Good news from General Conference!

[Sunday21]

Someone in General Conference - elder Cook? Said that there has been no increase in people asking that their names be removed from the church. I found this fact very comforting as my area has many more inactives than actives and an increase in requests for name removals. It is nice to know this is not a church wide trend! It would be nice to live somewhere where the church was stronger. We are hanging on by our fingernails here. We are holding our own this year but mant years we drop in numbers. We are had pressed to keep things going.

[Capitalist_Oinker]

I know what you mean. There are almost 600 members in my ward with only a 20% activity rate. We do our best to activate the rest but the work is slow and frustrating. Many of them were active for most of their lives, but for a variety of reasons they no longer attend. 

I've suggested we fast for a famine but no one seems interested. 

Edited April 24, 2015 by Capitalist_Oinker

[pam]

I know what you mean. There are almost 600 members in my ward with only a 20% activity rate. We do our best to activate the rest but the work is slow and frustrating. Many of them were active for most of their lives, but for a variety of reasons they no longer attend. 

I've suggested we fast for a famine but no one seems interested. 

 

Sounds like you are having a famine of sorts.

[ether-ore]

My own personal belief is that even though there are few requests for name removal, there will be (approx.) 50% who will leave the church.  I base this belief on the parable of the ten virgins.  From that parable, we know a couple of things; that it applies to the last days (because of the reference to Christ's (the bridegroom) return), that the word 'virgins' applies to members of the church, and 50% because of the five out of ten ratio.

 

I believe that the reason for this is that the foolish virgins are designated foolish because they will choose mammon over God.  They will be forced by circumstances to make that choice.  Mammon in this case will be the politically correct issues of the day as well as issues about the church which have nothing to do with salvation but which nevertheless cause doubt and dissent. 

[Sunday21]

I wish we could think of a way to get people back. We have had many strong people who dedicated a lot of time to their callings - my former bishop- suddenly leave. Someone looked back at church records and found that those who were very strong and left actually were not paying tithing for sometime. Perhaps there is a clue there?

[The Folk Prophet]

I wish we could think of a way to get people back. We have had many strong people who dedicated a lot of time to their callings - my former bishop- suddenly leave. Someone looked back at church records and found that those who were very strong and left actually were not paying tithing for sometime. Perhaps there is a clue there?

 

Not sure it's a clue as much as just the natural course. I suspect for the most part that people "leave" in stages, even though it may seem like all at once.

[sxfritz]

I wish we could think of a way to get people back. We have had many strong people who dedicated a lot of time to their callings - my former bishop- suddenly leave. Someone looked back at church records and found that those who were very strong and left actually were not paying tithing for sometime. Perhaps there is a clue there?

I've been in caustic wards. I know what it is like.

 

With the commonly stated three fold mission of the Church being mission, temple, and edify the Saints (fourth is service, per the handbook), my personal philosophy is edify the Saints has to be primary. If the people coming to church are not filled with the Spirit then the other two missions will fail. I feel, a bishop should focus on needs internal to the active members of the ward and the mission, temple, and service missions will fill themselves. If a ward focuses on mission but you have a ward grumbling because they hate their callings or there is animosity toward leadership, or whatever internal problems a ward can have, they members are not going to invite people in and people coming in won't stay. Same with the temple. If people are not happy they will not be drawn to the temple. That doesn't mean not teaching the principles and of course people's happiness comes from obedience to the gospel, but a bishop can do a lot to focus on harmony within a ward rather than statistics of activity and conversions and endowments. 

 

Some things I've thought of:

• Teach people how to give talks. So many Sunday meetings are butchered by a series of bad talks.
• Focus on teacher development.
• Rotate in a good number of classes other that Gospel Doctrine - always have a choice of another class such as family relations. Maybe even classes on self-reliance.
• If someone hates their calling, release them. Waiting for them to change and find the Spirit could be driving people away.
• If someone loves being in Scouts, leave them in Scouts. Same with Primary teacher (they are hard to find).
• Spend money on socials - or find creative active socials with little cost
• Spend money on youth activity - or find creative active socials with little cost (off schedule sport activities)

If people enjoy being at church on Sunday, or other days, it will be natural to tell their inactive friends about what's going on. It will be natural to invite people to come out or to listen to the missionaries.

