I like to keep a pulse on the "success" of Mormonism now and then. How is the growth of Mormonism in your area? Are wards splitting or combining? And please tell what area you are in, such as state or country. Be as specific as you are comfortable with.

I grew up in MN during the 80's and the ward building was built to be used as a stake center. They thought we were going grow and turn into a second stake, but as far as I know that hasn't happened. We had an overzealous Bishop in around 1999-2000 who split the ward in two. The experiment failed and they merged the wards back to one. So basically over two decades, zero growth.

How about your area?

My area in Southern Utah continues to grow.

Mormons are circling the wagons and moving back where they will be the majority, and never challeged by non-mos who read unapproved LDS history.

Massive growth out here in the Gilbert, AZ area. They're building a new temple out here, our stake has 11 wards in a small area, and four years ago we went from 2 stakes to 5.

Side note - am I the only one who pictured George Costanza shouting "I was in the pool!" at this thread subject? =)

:D

You weren't the only one!

I haven't set foot in a mormon building in 4 years, and with the help of jebus, won't soon.

However.

I'm curious.

There is a McChapel not far from me. It almost would be interesting to go once a month (dressed in jeans, of course), wait until the meeting starts, go in the back and count heads then leave.

Keep a log and see how it goes over the course of a year.

Or count cars, but that's not as accurate.

Count the number of mishies on the wall.

Drop a deuce in the toilet.

Ooh.... make a list of the problems with TSCC and put it in the pamphlet box, but make it look like a TSCC production on the cover.

Hmmmm.......

Rulingknight,

I live in Tempe, and I gotta tell you, that Gilbert Temple looks so out of place out there. It is such a contrast to the rural fields around it, although I know developments are nearby.

I guess when I saw it, they hadn't put any parking around it, so it just stood out as a big white blob sitting on freshly plowed dirt.

Overall, I am unimpressed. Gaudy, Gaudy, Gaudy!!

I saw it this week for the first time, at a distance and up close. It's not attractive. The proportions are "off" and the spire is just strange.

You could probably plant Cypress trees all the way around it but it would be years before they grow tall enough to conceal it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2012 04:37PM by Bicentennial Ex.

Yeah, it just doesn't feel right. The colors are all off, and it doesn't even strike an imposing figure. But I'm sure the people in the posh farm houses across the street will see their property values skyrocket.

I would imagine Orem, Utah hit an apex with members and now has nowhere to go but down. Surprisingly, they still can'tbuild church buildings fast enough and many buildings have 3 or 4 wards to a building.

Kind of hard to tell here in Brigham City. While they are building a temple here I think it has more to do with making more money than growth. After all ya got to pay to play so to speak. Temples are big money makers for tscc I think. I hear that they recently added a ward by me but I think it has more to do with people moving in rather than converts. There has been a few appartment buildings built and two new subdivisions recently.

I do think the Brigham City Temple is pretty though. I'll be going to the open house in September sometime, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll be moving up there in January.

My impression outside of the "mormon corridor" (WEST), the church has not grown. Some areas of the country have an increase in membership because Utahns move in for job reasons. But convert baptisms are not increasing.

I don't really know about my area because I'm a nevermo and honestly have no idea of how many mormons are about.

However, I am going out for a bit of hike tomorrow and will be passing an LDS Church. If I remember to take my camera, I'll snap a photo of the parking lot.

For anyone interested in news concerning local stake or ward changes, I just found out a ward was dissolved.

The Church just dissolved the Torrance 2nd Ward in the Torrance North Stake. They moved everyone east of Crenshaw Bl. to the Lawndale Ward, which meets at the former Lawndale Stake Center, which dissolved in the early 90's. Those west of Crenshaw Bl., now, are part of the Gardena Ward, my 'home' ward.

I am surprised, as that part of Torrance had a good amount of members, esp. since it's close to many aerospace companies and El Camino College. The hearing kids of the Torrance 4th Deaf Branch met with the Torrance 2nd (and, socially, with the Gardena Ward) kids. Torrance 2nd had been around for a long time. When the Lawndale Stake dissolved, they had combined the 2 Gardena Wards, sending some to the Torrance 2nd Ward.

I am wondering if they have still kept the eastern boundary of the Gardena Ward, which stretched all the way into Compton. There has always been talk of moving the Carson/Compton part of the ward into the Torrance Stake, since we had more in common with that stake than the Torrance North Stake.

With this dissolving, it'll be interesting to see if they will, soon, dissolve the stake and send the members to the Torrance, Inglewood, and Long Beach (not sure of the actual stake name east of Torrance North) stakes.

My former ward and stake in Colorado Springs, CO has not grown nor shrunk any dramatic amount in almost a decade. It seems every time somebody and their family leaves, a new convert ends up popping into the ward and gets sucked into TSCC.

If I remember correctly, two stakes were combined in San Jose recently. Richard Hunter was the president of one of them. (Howard Hunter's son.) I drive by what would be our local ward frequently and seldom see signs of activity there, while the Catholic church next door is still a beehive. (No idea how to compare geographic extent of the different congregations.)

Whenever the real estate market booms in California TBMs sell and move to Utah. One acquaintance who attended the first ward we lived in here sent his kids to BYU. They all stayed there so Mom and Dad moved there when he retired.

