LDS Inc is taking the wrong strategy with online missionary work.

1) The internet is a loosing battleground for them. Let's face it - an area of open communication and the ability to review all sides of the issue does not stand in their favor. I'm sure what they are hoping to do is mask and hide the other side of the story on the internet but this will not be successful. In fact the silly dogmatic answers given by the lay church members and young missionaries online will just make the church look trite. Even FAIR which has a higher level of contributor does the same.

2) The way LDS inc brings people in is "high touch". They get converts by creating the personal connection and heartsell. This is how they are effective. People joining do so largely for social reasons. They have close friends, family, or a romantic interest who is Mormon and/or they develop a very tight knit relationship with the missionaries. The internet is "low touch".

The church is playing to their recruitment weaknesses not strengths.

Same goes for church tours. They have misread their numbers that those who received a tour were more likely to join. They failed to apply the appropriate data for why these people joined - my guess is its not because the tours inspired these people, but only because those who received the tours were already more likely to join - who else would go on such a tour?

No one is going to be that interested in such tours and they certainly wouldn't be super excited and inspired by it. This really is just going to be another guilt trip for the members because they aren't going to want to have their friends tour the ward buildings, but will feel guilted to do so. It may be effective for missionaries to take investigators through before attending church for the first time to make them feel less anxious about attending, but that is the only potential benefit.

As others have stated. Were the church smart at all they would have the missionaries fill the unproductive time with true community service. That would increase their "high touch" approach and even as a strong church critic I would have to grudgingly admit that was a least a positive contribution.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 11:00AM by The Oncoming Storm - bc.

It's also aimed at only a portion of the world's population. It leaves out all the people without web access. But the church would prefer more middle- and upper-class members -- you know, the ones who can pay more tithing than poor people can.

Arguably that is smart target marketing.

I know this sounds counter intuitive for an anonymous online world, but I believe the quality of being authentic online is very important. If you have a hidden agenda, or if you present your organization as being something it is not, there are millions of really smart people looking critically at you.

An organization's hidden agenda will eventually be sniffed out and exposed. An organization that habitually abuses vulnerable people will be exposed, and its abusive practices will be analyzed in detail.

Share a genuine, spontaneous moment with the world, like a cat video or a baby laughing, and it could easily go viral and have millions of positive views. I think it goes viral because it's real. Say one thing online and do another in the real world, and you will be exposed and punished mercilessly.

So, yes, the internet is an inherently dangerous place for a secretive organization like LDS, Inc.

Which is why I am genuinely excited about this "historic" announcement.


Anagrammy

BC I saw another post in a different forum from a poster who said he was an SEO expert. His take was that, to him, this entire "historic" program was only about SEO. Deceptively getting every member to do SEO ranking work for free would drive down the ranking of so-called anti- sites over time and decrease their effects. I am not a computer geek (but others are) what do you think of this analysis?

I don't know if it is the main objective, but I do think that it is a large factor. Control the message.

I think that the move to lower the missionary age was done soley to keep the youngsters off the internet and away from the "anti" material available in that one, vulnerable year away from the confines of the family when so many of them were able to seek answers to their questions. Now, they are "giving" them technology - but under careful control. Just like missions for years have really been about re-programming the thinking of the missionary, this is no different. They are being "taught" how to use the internet "safely", how to conform to the "benevolent" wishes/needs of the bretheren. They are being "re-programmed" by the church (or, so the church thinks).

If at the same time all these missionaries are flooding the 'net with their "pro"-mormon inquiries they are washing out all the "anti" sites, so much the better.

Killing two birds with the same stone.

^nailed it +1

Could be. I'm pretty sure the church and affiliates are already spending a lot of money on SEO. It will be interesting to see how it is implemented and see if it is systematically applied in the right way to impact SEO. Even if this is the attempt I think its going to backfire. Exposing more people and making more noise on the internet is just going to have the effect of exposing more members and missionaries to exactly what they don't want them to see.

However in conjunction with the 13 essays and more coming out it definitely fits in with their wanting to control the message on the internet. That is definitely their game - I just anticipate it will blow up in their faces.

They are picking the wrong battlefront. Their path to success is the "high touche" and heartsell approach despite the information not being able to be controlled. I can tell you from personal experience there are plenty of TBMs that are effectively mind controlled enough that no evidence or information matters. Their key to success is to win the battle on that front. With the internet and open communication the 1984 approach of revisionist history approach is lost to them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 03:11PM by The Oncoming Storm - bc.

the discerning ppl who go on a tour will notice One Thing:

how sterile the buildings/rooms are.

