More Mormons moving from 'Easter disconnect' to Christian worship services [Vanity]

Colofornian | March 13, 2013 | Colofornian

[Colofornian]

Free Republic can no longer post Salt Lake Tribune based threads...but we can still link to them. Just last week, the Trib ran this very significant article:

Mormons increasingly drawn to Holy Week rituals

In other words, Mormons are attending Christian church services during Holy Week! (And they love the services there!)

To understand this, you have to understand the backdrop -- the vacuum of Jesus and the cross within Mormonism:

1. BYU study: Disconnect between Mormons and Easter

In this article, published by the Mormon church owned Deseret News, it said that Easter has ”only 'lightly more planning than the Fourth of July,'

2. Preparing for Easter through Holy Week

From this article: While the LDS community does not formally observe Holy Week, the period from Palm Sunday to Easter morning… Suddenly I realized that my observance of Easter was rather pale by comparison…

For a fresh thread, see: Easter essays ['In the LDS church it never really hit me what Jesus did for me']

(Please also review:)

* What is the Significance of Easter for Mormons?

* Mormons have sub-par Easter services [testimony from a Mormon]

* Why don't Mormon's celebrate Easter? [Asked by a Mormon]

* Lent celebrated locally as Easter nears this month [Lent through eyes of Lds journalist]

Few Mormons wear crosses, depicting their aversion to it. For more on this, see:

* No-Cross Protocol ["New" Mormon tradition]

* Sunstone speaker attempts to explain LDS 'aversion' to cross [published by Mormon church owned Mormon Times]

[Biggirl]

Not really.

[svcw]

LDS Church Growth, Member Activity, and Convert Retention: Review and Analysis
Overall Growth Trends

Having defined basic terms and having identified core considerations in the analysis of church growth data, I will now critically review pertinent data relevant to LDS growth, convert retention, and member activity from a variety of sources.
Although I will make every effort to be objective in the analysis of data, space and time do not allow an exhaustive discussion of each study.
An entire article of this length could be written on each of the national censuses and major sociologic studies without fully exhausting their nuances.
I have focused on pointing out key considerations which are essential to accurate interpretation of the data.
The close convergence of findings from diverse sources corroborates the validity of the range of results and serves to negate claims that minor study nuances not considered here would significantly alter the overall conclusions.

Overall Growth Trends

The rapid growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been a frequent and recurring theme in the secular media.
The claim that the Church of Jesus Christ is the “world’s fastest growing church” has been repeated in the Los Angeles Times,[1] the Salt Lake Tribune,[2] The Guardian,[3] and other media outlets,[4] while sources claiming that the LDS Church is the “fastest growing in the United States” are too numerous to chronicle.
Sociologist Rodney Stark’s 1984 projection has been widely cited: “A 50 percent per decade growth rate, which is actually lower than the rate each decade since World War II, will result in over 265 million members of the Church by 2080”[5]. In Mormons in America, Claudia and Richard Bushman claimed, “Mormonism, one of the world’s fastest-growing Christian religions, doubles its membership every 15 years”[6].

Latter-day Saint media have also lauded rapid church growth. The LDS Church News has described international LDS growth with a litany of superlatives, including “astronomic,” “dynamic,” “miraculous,” and “spectacular.” The claim that the LDS Church is the “fastest growing church in the United States” has been repeated in the Ensign and LDS Church News.

Yet annual LDS growth rates have progressively declined from over 5 percent in the late 1980s to less than 3 percent from 2000 to 2005.[7] During this same period, other international missionary-oriented faiths have reported accelerating growth, including the Seventh-Day Adventists, Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, and Evangelical (5.6 percent annual growth)[8] and Pentecostal churches (7.3 percent annual growth). Since 1990, LDS missionaries have been challenged to double the number of baptisms, but instead the number of baptisms per missionary has halved. The average LDS missionary in 1989 brought 8 people into the church, while the mean number of annual baptisms per missionary averaged between 6.0 and 6.5 between 1985 and 1999. From 2000 to 2004, the average missionary experienced 4.5 convert baptisms. When one accounts for actual activity and retention rates, approximately 1.2 of the 4.5 converts baptized annually by the typical missionary will remain active. The sharp decline in LDS growth rates occurred even at times with record numbers of missionaries serving. This declining growth comes in spite of the LDS Church entering fifty-nine new nations for proselyting between 1990 and 2000.

