Posted on 01/28/2013 2:16:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
In light of the skyrocketing popularity of Mormonism in the United States helped along by the Broadway Musical, "The Book of Mormon", Mitt Romney and your nice Mormon neighbors I thought it would be good to recycle this five year old article I wrote. The thesis? Mormons do better youth ministry than the average Protestant church! Read on and see if you agree with me…
"Let's face it. Most of us look at the clean cut Mormon missionaries that peddle the streets of our city and knock on the doors of our houses as somewhat out of date. Although they are kind and well spoken young men, when they knock on our doors we either don't answer or tell them we are already Christians who reject Mormonism and bid them good day. We think to ourselves how "behind the times" these young people are forced to be when they are required to do door-to-door evangelism for their religion. We reflect on how grateful we are that we have the truth once and for all delivered to the saints. We may even think about how much more superior our youth ministry strategies are compared to theirs.
Or are they?
-Mormons expect a lot out of their teenagers. We don't.
-Mormons ordain their young men into the ministry at the age of twelve. We don't.
-Mormons require their teens to attend seminary every day of high school. We don't.
-Mormons ask for two years in the field of every graduating senior. We don't.
Maybe that's why we don't meet a lot of ex-Mormons, while there are hundreds of thousands of former church attendees in the true church of Jesus Christ (of everyday saints) who flee the church after graduating from high school.
Maybe that's why Mormons give more, work harder and are exploding as a religion. In 1985 there were 4.5 million Mormons and now there are over 12 million.
When many of our teens graduate from high school, they grab their books and a beer and go off to the college dorm (A.K.A. "The Party Zone"). When Mormon teens graduate from high school they grab a backpack and a bike pump and go off on a mission.
They know what they believe and why they believe it. They've hammered out their theology on our doorsteps. Their souls and minds have been steeled and sealed into Mormon orthodoxy through their fanatical commitment to the accomplishment of their version of the Great Commission.
Meanwhile we compress most of our mission work into one week in Mexico once every year or two. And even that is comprised mostly of building houses, not necessarily advancing the kingdom of God and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a great line in the movie Braveheart where Robert the Bruce is commenting on William Wallace to his father. He says, "He believes. I want to believe like he believes."
When I look at the Mormons I think to myself, "They believe. I want to believe like they believe." Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to believe what they believe. Mormon theology is far from what the Bible says about Jesus, God, sin and salvation. It is, by no means, a truly Christian religion.
Having said that, Mormonism pushes their kids harder and takes them deeper and farther than even the most ardent of evangelical youth ministries would ever dare.
Can you imagine a youth group that challenged every teen in the youth ministry to meet at 6am every day of the school year for a class on Christianity? That's exactly what Mormons do with their high schoolers and their belief system!
We get excited if once a year at 7:15am, while Mormon teens are coming back from their daily seminary lesson on Mormonism, our teens gather around a pole and pray.
I'm not saying that we copy the Mormons specific strategy. I can't foresee our teenagers racing Mormons to the door in a battle of the bicycles. Nor do I believe the answer lies in a daily early morning class. We don't need to copy their strategy. We do, however, need to adopt their philosophy.
We need to push our teens. We need to turn them into active activists. We need to build consistent opportunities for service, outreach and training. We need to equip them to share their faith and then go with them, leading the way. After all, we are youth leaders.
Somebody may accuse me of looking at this as some sort of competition. It is. We are in a competition with Satan for the souls of our young people. And we are getting our rears kicked.
My problem is not with the Mormons. It's with us. Let's learn from the Mormons and turn our kids into missionaries. Armed with the power of the true gospel our teens could mount a comeback and help us win this thing.
Game on."
__________________________
Greg Stier is the Founder and President of Dare 2 Share Ministries International. He has impacted the lives of tens of thousands of Christian teenagers through Dare 2 Share events, motivating and mobilizing them to reach their generation for Christ. He is the author of eleven books and numerous resources, including Dare 2 Share: A Field Guide for Sharing Your Faith. For more information on Dare 2 Share and their upcoming conference tour and training resources, please visit www.dare2share.org.
Because if the want to be Gods with their own planet ..they have to follow the rules and work their butt off
She would make a great politician - she was very good at answering the question she wanted to answer rather than the one that was asked.
Oh, sorry, I guess I didn’t make myself clear. There’s a lot of “Mormons are going to hell” on this site and it is sickening. Mormons are Christians, believing that through the Atoning Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can be saved. Thanks for giving me the chance to clarify. There’s just so much anti Mormon postings on this site, it’s hard to get through.
