 2nd coming of Christ there will be
a full end of all nations. When the cup of their iniquity is full the Lord will bring destruction on the wicked. The full cup occurs when the Lord’s followers are killed by those in power.
It is sad that the church is losing members and missionary effectiveness is diminishing among the Gentile nations.
I have a hard time with saying that lack of church growth means the world is going to HE-doublehockesticks and the second coming is nigh. Because even though people are not choosing to be Mormon, I’m not seeing that they are choosing to be evil. In fact, I see just the opposite. I live in an area of almost entirely non-Mormons and my neighbors are wonderful, caring, kind, charitable people. They don’t worship like me. They may not even attend church on Sundays. But they do worship by living a ‘Godly’ life.
I love your “MLM effect” point, LDS_Aussie. It makes a lot of sense. We’re on the far side of the “too weird” line for lots of people to even consider us. Really, I can’t blame them.
I gave my view based on my understanding of the scriptures. I should have included the verses I had in mind when I commented above. Consider the following:
26 Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
27 And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.
(Book of Mormon | Mosiah 29:26 – 27)
Has the voice of the people chosen iniquity in America. I think we have. One indication is the supreme court allowing SS marriage instead of SS unions, thus diminishing the family.
6 And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations;
7 That the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies.
8 Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 87:6 – 8)
23 Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face.
24 Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord.
25 And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;
26 First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 112:23 – 26)
“And upon my house shall it begin.” That is us, today’s church members. The heart of Mormonism, church members along the Wasatch front are losing faith.
I think a case can be made that we are not far from the time when the First Presidency will bear down on us in pure testimony. Warning us to repent or suffer.
Jared,
Your statement regarding SS marriage diminishing family is unsupportable. More marriages (whether hetero or SS) actually increase families and thus increase stability. Have you considered the fact that the reason the Lord’s people might come under condemnation is because the hardness of their hearts (i.e. lack of empathy) prohibits them from seeing that people who don’t live/think the way they do are still deserving of equal consideration under the law? Like you, I too, believe that the saints are under condemnation, but I believe it’s because of their lack of both compassion and care for their fellow human beings, not because they need to be even more in lock step (“perfectly” obedient) with the church leaders.
Brother Sky
I support church leaders. You have a right to your view, just as I do.
I not against Gay Unions. Gay Unions could have all the legal support they need. Marriage is designed for men and women. Unfortunately, America decided otherwise. It is now the law of the land. Decision like this undermines the family as God intended or else scripture would support it.
In my business I deal with Gay couples an individuals. Never had a problem.
I have been a member for 58 years, I have been on missions for 8 of those, and have held a recommend for over 50 years. I think the Gospel is so drowned in politics and culture that is so extreme relative to most of the world, and some of that is also gives the impression of being less Christlike than the good people of the rest of the world.
I believe the Gospel requires us to learn to love perfectly, and that does not allow us to discriminate, against gays, women or racially. Many of the good people of the world do too. The Church does not.
I can’t see the churcht growing until dramatic changes are made to the 15, so we can again have leaders who can receive revelation, and lead.
Unless that happens soon we will be such a damaged brand that it will not matter.
When I was younger we talked about rolling forth to fill the earth. Not happening rather discouraging. Someone will be asked to explain at some stage.
Geoff – Aus
“I can’t see the churcht growing until dramatic changes are made to the 15, so we can again have leaders who can receive revelation, and lead”
None of my business obviously and feel free to tell me to mind my own business but I am curious as to what your answer is during your temple recommend interview when you are asked if you sustain the 15 as prophets, seers and revelators?
@ojiisan
“I am curious as to what your answer is during your temple recommend interview when you are asked if you sustain the 15 as prophets, seers and revelators”
What do you answer when asked “Do you keep the law of chastity?”, bearing in mind that masturbation violates the law of chastity and is considered sinful?
anon
Not certain what that has to do with anything in this post but I have to say I am highly amused by your presumptions given that you have no idea who I am. Suffice it to say I am able to answer yes to the question without any qualms about the issue you raise.
There are a lot of reasons as to why the church isn’t growing all that fast. Of course the disaffected are going to blame the church members for doing it wrong, and they’re undoubtedly right to some degree or another. And of course, the active orthodox are going to blame the world for it’s wickedness, and they’re undoubtedly right to some degree or another as well. Both points of view are supported by the narratives in the Book of Mormon. We read about people becoming rich, or wise in their own eyes, or about how dissension grew within the church, or how the behavior of the believers became a stumbling block to those who don’t believe. We also don’t see God performing miracles with the same density (miracle magnitude per unit population, for a squishy metric) at all times, and I’ve not positive it entirely correlates with righteousness density. Seems like things fall apart over a period of time and then God performs a miracle of some sort or another (even if just by providing a prophet who has seen an angel) to get things back on track. I don’t see this as all that abnormal.
I don’t think religiosity correlates all that well to how nice people are to each other, either individually or collectively. But I definitely believe that those who have the Spirit of Christ about them are definitely nicer, happier, and more useful to society. I do feel like the church brings its membership closer to Christ on the whole. It’s a shame it’s not growing more at the moment.