For 2004, 241,239 LDS convert baptisms were reported, the lowest number of converts since 1987. The number of convert baptisms increased to 272,845 in 2006, but both missionary productivity and the total number of baptisms remained well below the levels of the early 1990s. Even more concerning is that only a fraction of baptized members remain active. Sociologist Armand Mauss stated that “75 percent of foreign [LDS] converts are not attending church within a year of conversion. In the United States, 50 percent of the converts fail to attend after a year”.[9] As 80 percent of LDS convert baptisms occur outside of the United States, this means that only 30% of LDS converts worldwide become active or participating members of the Church. Natural LDS growth has also fallen as the LDS birth rate has progressively declined. LDS church membership has continued to increase, but the rate of growth has slowed considerably.

[teppe]

Oops I have awakened the Non-Denomination Inquisitor General.

Teretullian condemned a similar belief to the Nicene Creed 100 years earlier which was known as Praxeous.

To demonstrate that his Christology in the 200s was spot on with the LDS beleif I will next post Exhibit “A” which includes Tertullians “Against Praxeus”

[teppe]

Exhibit “A”

Tertullian – Against Praxeas

Chapter II. “…were it only that it may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination and simply prejudiced; especially in the case of this (Praxeus) heresy, which supposes itself to posses the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person.”

Chapter IV: “…we have been already able to show that the Father and the Son are two separate Persons, not only by the mention of their separate names as Father and the Son, but also by the fact that He who delivered up the kingdom, and He to whom it is delivered up-and in like manner, He who subjected (all things), and He to whom they were subjected-must necessarily be two different beings.

Chapter VII: “Whatever, therefore, was the substance of the Word that I designate a Person, I claim for it the name of the Son; and while I recognize the Son, I assert His distinction as second to the Father.”

“… I confess that I call God and His Word- the Father and His Son-Two.”

Chapter IX: “Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son is one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other.”

Chapter X: “In like manner, in order to be a father, I have a son, for I never can be a son to myself; and in order to be a son, I have a father, it being impossible for me ever to be my own father.”

Chapter XI: “If you want me to believe Him to be both the Father and the Son, show me some other passage where it is declared ‘The Lord said unto Himself, I am my own Son, to-day have I begotten myself’ or again ‘Before the morning did I beget myself’.”

Chapter XII: “..according to John ‘The Word was God,’ then you have two Beings – One that commands that the thing be made, and the Other that executes the order and creates.”

[Colofornian]

Jesus never taught that the “triune” is the true God.

Do you mind explaining then, Tep, why Jesus said to baptize in the singular NAME of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost???

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (Matthew 28:19)

Why didn't Jesus use the plural "Names" if plurality was His main focus?

[JSDude1]

So uh if God isn’t a liar (and we know that He isn’t), and the Bible claims that Jesus is God; then what more needed to be accomplished after the Cross.

Don’t you remember Jesus when He died prayed to The Father “It is finished”?

To put it another way..let’s go to Ephesians 2:8-9. “For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and this NOT of yoursleves it is a GIFT of God”!

So salvation is by Grace right? (I am just asking your opinion).

[teppe]

No I God tells the Truth.

Jesus Christ said that he was the Son of God,

Jesus Christ prayed to his Father in Heaven

I take Christ at his word, your the one that twists his words and makes him a liar.

[teppe]

Colofornian

Find “Truine or Trinity” in the Bible.

Teretullian would consider you a heretic.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father .... just like he said! There’s no mystery here.

[svcw]

Read post 22, it is a study on the growth of momronism worldwide

[teppe]

how do I refresh FR so that I don’t have to go back to the main view to get the latest posts?

I only have a few minutes before I have to get back to work.

Colofornian ... sorry but debating you is so easy!

[JSDude1]

I merely quote scripture so you actually call God a liar.

For instance if I am a liar (and I agree with this: how do you explain).

JOhn 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”

[greyfoxx39]

....while every day another 5,000 to 10,0000 join the LDS church worldwide.