Analysis of existing data on LDS member activity from official sources, national censuses, and other existing sociologic data lead to several key conclusions.
First, less than half of individuals claimed as members by the LDS Church worldwide identify the LDS Church as their faith of preference. The percentage varies from the mid-sixties in the United States to 20-27% in Latin America. The low correlations between official membership claims and self-identified religious affiliations in Latin American nations that account for the majority of non-U.S. LDS membership make it statistically impossible for this ratio worldwide to reach the 50% threshold. If neighboring nations with similar political and cultural circumstances demonstrate trends similar those of larger nations from which data are available, approximately 40% of individuals claimed as members by the LDS Church worldwide identify the Church as their faith of preference.
Second, as actual member activity and participation rates are always lower than self-identified rates of religious affiliation, existing data suggests that the number of Latter-day Saints attending church worldwide on an average Sunday cannot exceed 30% of official membership figures, and is likely closer to the upper twenties. Idiosyncratic definitions of "activity" that include members who attend irregularly or who identify the LDS Church as their faith of preference may lead to slightly higher figures not to exceed the 40% ratio of self-identified religious preference to official membership statistics, but such broader definitions are not reflective of weekly church attendance.
Third, the LDS missionary program has not been as effective in either the United States or in international areas as one would like to believe. Although convert baptisms outpace baptisms of member children by a factor of nearly three to one worldwide and are near parity in the United States, more than three-quarters of Americans identifying themselves as Latter-day Saints in independent sociologic studies are lifelong members. Such figures imply very high attrition of U.S. converts, as most nominal converts fail to become active or participating members. Data from Latin America, the Philippines, and other international areas demonstrate that three quarters of converts are entirely lost to the church within a year after baptism. While raw LDS membership numbers may appear impressive on paper, these numbers have only a fractional relationship to the far more modest number of converts who have experienced a genuine, lasting, and life-changing conversion and who experience the blessings of active participation in the work of the Church. The available evidence suggests that the primary responsibility for these fractional retention rates lie with quick-baptize tactics which have traditionally focused more on meeting monthly baptismal goals than on ensuring that converts have been adequately prepared for baptism. Recent missionary program changes with the "Preach My Gospel" manual have led to at least some improvements in these trends, although significant problems and challenges remain unaddressed.
Finally, great care is needed in researching, analyzing, and reporting activity and retention data. Pitfalls abound, and available data must be carefully scrutinized to ensure that it is well understood before valid conclusions can be drawn.
Activity Rates
While no regular reports of LDS activity rates are published, activity rate ranges for each country are based on the following published references, as well as from numerous inquiries to members, and returned missionaries, and mission homes in various areas.
"Attendance at sacrament meeting varies substantially. Asia and Latin America have weekly attendance rates of about 25 percent, Europe averages about 35 percent" (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1527.)
"Canada, the South Pacific, and the United States average between 40 percent and 50 percent." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1527.)
As noted above, activity (almost 10 years ago) was as high as 35% in some areas. Recently I've received a personal correspondance from an LDS professor who has done a study in major cities of Western Europe (I have not received permission to cite his name, although the data was presented at the Mormon History Association conference in Copenhagen in June 2000). He found 20-30% activity rates in most of the major European cities he visited.
We have collected considerable recent activity rate data from missions, recently returned missionaries, and local members in many countries. However, as no official activity rates have been published for a number of years, listed activity rates should be considered to be well-researched estimates based on a variety of sources, and not as official church statistics. As such, activity rate estimates for individual countries may have some error (generally within 5%), but are likely to be very close to the real numbers. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of listed figures. If you have additional data, please submit it for consideration on the respective country pages.
Advancement to Melchizedek Priesthood
"For the U.S. as a whole, only 59% of baptized males ever receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. In the South Pacific, the figure drops to 35%; in Great Britain, 29%. In Mexico (with almost 850,000 members) the figure is 19%; and in Japan, only 17% of the male members ever make it past the Aaronic Priesthood. (Lowell C. Bennion and Lawrence Young, Dialogue, Spring 1996, p.19.)
Temple marriage data:
"The percentage of adults in a temple marriage varies from about 45 percent in Utah to less than 2 percent in Mexico and Central America." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1531)
"For all of South America, with 2.25 million members, less than 1.8% of the total adult membership has been married in the temple." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1532.)
Membership data on this site is from published figures in the LDS Church Almanac, or from more recent local sources, where available.
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