Raising the Bar aftereffect

[_moksha]

I am curious as to what the aftereffect has been for the Church due to its Raising the Bar policy on missionary service for young men.

When I look around my ward most guys younger that forty, who are still active, have served a mission. Those who did not serve a mission have become inactive.

So what has been the result of fewer young men serving on missions? Has this resulted in more young men leaving the Church?

by the way, does the Church publish any membership statistics?

[_Gazelam]

As of December 31, 2007, there were 52,686 LDS missionaries serving in 348 church missions throughout the world. Their work, often in cooperation with local members, resulted in 279,218 convert baptisms in 2007.

The number of missionaries in the field is down by about 3,000 from a few years ago.

[_moksha]

The number of missionaries in the field is down by about 3,000 from a few years ago.

But hasn't the number of potential missionaries also increased, which would mean they are down even more than that from pre-raised bar days.

[_harmony]

Because the church doesn't conduct exit interviews when people leave, there's no way of knowing anything about those who have left or simply drifted away (except those who were ex'ed have somewhat of an idea). Neglecting to ask those questions is both pigheaded and myopic, but not at all surprising. Asking them why they left would mean acknowledging they're gone.

[_karl61]

Most GA's are "challenged" and that's why they were called so they could learn. One of the things they need to learn is a lot of those who did not pass the bar, passed it years before and served missions in their home....they had a "challenged" childhood and served missions there. For GA's not to know this or speak about it shows they still are in school and have a lot to learn.

[_Inconceivable]

Not sure if I quite understand your post Karl, but it does pose some interesting questions:

How many of the current and preceding GA had sex (with women or men) before serving a mission?

In other words, which ones (and how many) would not even have their current callings had they been subjected to this policy that puts conditional restrictions upon repentance and forgiveness?

[Guest]

Per the opening post...the effect in my ward has been dramatic. The young men took the "Raising the Bar" to be a great excuse when it came to mission time -- they took the "raising the bar" message to mean "you should not go on a mission if you don't want to." It created an option that was not there before -- "I am just not cut out to be in that ELITE group. In fact, in the last five years in my ward, the percentage of active missionary age young men to serve missions is 10% and the percentage of those young men still going to church today is about 20%. All the young men need is one guy who everyone expected to serve a mission to bow out of the mission and the rest them feel just fine saying..."nah, I don't reach the bar." But, reading the raising the bar talk, it appears that these young men are not wanted on missions, anyway. So, in THAT way, maybe the church is getting what it wanted?

[_harmony]

Not sure if I quite understand your post Karl, but it does pose some interesting questions:

How many of the current and preceding GA had sex (with women or men) before serving a mission?

In other words, which ones (and how many) would not even have their current callings had they been subjected to this policy that puts conditional restrictions upon repentance and forgiveness?

I doubt that any of them did. Not that they wouldn't have, given the opportunity, but it's so very difficult to imagine most of them as 18 year olds with raging hormones, girlfriends, and wet dreams. Maybe a few of the younger ones, but the rest? Even back then, some of them would have been self-righteous .... ummm... cattle prods.

[_Jason Bourne]

As of December 31, 2007, there were 52,686 LDS missionaries serving in 348 church missions throughout the world. Their work, often in cooperation with local members, resulted in 279,218 convert baptisms in 2007.

The number of missionaries in the field is down by about 3,000 from a few years ago

Actually missionary numbers are down much more than 3000 since the RTB came into being. At the time the missionary numbers were hovering around 60,000. So numbers are down by more than 10%. Of course it may be that the number of eligible young persons has dropped as well so combining that with RTB has driven numbers down. Interestingly, the number of baptisms is about the same as it was with higher missionary numbers so that has not changed.

[_Jason Bourne]

Not sure if I quite understand your post Karl, but it does pose some interesting questions:

How many of the current and preceding GA had sex (with women or men) before serving a mission?

In other words, which ones (and how many) would not even have their current callings had they been subjected to this policy that puts conditional restrictions upon repentance and forgiveness?
I doubt that any of them did. Not that they wouldn't have, given the opportunity, but it's so very difficult to imagine most of them as 18 year olds with raging hormones, girlfriends, and wet dreams. Maybe a few of the younger ones, but the rest? Even back then, some of them would have been self-righteous .... ummm... cattle prods.

Of course we have no way to know the past life issues of current GAs. It seems rather silly to bring it up. My guess though is there are certianly some leaders that had problems with this particular sin and have repented. It is not a requirement to serve a mission to be a GA. Some who are there were never missionaries.

We do believe in repentance and forgiveness so prior sins of youth does not mean never a GA.

However, I do understand the stigma issue and agree with Inc that that while the message is one can repent and be forgiven there is a restriction. This is why I do not like RTB. I see the prudence of not sending a youth out who has sexually sinned frequently and then wants to do a repent and go. But if such a one has repented and shown by a significant period of time ( a year at least) that they have changed their ways and really want to serve then they should serve.

But I do despise stigmas.