ThomasT: “Not to worry. The Church is not a business trying to grow market share” Keep fiddling, Nero. Last I checked, we were in fact a missionary church. The narrative that even the very elect will be deceived only gets us so far.
Matrin
“We also don’t see God performing miracles with the same density (miracle magnitude per unit population, for a squishy metric) at all times, and I’ve not positive it entirely correlates with righteousness density. Seems like things fall apart over a period of time and then God performs a miracle of some sort or another (even if just by providing a prophet who has seen an angel) to get things back on track. I don’t see this as all that abnormal.”
In my readings so far I have seen that the LDS have current giftings including miracles, healing, tongues etc … but nothing re them being used in practice except for some veiled suggestions that most of that happened in the early years and fell off shortly afterwards. How does the Church process these gifts (assuming they do) – I am guessing it is not the same way the Pentecostals do it!
@martin
” (miracle magnitude per unit population, for a squishy metric) at all times”
They don’t have to be ostentations miracles. People find a lot of car keys with God’s help. 😉
1. Mormon 8 tells us exactly what the problem is and no, Jared, it isn’t the increasingly evil outside world. Mormon was speaking to the holy church of God… That’s us. Notice that his accusation applies to EVERY one of our churches…
35 Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.
36 And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts.
37 For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.
38 O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? . . .
Pride and materialism.
City Creek, need we say more? Oh yes, City Creek exists while 1 million+ persons were made refugees on Aleppo, and only ONE Talk in conference addressed it – a non-US 70?
Thank you all for your comments and discussion on this topic.
This is a real interesting one for me, in that there appears to be scriptural precedent – for both expansion and contraction.
So how do we know which one it is???
LDS Aussie,
Are you talking about expanding (growing) the church as opposed to shrinking? I think the scriptural precedents aren’t asking for either, they advocate for change, specifically calling out our pride and materialism.
LDS_Aussie, the skeptic in me would say that when we grow, the growth narrative applies, and when we shrink, the shrink narrative applies, but more realistically, I think some people are growth minded (open / missionary focus) and some people are shrink minded (closed / perfect the saints’ purity focus). There are those who want to open the borders to all comers, to meet people where they are. There are others who want to add rules and hedges about the law and make the bar higher to join and higher to stay in. I suppose in life we need both–life can’t be all based on participation awards I suppose–but I tend to be on the open / missionary mindset side.
My experience tells me that there have been enough discussion about both:
Expansion – flood the world, take the gospel to every nation, lowing missionary age, increasing amount of missionaries, and
Contraction – the elect shall hear my voice, very elect shall be deceived, wickedness of the world
So, one data point here, two years ago the two wards in my city were combined to a single ward. Just today, the other much larger city in our stake underwent boundary realignment and now has 3 rather than 4 wards. Our stake now has two wards fewer than it did when we moved here 10 years ago.
Many years ago a friend with 5 sons struggling in a poor public school system asked me to go to the temple with him to pray for wisdom, what to do. He considered doubling down on where he was at, withdrawal from the schools and home school, moving to another school district, borrowing against his small self-remodeled house which was paid for coupled with a wife returning to the work force to earn enough money for private schools ($10-20K per year per child), or other options. We did not seem to receive an answer and left discouraged. In the temple parking lot I heard a voice in my head which stated: The day will soon come when you Mormons will regret building temples for the work of the dead instead of private schools for your children. (Since then the number of temples has more than doubled.)
I told my friend and we discussed it for many weeks. Both of us developed a vision of the answer to the question, what would a national effort by the LDS church to set up a series of private schools look like? Could we afford it or make it work? We might have had exaggerated expectations and faith in the LDS church but we believed the church had the money to do it, the coordinated central planning to make it cost-effective and affordable, that BYU could become a flag ship in training an army of school teachers, that missionary service could be tweeked into even better preparation for teaching careers and maybe missionaries could help as teachers aids, etc, that we had some infrastructure in place with numerous sturdy buildings sitting mostly idle during school hours, and many other advantages greater than any other church or institution. We came to believe that modern Mormon money, organization, and community spirit could build a private school system across the USA and that some of the best and brightest outside the LDS church might beat a path bringing their children to us for a consistent and excellent education. We would see improved retention of our own born-in-the covenant youth in a better place to build the kingdom as adults. .When the public schools further deteriorated both academically and morally, we would be in an excellent place to expand and make a national impact. As an unintended consequence, many non-LDS students in these private Mormon schools might consider conversion. If a tuition advantage was given to tithe paying members, their less affluent parents might also convert, with variable levels of sincerity.
We also considered how this might look on an international level; obviously very different in various countries, such as Africa vs Brazil, vs Japan vs Europe where it might not work at all. Would it start with pre-schools, then add elementary schools and later secondary schools? Or perhaps all levels at once? Where would it start? In the most Mormon rural areas of Utah, or the populated Wasatch front, or maybe a place with tons of LDS strength close to large population of non-LDS people like Arizona, or in far flung places in the Eastern US, or perhaps in the South with the worst schools in the US? Would it require the collapse of Utah public education jeopardizing the futures of the grandchildren of members of the Q15 and their friends to get started?
