The surprising news about LDS Church growth
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- For The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is much to celebrate in its latest statistical report: The worldwide growth rate in the 17.2 million-member faith is growing. The expansion of congregations is expanding. And the number of U.S. states with declining membership is, well, declining.
East Africa, meanwhile, is booming, the U.S. is rebounding, and many growth measures have met or surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Still, there are causes for concern: West Africa, unlike the continent’s eastern and central regions, has seen its Latter-day Saint growth slow. While the U.S. enjoyed an increase in net membership, it once again had the largest net decrease in wards and branches. California continues to bleed Latter-day Saints and growth rates in Utah, home to the global faith’s headquarters, remain near historic lows.
On this week’s show, Matt Martinich, an independent researcher who tracks church movements for the websites cumorah.com and ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, dissects all this data and deciphers what the numbers say about the state of the church.
“Active Membership” is probably no more than 4.5M
Our stake recently added a new ward while the number of units in the stake dropped by 1. There are somewhere around 730 units. Anyway, yes new ward but they are smaller than last year because the number of members it takes to make a ward and stake has decreased. (Somewhere you can read the letter sent out explaining how many Priesthood holders and part- not full- tithe payers it takes to make a ward or stake.) Sooooooo because there is no transparency in numbers I do wonder how much it has actually grown. Stakes are closing in the UK, so if all the growth is actually in Africa then they should say so.
In Florida a number of years ago the leadership wanted great growth in the city. Brought in 2-3 pairs of missionaries in each ward. They would baptize 60 people a year in a ward. A year later about 50 would stop attending church & drop out. They baptized a lot of kids. The wards were 2 or 3 families who moved from Utah, lots of older ladies, grandkids, & so few overworked priesthood men. Not sustainable in the long run.
The church needs to prepare new members for hard topics & issues for when Christians & those opposed to the church tell the new member peculiar doctrines, verses, or LDS history to get them to lose faith. Teach the teens/YSA too.
@@purpl-monkee354 teach truth and let the consequences follow. Unfortunately, the church HQ realizes this is not working. I think if the church starts out with “JS put his face in a top hat and read off a rock what God wanted him to say” or “No one actually saw with their human eyes the Gold plates, only their spiritual eyes”. I think if they said those things right off the bat, the missionaries would be laughed out of the house. If the church would have told me 45 years ago I would have to pantomime 3 ways I would kill myself, all before I could get married, not sure I would have done it. Now they don’t pantomime it but everyone who went thru before 1990 did. AND if the church explained what the hand symbols mean, how you hold your hands and arms, people would be freaked out. I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with how you promised to kill yourself.
My “branch” just became a “ward”. It has grown in the past two years.
Why are you celebrating yourselves.... Im 75. I JOINED AT 13. YOU ONLY HAD 17MIL MEMBERS IN THE 1970S, so why are you celebrating???
Membership in 1980 was 4.6 million
LAST Year in Coeur D' Alene Idaho, last year we added a new Stake, and this year here in Richland Washington, we also just added a new STAKE so awesome....and a new Ward
Denial is the life blood of faith.
I'm not surprised NY was up so much, I lived in NYC through much of 2023 and the mission president was pushing numbers super hard. Wards went from 0-3 baptisms a year to baptisms almost every week, probably 90% we never saw again after they got baptized. Bishops were up in arms over people getting baptized who had no idea what it meant.
I know of a couple serving in NY who are there to hold leadership positions in the ward. I think that is a sign of shrinkage and not growth.
This sounds like one reason I rather like Hinduism. One can do meditation, and chant mantras, really without any implication that one is now required to continue. There is also a pagan organization I saw online that said, there was no hard feelings or condemnation if one found the religion not fitting or interesting, or didn't meet expectations.
Partly Its the LDS churches fault, especially how come teachings and practices are not spoken about, until asked. Or they are 'cloaked' in the missionary discussion. I have heard of many ex-members that said they were not aware at first of X,Y or Z teaching.....it was only slowly revealed after mormonism became a 'habit'.
We are growing here in my SoCal area. But "bleeding" of members in other areas is to be expected as it was prophesied long ago. It's the best sign of the times right now. Endure to the end my friends.
I believe you when you say you are growing but what is your proof of it. Has your ward size increased, have you checked the number of units in your stake. I was curious how you know your area is growing. Our ward recently had 24 people in adult Sunday School. It use to be 50-60 and this is in Idaho.
Over the last twenty-five to thirty years about seven to ten million of us former members have left the corporation.
… concerning the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord.
And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;
First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord. (D&C 112:24-26)
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
…that he might be revealed in his time.
…until he be taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:1, 3-4, 6, 7)
While that man, who was called of God and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the shaft of death, like as a tree that is smitten by the vivid shaft of lightning. (D&C 85:8)
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)
LDS isn’t was it should be known for as it offends God because it takes the name out of His church. Just a heads up. Love y’all. 💖😉
If the church wanted to be completely transparent and honest, they would report their active vs non-active membership..... Just sayin'
The 77 year old patriarch in my family has seen half of his progeny leave the church.
