Tweet My Gospel

[Johnnie Cake]

So part of the huge historic news from yesterday’s broadcast is that tracting is ineffective and doesn't pay dividends in reaching prospective converts...gee I could have told church authorities that 25 years ago when I served my mission. In two years of tracting we were able to baptize 1 individual through direct door to door knocking...AKA tracting. While personally I enjoyed the work of tracting unlike many other missionaries...I do have to admit that it was a very ineffective use of my time in reaching prospective converts.

So finally recognizing the ineffectiveness of tracting…missionaries will now spend much of their allotted time on the internet, tweeting and on Facebook seeking prospective converts.

I can imagine Missionaries friending members in their assign wards and branches and then using those contacts to reach out to the members non-member friends via FB and Twitter. I can only imagine the repercussions members will have once this program is fully implemented…will members really want their personal relationships with their non-member friends mined by iMissionaries for proselyting purposes? Do you really think that LDS members who currently shy away from sharing their friends with the missionaries are all of a sudden going to open up their FB friend list to the iMissionaries? Will repeated contact by the iMissionaries over time eventually result in non-member FB friend’s unfriending their member friends due to repeated contact from these iMissionaries? And once this limit number of FB friends has been exhausted…will tracting all of a sudden become fashionable and inspired again?

While the church may have some limited positive results from this new strategy, I can’t imagine that it will have the lasting long term results that the church is hoping for….I therefore predict that tracting/street meetings are here to stay and will be a permanent foundational fixture in the missionary program…and the initial benefits of FBing will be short lived and will not end up having any long term positive impact on church convert numbers. If anything…it will drive these educated non-Mormon FB friends into more Google searches regarding Mormon truth claims and expose Mormon missionaries to more difficult conversations regarding these claims. This historic announsement really has the potential to completely backfire and blow up in the churches face.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Johnnie Cake

[CV75]

So part of the huge historic news from yesterday’s broadcast is that tracting is ineffective

No, that isn't part of the historic news; that was just part of explaining how things have been evolving for a couple of decades.

Do you want to know why the broadcast was historic?

[Johnnie Cake]

Do you want to know why the broadcast was historic?

Ummm ok I'll bite....

[CV75]

Ummm ok I'll bite....

It's not a trick question, really; it's in the news articles.

The 70,000 milestone for the number of missionaries serving.

The unprecedented number of new mission presidents gathered for training and number of missions.

Missionaries will be using the Internet and digital devices as a formal part of their proselyting toolkit.

The new website, “Hastening the Work of Salvation: A Unified Effort in Conversion, Retention, and Activation,” that accompanied the broadcast and contains the type of practical instruction you referred to (which evolves gradually over time, which is also how history is made). This item might not seem very historic, but inasmuch as it is new, it could be touted as historic.

I also think the participation of so many Church organizations in gathering at one time to focus on this subject—missionaries, mission presidents, general authorities; stake, ward, branch leadership; members, and the broadcast of such a meeting.

I found the types of things the speakers spoke about, and their delivery, were more intimate and natural in nature than when they speak from a more formal setting. For a broadcast foreside, it incorporated much of the feel of a smaller gathering such as a ward or stake fireside, and in a couple of instances, an interview.

[Mark Beesley]

So part of the huge historic news from yesterday’s broadcast is that tracting is ineffective and doesn't pay dividends in reaching prospective converts...gee I could have told church authorities that 25 years ago when I served my mission. In two years of tracting we were able to baptize 1 individual through direct door to door knocking...AKA tracting. While personally I enjoyed the work of tracting unlike many other missionaries...I do have to admit that it was a very ineffective use of my time in reaching prospective converts.

So finally recognizing the ineffectiveness of tracting…missionaries will now spend much of their allotted time on the internet, tweeting and on Facebook seeking prospective converts.

I can imagine Missionaries friending members in their assign wards and branches and then using those contacts to reach out to the members non-member friends via FB and Twitter. I can only imagine the repercussions members will have once this program is fully implemented…will members really want their personal relationships with their non-member friends mined by iMissionaries for proselyting purposes? Do you really think that LDS members who currently shy away from sharing their friends with the missionaries are all of a sudden going to open up their FB friend list to the iMissionaries? Will repeated contact by the iMissionaries over time eventually result in non-member FB friend’s unfriending their member friends due to repeated contact from these iMissionaries? And once this limit number of FB friends has been exhausted…will tracting all of a sudden become fashionable and inspired again?