Let's see an actual source for that comment...oh wait...there isn't one.

Membership statics for mormonism

Major Religious Groups

#	Faith	Congregations	Active Members	Adherents	Percent	Annual Growth
1	Protestant	0	0	168000000	56.00%	0.91%
2	Catholic	0	0	84000000	28.00%	0.91%
3	Jewish	0	0	6000000	2.00%	0.91%
4	other	0	0	12000000	4.00%	0.91%
5	none	0	0	30000000	10.00%	0.91%
6	Jehovah's Witnesses	11426	988469	2153268	0.72%	0.91%
7	Seventh-day Adventists	4422	861954	1723908	0.57%	3.00%
8	Latter-day Saints	12753	2276268	5690672	1.897%	1.69%

Country religious adherents data courtesy of the World Factbook.LDS membership and unit data are derived from the LDS Church Almanac. Seventh-day Adventist statistics are from the Adventist yearbook statistical reports. Jehovah's Witness data are from the Jehovah's Witness yearly statistical report. Other data are from a variety of sources available upon request.

Extrinsic Religious Challenges and Opportunities: National and Cultural

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in United States

Official LDS Statistics LDS Members: 5690672 Missions: 106 Temples: 62 Stakes: 1390 Districts: 13 Wards: 10778 Branches: 1975 Total Congregations: 12753

Derived LDS Statistics Approx. Active Members: 2276268 Percentage of Members Attending Church Weekly: 40% Average members per congregation: 446 Average active members per congregation: 178 LDS, as percent of population: 1.8968% Active LDS, as percent of population: 0.7587% LDS, as percentage of churchgoers: 1.724% National population per LDS congregation: 23523

Annual LDS Membership Growth

#	Year	Members	Annual Growth Rate	Wards	Branches	Units	Unit Growth Rate	Proportionality Ratio
1	1976	2336715	0%	0	0	0	0%	0
2	1978	2486261	3.1%	0	0	0	0%	0
3	1980	2693765	4.01%	0	0	0	0%	0
4	1982	2882145	3.38%	0	0	0	0%	0
5	1984	3049965	2.83%	0	0	0	0%	0
6	1986	3863598	11.77%	0	0	0	0%	0
7	1988	4100000	2.97%	0	1226	1226	0%	0
8	1990	4175000	0.91%	7456	1286	8742	75.4%	82.857
9	1992	4336000	1.89%	8056	1405	9461	3.94%	2.084
10	1994	4520000	2.08%	8433	1580	10013	2.83%	1.36
11	1996	4712000	2.08%	8719	1698	10417	1.97%	0.947
12	1998	4923000	2.19%	9189	1622	10811	1.85%	0.844
13	2000	5113409	1.9%	9627	1688	11315	2.27%	1.194
14	2002	5310598	1.89%	9999	1732	11731	1.8%	0.952
15	2004	5503192	1.78%	10357	1755	12112	1.59%	0.893
16	2006	5690672	1.67%	10778	1975	12753	2.57%	1.538

LDS membership and unit data 1976-2000 from Mark Davies' WW-LDS.

Proportionality Ratio is the ratio of the increase in units to the increase in membership. A ratio of 1 means that membership and church units are growing at the same rate.

National Population and LDS Growth Rates

Current LDS Membership Growth Rate: 1.67%

Current LDS Unit Growth Rate: 2.57%

Annual Population Growth Rate: 0.91%

Relative LDS Population Growth Rate (LDS membership growth rate minus population growth rate): 0.75%

Intrinsic Challenges and Opportunities of the Church of Jesus Christ

Convert Retention and Member Activity

While LDS activity rates in the United States are among the highest of any country in the world, less than half of members on the rolls are active. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism reports: 'Canada, the South Pacific, and the United States average between 40 percent and 50 percent [attendance at sacrament meeting].' (Source: Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1527.)

Marginal retention of new converts, and especially potential priesthood holders, remains a serious challenge:

'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.' (source: Lowell C. Bennion and Lawrence Young, Dialogue, Spring 1996, p.19.)

[teppe]

So? the Lord Jesus Christ has blessed his church with unprecidented growth?

And we didn’t force anyone at point of death to join like you Nicene Chrstians did!

