Are Mission Presidents feeling the heat?

[Unendowed]

My son is serving a mission in the US. He informed us that his mission was visited by an area authority (didn't get the name) and this area authority basically laid into the missionaries for their lack of obedience and faith. Soon after that visit the MP made a new rule that companionships could only be with each other and not with any other companionships. For example on p-pay groups of missionaries would get together and play basketball or just hang out together. This is no longer allowed. Now they just sit in their apartments and are bored. Not exactly great for moral.

Now I heard that in a mission in New York, where a friend of my son is serving, has a new MP and within two weeks he demoted all the district and zone leaders as well as the APs and has even sent a few of them hone. My son's friend was sent home but can return in 6 months. I don't know what exactly went on but it seems like this MP is taking some drastic measures.

What's going on with these guys? Is the COB putting heat on these guys to the point they are making these drastic moves. Because heaven knows if the church isn't growing it must be the missionaries fault. What a load of crap! When will they learn it's the product that sucks not the salesmen?

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

A recently returned sister missionary from Canada spoke in our ward a few weeks ago and said she had no baptisms and only worked with inactives. I was amazed that Canada would be so difficult for proselytizing.

[Linked]

The church leadership has always left room for the lack of the progression of the work of baptizing the world to be the members and missionaries fault. I haven't seen such a direct blame at the missionaries or draconian mission policies though, and my mission was relatively strict.

As for poor baptizing missions, that's definitely a trend. The growth in 2016 is about half what it was when I was a missionary 15 years ago, and we didn't do a ton of baptizing then in Japan. Different places and anecdotal, but the church appears to be struggling in the 1st world. Thanks Google.

[Red Ryder]

One way to look at this is to look at Lowes Home Improvement. The company has been doing relatively well in the past but operating margins have been slipping over recent years. The company got a new CEO at the end of May. Fast forward a few weeks later and the new CEO has already shaken up the management team and realigned some critical and non critical policies and procedures. Some execs are fired, others are repurposed, and the company continues to re-invent itself while chasing market share, earnings, and competitiveness.

The mission experience is the same way but with a failing product (which really needs to be a post of it's own). 99% of mission presidents are business owners and type A guys who think they can come in and shake things up and manage their mission the same way they manage a business. Only they have limited tools to increase sales (because the product is bad). So they start blaming missionaries for lack of obedience and squeeze the life and joy out of the missionary. In turn this creates anxiety and depression that's reflected in their face and voice as well as attitude of the missionary. Thus the ROBOTIC missionary is born! They come across desperate and weird. Normal people pick up on this. Who wants to listen to missionaries when they look and sound church broke and robotic? Suddenly a cycle is established.

New Mission President comes in. Convert baptisms decline. Area Authority flexes his middle management muscles. Policy and rule changes are implemented. Missionaries are squeezed. Some are collateral damage and go home early. The rest survive until they matriculate out and go home. New mission president comes in. Convert baptisms decline. Area Authority flexes his priesthood...

What the church needs the most right now is a missionary force of vibrant youth who are happy and willing to share their beliefs in a vibrant church that provides structure with freedom to live accordingly. Get rid of the uniform and its cult of obedience. Let the kids be kids while on their missions doing service as well as getting out among the people and talking with two degrees of normalcy.

It's that obvious!

Forget about Google. Who wants to join a weird church?

Convert baptisms decline...

The cycle continues....

[2bizE]

I like the Lowes example, except it is important to remember that missionaries are volunteers paying their own way. I remember on my mission having meetings with the MP and GAs and they would try to fire us up like an Amway meeting to get the world baptized. There seems to be a growing trend over the past decade for MPs and GAs to criticize the missionaries and shame them for not being exactly obedient. This exact obedience fad the GAs are pushing runs contrary to the atonement of Christ.
If i were a missionary getting shamed by my MP or GA, i would quit. These are not high paid professionals, I'm talking about the missionaries not the GAs. They are unpaid volunteers. They didnt sign up for this.

[John G.]

I’m not sure how new this type of thing is. On my mission, in the 90’s, we had a GA come for a mission conference and he did the drill sergeant routine. Told us, in a very unfriendly way, that we needed to work harder.