To 'anyone' who has attended a church with a casual teen room, a nursery with decorated walls (cartoon characters, etc) the staleness of the LDS presentation will be a HUGE turn-off.

No 'stage' for a musical group? bummer; people worshipping thru music (congregation members) give a kinetic expression to their faith, NEVER to be seen in Morland.

Giant Fail.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 12:15PM by guynoirprivateeye.

There will be a surge of tours given in the next 6 months or so and then it will die off to almost nothing other than missionaries adding it to part of their standard process with their investigators.

The brethren and the brainwashed just can't see through others' eyes. Not only will the blandness of the building be a turn-off, the art will too. Seeing white, romance-novel-cover Jesus, with his movie-idol eyes, ministering to adoring white children and his white followers is laughable to many people. Depictions of shining, brilliant Jesus illustrate how grandly Mormons think of themselves (Jesus is me as a movie star!). Adorning the walls of a totalitarian-styled building that would make Soviets proud, the pictures are giggle-inducing. It's like how all these fascist-inspired schools of indoctrination for children in Utah County have got "liberty" or "freedom" in their names. It's a tell.

The Oncoming Storm - bc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This really is just going to
> be another guilt trip for the members because they
> aren't going to want to have their friends tour
> the ward buildings, but will feel guilted to do
> so.

Maybe they think it will make the member-janitors more motivated.

This whole plan the church has put together sounds like something a senile old man would put together.

I agree with the whole church tour line of reasoning. I served my mission during 09-ll, and the upper leadership definitely pushed church tours because statistics showed that about 1/3-ish of people who went on church tours got baptized. That showed true for me as well, but only because church tours were so hard to come by. What tscc fails to understand is that people who are more likely to be baptized are more likely to go on a church tour, not vice-versa.

Other Thoughts:

The whole Ward Mission Leader funneling members/referrals to the missionaries thing isn't new. (At least in my experience.) And it doesn't work. Every ward may have a handful of families that are actually willing to really do member missionary work, and they have a LIMITED supply of friends/neighbors who they have in all likelihood ALREADY tried to convert.

Mormonism isn't a wanted or needed product, and putting more pressure and guilt on the members to keep producing baptisms is only going to push them away.

As far as twenty Member Present Lessons taught to an investigator (aka MPL's) per week goes; good luck mishies. Back in 09, an apostle visited my mission and made a big push for twenty "lessons" per week. This included lessons taught to less-actives, recent-converts, and lessons taught to investigators WITHOUT a member present. I only hit twenty lessons per week with ONE of my companions consistently during my mission and it was mostly due to teaching less-actives.

I don't think the top 15 realize how hard it is to not only teach 20 investigator lessons per week, but to get a member to every one of them, when NO ONE is interested in converting to Mormonism.

Excellent points about high touch vs low touch.

The missionary age decrease protects the youth and insulates.
The church tours pull them off the street to protect and insulate.
The Internet builds the online presence and protects the brand, and insulates the youth. Two years from now the returned mishies will have a "been there done that" attitude about the Internet. They will have the same attitude we had about anti Mormon material before the Internet. We told ourselves we had seen and heard it all on our missions. These youth will have the same attitude. It's information control. Give them a story line to tow and control the Internet access. Control where they go. How best can they do this? Lock them up in the ward buildings in the guise of a "tour". We all know a ward house tour is as exciting as a saltine cracker. I'm sure the lines will be around the block!

The inoculation efforts of 4-5 years ago (ie Bushman rough stone rolling) have failed.

So now they must insulate.

The question the Mormons asked the PR consultants wasn't "how do we increase converts?"

It was how do we stop the erosion of our base and future base?
The answer seems to be to insulate them.

something 'New' has a certain appeal that beating the same horse doesn't. That's the chief attractant for a Lot of things in Morland.

I think the degradation of the LDS activities has really hurt their numbers. Their deprecation of social activities is loosening the ties members have to the church, making it easier to leave.

LDS, Inc. demands a lot from its members: tithing, callings, lots of meetings, seminary, missions, etc. LDS Bishops are expected to have full time jobs, which means Bishops are very stressed out and members get very little from their clergy. Members have large families and therefor little time to socialize outside church and family.

Since I quit going, two major decisions have hurt social activities:

1) They have cut ward budgets. This means cheaper and fewer ward and youth activities. How are you to bond with your fellow ward members if you never have a chance to interact with them socially?

Youth conference was something I looked forward to all year, and the way my niece's YC is going it sounds dreadful. Service projects in the heat with little fun time. Youth stay at home, reducing social time and increasing the ability to skip out. Without those fun youth activities, I probably would have gone to church less, not gone to BYU and not gone on a mission.