[svcw]

If you beleive Jesus, then why don’t you beleive it when He said “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35).
Was He lying?
If He was not lying then Smith was lying, they both can not be telling the truth.

[Colofornian]

So greyfoxx39 when were you a former LDS Member? When did you join? When did you apostasize? And what sins did you commit that caused you to lose the spirit of the Holy Ghost?

ALL: If you go to the Mormon link below, you'll see that Mormon Teppe's accusational interrogative approach toward fellow Mormons who have left the church is quite typical of false assumptions made:

400: Top 5 Myths and Truths about Why Committed Mormons Leave the Church

[teppe]

Again I ask .... was Tertullian’s Lord Jesus Christ closer to yours or mine?

Undoubtedly mine. What was Tertullians Heresy has become your focus of worship!

As proof, I give you Tertullians own words....

Tertullian – Against Praxeas

Chapter II. “…were it only that it may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination and simply prejudiced; especially in the case of this (Praxeus) heresy, which supposes itself to posses the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person.”

Chapter IV: “…we have been already able to show that the Father and the Son are two separate Persons, not only by the mention of their separate names as Father and the Son, but also by the fact that He who delivered up the kingdom, and He to whom it is delivered up-and in like manner, He who subjected (all things), and He to whom they were subjected-must necessarily be two different beings.

Chapter VII: “Whatever, therefore, was the substance of the Word that I designate a Person, I claim for it the name of the Son; and while I recognize the Son, I assert His distinction as second to the Father.”

“… I confess that I call God and His Word- the Father and His Son-Two.”

Chapter IX: “Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son is one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other.”

Chapter X: “In like manner, in order to be a father, I have a son, for I never can be a son to myself; and in order to be a son, I have a father, it being impossible for me ever to be my own father.”

Chapter XI: “If you want me to believe Him to be both the Father and the Son, show me some other passage where it is declared ‘The Lord said unto Himself, I am my own Son, to-day have I begotten myself’ or again ‘Before the morning did I beget myself’.”

Chapter XII: “..according to John ‘The Word was God,’ then you have two Beings – One that commands that the thing be made, and the Other that executes the order and creates.”

[teppe]

Again I ask .... was Tertullian’s Lord Jesus Christ closer to yours or mine?

Undoubtedly mine. What was Tertullians Heresy has become your focus of worship!

As proof, I give you Tertullians own words....

Tertullian – Against Praxeas

Chapter II. “…were it only that it may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination and simply prejudiced; especially in the case of this (Praxeus) heresy, which supposes itself to posses the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person.”

Chapter IV: “…we have been already able to show that the Father and the Son are two separate Persons, not only by the mention of their separate names as Father and the Son, but also by the fact that He who delivered up the kingdom, and He to whom it is delivered up-and in like manner, He who subjected (all things), and He to whom they were subjected-must necessarily be two different beings.

Chapter VII: “Whatever, therefore, was the substance of the Word that I designate a Person, I claim for it the name of the Son; and while I recognize the Son, I assert His distinction as second to the Father.”

“… I confess that I call God and His Word- the Father and His Son-Two.”

Chapter IX: “Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son is one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other.”

Chapter X: “In like manner, in order to be a father, I have a son, for I never can be a son to myself; and in order to be a son, I have a father, it being impossible for me ever to be my own father.”

Chapter XI: “If you want me to believe Him to be both the Father and the Son, show me some other passage where it is declared ‘The Lord said unto Himself, I am my own Son, to-day have I begotten myself’ or again ‘Before the morning did I beget myself’.”

Chapter XII: “..according to John ‘The Word was God,’ then you have two Beings – One that commands that the thing be made, and the Other that executes the order and creates.”

[svcw]

Not one time in my life have I ever said “convert or die”....so unmormon like to accuse me of killing people.

[teppe]

Sorry I have to go

But remember ... Tertullian knew more about Christ than the Pagan Emperor Constantine and his partially dictated “Nicene Creed”

Sorry to know that you would trash Tertullians beliefs and embrace the Pagan Emperor Constantines.

[svcw]

Interestingly all the studies even those conducted by SLC lds themselves are not believed by certain people.
But what can on except when that one calls God and Jesus a liars. ((shrug))