Youn couples as temple patrons & temple attendance

[_Jason Bourne]

Inaccurate?

Yep

What lense are you looking through?

Did you read my post? I told you what lense I was looking through.

The bretheren are completely confused at the outcome.

They are? And you know this how?

Dot the world with temples and you see a temporary boost in participation. Once the newness fades, the church clearly sees that members don't want to spend their afternoons changing clothes in the temple.

I gave you some local emprical evidence that demonstrates that for my ward and stake the small temple increased participation. All you have done is give your opinion. Do you have some hard data?

Year after year attendance continues to be lackluster.

Evidence and source please.

Sure, endowments are up a touch from before the temple building boom,

Thus temple attendance in overall, not down as you suggest.

but that wasn't the projected plan at all.

What was the plan? I thought is was to bring temples closer and make it more convenient for people to attend. It seems this has been accomplished.

Especially considering the incredible construction and ongoing maintenance costs. We all tightened our belts so that these temples could be erected and endowment sessions were going to sky rocket. How could the failure of this plan be any more pronounced

How did we all tighten our belt. The temples were constructed out of general funds I thought. As for session sky rocketing are you sure you are not setting up a stray man here? I am sure the church leaders hoped for an increase but sky rocket???

[_Jason Bourne]

Hi Jason,

I would not be surprised at the church attempting this method to get more folks to attend the temple but I hardly think it qualifies as having another stick to beat with.

I disagree. Look at how all were ready to believe the Church in general was ready to use some strong arm tactic to get people out to the temple. But we find that it was a local initiative. And such local efforts are not uncommon and tend to come and go.

From my experience and observation temple attendance is very low... I've been in wards where they are trying all sorts of ideas to get the attendance up.

Can you tell us what your experience really is? I already showed how at least locally temple attendance increased when we got a small temple.

Do you go to the temple?

Yes

One time they had a big poster in Relief Society with the names of all the women in the ward and a checklist by their names where they kept track of who was going to the temple and how many times they attended.

Such pushes on a local level not new at all.

There are ward monthly temple nights, a stake temple night, and lots of encouragment to attend the temple.

And this is new to you? We always have had such encouragement to attend.

[_Jason Bourne]

The church requests folks to sign up to clean the building, people don't so they make assignments.

Yep. Common for ever.

The church asks members to go to the temple, they don't so they "call" some as patrons.

Perhaps.

I just do not see it as a big deal.

I agree. Nothing new. So why are people acting like to sky is falling and the Church is desperate?

[_Runtu]

Our temple president in Houston, former GA William Bradford, came up with a novel idea to fill the temple, as it has normally been almost completely empty and unused. Stakes are assigned to fill all the temple sessions for two days, including baptisms, sealings, and initiatories. They sent a sign-up sheet around the ward and expected you to sign up for specific time slots and ordinances. The assignment for our stake was on a Tuesday and Wednesday, and people were expected to take vacation time to fulfill the assignment. My wife spent half a day in the temple, not including the 90-mile drive each way.

[_Maxrep]

Jason,

I think hard data on temple attendance is not accessable to the average member.

We both could agree that attendance levels are a bit more than just disappointing to church leadership, no?

[_Jason Bourne]

Jason,

I think hard data on temple attendance is not accessable to the average member.

We both could agree that attendance levels are a bit more than just disappointing to church leadership, no?

Agreed. I think it could be better. And of course my reference was just to our local temple and for our stake. I do not know about the other stakes in our district. The temple is not only in my stake but in my ward so I guess I would expect my ward to have more attendance and more ordinance workers then others. I know our Temple Pres has been trying to drum up more business.