I haven't seen any statistics though, and since I don't associate with many local members I can't give an overall impression. I do know of families who got fed up and left the church after the Prop 8 fiasco.

If there is something wrong in a Catholic parish,and the diocese doesn't do anything about it, people go to a different parish. Voting with their feet, so to speak. Mormons don't have that option.

Phantom Shadow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If I remember correctly, two stakes were combined
> in San Jose recently. Richard Hunter was the
> president of one of them. (Howard Hunter's son.)
> I drive by what would be our local ward frequently
> and seldom see signs of activity there, while the
> Catholic church next door is still a beehive. (No
> idea how to compare geographic extent of the
> different congregations.)
>
> Whenever the real estate market booms in
> California TBMs sell and move to Utah. One
> acquaintance who attended the first ward we lived
> in here sent his kids to BYU. They all stayed
> there so Mom and Dad moved there when he retired.
>
>
> I haven't seen any statistics though, and since I
> don't associate with many local members I can't
> give an overall impression. I do know of families
> who got fed up and left the church after the Prop
> 8 fiasco.

In the 1980s, our Silicon Valley ward had 90 or so active teenagers (plus a bunch of inactive kids), all attending one high school. Other wards in the area had similar numbers. Since then, wards have been dissolved, realigned and combined and now that single ward (which covers the geography of about 4 1980s wards) takes in most of 3 high schools' worth of kids and there are fewer than 25 teens on the records (and even fewer actives).

During that same time period, the high schools have at least doubled in student population (one has tripled).

So, our community is growing, but the number of Mormons is not. We have 3-6 convert baptisms per year, depending on how many families come in at the same time. Oh, and the missionaries don't tract here anymore, either.

Mormons are such a tiny presence here to begin with, that I've no idea really. I think my area is mostly Catholic.

Brisbane Australia. Same # of units despite city growing by nearly 100k annually. Polynesian immigrants now overwhelmingly outnumber locals who are not interested at all. Without Polynesian (formerly known as Lamanite) immigration, the cult here would be withering away.

ozpoof Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brisbane Australia. Same # of units despite city
> growing by nearly 100k annually. Polynesian
> immigrants now overwhelmingly outnumber locals who
> are not interested at all. Without Polynesian
> (formerly known as Lamanite) immigration, the cult
> here would be withering away.

And Brisbane is the bright spot in Australia!! Housing has always been cheaper in Brisbane than in Sydney and Melbourne so Mormons have always tended to moved there.

Growth is flat or declining everywhere else. A stake was closed in Sydney last year and there is no growth in church units nationally in spite of a growing population. Canberra closed one of its 5 branches a few years ago and they were trying to sell the chapel which was fairly new.

A lot of the places I'm seeing growth reported also seem to be the places where there's major population growth (Arizona, Utah). While the number of Mormons is increasing, wards splitting etc. the actual percentage of Mormons may be falling.

If tomorrow ten million people move into your city and only one of them is Mormon, the number of Mormons in your city rose, but the percentage probably fell.

Where I am in Massachusetts where the population is pretty stable, I've heard of more wards combining than splitting.

In Tucson, they keep rearranging ward and stake boundaries, so nobody knows what numbers are. I wonder if the numbers are shrinking and they're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but probably too much to hope for.

This was the first manual I studied when I was converted in 1976.
It is rolling nowhere

Ontario, Canada.

My understanding is that LDS growth here is stagnant. Considering the number of kids Mormons have, they must be losing members. I hear the Toronto temple is not very busy.

Edited to add:

If it's any consolation, I hear they're doing well in Mongolia.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2012 10:35PM by canadianfriend.

I live in central Utah and just from my observations, I think some of the members are becoming burnt out from the craziness around here. I've started to come across members who have left or I think are in the process of leaving. Some members are actually beginning to speak openly (or at least in closed circles) with thoughts and ideas that are contrary to the teachings and doctrines of the church. It'll be interesting to see how far this goes before the local leaders become aware. I see more of the local kids leaving the church too. I think they get it. I am pretty sure that the local leaders are aware of this, but I don't think there's anything they can do.

Of course on the flip side I've noticed some members who've become even more zealous in their activity. My opinion is that if the numbers grow, it's because of people moving in from other areas.

I live smack dab in the middle of the Morridor, Orem Utah. They combined two wards into one where I am. It was probably because everyone built new houses at the same time and raised tons of kids. When the kids left home, there were fewer members. They have, however, built three new meeting houses within a mile of me in the last ten years.

Of course most of the new membership here has been the hordes of Mormon children coming of age. There were at least three families in my ward with ten or more. One family across town had TWENTY children, all born of the same mother!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2012 12:40AM by rationalguy.

In the Stake I grew up in there has not been one Ward addition since 1980. Their unit count in 1980 was 9 units and it is down to 6 today. And in the last Stake we lived in they have gone from 6 units to 5 despite the population growth in the Stake boundaries up almost 40,000 people since the Stake was created. My last Ward has an average attendance of 110 people each Sunday. When I was in the Bishopric we averaged 165 and that was only 8 years ago.

General population increasing, wards dissolving.