Trends in LDS Church Growth; “This treatise illustrates the folly of neglecting the word of the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants concerning the need for investigators to make themselves ready for baptism. There are more active Jehovah’s Witnesses in the countries of Georgia or Armenia than active Latter-day Saints in all of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russia together. There are less than 100,000 active Latter-day Saints in all of Europe, including the United Kingdom. In comparison, there are over 1.4 million proselytizing Jehovah’s Witnesses in Europe, and 2.7 million who attend Jehovah’s Witness conferences. …
Mission policies are highly heterogeneous, yet much of the LDS retention problem stems from missionary approaches that emphasize quick baptism, often at the expense of the conversion process. Most individuals have read very little in the Book of Mormon at the time of baptism and have been to church only once or twice. Not surprisingly, one-year retention in most missions church-wide is below 40% …”
More from Cumorah.com “…about 20% of worldwide membership is on the address unknown file. However, this estimate is conservative considering the United States has one of the most organized and proactive lost member finding efforts.
The address unknown file presents a picture of a larger church presence in most nations than in actuality…”
Acts 2:42–47; “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers…47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
Strategic planning and being prepared for missions is always a good thing – that is, if you have the correct gospel! We read in His word how God is the One who adds to the church, not mankind. He did this because followers and investigators alike ‘continued in the apostles’ doctrine’.
Don’t forget that Smith’s idea of the gospel wasn’t a small diversion of what the original apostles taught. Oh no, Smith went headlong into a perverse world and pit of darkness, turning his back on all concepts of God’s gospel.
Tragically, Malcolm Twigg, the man who hosts the website from where we retrieved this info, has followed Smith into that very same pit. You can read more of his devotion to the prophet here.
Internally, the LDS Church has lamented over its chronically high turnover rate, and trends in the past few decades don’t indicate that change is soon to come. You’ll notice in the analysis above how most converts have read very little of the Book of Mormon at the time of baptism. This man’s analysis, or treatise as he called it, tells us a few things.
1.God’s word is powerful and doesn’t contradict itself which means His HS is working inside of us daily as He reveals Himself and holds tight to us – Hebrews 4:12.
2.True believers hunger and thirst for His word – especially new believers. They spend major portions of their days reading and studying what God has to say.
3.The BoM is full of holes and contradictions which means it isn’t truth – Galatians 1:6-9.
4.God never files His children into an ‘address unknown file’. The old saying that He’s the ‘hound of heaven’ is indicative of His HS always being there with us no matter where we go.
5.Moreover, true believers know better than to stray from the body of Christ. They instinctively know through the work of His HS the importance of being in fellowship with other believers so they can glean further insight about Him.
6.Indicators from what this man has provided tells us that Mormon converts give up trying to figure out what the BoM says and eventually lost interest in it, or they’ve figured out it’s all a sham.
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