Of course we two could do nothing beyond yapping about it. We wrote it up and sent it into church headquarters and soon were asked to attend interviews with our bishops who gently told us not to pretend to counsel prophetic leadership, but direct such discussions to local leaders. My friend tried several options and his sons all ultimately did not receive a good education, did not serve missions and did not remain active in the LDS church. They are adults now and married to decent (probably trashy by BYU standards) never-LDS women and are struggling financially. (And probably voted for Trump).
My point is that if we are not satisfied with the general direction of our long-standing stagnant growth, minor incremental changes will do little to change the general trends. We will need to do something brilliant and drastic. Something perhaps even heroic like crossing the plains. Something resulting from prophetic vision. I offer this pipe dream as one possibility of a very gross approximation of what a revitalized LDS faith might look like. New goals in new relevant areas with far-reaching consequences that would dilute the problems with our history.
The prohibition of coffee and tea and beer is a huge barrier around the world. These are culturally hugely popular beverages and in the case of the first two have little health effect and certainly no relation to Christlike behavior aming non Mormons. In moderation beer has little effect on health and certainly less than trans-fats or obesity. The gospel cannot be accepted widely in Asia or Europe so long as these are litmus tests of conversion. The word of wisdom should be rolled back to standards of the 1800s.
Oh and to add we lost a branch some years previously as well, so in total that’s the stake gone from 9 units to 6 in a decade.
I will be glad when the Mormon church fades away. I have my personal experiences with Mormons that is driving my personal opinion.
I left the church because my standards are much higher.
I am not and have never been a Mormon. My advice is the following.
1.) The Church will probably start to grow quickly again if it concentrates on telling people what it can positively offer them. As society becomes increasingly immoral, it is tempting for Churches including the Latter-day Saints to spend a huge amount of time knocking bad practices in society in the light of its own moral standards. Young people in all churches most frequently claim that the message they receive in the pew is negative, presuming some kind of guilt on the part of the audience. The LDS church could immediately gain ground if it stopped knocking others and started positively promoting its message, since believe me, the other Churches haven’t been able to cross this hurdle.
The LDS Church should be able to cross it, since negative, perfectionist spirituality was specifically defined by its founder as Satanic.
2.) It has been noted in this post that society is becoming increasingly alienated and dominated by savage capitalism. As this happens, family and community disintegrate. For most people, this is a source of a certain amount of accompanying psychological disintegration. If the LDS Church makes intelligent plans to present itself as a community where this void can be filled, it will quickly make new converts.
3.) The LDS Church has a large carrot and a small stick. It offers its faithful a much larger recompense for their loyalty – the chance to become like God. Unlike other Churches, and as emphasized by Joseph Smith and subsequent prophets, it does not concentrate on negative stimuli to incite belief. This is a massive advantage and a card that must be played.
4.) The Church could profit from a presentation of its founder more rooted in reality. There is no need to make Joseph Smith into a plaster saint. His contribution to the growth of civil liberties and free speech in the United States is indisputable. Modern people are more drawn to a real presentation of a good person with flaws who made an important contribution to their history than they are to artificial seamlessness. After all, the prophets in the Bible were often vastly more unsavoury characters than Smith, and both Luther and Calvin were prolific murderers – which absolutely cannot be said of Smith.
5.) The Church could spend more time looking at how recent developments in science, such as convergence theory in evolutionary biology, appear to confirm some of its tenets. For example, convergence theory predicts that inhabitants of alien planets could appear human.
6.) The Latter-day Saint Church could look more at the common ground between the kind of evolutionary theology it espouses and forms of thinking and conceiving present in very primitive Judaism. This could light up LDS scriptures for more reflective modern people.
Hope that helps.
One thing is polygammy and Freemasons of Joseph Smith….Everything is out in the open thanks to the Internet
According to membership statistics furnished to Kay Birningham by her contact inside the Church membership records dept, and which she mentions in her book “American Fraud: The Case Against Mormonism”, only about 1.5 million Mormons attend services on any given Sunday worldwide. The chief reason for this is that, thanks to the internet, the Church can no longer hide the huge discrepancy between official Church history and actual, documented Church history.
LDS church is definitely shrinking. Home teaching program is increasingly irrelevant and for most part, people do not want to be bothered at home. Missionary age reduction was an effort to combat youth inactivity and apostacy, but recently, the church has been forced to cut down its missionary numbers due to the ensuing mental health, psychological, and emotional problems with immature missionaries sent out into the field. The plan now is to use “technology” and fewer missionaries to draw in new members. LDS church is more driven by legal concerns than by revelation in many instances, resulting in idiotic policies that hobble missionary and reactivation efforts. Male members , regardless of leadership position, are regarded as potential rapists, fornicators, sexually driven deviants, never mind that these men hold temple recommends. Where is the trust?? Fewer youth want to do missions anymore for many reasons, some of which have to do with lack of LDS church historical transparency and avoidance and censoring of inconvenient truths. Also, times are different today: Young men do not feel as driven to go on a mission these days, so they can be “worthy” to be rewarded with a woman to marry in the temple.