I specifically remember him saying that we shouldn’t be talking about how much weight we gained on our mission, but instead how much we lose because we were working so hard.

At the time, I remember thinking that I’d never heard anyone talking about gaining weight on their mission. We were already tracking 4-5 hours a day. I know for sure I never gained any weight on my mission!

[slk]

Missionary success and missionary morale will never improve until TSCC admits that they're just like all the other religions out there. Well, get rid of the weirdness like the temples also but there really is nothing left after that. They will have to revamp once the mish #s drop to about 40K.

[didyoumythme]

This sounds like standard operating procedure for missions. Leadership (including area authorities, mission presidents, APs, zone leaders, district leaders etc.) always lay into the missionaries about perfect obedience. It is the greatest and longest guilt trip a person can experience. I have heard about plenty of missions that ban group gatherings of missionaries. They don't want everyone getting too rowdy/friendly/flirty with each other.

I don't think this is a sign of anything, just more pressure for not selling more of a bad product like red ryder said.

[Archimedes]

This sort of thing happened in my mission in the early 80s. I would guess the Lowes analogy has held true, at least as far back as that.

I think Mission Presidents put a lot of pressure on themselves. Most of them are movers and shakers who would like to move up into Middle Management, hard to get a promotion like that without showing Results in the mission field.

Oh, yea, Results are not measured by the enhanced self esteem or growth of the work force. The [all volunteer] workers are merely a means to an end.

[moksha]

Now I heard that in a mission in New York, where a friend of my son is serving, has a new MP and within two weeks he demoted all the district and zone leaders as well as the APs and has even sent a few of them home. My son's friend was sent home but can return in 6 months. I don't know what exactly went on but it seems like this MP is taking some drastic measures.

This almost sounds Trumpian: Destroying the system from within. If you can demoralize the troops sufficiently, then you can decrease the burden of having so many missionaries in the field.

[Just This Guy]

Now I heard that in a mission in New York, where a friend of my son is serving, has a new MP and within two weeks he demoted all the district and zone leaders as well as the APs and has even sent a few of them hone. My son's friend was sent home but can return in 6 months. I don't know what exactly went on but it seems like this MP is taking some drastic measures.

That happened on my mission. A new MP came in and ran with basically the previous leadership for about 6 months. A that point, due to several factors, a large part of the leadership go removed and replaced. He also changed dissolved all districts*. For the most part, the replacements were much better than the previous leadership. I was not sad to see the old crew go.


*As small as the mission was geographically, it didn't really make sense to have the extra layer of management.

[Corsair]

Soon after that visit the MP made a new rule that companionships could only be with each other and not with any other companionships. For example on p-pay groups of missionaries would get together and play basketball or just hang out together. This is no longer allowed. Now they just sit in their apartments and are bored. Not exactly great for moral.

This puts dramatic burdens on the morale and spirit of missionaries. I was starved for reasonable social interaction my whole mission. P-Day was sacred to me and having these new rules would have only made things worse.

[Unendowed]

Soon after that visit the MP made a new rule that companionships could only be with each other and not with any other companionships. For example on p-pay groups of missionaries would get together and play basketball or just hang out together. This is no longer allowed. Now they just sit in their apartments and are bored. Not exactly great for moral.

This puts dramatic burdens on the morale and spirit of missionaries. I was starved for reasonable social interaction my whole mission. P-Day was sacred to me and having these new rules would have only made things worse.

My son tries to be positive about it but I can sense his anguish about the new rule. Most of his best friends in the mission are not his companions. I don't know if the rule is meant to be punishment or just the fact that when groups of 18 to 21 year olds get together they can get into "trouble." I just hate that these technically adults are not treated as adults. The mission is controlling enough without having to be told who you can spend your free time with.

[Archimedes]

As a missionary there is no such thing as free time. The church owns all that.

[Anon70]

What the church needs the most right now is a missionary force of vibrant youth who are happy and willing to share their beliefs in a vibrant church that provides structure with freedom to live accordingly. Get rid of the uniform and its cult of obedience. Let the kids be kids while on their missions doing service as well as getting out among the people and talking with two degrees of normalcy.
It's that obvious!

