How Can We Improve Missionary Work?

[Rivers]

The rate of convert baptisms is slowing down and the increased number of missionaries hasn't made much improvement? Is there anything else we can do better?

My theory is that the world is simply becoming too secular and religion is going out of demand. Or am I being too pessimistic?

Edited April 29, 2014 by Rivers

[why me]

The rate of convert baptisms is slowing down and the increased number of missionaries hasn't made much improvement? Is there anything else we can do better?

My theory is that the world is simply becoming too secular and religion is going out of demand. Or am I being too pessimistic?

The missionaries also have a new mission: to strenthen the membership by visiting the less actives and the actives in the church. They are also sent to help build a stronger lds community among the members by getting them out to church and by offering their support in service. We need to get away from the old paridigm that many people have of missionary work. Times have changed with the number of missionaries that are now in place.

[Storm Rider]

As far as we know the missionary effort of proclaiming Christ has been going on for a long time. There have been events of great spiritual awakening among the people and there have been events where the Spirit has been completely absent for a time.  Success for a missionary is not measured in the number of baptisms garnered, but in the quality of testimony born. Whether individuals respond to that testimony is irrelevant and solely the responsibility of the individual and their desire to follow the Spirit.  

 

I often think of the Lord's own mission on earth; he was mostly ignored by the people on a relative basis.  However, his mission was a complete success.

 

If anything, we should be teaching our missionaries to ignore all those that are not interested and focus all their time on those who are open to the Spirit.  We should also teach clearly the definition of a successful mission for the individual and for the Church; they should be one in the same. 

[Alan]

I believe we're doing it wrong.

I'm at work now so don't have a lot of time to expand on this except to say that I think missionaries these days go out of their way to avoid doing any actual missionary work.

[cdowis]

The missionaries in our mission have proselyting goals so that their productivity can be tracked -- so many discussions per week,  how many hours spent on tracting, etc.  I have noticed that many missionaries will use any excuse possible to avoid knocking on doors.  I assist with transportation and I have "trained" my missionaries how to get excited about tracting, and once they do it, they love it.

 

I also show them how to avoid defensive discussions -- the difference between an apologetic discussion and preaching the gospel.

Edited April 29, 2014 by cdowis

[cdowis]

Going back to your question -- missionaries should be working on the threefold (or is it fourfold) mission of the church, including family history and temple work.  They used to use basketball to baptize converts, but I think, with the internet tools we have today, we should get prospective converts interested in family history.

 

I was told they tried this in a particular mission and had great success in interesting people in the church.  The 1940 census has been indexed and this would be a great tool in missionary work.

[BookofMormonLuvr]

I am the co-Missionary Coordinator for our (Restoration Branches) District here in Independence. We are going to use a "We are in the neighborhood praying for families." approach. When we are up and going, I will report on how it is working out.

[cdowis]

Anything besides the classic  "We are Mormon missionaries and we're here to convert you" approach (not using those words, of course).

[Stroopwafel]

The rate of convert baptisms is slowing down and the increased number of missionaries hasn't made much improvement? Is there anything else we can do better?

My theory is that the world is simply becoming too secular and religion is going out of demand. Or am I being too pessimistic?

 

What can we do better? One thing among others would be: Though the MTC has developed great expertise with respect to teaching languages over the years, in my opinion this did not translate (pun totally intended) into a better understanding of the cultures behind those languages. Missionaries are still very much "American" in their approach. I'm not talking about the missionary force coming mostly from the U.S., but rather about how the approach to prozelyting the missionaries learn and use is "American" tinted. This means even a German/French/Russian/Congolese/Maori native could be "americanized" if he/she was to follow the guidelines provided. And yes, I am referring to Preach my Gospel, at least as part of the issue. To provide a simple example, the way missionaries are taught to extend commitment is to use direct question. While I understand the intent, in different languages/cultures, though you can certainly find the equivalent words to formulate the same exact question in a particular language, that doesn't mean it will carry the same effect, that it will be carried over with the same undertone, nuance. This may be subtle, but it does make a difference. Marketers have understood that for a while now.

 

Now, as to you being too pessimistic with regards to "the world" becoming too secular, it relativelty depends what part of "the world" you're considering I would say.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Stroopwafel

[mtomm]

The missionaries in our mission have proselyting goals so that their productivity can be tracked -- so many discussions per week,  how many hours spent on tracting, etc.  I have noticed that many missionaries will use any excuse possible to avoid knocking on doors.  I assist with transportation and I have "trained" my missionaries how to get excited about tracting, and once they do it, they love it.

 

I also show them how to avoid defensive discussions -- the difference between an apologetic discussion and preaching the gospel.