While the church may have some limited positive results from this new strategy, I can’t imagine that it will have the lasting long term results that the church is hoping for….I therefore predict that tracting/street meetings are here to stay and will be a permanent foundational fixture in the missionary program…and the initial benefits of FBing will be short lived and will not end up having any long term positive impact on church convert numbers. If anything…it will drive these educated non-Mormon FB friends into more Google searches regarding Mormon truth claims and expose Mormon missionaries to more difficult conversations regarding these claims. This historic announsement really has the potential to completely backfire and blow up in the churches face.

Nice to know someone has their finger on the pulse of the Church's missionary program and has already figured out how it is all going to go down. Do you have peep stone or something???

Oops, my apologies. I see where you confess that this scenario is just something you've imagined.

[bluebell]

The last mission we lived in has been on facebook for a couple of years, and yes, I had many a sister missionary 'friend' me. However, they never, ever, attempted to friend any of my friends. In fact, they never even wrote on my wall or did anything more involved than 'like' an update now and then.

[Hamba Tuhan]

In fact, they never even wrote on my wall or did anything more involved than 'like' an update now and then.

I suspect that may change. Frankly, I welcome it. I already wonder how all my bitter-secular-leftist-atheist friends* from uni view my Facebook activity considering that it mostly consists of quotes from the scriptures, quotes from the prophets, announcements to ward members, photos from Church activities, and, this week, an invitation to come to the temple with me this weekend. It's not like they could possibly have missed the fact that I'm an active, engaged, believing Latter-day Saint.

*So far, only one of them has taken the opportunity to rant at me for being idiotic enough to be @#$%^&* Christian, and even he seems to have mellowed out lately since I didn't respond in kind.

[Johnnie Cake]

Nice to know someone has their finger on the pulse of the Church's missionary program and has already figured out how it is all going to go down. Do you have peep stone or something???

Oops, my apologies. I see where you confess that this scenario is just something you've imagined.

Ok...no worries Mark I can take a punch ha ha...but why don't you tell us how my scenerio is wrong...wouldn't that be more constructive? How are those nonmembers being friended by the missionaries going to react in your world? And how after realizing how their names became available do you see them reacting to their LDS FB friends?

Edited June 25, 2013 by Johnnie Cake

[Johnnie Cake]

It's not a trick question, really; it's in the news articles.

The 70,000 milestone for the number of missionaries serving.

The unprecedented number of new mission presidents gathered for training and number of missions.

Missionaries will be using the Internet and digital devices as a formal part of their proselyting toolkit.

The new website, “Hastening the Work of Salvation: A Unified Effort in Conversion, Retention, and Activation,” that accompanied the broadcast and contains the type of practical instruction you referred to (which evolves gradually over time, which is also how history is made). This item might not seem very historic, but inasmuch as it is new, it could be touted as historic.

I also think the participation of so many Church organizations in gathering at one time to focus on this subject—missionaries, mission presidents, general authorities; stake, ward, branch leadership; members, and the broadcast of such a meeting.

I found the types of things the speakers spoke about, and their delivery, were more intimate and natural in nature than when they speak from a more formal setting. For a broadcast foreside, it incorporated much of the feel of a smaller gathering such as a ward or stake fireside, and in a couple of instances, an interview.

So in my OP when I used the qualifier "part of the huge historical news"...I misspoke?

[BlueDreams]

Ok...no worries Mark I can take a punch ha ha...but why don't you tell us how my scenerio is wrong...wouldn't that be more constructive? How are those nonmembers being friended by the missionaries going to react in your world? And how after realizing how their names became available do you see them reacting to their LDS FB friends?

....Except that's not what's happening. So it's kinda a moot scenerio. The missionaries are not using FB as a perfect replacement to tracting, rather it's a new approach all together. They're not friending other people's friends on a whim.

