Keeping members a challenge for LDS church

[Moksha]

Keeping members a challenge for LDS church
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune

Graphing activity: When the Graduate Center of the City University of New York conducted an American Religious Identification Survey in 2001, it discovered that about the same number of people said they had joined the LDS Church as said they had left it. The CUNY survey reported the church's net growth was zero percent. By contrast, the study showed both Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists with an increase of 11 percent.

"Because membership statistics are prepared and reported differently by various religious groups, the LDS Church does not publish comparisons of total membership to other faiths," said LDS spokesman Dale Bills on Friday.

On the question of how many Mormons are actively participating, Brigham Young University demographer Tim Heaton noted in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism that attendance at weekly sacrament meetings in the early 1990s was between 40 percent and 50 percent in Canada, the South Pacific, and the United States. In Europe and Africa, the average was 35 percent. Attendance in Asia and Latin America hovered around 25 percent.

By multiplying the number of members in each area by these fractions, David G. Stewart Jr. estimates worldwide activity at about 35 percent - which would give the church about 4 million active members.
Stewart, an active Mormon who served a mission to Russia in the early 1990s, has been conducting research on LDS missionary work in 20 countries for 13 years, examining census figures, and analyzing published data. Take Brazil. In its 2000 Census, 199,645 residents identified themselves as LDS, while the church listed 743,182 on its rolls. "There may be any number of reasons for the discrepancy," Bills said, "including personal preferences of some citizens regarding disclosure of their religious affiliation."

Retaining members: Stewart says Mormons need to be aware of such statistics to be more effective missionaries. To that end, he is publishing his research, along with a description of what he calls "tested principles to improve growth and retention," in a forthcoming book, The Law of the Harvest: Practical Principles of Effective Missionary Work.

"It is a matter of grave concern that the areas with the most rapid numerical membership increase, Latin America and the Philippines, are also the areas with extremely low convert retention," says Stewart, a California physician. "Many other groups, including the Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, have consistently achieved excellent convert retention rates in those cultures and societies. Latter-day Saints lose 70 to 80 percent of their converts, while Adventists retain 70 to 80 percent of theirs."

How are they doing in your area?

[sixpacktr]

I'd say that 30-35% is about right in every facet of the church: convert retention, tithe payers, active TR holders, Sac meeting attendance, etc.

The issue comes in that there are actually two separate yet intertwined organizations working on bringing in new members: the missionary arm, with the missionaries and mission president, and then the bishops/wards. Missionaries are assigned to areas by the MPs instead of the SP or Bishop. Their sole responsibility is to find, teach, and baptize new members. Now, most missionaries will work with the Bishop, but they don't have to. Their ecclesiastical authority is in the mission home. So if they baptize people, there is nothing the ward can do about it, except have them become part of the home teaching/visiting teaching roster. We are to help the missionaries, and they us, in bringing others to Christ, but I would say that particularly in areas like Latin America and the Phillipines, etc., there are a lot of baptisms that should never have taken place. It is just the way things are. The missionaries are to baptize, the wards to retain. But they need callings, etc, and that can be hard to do, especially when the culture they are coming from is more 'listen to the preacher' and not be involved like we are. Another issue is that some missions don't even require the potential converts to attend church at all, never mind making it a habit by coming 2, or 3 or 4 weeks running.

So this doesn't surprise me. People are given their chance to accept or reject the gospel, even members. Activity or inactivity right now doesn't mean that it will be the same 5 years from now.

[prisonchaplain]

I'm wondering what the break down is amongst those inactive who:

1. Really, are no longer LDS, but have chosen to quit by neglect.
2. Are sincere, but find life overwhelming right now
3. Are investigating in reverse (considering leaving)
4. Believe, but are lazy
5. Are suffering from "buyer's remorse." They believed, but immediately afterwards doubted.

I doubt any poll will answer that break down...but it would sure help with retention efforts.

[hethathathears]

Over the last year, our Sisters/Elders have been baptising just about every week (Western U.S.) Some of the Elders were going at it from the prospective, If you join our church you can get church welfare. As a result of that, the Elders were pulled out and the Sisters were brought in. I think to many the gospel is like a new Christmas toy that they can loose interest in very quickly like in the parable of the sower.

For the missionaries, although it is a spiritual experience, a lot of times you gage your mission on numbers, and that being said, some people aren't really ready for the commitment. But I think that if we as member do a better job as far as receiving and buoying up new members, I think that the truly elect will endure until the end.

[Palerider]

Originally Posted by fent

Hey, I'm a statistic.

Maybe that's the point. When I was a member, I remember a big focus on numbers. Returned and prospective missionaries talking about how many baptisms they did or might do. How many Book of Mormons can you pass out? My ward had a challenge, see who could give out the most. It takes so much more work to form and maintain relationships with people than it does to hand them a book or give them a few lessons. Maybe it's different now, I can't say. What I can say is that there is a segment of your membership that drives people away. "It's not the church, it's the people" and all that.

I have been a member all my life and have been in alot of wards and Branches.....and been in England for 2 yrs and have never seen it quite the way you just described....

[NateHowe]

Keeping membership is a problem for nearly every organization. I don't think these statistics show a surprising attrition rate. What percentage of those who call themselves Catholic are "active?"

[Palerider]

Originally Posted by NateHowe

Keeping membership is a problem for nearly every organization. I don't think these statistics show a surprising attrition rate. What percentage of those who call themselves Catholic are "active?"

I know here in Baptist land its an issue as well...

[prospectmom]

Pale there are some members who make it very hard on the average person and shed a bad light on the church , those of us who know the church is not always the people can get past it . Then there are those who get hurt and leave some never to return.... or mabey loose alot of time being away

[hordak]

Originally Posted by sixpacktr

But they need callings, etc, and that can be hard to do, especially when the culture they are coming from is more 'listen to the preacher' and not be involved like we are..

I agree. I came back and even after being raised in the church and knowing what to expect the calling thing can be a real drag sometimes.After spending an hour trying to keep my kids in line then 2 hours keeping other peoples kids in line Sunday went from being a day to fellowship and learning about the gosple to a 3 hour job.