 

My son is in a missionary where they are not allowed to do traditional tracting. I believe it is falling out of favor.

[omni]

The rate of convert baptisms is slowing down and the increased number of missionaries hasn't made much improvement? Is there anything else we can do better?

 

 

More service!

[stemelbow]

The rate of convert baptisms is slowing down and the increased number of missionaries hasn't made much improvement? Is there anything else we can do better?

My theory is that the world is simply becoming too secular and religion is going out of demand. Or am I being too pessimistic?

The clear message throughout my life is the way it is improved is for members to actually engage in it, suggesting we haven't. Just this past week we were told in our ward conference that we're all too scared and it's okay to be obnoxious and annoy people. I thought, "its true we aren't out getting in people's faces and annoying people around here". But I didn't buy into the idea that's why we are failing. I think we're failing because of other reasons. we often come off as something other than we intend to. Some of us are pushy and some come off as holier than thou. Some are hard to approach and some are hard to get to actually know (as we often put up a guard or fence hoping our weaknesses aren't seen). In my experience in my many wards, though, the biggest factor in turning people away is the attitude of privilege and condescension that people see when they start to show interest. They are often treated as children and special needy projects. This approach often brings in the people who need help. But others often feel pushed away and not listened to. The poor missionaries step into these situations and we add to that some particular dislike for the kids themselves (happened recently and they sent two sisters to replace the elders, after one month they changed them out and sent us back some elders). Blah the worst part of my mission was dealing with the attitude of many of the members--of course not all. Many people loved the gospel, or so it seemed. Then they came to Church and felt looked down upon and misunderstood. Soon they asked us not to come back.

[The Nehor]

By doing more of it.

[Duncan]

it's funny, the members are praying for the missionaries to find people and the missionaries are praying for the members to find people!

[Senator]

One way is to chill out on the constant talking about doing missionary work!

[cdowis]

My son is in a missionary where they are not allowed to do traditional tracting. I believe it is falling out of favor.

 

I take the missionaries to an appointment at 8:00 pm and nobody is at home.  Now what?  Well they can try to run around and check out other investigators and try 2 or 3 doors while going to the different neighborhoods in the hour they have left, OR they can stay in the neighborhood and knock on ten doors.  That's what I've been teaching "my" missionaries -- I refuse to leave a neighborhood unless they have a definite reason to go to a specific location.

[ALarson]

I do think that missionaries need to be more informed regarding some of the difficult issues now.  I believe that the church is trying to figure out how to do this and maybe more will begin to be included in the instruction and lessons given in the MTC (ie. having them read the new essays and so on).  Also if more is taught in seminary, those approaching missionary age will be better prepared as well.

 

I have mentioned this before on here but when I've had missionaries over for dinner, they have mentioned questions asked about polygamy and other issues and they seem to know nothing about them (or not much).  One even stated that before his mission he believed polygamy started with Brigham Young even though Joseph Smith received the revelation.  He had no idea that Joseph Smith lived polygamy until he was asked questions about it and he discussed it with his companion who knew a little more about it than he did.  That's just one example.

 

Investigators and other contacts do ask questions about these issues.

Edited April 29, 2014 by ALarson

[Walden]

More service!

Agreed, sending out an army of late-teenage men to perform service activities in the community would do a lot more to promote the church than the door-to-door method.

 

In today's world, teenage men performing community service activities is such an oddity that it would likely pique the interest of observers and be more effective in generating questions/interest than the hit-or-miss door-to-door method, which likely does as much to tick people off due to teh interruption than it does to attract new members.

[Gary@rics]

I wonder if the retention rate for new members has gone up.  With more missionaries in an area it ought to be possible to devote more time to teaching those who consider baptism.  Does this in turn lead to more durable conversions?

 

I'm not very devout so my view on this might not fit, but I don't think the intention is to convert everyone on the planet.  It's to allow everyone to hear the LDS message and decide if they wish to join.  If so, at some point the number of baptisms ought to plateau or even decline.

[CV75]

The rate of convert baptisms is slowing down and the increased number of missionaries hasn't made much improvement? Is there anything else we can do better?

My theory is that the world is simply becoming too secular and religion is going out of demand. Or am I being too pessimistic?

I've been told that success is in making the invitation and in following up. With the emphasis on integrating all Church initiatives, success in missionary work need not stand on baptisms in this life alone.

 

I too think the world is becoming more secular and religion is going out of demand, so "success" and "failure" may need to be defined according to the changing circumstances. It always boils down to one soul joining with others and that one soul, with his new friends, bringing the Gospel to others.

[JLHPROF]

The rate of convert baptisms is slowing down and the increased number of missionaries hasn't made much improvement? Is there anything else we can do better?