This is so great. Too bad you're not in charge! My nieces belong to a different religion and they would do "mission trips" and my parents use to disparage them because they were short--weeks to months-- and they went in regular clothes, kept their phones and could be themselves. They just served--no proselyting. I'd love for my kids to do something like that!

[mooseman]

As a missionary there is no such thing as free time. The church owns all that.

Yup. I remember being told not to think of it as pday, but preparation TIME. Time to clean, do laundry, shop, write home...by 4 pm you should be back out tracking.
And it's not just as missionaries-- after we got married i was repeatedly reminded i had covenanted all i had to the lord's kingdom; so it pto was available and there was a Wednesday afternoon canning assignment, or someone moving in just as you get off work..... that time belongs to the church.

[slavereeno]

As a missionary there is no such thing as free time. The church owns all that.

I hate this, my kid is going bonkers on his mish

so if pto was available and there was a Wednesday afternoon canning assignment, or someone moving in just as you get off work..... that time belongs to the church.

I felt this way all the time, trying to change my thought process. I still feel guilty when I am trying to enjoy some free time.

[No Tof]

A recently returned sister missionary from Canada spoke in our ward a few weeks ago and said she had no baptisms and only worked with inactives. I was amazed that Canada would be so difficult for proselytizing.

I would venture to say Canada is becoming more and more secular. (thank goddess)
What with our long standing legalized medical cannabis status which soon will include legal recreational use , I would be surprised if Utah doesn't decide to disown us completely.

As to the state of the union with regards to missionary work, I can see a definite trend from the old days when I was in Japan, and felt like a celebrity with few rules and lots of fun, to todays lock step marching model where the lucky ones go home early and have a chance to recover.

Signs of the times brothers and sisters.

[blazerb]

What the church needs the most right now is a missionary force of vibrant youth who are happy and willing to share their beliefs in a vibrant church that provides structure with freedom to live accordingly. Get rid of the uniform and its cult of obedience. Let the kids be kids while on their missions doing service as well as getting out among the people and talking with two degrees of normalcy.
It's that obvious!

This is so great. Too bad you're not in charge! My nieces belong to a different religion and they would do "mission trips" and my parents use to disparage them because they were short--weeks to months-- and they went in regular clothes, kept their phones and could be themselves. They just served--no proselyting. I'd love for my kids to do something like that!

I think a mistake was made a long time ago about what it was that drew people to the church. Church leaders thought that people were drawn by doctrine or the spirituality of the missionaries. I'm pretty sure that most of the people I taught on my mission just wanted a nice social atmosphere in an optimistic, happy church.

I'm sensing panic in the leadership over the drop in converts. It's causing more mistakes. The most successful missionaries on my mission were the most relaxed. Some of them kept the rules, some did not.

I imagine that leaders are trying to deflect blame for the nonexistent growth in the church. Jacob in the BofM taught that he needed to be direct about the sins of the people in order to keep his garments clean. Lack of converts can be laid at the feet of the missionaries. Unless the MP beats them up for it, he may be afraid that someone could lay the blame on him, like a Jacob in reverse. The area authority or GA needs to likewise beat up on those below him in order to stay blameless. All of this just creates a toxic environment that results in a large fraction of missionaries coming home for emotional reasons. I feel so bad for what these missionaries are put through.

[Spicy McHaggis]

My son is trying to decide if he should go on a mission.

If he does go I will sign off my weekly emails with something like this:

"You are an adult and you are a volunteer, you can do whatever you want. Make sure you are treated with respect".

I would share those thoughts with his mission pres as well.

A member of my family is currently a MP. He and his wife were firmly in the Mor-Cor bubble but they are in a big city now, surrounded by liberals, atheists and people of other races. I'm not entirely sure but I think they are finally learning that a liberal atheist of another race is just as kind and loving as a mormon trump voter in their hometown. He's a pretty hard-core guy, I'm not sure but I think the MP thing is making him more open minded. I hope so anyway.