I think it depends: some are happy with the church, some are happy to leave the church. Finding an environment that you thrive in is most important.
My issue is that I have been out for 9 years, and they are still counting me as a member, I know that they take role in church, so why can they not give us active member count.
That’s how statistics work. You pick a standard and stick with it for consistancy. They are just measuring people who have been baptised. Everyone knows 17 millon is not the actual number of active members. You could calculate the percentage of active members, but that would would be a far more difficult number to collect.
@Coastal1931 they take role like in grade school every Sunday. Plus, if it baptism they should say 17 million baptism, not 17 million active members. It is just a great way to lie. But if a person is good with a church where the top leaders lie and break other commandments, then they in the right place
@@cartercordingley6062 this is just the method. The church is chosen to use. The church is not trying to be deceptive. It’s just a starting point, and then you start to break things down, like the gentlemen in this video is doing.
@@Coastal1931They chose that method because it looks better for them. They are absolutely deceptive about the numbers. Most of my family left decades ago and and are still counted. Why? Because it makes the church look better, that's why. They also have the exact numbers for weekly activity rates. Even less than that is tithe paying temple going members. This church is all about numbers. You Know and I know they have these figures. They don't post them because it wouldn't look good for the church. The church is huge on image. When I was in the bishopric, I stopped by a members home to try and reactivate him. Funny thing was, he didn't even know he was still a member. He left over 50 years ago and never looked back. He was still being counted and probably still is today. Even though he has most likely passed away by now.
17 million is the most accurate number they could use. If you try to calculate activity rates, the numbers get quite fuzzy and difficult to explain. When you’ret deciding whether to stay in the church, leave the church, join the church, it’s really a personal decision between you, God, and whether the book of Mormon is true I don’t see how the arbitrary 17 million number makes any difference in that. If you’re going to have the opinion that the church has been dishonest I guess I can’t argue with that. I just disagree. I think it’s just the statistical method they’ve chosen to use.
"These are the Church's statistics on membership rolls"
The salt lake trashbin.
You do realize that the growth also is about those who are in and out as fast as they convert. It’s all about numbers in the church and that also means those on the rolls who are out! They are record only! The church is continually hiding and covering up.
I don't think so. A lot of the stats come from eight year olds who are baptized and are too young to
leave and are on the record.
This is the problem with "living prophets."
They tend to let it go to their head and make grandiose pronouncements about the future, and paint themselves and their successors into corners when they fall short, forcing them to be deceptive and put lipstick on the pig ("what do you mean, we created 1 million new stakes!") or even retract ("he was speaking his opinion with his non-prophet hat on").
Maybe the excitement is associated with the expansion of offered access rather than the numbers that people the buildings
@@languistxThat certainly could be exciting, and honestly it's great that they don't have to sacrifice as much to attend meetings/temples. But the church is deceptive about growth. They often count dead members and totally inactive members, and while their total number of members on paper is growing, it's a meaningless figure as they have low retention and are playing shell games with ward/stake numbers. For ex, merging two stakes due to declining attendance but counting the resulting merged stake as a "new stake" and spinning it with the implication that it is due to growth. It's intentionally deceptive. Nemo the Mormon on UA-cam does a devastating exposé on this with all the receipts.
oops sorry that was not correct, the new ward was added in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho, not Richland Washington
It couldn't be the fact that we're such a judgmental group of people it couldn't be that people love people on Sunday and then hate them on Monday
You know the saying... Friends in the church are a mile wide and an inch deep. Leave the church and find friends an inch wide but a mile deep.
You use "Mormon Land" as your title....but I think it is belittling. It causes me to immediately not respect your organization.
It's going to be okay!
I don't think the Salt Lake Tribune or any of its contributors worry about belittling christians. It's part of their core principles.
❤❤❤❤❤
😂
Sadly the Mormon religion is based on the lie of the false prophet Joseph Smith. Apart from the momon scriptures Joseph Smith even ADDED his own bits to existing books of the bible and created his OWN VERSION OF THE BIBLE! The Inspired Version as he called it.
No prophet in the Bible EVER DID THIS. In fact the Bible warns against it. Or have you not read the Scripture which says:
Do not add to His words,
Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.
Proverbs 30:6
There was no Angel Moroni BUT even if there was consider HOW YOU WERE WARNED IN ADVANCE OF SUCH THINGS. Consider:
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8-9
Mormonism IS A DIFFERENT GOSPEL. God gave you the Scriptures to warn you of such things in advance. Now pray to God for wisdom and deliverance from it. And if you are able to go to Church find a good one that preaches The Word.
God Bless you in the name of the true Christ who died for your sins.
Happy to be sn ex-mormon atheist. I research my way out of that horrible cult.
People like John Dehlin also help the church grow.
As most of his viewers are nonmembers who, out of curiosity, often further investigate and join the church.
Really? What is your evidence of this?
Amen thanks John 🙌
First, John is not trying to deconvert people he is just giving out information so people can make decisions. If you don't care to be informed other than by the church themselves, then good for you. But just remember that a sells person will never give you the negative details about their products. And what are they selling snake-oil. John is just there to tell the customer what the product is and what it costs.