Jump to content
Seriously No Politics ×

D-News Reports 63,500 Missionaries Are Serving


Recommended Posts

If this is true then the missionary numbers are still continuing to decline. Are these numbers accurate?  

Quote

The church has 63,597 missionaries serving in 407 missions around the globe. 

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900029014/update-crashes-missionary-phone-apps-in-a-third-of-latter-day-saint-missions.html

Link to comment
1 hour ago, smac97 said:

I'm feeling fairly sanguine about the number of missionaries.  There are a lot of factors in play, some of them are probably pretty good. 

I think it is healthy for the Church to have "raised the bar," as this decreases the number of missionaries with emotional / physical  / mental health / behavioral issues.  Full-time missionary service is a rigorous, difficult thing. 

Thanks,

-Smac

I agree that raising the bar is a good thing. I would rather see missionaries serve who are mature enough mentally and spiritually. We've seen too many missionaries in our Ward and Stake come home early the last few years and I worry about what that means for their future. Many of those missionaries who returned home early have been struggling with activity and feeling loved or welcomed.

Link to comment
11 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

According to the 2012 statistical report: 58,990.

It would be interesting to see the breakdown by gender. My guess is that most of the increase in missionaries is a result of more sisters serving. But that's just a guess.

Yeah. I bet sisters up, elders down.

Link to comment
59 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

Maybe adding all that space to the MTC was a little premature. 

Or maybe they know something we don't about the rising generation...?

MTC-Project-1.png

It's really beautiful inside though...

church-of-scientology.jpg

 

Edited by cinepro
Link to comment

This is quite a drop.  I figured it’d continue to go down even though the church continued to message  the number would go up.  Either they have no idea how numbers work, they lied, or people have been leaving tge church at an increased rate.  It could be a little of all three of course.  

 

  Also the whole benefit of the surge was that more young women were going.  Considering the church had far less members 6 years ago, and the numbet of sisters have increased its quite likely the revelatory surge effort has in the long run caused less male youngsters from participating.  Certainly less young men as a percentage of the whole at the very least.    

At least we can be more certain elder Holland’s claim of seeing 100,000 was about as laughable as any old church leader claim.  

Link to comment
1 hour ago, jkwilliams said:

According to the 2012 statistical report: 58,990.

It would be interesting to see the breakdown by gender. My guess is that most of the increase in missionaries is a result of more sisters serving. But that's just a guess.

That means that today there are only 4,607 more missionaries than there were in 2012 (63,597 - 58,990 = 4,607)? If this trend continues, there is a very good statistical chance that by the beginning of next year there will be fewer missionaries than we had in 2012. The young men need a good swift kick in the rear.

Edited by Peppermint Patty
Link to comment
Just now, Peppermint Patty said:

That means that today there are only 4,607 more missionaries today than there were in 2012 (63,597 - 58,990 = 4,607)? If this trend continues, there is a very good statistical chance that by the beginning of next year there will be fewer missionaries than we had in 2012. The young men need a good swift kick in the rear.

I'm curious: does the total number include older couple missionaries? I assume so, but I don't know. 

From what I understand, the rate of missionaries going home early is much higher than it was before the age change. Does this decline represent a decline in new missionaries entering the field, an increase of missionaries going home early, or a combination of both? 

Link to comment
Just now, jkwilliams said:

I'm curious: does the total number include older couple missionaries? I assume so, but I don't know. 

From what I understand, the rate of missionaries going home early is much higher than it was before the age change. Does this decline represent a decline in new missionaries entering the field, an increase of missionaries going home early, or a combination of both? 

I believe it includes all full time missionaries. I wonder if the young men don't feel as much pressure or feel a mission isn't as important because more women are now serving? Could the policy have hurt the number of young men willing to serve? I wish I knew why this was happening.

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Peppermint Patty said:

Gray, do you know what the pre-surge numbers were?

Depends a little bit upon what year you count. There was an initial drop around 2003 when Hinckley put tighter requirements on missionaries. Numbers went from 61,638 to 56,237 and then 51,067 by 2004. Numbers varied a little and most see 2010 as the last year of that era with 52,225. In 2011 you start to have an increase to 55,410 and then 2012 is generally seen as the beginning of the surge with 58,990 and then 83,035 the next year. Clearly though even if 2013 is the real surge year something changed back in 2011 in the numbers. 

I should note that I've been told by people who had baptism and activity numbers that there was around that time also a rather large cohort of kids. So the increased numbers wasn't all the surge but was partially due to a demographic "bump" as well.

The peak was 2014 with 85,137 and it's been dropping fairly consistently since then. How much of that is demographics and how much reflects other changes I can't say.

 

Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...