"PBS.org posted the eight-minute segment Friday. It includes Steve Allen, managing director of the Missionary Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying the number of missionaries has risen from 58,500 in October 2012 to nearly 82,000.

That's up from the 80,333 reported by church President Thomas. S. Monson at the faith's general conference on Oct. 5.

"God is hastening his work," Allen told Lucky Severson, a contributing correspondent to "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly." "He's speeding it up. We have a sense that there's an urgency about spreading the message of the gospel across the world."

Severson interviewed Allen, Elder Carl Pratt, president of the Mexico City Missionary Training Center, and Dana Call, president of the Mexico City North Mission and a number of missionaries for the piece.

Severson reports that the number of baptisms per missionary has dropped recently, and that Allen gives two reasons: First, the new emphasis for missionaries on member retention — "shoring up the wayward is now part of the missionaries' job," Severson says. Second, the world is increasingly secular."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865592433/Nearly-82000-LDS-missionaries-now-new-PBS-piece-reports.html

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"Shoring up the wayward is now part of the missionaries job"

Making a decision to leave a church doesn't make someone "wayward" nor does it mean they must be "shored up."

The Mormon missionaries' job has long been to entice "wayward" people into mormonism from whatever believe system they have.

Likely to be an even harder job than making Mormons out of non-Mormons.

And, as much info as is becoming available, the missionaries have a harder time progressively indoctrinating non-Mormons (a favorite tactic of any cult, by the way). That makes turning non-Mormons into Mormons increasingly difficult (yay!). If "shoring up the wayward" is even harder, those mishies have got their work cut out for them.

I love the rationalization.

"It's not that our missionaries are less effective and more immature. It's that the world is increasing secular."

Schmucks.

utahstateagnostics Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love the rationalization.
>
> "It's not that our missionaries are less effective
> and more immature OR THAT OUR PRODUCT IS TERRIBLE. It's that the world is
> increasing secular."
>
> Schmucks.

I agree, but I added a clause.

This reporter for PBS probably thinks the church is more of a cult than he anticipated after working on the story and interviewing everyone. Creepy.

Gotta admire the presentation. The world is more secular. That's the problem, see.

Eric3 Wrote:
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> Gotta admire the presentation. The world is more secular. That's the problem, see.

Medieval was such a fun time.
Damn the Renaissance!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2013 01:08PM by zenjamin.

We all know that a lot of the rise in missionary numbers is due to the fact that the age for male missionaries was lowered from 19 to 18. (The other factor is the lowering of the age for female missionaries.) So we've seen the 19 and 18 year old mormon guys going on missions at the same time. Once every male starts going on a mission at 18 instead of 19, the number of male mormon missionaries will go back to whatever it was before.

I just wonder what the official excuse will be - God decided he didn't need to hasten the work after all? The wayward members have returned to the fold? Whatever faith-promoting excuse they use, I'm sure it will have nothing to do with the numbers of males available to serve missions vis a vis age requirements.

Even with more females serving, the number of missionaries at any given time will eventually plateau. God will be less urgent than he was previously.

Being personally acquainted with Steve Allen, I'll just say that he is more than a bit of a blowhard, and that "the world is increasingly secular" fits right in with his MO. Might be interesting to watch, just for the eyerolls.

is their attitude. Otherwise, I'm fine being wayward. It is about time I was wayward!

We've had a lot of visits the past few months. I posted about the missionaries coming was it the week before last? The young single adults came after my very nonbelieving son last week. Amazing the reactions when I said I had resigned and that my son was going to--but that he wasn't interested in speaking to the 2 young men who showed up to talk to him.

When the sister missionaries said it was 'sad'--I thought that was rather condescending. Luckily, I was a little quicker than usual and said, "Not for me it isn't."

After all these years of inactivity and non-belief, it has been rather empowering to tell them I've resigned.

"We have a sense that there's an urgency"

He has a sense that's it's urgent. Pray tell why? Is it the end of the world again? The ushering in of the new millenium? Is Jeebus returning to Independence soon Steve? Where is the urgency in the Cedar Creek mall or how does that relate to the so called urgency? When the profit commands, "lets go shopping" - it would seem the urgency would be to go shopping, not do missionary work. I'm confused by it all, but then again, I don't have the spirit guiding me like the director of the missionary department does. That's got to be a tough tough job. Do you think the director is sweating bullets these days - 82K missionaries and the baptisms haven't really increased that much? What is the director doing wrong? Hope his job isn't on the line. Is the director like being a CEO. If the company fails to produce, usually it's bye bye CEO.

shoring-up or wayward are buzzwords for the inability of one person to recognize the right of another person to change their mind.

Hey I LIKE the fact that I have been labeled 'Wayward", it has all sorts of naughty connotations - which sadly you cannot attach to me, but who is to know that?? heh heh!!! Bring on the wicked wayward Fluey!!

adjective

1. difficult to control or predict because of unusual or perverse behavior.

synonyms: willful, headstrong, stubborn, obstinate, obdurate, perverse, contrary, disobedient, insubordinate, undisciplined, rebellious, defiant, uncooperative, recalcitrant, unruly, wild, unmanageable, erratic, difficult, impossible;

winecountrygirl - you need to work on your cut and paste skills. I think you accidentally posted the definition of a faithful Mormon instead of an ex-Mormon. :)

Oh, no, CA girl, that is exactly how the faithful see us.

This video is priceless. I love that their cultiness is broadcast across the whole country for everyone to see. They really didn't hold back here. The world is getting more and more wicked and that is why people aren't joining. I'm sure all the people watching PBS will love to hear how wicked they are.

Fortunately the missionaries have never really pestered me. Haven't seen more of them since this expansion either. They did stop by around a year ago with a ward leader. I let them in and we had a short conversation. They asked if they could come back and teach me a lesson. I said sure why not and they asked what time. I said my schedule was open and so it didn't matter to me. They wanted me to pick a time and this gave me time to rethink my rash decision to allow them to come over again. I thought about telling them that in the sales training I got in the MTC they told us it was better to suggest a time for a follow up appointment but I didn't. I told them I changed my mind and I thought it would be a waste of time for them to come over again. I haven't heard anything from them since. It always amazes me how some missionaries will keep coming around when people tell them clearly they aren't interested. Fortunately any missionaries I have dealt with have not been so persistent.

I was a missionary once myself so I don't mind it when my wife invites them over for dinner. I hated knocking on doors, constantly making cold calls, and getting the door slammed in my face, so if they kill an hour at my home and it makes their life a little easier, so be it, as long as they don't start preaching. Besides, one of the current missionaries in my wife's ward plays the guitar, and I always let him play mine when he's over. It brings a huge smile to his face when he gets to play some unapproved metal riffs!

Link to the PBS report:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2013/12/13/december-13-2013-mormon-missionary-expansion/21372/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2013 07:02PM by jerry64.