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Several years ago as a ward clerk I attended a stake priesthood leadership meeting at which the stake president announced a goal of splitting the stake.The stake was eventually split but not that year. The challenge was to have enough active MP to make it possible functionally. I never doubted in my heart when he announced it that it was doable - but as I mentioned the target date was missed although it did eventually happen.I should also mention I live in that great void in the south represented by > 01.% church membership.

 

At that time and up to this date I have personally felt that if a stake could split so could/should my ward. Basically the membership number in the ward has remained stagnant. Most new converts have melted away within a year or two, and its been new move in's that have kept the membership rate steady.  

 

I realize this not much detail to go on but any ideas? 

 

 

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Are you asking for ideas on how to split your ward?  Well the answer would be you standard missionary/reactivation/keep activation answers...

 

This is in a sense true. However, when the split was proposed the ward was composed of mostly long time members [the old guard so to speak] and I felt that perhaps things were too inclusive since many of these families were inter-related (bros and sis, cousins. etc...) but now that many of those have died or moved being replaced by fresh move-ins the situation has shown no signs of change.

 

Though many in the ward are really nice, friendly people...they continue to seem spiritually dead in the pews. Why would the living want to join the dead?  I know any change I seek has to begin with me changing myself but I guess I'm looking at how to get a spiritual revival going among the members...

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Guest LiterateParakeet

I think any change we want to make in ourselves or others should start with Christmas A ward full of people who truly know and love the Lord would be unstoppable. To help.accomplish that If I were in charge I would ask that all Sacrament talks...whether they are about the Sabbath, tithing or a recap of girl's camp...should focus on the Savior.

Perhaps a scripture challenge related to finding Christ in the scriptures. All lessons should also be centered in Christ.

Pres Kimball said of the Savior, "No matter how much we speak of him it is never enough."

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they are trying to keep talks Christ centered but talks like testimonies sometimes turn into travelogues. And the strength of the talk or testimony relates very much to the spirituality of the speaker. lol, I've often tried to imagine an LDS revival along the lines of a good old fashioned southern tent service...but seriously, many members are spiritual...however many are there mostly for social connections. 

 

I am going to focus on amping up my spirituality and see where the Lord leads

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In order to split it would require certain amount of active Priesthood holders

This true, the same as with splitting a stake. I have felt constrained about saying certain things about the ward so I'll just say this, where the numbers are great enough you'll need to activate the dead wood sitting in the pews, Where the number of MP are lacking you'll need to activate the inactive, and baptize and retain new members...that's not happening where numbers are stagnant.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I liked a post that gave advice about focusing on active members being happy and that will draw in new members and help in reactivation. That post got shot down by one of the Pharisees in the forum as kowtowing to members' whims.

 

I personally feel the suggestions were valid and the "health" of the ward has everything to do with the growth and leadership can take very direct steps to ensure members are serving the callings for which they are well suited, etc.

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When I had the chance I asked the all the priesthood sitting in the room during opening exercises to look around and tell me who isn't here that should be here. Several looked around and several mentioned a name. When each name was mentioned I asked if anyone knew why that person wasn't here. For the most part no one knew why said person wasn't in attendance. I asked each person who brought up a name to call that person or stop by and see them and let Brother so and so know what you found out. I got to where I did this each week and yes....they got on the ball.

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When I had the chance I asked the all the priesthood sitting in the room during opening exercises to look around and tell me who isn't here that should be here. Several looked around and several mentioned a name. When each name was mentioned I asked if anyone knew why that person wasn't here. For the most part no one knew why said person wasn't in attendance. I asked each person who brought up a name to call that person or stop by and see them and let Brother so and so know what you found out. I got to where I did this each week and yes....they got on the ball.

 

That's a good suggestion...that and cleaning up the membership records... 

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I liked a post that gave advice about focusing on active members being happy and that will draw in new members and help in reactivation. That post got shot down by one of the Pharisees in the forum as kowtowing to members' whims.

 

I personally feel the suggestions were valid and the "health" of the ward has everything to do with the growth and leadership can take very direct steps to ensure members are serving the callings for which they are well suited, etc.

 

I agree that a "happy" ward has advantages and certain things are and can be advanced to move towards that goal, fortunately we don't have a major problem with clicks or old members vs new move-ins. Thanks for the suggestion :)

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Service--especially manual labor--strikes me as a win-win for building Church congregations:  current members become closer to each other, the bond between the persons serving and the person served strengthens, and--though we certainly don't do our alms to be seen of men--the missionary implications don't exactly hurt, either.

 

When was the last time your ward had a service project that got the participants good and dirty? (Or at least sweaty?)

 

Also:  Not to detract from everything your ward's doing right, but the convert retention sounds frankly disastrous.  What's going on?  Does anyone really know why these folks left?  (If not, that's part of the problem right there.)

Edited by Just_A_Guy
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Service--especially manual labor--strikes me as a win-win for building Church congregations:  current members become closer to each other, the bond between the persons serving and the person served strengthens, and--though we certainly don't do our alms to be seen of men--the missionary implications don't exactly hurt, either.

 

When was the last time your ward had a service project that got the participants good and dirty? (Or at least sweaty?)

 

Also:  Not to detract from everything your ward's doing right, but the convert retention sounds frankly disastrous.  What's going on?  Does anyone really know why these folks left?  (If not, that's part of the problem right there.)

 

Service has many done many times, Everything from feeding the sick and caring for their young children, providing rides to chemo and radiation treatments for members with cancer, work on homes and yards...plus Mormon Helping Hands disaster relief.

 

The retention rate IS disastrous...and yes, I could tell you why almost all of them left. We have not made and retained one single minority member that I'm aware of in the past several years, and that truly bothers me.    

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