They always say they are the fastest growing

I doubt it really. It's not growing as fast as I say, but I doubt it's the fastest shrinking church in the world either. I'm just being realistic here.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has one thing strongly working against its membership growth: it's a false religion. With thousands of internet sites proclaiming the truth about Mormonism it is increasingly difficult for Mormon missionaries to present their one-sided, dishonest views of the church. You can't fool all of the people all of the time.

As many leave or just wander away as are baptized. So the question is what's the net membership?

I nominate the organization Warren Jeffs leads as the church that should be the fastest shrinking.

Well, the moment they publish actual attendance figures the Church would shrink by 70%...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2011 12:15PM by Stumbling.

With activity rates of 50% in UT and ID, 30% in the rest of the US and single digits in most other countries, they may have suffered the worst already. In the future, the problem will not be members leaving but non-members not joining.

And don't forget the members aren't breeding like rabbits like they used to.

I thought it was so hilarious how L. Whitney Clayton claimed there were a half million membes in Peru. My question is, what about member retention though?

The activity rates in Latin American missions is notoriously low. If 30% are active, then they are doing pretty good. Of the "less actives", the vast majority don't even consider themselves Mormons.

I dated a guy who told me that he was baptized Mormon when he was in the Navy. He went for about a month and then stopped going. This was 5 years later, and when I told him that they still considered him a member, he thought I was nuts.

This guy is counted among the 13 million Mormons in the world, when he attended church a total of 5 times his entire life and hasn't thought much about it since his month long flirtation.

The funny thing is that lots of churches have lots of people who attend briefly and never come back. The difference is that these churches don't consider these visitors "members" for decades after they last saw them.

about every three years we go through the roles and delete everyone who has left, stopped attending or moved away.

or died.

Nonsense; there's no effort in the mormon cult to cull people from the rolls unless they die.

Scooter didn't say what church s/he currently attends, but I read it as not a member of the LDS church.

Other churches actually do not always allow people to join. I attended a church for several years and was never given membership. The average weekly attendance was over 150% of membership.

Chile had the lowest retention/attendance in the world, like 5% or less.

by applying the same degree of LDS PR BS errancy that is used to make them the fastest growing religion as they commonly cite, they certainly could be the fastest shrinking!

after all, their official membership count includes me!
I am still officially on the rolls, and probably all those that have resigned as well.

one of these days they will have to sell off some temples,
and thats a day that I relish.

I know at least 50 people that the church counts as mormons, that aren't.

It's just one more lie in their steaming shit pile of lies.

It doesn't matter what the church says the number is. They still have to have enough worthy men to fill leadership postions in a ward, stake, whatever.

I've been in a couple of wards that have really had to struggle to find bishops and enough men to run the show. That was years ago. It's probably gotten worse for them. They call in senior missionaries when they can't get anyone else.

It is now the "Incredible Shrinking Church," however.

They have enough arrogant and egotistical Alpha Males to fill leadership positions in wards, stakes, etc...

As the organization turns up the heat on these leaders and they respond by pressuring the remaining members for more money, pay your tithing, take two callings, blah blah blah.

The organization will see the number of members leaving increase.

I believe that honor currently belongs to Scientology.

Tough luck Mormons, but please don't quit trying!

I don't think they are shrinking in overall numbers the fastest, however I do think they may be losing members the fastest, they just replace as fast as they leave.

The mainline Protestants are steadily shrinking as well. I don't know what stats the Roman Catholics post, but any growth or even retention they have is due only to Catholic stronghold areas continuing to breed rapidly. Many Hispanics all over the globe are switching to evangelical and charismatic faiths.

My guesstimates:

Older generations are more ensconced, hold more leadership positions and are more skeptical of anything on the Internet and have the highest more enthusiastic activity level.

Some in the younger generations are staying in just so they don't offend their aging parents and/or grandparents. Milquetoast activity level.

Millenieals and younger are accustomed to checking Internet and independent sources. Relatively low activity level.

Once the Baby Boomer generation starts dying in greater numbers the exit floodgates may open.