And FYI, they've been testing out missionaries online first in more controlled environments and slowly trying it in certain missions (like mine when I was out 2+ years ago). The announcement wasn't exactly ground breaking but an explanation that a pilot program would be expanding

With luv,

BD

Edited June 25, 2013 by BlueDreams

[TruthSeeker2013]

So part of the huge historic news from yesterday’s broadcast is that tracting is ineffective and doesn't pay dividends in reaching prospective converts...gee I could have told church authorities that 25 years ago when I served my mission. In two years of tracting we were able to baptize 1 individual through direct door to door knocking...AKA tracting. While personally I enjoyed the work of tracting unlike many other missionaries...I do have to admit that it was a very ineffective use of my time in reaching prospective converts.

So finally recognizing the ineffectiveness of tracting…missionaries will now spend much of their allotted time on the internet, tweeting and on Facebook seeking prospective converts.

I can imagine Missionaries friending members in their assign wards and branches and then using those contacts to reach out to the members non-member friends via FB and Twitter. I can only imagine the repercussions members will have once this program is fully implemented…will members really want their personal relationships with their non-member friends mined by iMissionaries for proselyting purposes? Do you really think that LDS members who currently shy away from sharing their friends with the missionaries are all of a sudden going to open up their FB friend list to the iMissionaries? Will repeated contact by the iMissionaries over time eventually result in non-member FB friend’s unfriending their member friends due to repeated contact from these iMissionaries? And once this limit number of FB friends has been exhausted…will tracting all of a sudden become fashionable and inspired again?

While the church may have some limited positive results from this new strategy, I can’t imagine that it will have the lasting long term results that the church is hoping for….I therefore predict that tracting/street meetings are here to stay and will be a permanent foundational fixture in the missionary program…and the initial benefits of FBing will be short lived and will not end up having any long term positive impact on church convert numbers. If anything…it will drive these educated non-Mormon FB friends into more Google searches regarding Mormon truth claims and expose Mormon missionaries to more difficult conversations regarding these claims. This historic announsement really has the potential to completely backfire and blow up in the churches face.

First of all, "Tweet My Gospel" - hilarious!

Second of all, I think you raise some valid questions and it will be very interesting to see how the church tries to implement the facebook ideas it has. I think the issues you point out about contacting people on the internet at all are especially likely to play out. I think it's natural if you're already on the computer to do a quick google search about "mormons" or whatever topic the missionaries are approaching you with. And if you do so, it's likely that you'll come across a critical source within the first few google results. And even pro-church sites have the tendency to scare people away. I've heard of members themselves googling some topic for a sunday school lesson and coming across FAIR or FARMS and finding out about all the issues they never even knew existed, which leads to a subsequent faith crisis and leaving the church. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. In any case, it'll definitely bring more attention to the church. And maybe all attention is good attention?

Edited June 25, 2013 by TruthSeeker2013

[Johnnie Cake]

....Except that's not what's happening. So it's kinda a moot scenerio. The missionaries are not using FB as a perfect replacement to tracting, rather it's a new approach all together. They're not friending other people's friends on a whim.

And FYI, they've been testing out missionaries online first in more controlled environments and slowly trying it in certain missions (like mine when I was out 2+ years ago). The announcement wasn't exactly ground breaking but an explanation that a pilot program would be expanding

With luv,

BD

Blue dreams maybe you can shed some light on how the program operated in your mission. How did interactions on FB play out? How much time a day were the iMissionaries surfing for converts? How did members FB pages come into play if at all?

[BlueDreams]

Also related. There was a post on a RM page I'm on for my mission that had a question about how FB was used on our mission. It's an hour old, but here were two responses:

"I really liked being able to share media over Facebook like mormon messages or bible videos. I feel like little quotes or scriptures were helpful and though people may not have seen it always they were a positive influence over the internet to all of your friends. There are many people who are more comfortable talking over facebook so it helps to warm people up to the gospel. It is nice to add your active members and encourage them to like/share your posts which helps them to do missionary work themselves. Then their interested friends can be suggested to you over FB. Daily contact was one of my favorite ways to use facebook. Just send somebody LA/investigator an uplifting message or reminder of a commitment and they will probably check facebook that day. Hopefully. DO NOT waste time on facebook if you do not have business to take care of. It is important to begin with a silent prayer and ask for the spirit toguide you in your work that day on facebook and to ask for protection against harmful things on the internet. Also it helps to plan your activities on facebook. That will ensure minimal waste of time and will help you to be productive. For example plan to contact an individual, follow-up with another person, ask a member for a referral, post a special message, etc. I really really hope missionaries make good use of this new tool!"

