36 new missions created - why?

[Hagoth]

President Newsroom tells us that 36 new missions will be opened in 2024:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... sus-christ

The setup is, "To accommodate rising numbers of missionaries (now at more than 72,000)."
The punchline is, "Church leaders will create these new missions from existing missions."

Why do I get the feeling that something sneaky is going on under the hood? The missionary force has been larger in the past and they didn't need to create a lot of new missions to accommodate them, so why now?

Here is info from a self-reported 2022 church statistical report:
Full-time teaching missionaries — 62,544
Senior Church-service missionaries — 27,070
Young Church-service missionaries — 2,736

These numbers add up to 90,350, which is not a realistic number, so we must assume the Senior missionaries, including those on service missions, are really a subset of the Full-time teaching missionaries. It looks like the number of senior missionaries is significant and, I expect, growing, while we see more and more young people walking away.

Here are some thoughts about why the church needs so many new missions:

1- To create the illusion of growth. This is a pattern we are seeing lately with the creation of new units by splitting existing units, dishonest membership numbers, etc.

2- So Russel M. Nelson can give himself the title of President who created the most missions, similar to what he's doing with temple announcements.

3- More and more pressure is being put on retired couples to fill missions. To create attractive high-status mission president positions for self-important retirees to boost their church cred and make them feel like they're moving up the eclesiaticial/corporate ladder.

[Jeffret]

More opportunities to call mission presidents?

[nibbler]

Some of that growth is natural, more missionaries means more missions. I'm assuming that 36 new missions all at once is far and above the natural growth rate.

Leaders have lots of statistics in front of them and I'm guessing that one of them is telling them that lots of kids are leaving the church after returning home off of their missions. I remember a stake conference years ago where the bishop of the YSA ward gave a talk and made a claim that 50% of RMs had left the church within a year of coming home. That seemed high to me, but who knows.

They already tried the "My Plan" thing where RMs have mentors and meet regularly with the SP. They also tried the thing where they made it easier for a MP to contact their missionaries past mission. This could be another stab at solving the RM retention problem.

I can see leaders thinking that reducing the number of missionaries per mission might have the effect of giving MPs more opportunities to interact with each missionary on a more intimate level and that the additional contact will lead to better retention. That might work or it might backfire, depending on the MP.

More opportunities to call mission presidents?

There's that as well. Not only retention for youth but retention for the SPs whose church careers would otherwise dry up after they were done with being a SP. More missions, more opportunities to engage those types.

[moksha]

More opportunities to call mission presidents?

That was my immediate thought.

[2bizE]

My understanding is that service missionaries also report to the mission presidents in the areas they serve. More missions means fewer missionaries per mission president to oversee.

[Red Ryder]

More opportunities to call mission presidents?

Which also increases the pool of future general authorities.

The way I see this, there is already a pool of Stake Presidents that serve on average for a period of 10 years. What happens to the stake presidents after released? Our former SP was called as a mission President. He was a hospital administrator so naturally made a decent leader. They’ve since come home from serving their mission as President and then went to BYU to teach.

The church needs to hold onto the leaders too.

A mission President role is always a trial run for the GA pool.

[Hagoth]

The church needs to hold onto the leaders too.

Anything to keep them from enjoying their retirement when they could instead be giving all of their time, talents and money to the church.

[glass shelf]

More opportunities to call mission presidents?

I like this answer. More ways to share the money with their insiders while pretending the LDS church is growing and thriving.

[Gatorbait]

These are staggering numbers for missionaries- had no idea there were so many. Sort of makes good sense that they'd need more missions.

I hope it is because the church is moving towards service and not proselyting.

[Just This Guy]

More opportunities to call mission presidents?

I have to be super cynical, but are there going to be a bunch of family members of Mormon royalty or lower level leaders that are facing legal trouble that are going to get called to foreign missions?

[Mayan_Elephant]

Utah

Utah Salt Lake City East
Utah Saratoga Springs
Utah Spanish Fork

LMFAO!!!!!!! OMGOMGOMG!!!!!

Anyone asked to walk around these towns for two years and look busy is free to just opt out. Oh my dear god in heaven, that is about the funniest damn thing I have seen.

[Hagoth]

Utah

Utah Salt Lake City East
Utah Saratoga Springs
Utah Spanish Fork

LMFAO!!!!!!! OMGOMGOMG!!!!!

Anyone asked to walk around these towns for two years and look busy is free to just opt out. Oh my dear god in heaven, that is about the funniest damn thing I have seen.

I'm waiting for:
City Creek Mall East
City Creek Mall West
City Creek Mall North
City Creek Mall South

[Mayan_Elephant]

I'm waiting for:
Utah City Creek Mall East
Utah City Creek Mall West
Utah City Creek Mall North
Utah City Creek Mall South

FIFY

[Hagoth]

These are staggering numbers for missionaries- had no idea there were so many.

Yes, but are those real numbers? We know they dramatically exaggerate membership numbers and charitable giving, so maybe they fudge a little with their missionary numbers? Maybe they're including all of the ward and stake missionaries. Maybe they're including Young Men who do splits with missionaries. Who knows? This is a great number to pump up because no one can disprove or verify it. I don't know if you've seen the membership numbers from Mexico, where everyone on the national census is required state their self-proclaimed religion. The church claims something like 5 or 6 times the number of people who actually consider themselves members of the church.

[Hagoth]

I'm waiting for:
Utah City Creek Mall East
Utah City Creek Mall West
Utah City Creek Mall North
Utah City Creek Mall South

FIFY

Thanks. Imagine how many new stakes they'll be able to create on their Florida wilderness and their Texas ranch land. Nothing can stop this great work from going forth, brothers and sisters.

[Mayan_Elephant]

In other news, the ding dongs will create the following missions:

Nevada West Wendover West
Nevada West Wendover East
Utah Wendover West
Utah Wendover East

[Mayan_Elephant]

I'm waiting for:
Utah City Creek Mall East
Utah City Creek Mall West
Utah City Creek Mall North
Utah City Creek Mall South

FIFY

Thanks. Imagine how many new stakes they'll be able to create on their Florida wilderness and their Texas ranch land. Nothing can stop this great work from going forth, brothers and sisters.

Hagoth, you are just making stuff up now. Before they will even begin to send proselyting missionaries to these pristine areas, they will use these investments to produce a multi-season mini-series about a pioneer family that does not swear or speak evil of the Lard's anointed. Yeah, even someone that looks exactly like Beth Dutton will obediently wear the bonnet for this BYUTV exclusive.