Mormon Messages on YouTube Reaching Millions

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ^ | December 3, 2009

[Saundra Duffy]

SALT LAKE CITY 3 December 2009 Since the launch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Mormon Messages channel on YouTube in August 2008, its influence has grown to reach millions. Situated among the endless variety of videos available on YouTube, the dozens of videos currently available on Mormon Messages have been viewed a total of 7.5 million times.

During the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, the Church posted a Mormon Messages video showing random people on the streets of New York City sharing a variety of responses to one simple question: “What are you thankful for?” The video become so popular so quickly that it was featured twice on the front page of YouTube. After two weeks, nearly 300,000 had viewed the video.

Last month, the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City, a local chapter of a larger organization, named the Mormon Messages channel the “Best Use of YouTube” during its 2009 awards ceremony. The judges said it was “a great use of a very accessible media medium for an organization with a growing global audience” and remarked that “regardless of your position or affiliation, being a good person, as exemplified by content on this YouTube channel, is universal.”

But the real impact the videos are having is even more apparent in the thousands of positive comments that come from their viewers. The videos reach a wide audience with inspirational messages that can be viewed in a variety of settings. Viewers in over 190 countries have watched the messages.

One individual who left a comment on a Mormon Messages video about finding hope after September 11th said he was “sitting waiting for my next class… and this video is almost bringing me to tears.” Another viewer commented on a video featuring President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “I'm not a Mormon…but I adore the message in this video and believe it's universal…we all should understand we were created to create, to give, to live, to grow. This is the road to true happiness!”

“The comments we’ve received in response to the channel have been overwhelmingly positive,” said Dallas Petersen, the project manager for Mormon Messages. “Viewers are continually asking for more of these videos.”

A new video for the Mormon Messages channel is produced about every two weeks. They’re featured on the home page of lds.org, the Church’s official Web site, and on the official Mormon Messages Facebook page. Some of the traffic to the videos comes as a result of Church members posting them on their personal Facebook pages or on Twitter. The short length and uplifting messages of the videos make them ideal for sharing on the Internet.

To date, 38 videos have been produced and many have been translated into Spanish. Topics include Jesus Christ, hope, fatherhood, creativity and perseverance. While some videos are meant to coincide with a specific event or season, others are more timeless.

Some videos, such as one featuring Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s address about Jesus Christ that was posted during the Easter 2009 weekend, are particularly timely and relevant. Elder Holland’s message was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in a matter of days and became the top viral video on the Internet during the Easter weekend.

"Our hope would be that the Church members would first be inspired by these messages," said David Nielson, managing director of the Audiovisual Department of the Church. "Secondly, that they would desire to share these messages with friends and family, both member and nonmember, through the various media channels that are now available."

[Elsie]

The stuff the Missionaries (and often members) WON’T tell you.

We are not being deceptive; we didn't know this stuff EITHER!

--MormonDupe(That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!)

[Elsie]

http://wesclark.com/ubn/

Stake President XXXXXXXXXXXX X XXXXXXX

Fill in your OWN blank

[Tennessee Nana]

Nana: 3. How many actually attend a service on Sunday ??? Count them just once...

TP: About 40% attend at least one service on Sunday.
____________________________________________________

Again with the 5,200,000 members

and about 2,600,000 in the US...

So every member attending a meeting on Sunday is a card carrying templ recommend member ???

You sure ???

Its possible to be refused a TR for admitting to a glass of iced tea...

[Elsie]

Thought control at its finest.

Well.. it IS biblical!

Besides; MY bishop calls it ACCOUNTABILITY.

--MormonDube(how do YOU guys get rid of those, those THOUGHTS?)

[Tennessee Nana]

Nana: 9. How many of those 13 million are actually still alive and not dead and still carried on the rolls ???

TP: I am sure there are some at any given time that have died and are “still on the rolls.” However, the church is very determined regarding record keeping, and this is a very small number.
_____________________________________________________

Thank you for that admission...

But as the dead members are kept on the rolls until they are 110 and thats a good 30-50 years in most cases after they die ...

and the dead members can add up over the last 40 years...

it is probably a LARGE number...

Even long dead “prophets” are still full members...

[Elsie]

The vast majority is the failings of the unpaid humans that are running things.

I guess "ya get what ya pay for" is true!

[reaganaut]

Adam Ondi Ahman. lol

[Tennessee Nana]

Nana: 10. How many of those 13 million are still active TBM and not exmos who cant get their names taken off the rolls ???

TP: When I was ward clerk I saw this process up close. It can be difficult for folks to get their names off the rolls.
_____________________________________________________

Then you’d be just the girl to ask ...