"There´s so many ways! You can confirm appointments, post spiritual messages and links to talks, have powerful chats with less actives/investigators, check up on how your investigators reading is going without having to send them a barrage of phone calls every day, etc.

A lot of people don´t pick up their home phones but they do check Facebook and it´s an amazing way to interact with the youth and get them to go on splits with you.

I even heard of the Assistants and Zone Leaders being able to do a kind of actual proselyting where they would add new friends and literally teach them 100% on Facebook, although I never quite understood how they did it, you´ll have to ask them.

my favorite part of all was once I made friends with investigators and less actives in an area I could add them and stay in contact my whole mission, even after, something that was really impossible before the Facebook announcement."

So there you go.....that's how real missionaries have been using FB to do missionary work.

With luv,

BD

[Johnnie Cake]

Also related. There was a post on a RM page I'm on for my mission that had a question about how FB was used on our mission. It's an hour old, but here were two responses:

"I really liked being able to share media over Facebook like mormon messages or bible videos. I feel like little quotes or scriptures were helpful and though people may not have seen it always they were a positive influence over the internet to all of your friends. There are many people who are more comfortable talking over facebook so it helps to warm people up to the gospel. It is nice to add your active members and encourage them to like/share your posts which helps them to do missionary work themselves. Then their interested friends can be suggested to you over FB. Daily contact was one of my favorite ways to use facebook. Just send somebody LA/investigator an uplifting message or reminder of a commitment and they will probably check facebook that day. Hopefully. DO NOT waste time on facebook if you do not have business to take care of. It is important to begin with a silent prayer and ask for the spirit toguide you in your work that day on facebook and to ask for protection against harmful things on the internet. Also it helps to plan your activities on facebook. That will ensure minimal waste of time and will help you to be productive. For example plan to contact an individual, follow-up with another person, ask a member for a referral, post a special message, etc. I really really hope missionaries make good use of this new tool!"

"There´s so many ways! You can confirm appointments, post spiritual messages and links to talks, have powerful chats with less actives/investigators, check up on how your investigators reading is going without having to send them a barrage of phone calls every day, etc.

A lot of people don´t pick up their home phones but they do check Facebook and it´s an amazing way to interact with the youth and get them to go on splits with you.

I even heard of the Assistants and Zone Leaders being able to do a kind of actual proselyting where they would add new friends and literally teach them 100% on Facebook, although I never quite understood how they did it, you´ll have to ask them.

my favorite part of all was once I made friends with investigators and less actives in an area I could add them and stay in contact my whole mission, even after, something that was really impossible before the Facebook announcement."

So there you go.....that's how real missionaries have been using FB to do missionary work.

With luv,

BD

Thanks for sharing...very interesting

[BlueDreams]

Blue dreams maybe you can shed some light on how the program operated in your mission. How did interactions on FB play out? How much time a day were the iMissionaries surfing for converts? How did members FB pages come into play if at all?

I didn't use it much when i was out myself. My mission slowly introduced FB....first with the AP's and office elders. Then to a number of missionaries in leadership positions and those who got special permission. By the time it was really opening up, I was about to head out (had 1 or 2 transfers left). So I didn't make one. I know it was completely different from your pre-mission facebook account. Missionaries would friend other missionaries, LA's, investigators, RM's, and members. They became a network for doing missionary work. One sister FB'd me and asked for people that I remembered in the area and I was able to send her an extensive list based on my journal for her to look up and try to contact. Most often it was used in the ways outlined above. As new posts are added, I'll see if there are any other ways mentioned.

With luv,

BD

Edited June 25, 2013 by BlueDreams

[Mark Beesley]

Ok...no worries Mark I can take a punch ha ha...but why don't you tell us how my scenerio is wrong...wouldn't that be more constructive? How are those nonmembers being friended by the missionaries going to react in your world? And how after realizing how their names became available do you see them reacting to their LDS FB friends?

You want me to critique your imagination?

Is there a cockeyed emoticon?

[Kenngo1969]

You want me to critique your imagination?

Is there a cockeyed emoticon?

Does this guy work?

[Calm]

Does this guy work?

Or one of those?

[Tacenda]

Does this guy work?

Does he look like he's working?