[The Folk Prophet]

• Teach people how to give talks. So many Sunday meetings are butchered by a series of bad talks.
• Focus on teacher development.
• Rotate in a good number of classes other that Gospel Doctrine - always have a choice of another class such as family relations. Maybe even classes on self-reliance.
• If someone hates their calling, release them. Waiting for them to change and find the Spirit could be driving people away.
• If someone loves being in Scouts, leave them in Scouts. Same with Primary teacher (they are hard to find).
• Spend money on socials - or find creative active socials with little cost
• Spend money on youth activity - or find creative active socials with little cost (off schedule sport activities)

 

I don't feel that catering to the selfish and weak by way of compromise according to their demands and interests is the best course of action. In fact, I think it's a bad idea. Essentially it sounds like you're saying that if people are snotty, immature, self-centered, and un-Christlike then it's partially the leaders' faults for not accommodating the membership's interests better. Seriously. How far would we take such an idea. Video game hour instead of Sunday School? That'll get more people there, right? And massages. Maybe have snacks handed out in every class. Movies too! On big screens in darkened theaters. Yeah...that's my kind of church!!

 

Alright, alright...I'm being ridiculous and extreme again to make a point.

 

I don't deny that some better efforts in this regard should be made by some leaders some of the time. But more-so, I believe this is a gospel of sacrifice, and if people are not willing, catering to that isn't going to strengthen them, but only hurt the institution. Yes -- it's a balance. But we aren't given callings primarily to please us. We are given callings to serve the Lord, build up Zion, and to help us learn how to forget ourselves.

 

So instead I propose the following:

• Teach people how to patiently and reverently listen to a series of bad talks.
• Focus on members humbly loving their struggling teachers.
• Follow the curriculum as outlined by our leaders and teach members to sustain and support them by attending the classes they are meant to and participating with thought and care.
• Follow the Spirit in prayer and humility in all callings given
• If someone is overly comfortable in a calling, perhaps it's time for them to stretch and grow
• Continue spending money on socials - continue finding creative active socials with little cost (wherein do you not think this is happening?)
• Continue spending money on youth activity - or find creative active socials with little cost (off schedule sport activities) (Wherein do you think this is not happening?)

[NeuroTypical]

You guys know you're bucking to be made bishop, right?

[Litzy]

Scouting is the one area where I think people should be expected to grow comfortable over the years. The high turn-over of Scout leaders for the sake of giving a wide range of Church callings is ridiculous and doesn't do any good.

[Jane_Doe]

Talks: learning to speak and learning to listen are the same class.  I think such a class would be of benefit to all.

 

Teaching: along the same lines, learning to teach and learning to learn are the same class.  Everyone should take it.  

 

Follow the spirit: everyone probably agrees this is a good thing.  

 

Callings: there is something to be said for pushing out of their comfort zone, but if some thrives in a calling and is helping members in their ward thrive, I would leave them their longer than someone who hates that calling.

[Blackmarch]

My own personal belief is that even though there are few requests for name removal, there will be (approx.) 50% who will leave the church.  I base this belief on the parable of the ten virgins.  From that parable, we know a couple of things; that it applies to the last days (because of the reference to Christ's (the bridegroom) return), that the word 'virgins' applies to members of the church, and 50% because of the five out of ten ratio.

 

I believe that the reason for this is that the foolish virgins are designated foolish because they will choose mammon over God.  They will be forced by circumstances to make that choice.  Mammon in this case will be the politically correct issues of the day as well as issues about the church which have nothing to do with salvation but which nevertheless cause doubt and dissent. 

or simply the worldly pleasures.

[Just_A_Guy]

I, for one, have no problem with sxfritz's suggestions; but I think we should realize that they will only take us "so far".  I grew up in a VERY active youth program where the bishop annually added a couple thousand dollars of his own money to the fund so that we could take "super activities", road trips to temple dedications, etc.  The program seemed effective; and we usually had very effective firesides/testimony meetings during these activities.  But--you know what?  Twenty years later, based on Facebook the ongoing activity rate for the kids who went through that program is probably less than fifty percent. 

 

Programs are great for keeping the weak Saints in the Church; and hopefully it buys us time to transform a few of those weak Saints into strong Saints.  But ultimately, you can't "program" a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and the folks who haven't been able to develop those attributes will inevitably drift away.  Because--for all the cool stuff the Church does, and teaches--living life as a Mormon is hard.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Just_A_Guy