The Church Is Shrinking In My Area

[ERayR]

Yeah but those women are TOO good to be bishops.  We need to use the bishop calling to help men become better people.  Those women don't need that help.  

 

One of the things that sets me to grinding my teeth.

Edited July 29, 2015 by ERayR

[Okrahomer]

My only anecdotal experience is with my parents area in northern Wyoming. They are in a town of 6,000 and they just went from four wards to five two weeks ago.

 

Are they by chance in the Big Horn Basin--Cody, Powell, Lovell, Cowley, Byron area?  My folks grew up there.  I have lots of relatives and a lot of family history there.  We used to visit family every summer.  When I was young, there were just 2 wards in Lovell, and 1 each in Cody, Cowley and Byron.  I think there are several more than that now.

[bluebell]

Are they by chance in the Big Horn Basin--Cody, Powell, Lovell, Cowley, Byron area? My folks grew up there. I have lots of relatives and a lot of family history there. We used to visit family every summer. When I was young, there were just 2 wards in Lovell, and 1 each in Cody, Cowley and Byron. I think there are several more than that now.

Yep, that's exactly where my family is from. Powell and Byron specifically.

I wonder if we know each other?!?

[KevinG]

You realize Lehi is exceptional at attracting the young LDS families though. I live in Sandy in an old neighborhood. We've sent a number of young families to Lehi over the course of the past few years though.

 

Gee what could young families do that corresponds with the growth of the Church?

 

 

(Just being a smart alek... carry on!)

[HappyJackWagon]

The rate of growth in our area has trailed off significantly in my non Morcor area. If I wasn't privy to the specific numbers it would be hard to tell because the wards are realigned regularly; adding a ward, reducing a ward to a branch, etc. But over all it is maintaining both membership and activity rate.

[stemelbow]

Gee what could young families do that corresponds with the growth of the Church?

 

 

(Just being a smart alek... carry on!)

YEah yeah...my friends in Lehi talk about the numerous primaries and deacons quorums they have to deal with in their wards.

[Guest]

I've gotten news that we are going to dissolve perhaps two wards in our stake. The news is we have few active MP holders.I do the counting on my fingers and it seems we have tons of MP holders, but we also have a ton of retired-aged people who come religiously but don't have any callings. Since we've lived here (8years) I've had two or three callings simultaneously (right now I feel a little light in that I am the 2nd councilor in elders (2 years) and a youth SS teacher (3 or 4 years now)).Ah well, just curious if other dissolving is happening out there. are we seeing the effects of the Church losing?

The Church is a living thing, it grows and changes size in different areas, and has the means to do so with order. Sometimes this is done to meet the financial needs for allocated funds. No one need see this as dread.

[KevinG]

YEah yeah...my friends in Lehi talk about the numerous primaries and deacons quorums they have to deal with in their wards.

 

It is like watching a snake digest a large animal sometimes.  The life cycle of wards, even in the "mission field" can be a thing to behold.

 

Bishop: "Brother G. we want you to be Scoutmaster"

 

Me: "But what about the huge primary class?"

 

Bishop: "They will all be Deacons next year"

 

Me: "oh."

 

Walks into Scouts

 

Boys: "Hey Brother G!"

 

Me: "Hey boys.  You want to light something on fire?"

 

Boys: "This is much cooler than primary!"

[Broker]

Yes, the data presented each year in Gen Con shows that the membership growth rate is slowing.  It's been following that trend since the 70's.

 

The growth rate for the number of units (Stakes/Districts, Wards/Branches) has also been slowing for several decades with the exception of an uptick in 2014.

Part of that is just math. As the membership gets larger, the number of new converts divided by the increasingly large membership is going to be a smaller and smaller percentage. 

 

When I was a newlywed, we lived in an aging, shrinking ward. They called it the ward of the Newlywed and Nearly Dead.

[Avatar4321]

First it seems to me that we should stop complaining about lack of growth and exercise faith to start growing the church.