[The Nehor]

I can imagine Missionaries friending members in their assign wards and branches and then using those contacts to reach out to the members non-member friends via FB and Twitter. I can only imagine the repercussions members will have once this program is fully implemented…will members really want their personal relationships with their non-member friends mined by iMissionaries for proselyting purposes? Do you really think that LDS members who currently shy away from sharing their friends with the missionaries are all of a sudden going to open up their FB friend list to the iMissionaries? Will repeated contact by the iMissionaries over time eventually result in non-member FB friend’s unfriending their member friends due to repeated contact from these iMissionaries? And once this limit number of FB friends has been exhausted…will tracting all of a sudden become fashionable and inspired again?

Where did you get the idea that this is what is going to happen? It was certainly not said in the broadcast.

[CV75]

So in my OP when I used the qualifier "part of the huge historical news"...I misspoke?

Yes, I think so. You said "part of the huge historic news from yesterday’s broadcast is that tracting is ineffective..." This isn't news; it has been known for a long, long time, so it is not part of the "news" -- it only provides some common background to set up the news, and why what is news is news.

That tracting insn't effective is why the Church has implemented so many other new approaches over the years, the missionaries' use of the Internet and digitial devices is new. It was also indicated that the Church will continue to implement new and beter ways of preaching the Gospel as needed and available.

[KevinG]

My wife was "tracted out" and she knows that she is a rare bird. The work will continue as always. We will not replace old shoe leather intensive methods only supplement them with modern communication tools. The effect will be reaching more people with the Gospel message. Of course I expect opposition as in all things and online anti-Mormonism will get a small boost. If we are lazy as members and don't testify to friends and family we won't see the fulfillment of the blessings we have available to us.

[Johnnie Cake]

Where did you get the idea that this is what is going to happen? It was certainly not said in the broadcast.

Well I certainly didn't listen to the broadcast...so I am making some assumptions based on how FB is used in the real world. Friends make posts and those posts show up on your FB "NewsFeed" where you can see and comment on your friends FB posts. You can find other FB friends by accessing your friends other FB friends...so again I am assuming that the iMissionaries will make posts that will show up on their FB friends NewsFeeds and when those FB friends, presumably LDS members, "like" a comment made by the iMissionaries, that "like" will be broadcast to all of their friends...LDS and non-LDS alike. But just as in the real FB world...when you have a FB friend who constantly over reaches the boundaries and continuously posts offensive material or subject matter that you really don't want to be barraged with ... you simply click a button and their posts no longer show up on you newsfeed...and that is what I see happening.

So yes I believe that this new method of iTracting will go exactly as I've described in my OP...with the exact consequences as I've described

Edited June 25, 2013 by Johnnie Cake

[The Nehor]

Well I certainly didn't listen to the broadcast...so I am making some assumptions based on how FB is used in the real world. Friends make posts and those posts show up on your FB "NewsFeed" where you can see and comment on your friends FB posts. You can find other FB friends by accessing your friends other FB friends...so again I am assuming that the iMissionaries will make posts that will show up on their FB friends NewsFeeds and when those FB friends, presumably LDS members, "like" a comment that "like" will be broadcast to all of their friends...LDS and non-LDS alike.

So yes I beleive that this new method of iTracting will go exacly as I've described in my OP...with the exact consequences as I've described

ITracting? What?

One of the stated reasons for using the web is to confirm appointments, follow up on commitments, and to keep in touch with investigators with encouragement, scriptures, etc. Why would they be finding on Facebook? That would be less effective then tracting.

[Johnnie Cake]

ITracting? What?

One of the stated reasons for using the web is to confirm appointments, follow up on commitments, and to keep in touch with investigators with encouragement, scriptures, etc. Why would they be finding on Facebook? That would be less effective then tracting.

Nehor, I use FB extensively in my business to keep in contact with my current customer base, cross sell, introduce new products, as well as attract new business and clients...I see the iMissionaries doing the same exact thing only their product line is a religion...and yes it is a great additonal means to communicate with your taget audience.

Oh and iTracting is just as the name implies...internet tracting...but instead of walking streets...the iMissionaries will be itracting leads via FB by attempting to harvest the FB friends of members....at least until they change their FB friends status

Edited June 25, 2013 by Johnnie Cake