Why ???

Since the mormons claim that few of them leave I would think the amount of paperwork is scanty...

And today a simple DELETE would take the “apostates” out of the your system...

Since the title of this article and thread is “Mormon Messages on YouTube Reaching Millions,” it would appear that the mormon leadership is computer savvy...

[Elsie]

21 How do you explain the fact that 2 Nephi 16:2 is copied from an older version of the KJV of the Bible in Isa 6:2? This is proven because this older KJV (the mistake is corrected in current versions) made a rare gramatical error by using the incorrect plural form of “seraphims” rather than “seraphim”.

That's because GOD did not want to confuse people who knew his word in the KJV.

--MormonDude(Well; it makes sense to ME!)

[Tennessee Nana]

I must have been right on the mark for 4 through 8...

[reaganaut]

it would be funny if it weren’t so true.

BTW, the mishies showed up at my SIL’s this AM, she was on her way to work so she didn’t get to have much fun. I told her if they come back, tell them to come back after the first of the year when I will be there. :)

[reaganaut]

Actually, there is about a 40% attendance rate but only half of those are “temple attenders”. There are many who hold recommends but never attend the temple, especially if you live more than 2 hours from it. So your temple numbers are closer to a little over 1 million from the stats I have seen.

Hey, tadpole, how many name removals have you processed as Ward Clerk? Will you be honest about that?

[reaganaut]

P: When I was ward clerk I saw this process up close. It can be difficult for folks to get their names off the rolls.
_____________________________________________________

Then you’d be just the girl to ask ...

Why ???

Since the mormons claim that few of them leave I would think the amount of paperwork is scanty...

- - - - - - - - - -

Tadpole, how then do you explain why in some wards the process only takes a few weeks (often less than the 30 days, if it is stated in the resignation letter that the requestor waives the 30 day period) and in some wards (even when records have already been transferred) the process can take Months and even up to a year.

It really isn’t that hard to change a record from “member” to “non-member”, records are not deleted BTW.

[greyfoxx39]

Certainly, there are some 40-50% included in the 13 million that avoid contact with the church, and therefore their passing on might remain unnoticed for a while.

So, if 40-50% avoid contact with the church, meaning they don't attend, don't pay tithing, may have joined other churches, can you tell me just why the mormon church boasts of having 13 million members? If I don't attend my Christian church for a period of a year or two, don't have contact with it, my membership is dropped....and I don't have to go through a legalistic formal request to be considered a nonmember.

It seems extremely arrogant of the mormon church that it demands a member who wishes to break contact and be considered a nonmember must register a formal "request" to do so.

Reminds me of "The Hotel California", "You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!" .

[T. P. Pole]

I wasn't talking to you specifically, even though you were automatically the pinged person. I was talking to the folks that responded to your post (i.e. posts 53, 54, 55, 63) that were acting as if it was real. And, of course, to any lurkers.

You certainly have enough to point to at the LDS church without making things up.

[T. P. Pole]

I must have been right on the mark for 4 through 8...

Actually, I didn't know the answer to #4, and was too lazy to look it up. Therefor, I couldn't answer 5 and 6. As for the rest, I just didn't have the time to write an answer.

[Tennessee Nana]

OK

We’ll just put you down in the Milk Only column...

[T. P. Pole]

So now we are down to 5,200,000 mormons ...

My guess would have been about 5 mil, so sure.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Someone fudged the numbers... as in error, mistakes...lyin for the mormon lord...

Strawman

and half of them are said to live in the US.. So thats 2,600,000 mormons going to the temple in the US ?? Is that right ???

No, mormons have big families, and only those over 18 regularly go to the temple. And as someone else stated, not everyone goes regularly. I live about 90 minutes from a temple and can only make it a couple of times a year.

[T. P. Pole]

Re: 13 million are living members and not counting those baptised for the dead.

My ward has two to three youth temple baptism trips a year (btw, I tend to go to these on top of the couple of trips a year I mention in another post). We average 15-20 youth, and each averages 10 proxy baptisms.

The temple averages one similar youth trip a week.

So, our ward is responsible for, say 400+ a year, and the temple does about 20,000 a year. You can quickly see that the numbers would far exceed the 13 million even if the temples are only doing half of the numbers our ward is doing.

[T. P. Pole]

So every member attending a meeting on Sunday is a card carrying templ recommend member ???

No, but about 80% of those over 18 year old are. No idea what the true number is church wide, but having see the actual numbers in 3 ward (in three stakes in two different states) I have no reason to believe there is significant difference across the US.