2) Firing janitors. This is a strange penny pinching decision. It demands more of members, damages property through poorer maintenance, and raises the obvious question: "where is tithing money going"? I would be very ticked to pay 10% of my income in tithing only to be asked to scrub toilets in my limited spare time.

If they really wanted people to see their fabulous chapels, why not have them properly cleaned? Wouldn't it be easier to get people to go to church BBQs and picnics if they had better social activities? Member missionary work would be a lot easier if the church cooperated by making the church a fun place to go.

This FB project seems doomed. To me it says that they don't know what to do with their extra missionaries from lowering the age, so they are wasting their time with social media. They are going to be playing on FB instead of pursuing college where they can play on FB for credit. ;)

I agree with you, Axeldc. If I were in charge of marketing for the church, the first thing that I would have them do is to return a lot more money to the wards for fun activities. And I would tell them that not every activity has to have a gospel purpose.

One of the strengths of the Mormon church is its tight-knit community. So bring back the ward suppers, the road shows, the dances, and the myriad of other activities that make being a Mormon much more palatable.

The church should forget about worthiness interview for youth dances. Heck, they should *want* for every non-Mormon to attend. The chief demographic that the church should be aiming for in its missionary efforts should be the 14-30 YSA group. There is a certain subset of that group that would love to have a wholesome, built-in social network. Give them what they want!

I have to wonder who is in charge of marketing efforts for the church. They are completely clueless.

I wonder if missionaries will now be tasked with cleaning buildings to ensure they are clean and presentable for the visitors that never arrive.

I wondered the same thing. I figured it would be full time job for some of the sister missionaries.

That would open up a new calling "Dear Sister XY you are here by called to serve at the cleaning mission in Salt Lake for 18 months report to the MTC in Provo..."

Yep, I think this means that the missionaries are about to become the new janitors. It will be packaged as something to do while you wait. Keep the building looking good for the tours.

That's the first thought that crossed my mind...

That never occurred to me, but as soon as you said it, I realized it is true.

They are losing members over the janitor issue and the buildings stink. What to do? Who in the church has the time?

Bingo!

The missionaries aren't doing squat, so let's have them fill their empty hours with mops and buckets.--not to improve their communities but to save us from having to hire back the janitors.

It's against the law- indentured servitude.


Anagrammy

I totally agree about them missing the boat again. The thosands who have been baptized in the last 50 years have been through relationship building.

TSCC cannot effectively fight the internet due to sheer scale. I wonder if the Wasatch Mountains blind the brethren in terms of how minutely insignificant they are to the rest of the world? They sit in their grand office building, overlooking beautiful temple square, and the holy Jesus Mall, and I wonder if they delude themselves into thinking they can make an impact with their measily missionary force. These kids aren't going to make an impact? The church is only .001% of the worlds population. 70K missionaries is .00001%. They cannot effectively reach 8 billion people in any signficant way. These kids are not apolgetic savy either. They don't have a clue. It's the beginning of the end. I had three Elders approach my door the other day. All I had to do was talk about the sheer lack of evidence of the BOM, and their eyes were glazed over in a second like a deer in the headlights.

This is the reason why they are totally missing the boat by not sending missionaries into the world to do actual humanitarian aid. They would have positive exposure helping to build schools and a million other things impoverished countries are so in need of.

They would be elevated to an actual church deserving of some respect in my eyes and possibly the world at large. But when have they ever done the right thing? The compassionate approach?

As believers in the message of Christ they are as shallow as they come.

The church is also overloading the membership. The GA's think that member devotion is a bottomless well.

It isn't.

A big part of this push is to get local members to provide enough good contacts so that the missionaries will no longer need to go door-to-door. Also,that the members will keep the local Ward House in good order for tours -- minus professional custodians -- and will be available at a moment's notice for missionary support.

The WML (Ward Mission Leader) is a key element in this process. But where will they find a sufficiently motivated person to do the job when they have already utilized their best people in Bishoprics, Quorum Presidencies, etc.?

Active ward members are already working overtime as it is.

Many former missionaries, even TBM's, will quietly admit that they occasionally have bad dreams about being called on a mission again, this program may look like another bad dream to them.

Inactivity numbers show that the well is already drying up...and the GA's are delusional. A mass of new missionaries may find empty jobs waiting.

This is so true. All you have to do is attend a priesthood opening exercises to see the fatigue. They ask for volunteers for the meaningless busy work of the week and no one raises their hand...