The Worldwide Attendance Statistics For The Lds Church Are...

[Stone holm]

well, there are folks who don't attend church but watch conference, invalids, less actives

Attendance at Stake Conference falls off dramatically for us.

[Hamba Tuhan]

Just because a person does not attend meetings does not mean they no longer mean anything to us ...

 

Someone like my sister Apolasaria didn't attend for 50 years, but then came back. During all that time, she was still a member.

 

This.

 

I find it telling that Church critics so often assume they know the hearts, minds, and more importantly, the futures of every single member who may not currently be active. When I first started home teaching our current Sunday school president, he was inactive ... and bitter. Six years later, he came back to activity and has been faithful ever since. Our current Relief Society president spent most of her adult life not attending church. What were we supposed to do? Stop counting these two individuals as Church members, effectively writing them off? No, thanks.

 

I can certainly understand why those who've left the Church (if only in their hearts) might feel the need to project their unbelief on the inactive, attempting to justify their own apostasy by an appeal to number whilst simultaneously setting up a scenario wherein they can accuse Church leaders of dishonest reporting, but the simple reality is that a member is a member until it is known unequivocally that s/he ceases to be one. From what I understand, most members go through at least one phase of inactivity, often prolonged. But if we buy the lie that the less-active aren't real members, then we stop reaching out. Again, no, thanks.

 

Yesterday I picked up for a church a man (baptised in 1994) and his two children. This brother remained active for only a few months after his baptism, but he said yesterday that they were without doubt the happiest months of his life. I got a message from him this morning thanking me for the lift yesterday and telling me that he felt really good this morning, better than he has in a long, long time. I know from having worked with him this year that he struggles with significant personal demons, but I'm hopeful that the long-term outcome is victory over such and a return to full activity, with all the blessings and peace that brings.

 

The last thing he said to me when I rang him on the phone was 'Please pray for me'. I do and will, and I'll keep fasting and visiting and sending the missionaries to help him. Which is far, far better than writing him off ... or just treating him as a number that can be used in one more feeble attempt to score a rhetorical point against the Church.