Second, a few years ago I was in a singles ward. Our stake created a second singles branch in the stake. A few years later, the branch was once again merged with the ward.

some might say the church was shrinking. It wasn't. Our branch was so successful that three surrounding stakes created their own singles branches to take care of their single saints. And we had so many people get married and move onto family wards that the dynamics of our growth and becoming stronger made the branch no longer necessary.

[rockpond]

Part of that is just math. As the membership gets larger, the number of new converts divided by the increasingly large membership is going to be a smaller and smaller percentage.

When I was a newlywed, we lived in an aging, shrinking ward. They called it the ward of the Newlywed and Nearly Dead.

Yes, it's math and it's a slower growth rate.

[rockpond]

First it seems to me that we should stop complaining about lack of growth and exercise faith to start growing the church.

.

Is someone complaining?

[Boanerges]

I live way outside the Corridor (northeast US). I have lived in my ward for nearly 30 years. When I moved here the ward had just been upgraded from a branch and a meeting house was being built. Our ward was experiencing fairly dramatic growth, mostly due to the major corporate employer here. Many were Utah transplants. The neighboring small city had two wards, also mostly employed by the major employer (we were known as a "bedroom community"). The the major employer started moving jobs to other, cheaper states and, of course, overseas. Along with a general downturn in the economy there was a mass exodus. The neighboring city lost a ward and they were combined into one, although our ward got a small piece of their former territory. Our ward once boasted a weekly average attendance of around 200 and had a relatively huge Primary. We now average about 75 and we have a tiny Primary (two classes and a nursery of two kids). We're barely getting by. The neighboring (now combined) ward is doing fairly well, though, and the ward in the other direction is doing quite well. Both of those wards must use their overflow areas every week. Besides these three, there is only one other ward in the stake, along with 4 branches (one is a YSA branch near the university). Although we struggle, there is little likelihood we'll be downgraded to a branch again because it would make the stake very lopsided ward:branch. One of the branches actually does have higher average attendance than our ward, but I'm not sure they have the leadership to become a ward yet, and I don;t know what the "cut-off" for attendance is to become a ward. Also in the mix is that about 20 years ago two new stakes were created in this area which took a few wards and branches but made our stake much smaller geographically.

 

So if I were to look at just our ward and the now defunct neighboring ward I could say the church is not growing in our area. Looking at the stake as a whole, it certainly is, the other three wards are thriving and the branch with higher attendance than our ward was formed after the aforementioned stake splits and that area is home to a growing corporation. The other two branches also struggle, but they are in fairly remote/rural areas where growth is naturally limited and where there are no major employers.

[Stone holm]

Our Ward used to be a mission hotspot, but a lot of those baptisms did not take. It's been pretty stagnant for the last half dozen years. We have a hard time attracting any middle class investigators, we do pick up a fair number of working just above poverty level single women with children. Because our Ward is in a bedroom area for Dartmouth we also pick up move ins who are computer savvy couples, but as far as missionary conversions it just isn't happening. The NHites are distrustful of us, and the Vermonters won't give us a hearing because the memberships political views ward them off before they hear our doctrine.

[Robert F. Smith]

I've started a number of threads here discussing the topic of Church growth. It's trending downward. Growth is slowing, at least according to the numbers from the Church. Interesting that in the past couple of years we've slowed right when we've significantly beefed up our effort to evangelize. I'd say there's something to be said in it, but what is to be said I'm not so firm on.

So the Church shrinking in one area and growing in another, is less interesting than say, the Church is growing worldwide but at a such a low pace we haven't seen for decades. But what does that mean? Are we losing more members? Converting less? I guess so on both counts. Can we lay members see this happening before our eyes? it seems like it.

You are making hasty generalizations from a lack of data and from immediate observation in your neighborhood.  In actuality, the LDS Church is growing fast in some areas (Africa), and very stagnant in others (western Europe).  Except for the evangelical faiths, Islam, and Mormonism, most religions are rapidly diminishing in size and influence.  There is a general trend in more advanced countries to disbelieve or be very skeptical of any religion -- which means that even listening to religious ideas flies out the window.  So slower growth in some areas is certainly understandable.

