Missionary work in the USA is suffering - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

MikeWaters · 01-03-2008, 08:18 PM

Bart Oates came and spoke to us as a counselor in a mission presidency. He is a former BYU football star, and played for the Giants and 49ers. He mentioned that convert baptisms in the USA are flat (I actually don't remember if he said that this was the case for the entire USA, or just the South). Then he said that in the Southwest, one of the fastest growing regions in the USA, that convert baptisms are actually DOWN. I believe he was speaking in absolute numbers, not percentage increases.

We have a good product in the form of the gospel. However I don't think we have a good product in the form of our wards.

In other words, I think the church is failing at the social level. In fact, I think wards have much less meaning, in the social context, in 2008, than they did 25 years ago. Part of this comes from only putting 1% of local tithing back into church activities. Is there any church that puts in less, and hopes to have a thriving community? We do very well for how cheap we are, but we still suffer.

I hope the gains we have made in other areas, like overseas building, extravagant temples, secular education, and urban revitalization will make up for this in ways that I can't see.

I'm no prophet. But I can see the obvious. And to me, it's obvious that wards as social units have suffered and diminished.

01-03-2008, 08:18 PM	#1
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	Missionary work in the USA is suffering Bart Oates came and spoke to us as a counselor in a mission presidency. He is a former BYU football star, and played for the Giants and 49ers. He mentioned that convert baptisms in the USA are flat (I actually don't remember if he said that this was the case for the entire USA, or just the South). Then he said that in the Southwest, one of the fastest growing regions in the USA, that convert baptisms are actually DOWN. I believe he was speaking in absolute numbers, not percentage increases. We have a good product in the form of the gospel. However I don't think we have a good product in the form of our wards. In other words, I think the church is failing at the social level. In fact, I think wards have much less meaning, in the social context, in 2008, than they did 25 years ago. Part of this comes from only putting 1% of local tithing back into church activities. Is there any church that puts in less, and hopes to have a thriving community? We do very well for how cheap we are, but we still suffer. I hope the gains we have made in other areas, like overseas building, extravagant temples, secular education, and urban revitalization will make up for this in ways that I can't see. I'm no prophet. But I can see the obvious. And to me, it's obvious that wards as social units have suffered and diminished.