Judo722 Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 I just attended my first sunday in a new ward and it's honestly depressing how few people are attending. I heard from a missionary in the ward that there are about 300 inactive members. (comparing that to the 70 or so that attend regularly) So I want to start some kind of group that focuses on getting some in-actives back in the church. So here is my question, does anyone have any tips, advice, or general ideas to get people involved and interested once again?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 I suspect one of the most key things will be finding out why people are inactive in your ward, to begin with. About half my ward goes "inactive" (not exactly, but also not attending scarement) once every three years... Because we've got a lot of night workers who are also parents. Which means getting off work at 4am-6am... And needing to be at church at 9am simply isn't going to happen. A few years ago someone noticed that we had no teens, whatsoever. Come to find, in our stake, there were about 50-60 teens in total, but they were spread out 2 or 3 per ward. Most of the families with teens were inactive, because a GREAT way to get teens to hate the church is to make them sit in a room all by themselves -or with one other person they can't stand- for 2 hours. So the stake designated one ward where all the youth 12+ (and their families) would go. Shazaaaaam. Did that ward's attendance skyrocket. Most of the teens, plus all of their families meant overflow into the gym every Sunday. I'm sure there are other common reasons... But these are the two I'm first-hand familiar with. Q AngelMarvel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notquiteperfect Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Agree with Quin. The first step is to 'seek first to understand'. There are so many reasons people don't come (work, never truly converted, don't have a ride, spouse doesn't approve = marriage better off, was offended by someone, no longer believe, stopped getting assistance, don't fit in, no friends there, don't have the 'right' clothes, breaking some commandment so don't feel comfortable going, etc etc etc). Some things you can do something about and some you can't. Maybe figure out a way to ask them but keep in mind that some may prefer to keep their reasons anonymous so you'd need to figure out a way to work with that. As far as a group to reach out - I believe they refer to that as ht/vt so involve them with whatever your plans are. As far as tips - start (and massively advertise) a group family night at the park or regular game night at the church so people have a chance to relax and get to know each other. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Folk Prophet Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 Re-activation of members is a branch of missionary work. I would treat it as such and start by reading Preach My Gospel. I would then add serious prayer and fasting to it and press forward as you feel inspired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 30, 2014 Report Share Posted April 30, 2014 The Ward Missionaries are tasked with teaching the inactives as well as investigators. My first step to this is to talk to your Ward Mission Leader and see what they have been doing and what you can do to help them. I'm currently a Ward Missionary assigned to an area of the ward. In my area, I have 51 families... only 7 are active... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodendance Posted May 1, 2014 Report Share Posted May 1, 2014 My YSA ward in Vegas actually has a ton of inactives. It was about 300 members inactive (the ward was about 500 members). The bishop of my ward actually started up a reactivation committee because of it. The way out committee worked was the missionaries and ward missionaries seeked out those that were inactive. Once a month even the missionaries, bishopric, and some of our higher ups would go to the inactives houses and invite them to come and talk to them.The ones that could not be found came to me. I went to school for digital forensic and used that to digitally track down some of our inactives. Some had moved out of the country and just weren't active. Others had fallen away and wanted nothing to do with the church anymore. So that's one way of doing it. You could talk to your bishop about doing things like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakumi Posted May 1, 2014 Report Share Posted May 1, 2014 You know, speaking from personal experiences, perhaps sheer shyness effects some people.When you're an introvert sometimes those 3 hours can be torture, I fully admit most of my problems with church are strange and truly bizarre when compared to more logical ideas for falling away.(Though I never took the plunge since the idea of being the center of things terrified me to my very core, but that's a thread for another day).With other churches I was free to observe and was largely ignored, there's no being ignored in an LDS church. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseslipper Posted May 1, 2014 Report Share Posted May 1, 2014 you need to work on your home teaching and visiting teaching skills love them ba,ck. Let them know whats going on let them know there missed, be A friend. Invite them to ,church sit with them invite them to ur fhe invite them to activities. be a member missionary which is really being a friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.