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The 2nd topic to come up at our ward conference was convert baptisms. Our stake had about 50 the past year, though you couldn't find one of them if you tried, ha ha. We all know that revolving door story. The bulk of those converts came from a much less affluent ward in the stake as well...

Ok, so were supposed to double the number of convert baptisms in the coming year. And how are we to do that? Glad you asked! The lord said we simply need to double our efforts. Its pure revelatory genius - that cannot be denied - we just double our efforts. Oh, and by the way, they are cutting the number of full time missionaries in our area in half. So i guess that means we may have to quadruple our efforts, but with the lord anything is possible.

This calls for a trip down memory lane: Maybe ten years ago, the previous ward we were part of underwent a redrawing of the boundaries. It was all the rage at the time. You see, if you redrew ward boundaries, and made smaller but more numerous wards in a stake, then the smaller ward s would magicly grow into big wards.

So they whittled our ward down to a skeleton crew! The stake presidency spoke to us afterwards. They said we would regrow our numbers through convert baptisms. Wonderful and marvelous. At this point I leaned over to my wife and told her that convert baptisms would never happen. They didn't happen. Months later the stake leaders dropped by our ward for another chit chat, this time it was a more heavy handed chit chat. "Get your asses out there and baptize"! Well they didn't say those exact words, but you get the idea. Some exact words the did say were; "We will not redraw the boundaries, so the only way to increase the smallness of the ward and regain some of your former largeness, is through convert baptisms".

Rinse and repeat, another 6 months passes. Another message from the stake; "We will not redraw the boundaries, so the only way to increase the smallness of the ward is through convert baptisms".

This awkward dance of beligerance and futility goes on for a few years, with the same battle cry from the stake. We had a bunch of ward missionary fasts, of which i did not participate, and ran the gamut of creative conversion programs from the missionaries, lists of our friends, yada yada ya...No baptisms, well maybe one questionable convert...

Our ward actually became smaller, as a few families moved out. We were now branch size. Finally, after years of nonsense, the stake redrew our boundaries, which it previously stated would never ever happen, and gave us some members. During the moment in our ward when this momentus announcement was made, I turned to look at my wife, and for a brief time had "Oracle Status" !!! Ha ha.

Ok, so were supposed to double the number of convert baptisms in the coming year. And how are we to do that? Glad you asked! The lord said we simply need to double our efforts.

LOL. The math is solid. On paper it should work.

It seems whenever I read these stories of GIDs (Good Idea Fairies) in business suits using numbers and formulas like a sales forecast to plan convert baptisms it makes me chuckle. Of course when the math fails to pan out, they turn to faith and testimonies. You must fast and pary for converts. Then when that doesn't work they blame the members for lack of faith. The final step os to simply give up on the good idea and go back to the old ways of doing things. It is a common story in the church's missionary program.

I can understand the motivation to do missionary work growing naturally from a love of the gospel, and a desire to share the blessings of Church membership with friends and family that we care about.

But sometimes it seems like these programs are rooted in some other motivation, and the "top-down" pressure to increase the numbers is inevitably doomed to fail.

cinepro wrote:I can understand the motivation to do missionary work growing naturally from a love of the gospel, and a desire to share the blessings of Church membership with friends and family that we care about.

But sometimes it seems like these programs are rooted in some other motivation, and the "top-down" pressure to increase the numbers is inevitably doomed to fail.

Why don't the Old While men focus on the membership they have instead of trying to find new fools err.. members? It would be quite the church if it really had 14 million active members..

TAK wrote:

cinepro wrote:I can understand the motivation to do missionary work growing naturally from a love of the gospel, and a desire to share the blessings of Church membership with friends and family that we care about.

But sometimes it seems like these programs are rooted in some other motivation, and the "top-down" pressure to increase the numbers is inevitably doomed to fail.

Why don't the Old While men focus on the membership they have instead of trying to find new fools err.. members? It would be quite the church if it really had 14 million active members..

Under all the PR bravado and "I know the church is true" chanting is a pretty delicate collective psyche. It has always been hurt by outsider opinion of the church as a cult, but bolstered by the knowledge that the church is growing. Every member is a Mormon because someone in their ancestry was a convert so conversion is also important to the tradition.

But mostly conversions are important to show the membership that SOMEONE from the outside thinks it is true, so their faith and loyalty are not misplaced. It keeps confidence high. If the church were to ever admit that it was shrinking, it would be the worst possible hit to that collective membership psyche. It would mean outsider validation had disappeared, and the delicately balanced confidence in the church would implode.

50 baptisms, huh? And none of them are still around.

If the concentration was put on fellowshipping, nurtuting, and building, I suspect there would be at least a few of those still attending.

That's the problem with the program the way it's currently set up: no follow up. If the most important number was the number of members in good standing after 5 years (kinda like the 5 year mark is the gold standard for cancer survivors), there would be a huge push to ascertain the needs to the new members.

But I'm just a woman. What do I know? Nevermind that my expertise is in volunteer retention, among other things. The same principles apply.