[Robert F. Smith]

.....................................................................  

....................................The NHites are distrustful of us, and the Vermonters won't give us a hearing because the memberships political views ward them off before they hear our doctrine.

What you need is a general authority to visit and divide wards exactly in half, right down the middle, assigning half the ward to either of the two major parties.  This was done a century ago when Mormons were voting as a block and the Brethren saw that it was very harmful politically -- as it is in Utah today.

[KevinG]

Is someone complaining?

 

I've heard no complaining, rather critics rubbing their hands together in poorly diguised glee.

[Meadowchik]

I've started a number of threads here discussing the topic of Church growth. It's trending downward. Growth is slowing, at least according to the numbers from the Church. Interesting that in the past couple of years we've slowed right when we've significantly beefed up our effort to evangelize. I'd say there's something to be said in it, but what is to be said I'm not so firm on.

So the Church shrinking in one area and growing in another, is less interesting than say, the Church is growing worldwide but at a such a low pace we haven't seen for decades. But what does that mean? Are we losing more members? Converting less? I guess so on both counts. Can we lay members see this happening before our eyes? it seems like it.

 

We have to be prepared, physically and spiritually for either.  The Church may shrink for a time, but this says nothing about God's favor.

[Kenngo1969]

A few years ago, some wards were consolidated and boundaries realigned where I lived (three wards to two, if I remember correctly). It wasn't so much that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was, like the Wicked Witch of the West, "Melting!  Melting!", as it was that more single residents occupied homes previously occupied by families.

[Kenngo1969]

We have to be prepared, physically and spiritually for either.  The Church may shrink for a time, but this says nothing about God's favor.

To borrow and slightly alter something President David O. McKay reportedly said, "Right is right even if nobody believes it; wrong is wrong even if everybody believes it."  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should continue to stand for truth and right, "Come what may, and love it," as Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (and his mother) said.

[stemelbow]

You are making hasty generalizations from a lack of data and from immediate observation in your neighborhood.  In actuality, the LDS Church is growing fast in some areas (Africa), and very stagnant in others (western Europe).  Except for the evangelical faiths, Islam, and Mormonism, most religions are rapidly diminishing in size and influence.  There is a general trend in more advanced countries to disbelieve or be very skeptical of any religion -- which means that even listening to religious ideas flies out the window.  So slower growth in some areas is certainly understandable.

I very much agree. But we also know that growth has slowed lately, worldwide for the Church. If growing fairly fast in some areas perhaps it is shrinking, as in people leaving a pretty high rate, in other areas. The stats seem to show that possibility, but we don't have enough of them to be sure.

[rockpond]

I've heard no complaining, rather critics rubbing their hands together in poorly diguised glee.

 

Have critics even given much attention to the numbers?  I haven't seen it.

[bluebell]

Have critics even given much attention to the numbers? I haven't seen it.

I've heard people say that the church is bleeding members, or that it's the beginning of the end for the church, many different times.

The latest was a quote that was given in an article in the mass resignation event.

Have you really never heard ex Mormons and critics say such things?

[stemelbow]

I've heard people say that the church is bleeding members, or that it's the beginning of the end for the church, many different times.

The latest was a quote that was given in an article in the mass resignation event.

Have you really never heard ex Mormons and critics say such things?

its true even some members, like me, are concerned about the trends we've seen. That doesn't me nor anyone is rubbing our hands together in glee. It means we recognize something has changed (the growth rate is slowing down) and we're still really really small in the world. Is it our approach? Are we going at it poorly? Can we do something different or better?

I think it's important to consider.

[Gray]

This talk really isn't that old:

 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/10/the-stone-cut-out-of-the-mountain?lang=eng

 

It's interesting that now we're reinterpreting the prophesy to mean something else, or appealing to different scriptures to explain lack of growth.