NOM

Jeffret wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:06 pm "the Church reported a significant slowdown in membership growth in the United States during 2017 as church membership increased by only 0.75% - the lowest annual membership growth rate for the Church in the United States in perhaps as long as a century. The Church in Mexico also reported the slowest membership growth in 35 years of a mere 1.30% during 2017."

That puts the church right about at the U.S. growth rate -- about 0.71%. But the church's growth rate is declining faster than the country's. And that's as long as you believe the church's numbers.

Reuben wrote: ↑Tue Apr 10, 2018 2:28 pm More information, no idea how reliable:

https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comme ... g_down_on/

Summary: Claims they were using church-sourced data that's not supposed to be made public, and that aside from the statistics making the church look bad, the source data might include "hidden" (i.e. illegal) units in places like China.

If this hidden units thing is true, I can see why K|M would get involved. Also, we would never learn whether that's true, because admitting it would endanger proselyting efforts.

I guess this makes sense. The church doesn't like it when websites publish information about its illegal activities.

Jeffret wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:06 pm

oliblish wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:42 pm More stats here:

https://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/

"the Church reported a significant slowdown in membership growth in the United States during 2017 as church membership increased by only 0.75% - the lowest annual membership growth rate for the Church in the United States in perhaps as long as a century. The Church in Mexico also reported the slowest membership growth in 35 years of a mere 1.30% during 2017."

I can't help but wonder if that growth outpaced the number of people quietly going inactive. If the church actually stops counting resigned members, I would assume that the .75% growth accounts for those, but it couldn't account for inactive members.

IT_Veteran wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:48 pm I can't help but wonder if that growth outpaced the number of people quietly going inactive. If the church actually stops counting resigned members, I would assume that the .75% growth accounts for those, but it couldn't account for inactive members.

The new "ministering" program is surely one more vain attempt to interest the bored inactives into attending church.

Corsair wrote: ↑Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:45 am The new "ministering" program is surely one more vain attempt to interest the bored inactives into attending church.

And trotting out the same SS lessons we've been using for over 20 years and reading conference talks during the 3rd hour of church is just icing on the cake!

This is probably phase one of eliminating the reporting altogether. Run the numbers, determine a point in time when the church is expected to experience negative growth, mark a date on the calendar 10 years ahead of that time, slowly start de-emphasizing the importance of the statistics starting on that date with the goal of quietly eliminating the reporting altogether before the numbers make the average member ask questions.

nibbler wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 6:20 am ... mark a date on the calendar 10 years ahead of that time, slowly start de-emphasizing the importance of the statistics starting on that date with the goal of quietly eliminating the reporting altogether before the numbers make the average member ask questions.

You think it’ll take ten years before we see negative growth? I think we’re already seeing it in Europe, growth in the US is under 1%, and still dependent on new children. It’s going to become increasingly dependent on those as the convert numbers decrease. I think everybody’s aware of the horrendous retention rate for converts too, so I think we’ll see unit numbers continue to drop, even if we see marginal increases in total membership for a while.