My theory is that the world is simply becoming too secular and religion is going out of demand. Or am I being too pessimistic?

 

My theory is that in the early days when a missionary said "We're from the COJCOLDS, would you like to know more" that people didn't know anything about the Church so we got a certain percentage of opportunities based on curiousity.

The prime example is when we went into less technologically advanced countries convert baptisms skyrocketed as curiousity and our service led to teaching opportunities.  Now that the internet is literally everywhere if people want to know about us they just look us up instead of listening to missionaries.

 

Now, with the internet, there are very few people who if curious about the church can't just pop their question in google and find a ton of info.

EVERYTHING there is to know about the Church, from the first vision up through the temple ceremonies and every academic fact in between in readily online.  Curiousity doesn't exist.

 

I think there are very few people left who are unware of Mormonism and are curious to know more when approached.  The information is too readily available.

[The Nehor]

I'm not very devout so my view on this might not fit, but I don't think the intention is to convert everyone on the planet.  It's to allow everyone to hear the LDS message and decide if they wish to join.  If so, at some point the number of baptisms ought to plateau or even decline.

 

That would be consistent with previous dispensations and prophecy.

[WysteriaBlue]

I can only speak to my personal experience with missionaries.

I have had two that seemed to care.  Many just want to share their testimony and get you to baptism.  95%could not answer questions about the history of the Church nor answer any real theological questions.  Almost none had any real social skills, nor etiquette.  They came to my house without appointments or calls (after asking politely that they not cold call me), would not follow up with answers or assistance as promised, did not know how to listen or take notes on questions/concerns,  nor had the decency to show up on time when I would fix meals for them on their schedules.  

 

I understand that they have to come in pairs for their protection, but to show up with other strangers when I live alone is rude and intimidating.  I honestly believe the church should consider asking missionaries to serve after two years or four years of college, when they have been out on their own for a bit, have more knowledge of the BOM and the Bible, and have gained some social graces.  Their hearts are in the right places but they seem ill-equipped and scared and overwhelmed.  The girls especially need better training on their own faith and scriptures.  

 

I respect their hearts and intentions, but pray that their leaders reconsider who and what they are putting in front of perspective members.  The joys of being a member and blessings received from being in this loving community were never even brought up.  Sad...lack of connection and community are huge problems and source of much faithlessness outside the Church...

 

Most Respectfully to all those that serve,

WB

[Duncan]

I can only speak to my personal experience with missionaries.

I have had two that seemed to care.  Many just want to share their testimony and get you to baptism.  95%could not answer questions about the history of the Church nor answer any real theological questions.  Almost none had any real social skills, nor etiquette.  They came to my house without appointments or calls (after asking politely that they not cold call me), would not follow up with answers or assistance as promised, did not know how to listen or take notes on questions/concerns,  nor had the decency to show up on time when I would fix meals for them on their schedules.  

 

I understand that they have to come in pairs for their protection, but to show up with other strangers when I live alone is rude and intimidating.  I honestly believe the church should consider asking missionaries to serve after two years or four years of college, when they have been out on their own for a bit, have more knowledge of the BOM and the Bible, and have gained some social graces.  Their hearts are in the right places but they seem ill-equipped and scared and overwhelmed.  The girls especially need better training on their own faith and scriptures.  

 

I respect their hearts and intentions, but pray that their leaders reconsider who and what they are putting in front of perspective members.  The joys of being a member and blessings received from being in this loving community were never even brought up.  Sad...lack of connection and community are huge problems and source of much faithlessness outside the Church...

 

Most Respectfully to all those that serve,

WB

 

 

I get that and I think the Church is trying to work on that with the various training meetings and personal study etc. I wonder though if you felt the spirit would you stay in the Church and be converted rather than going a dozen set of missionaries with endless questions? I am just thinking of Alma 32:16 "Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe."

 

Hope all is well!

Edited May 8, 2014 by Duncan

[DBMormon]

Hmmm  ----- how to grow the church?

- Plead with God to give a revelation on how we can be more inclusive and loving of gay people then implement openly (start by acknowledging that you created a website Mormonsandgays.org  (most are still unaware this exists including ward and stake leaders)

- Let grace have as much microphone time as Works.

- be more open about what the gospel is and isn't, freely acknowledge mistakes specifically

- make hoping, believing, and faith just as important or perhaps more important then knowing 

- Lighten up on pseudo rules (tithing is gross, must wear white shirts, beer battered onion rings are evil)

- Allow people to be seekers in the three hour block - allow us to discuss complex issues if only slightly

 

That would be my start!

Edited May 8, 2014 by DBMormon