Church membership numbers not good.

[K Graham]

You mean to tell me that after nearly 30 years of internet access, people are still joining this church?

[MG 2.0]

You mean to tell me that after nearly 30 years of internet access, people are still joining this church?

Not only that but building seventeen new temples throughout the world so that many more can receive ordinances of exaltation and also perform work for the dead.

Church President Russell M. Nelson made the announcement towards the end of the Sunday Afternoon session. The addition of 17 more temples brought the total number announced by President Nelson to 100 since he became the leader of the nearly 17-million member church in 2018.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/17-ne ... ar-AAVOH3J

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/tem ... t?lang=eng

There were eighteen when I served my mission back in 73-75.

Amazing. The work of the Lord moves on.

Great conference as usual.

Regards,
MG

[Marcus]

The temple statistics came up in a couple of Reddit threads. It seems Nelson has announced 100 temples during his tenure as President, but only 2 of those 100 he announced have opened.

The number of temples Nelson has both announced and completed so far is 2: Praia Cape Verde Temple, Yigo Guam Temple. An additional 12 have been completed during Nelson's tenure that were announced by predecessors.

… 46 temples currently under construction. Of those announced by Nelson, 39 have had their groundbreaking or have a groundbreaking date set in the near future.

https://www.reddit.com/user/ldsstatistics

So 100 announcements by Nelson, 2 completed, 39 have had a groundbreaking or have a scheduled future groundbreaking date. That leaves 59 temples announced by Nelson in 4 years, with no plans. I wonder what the logic is in having so many in limbo? Has land been purchased, at least?

[Shulem]

Not only that but building seventeen new temples throughout the world so that many more can receive ordinances of exaltation and also perform work for the dead.

Smith incorporated Masonic like rituals into his brand of oath making in order to make his adherents swear their allegiance. The temples rites will become more and more known and manifest on the Internet as time goes on. There is nothing secret that shall not be made known and proclaimed on the housetops. People have a right to see what goes on in the temple and all of the rites and oaths both past and present need to be published and displayed as a matter of public record. I predict that more videos will be produced and government entities around the world will require the Church to reveal beforehand exactly what oaths and rituals they are foisting on unsuspecting candidates. Of course, some of those have been changed and removed, but even so, people have a right to know what they purchasing before they buy it.

The Mormon temple rituals must be made known and published in every language and everyone must know what they are getting into before they take upon them cultish rituals that have life long implications. I broke my covenants and am proud of it. I've since renounced those oaths and pitched them back to the altars of the temple. Those oaths I made were horrible and disgraceful. The Mormon temple is a house of horror and oaths made therein are harmful to the human race.

Thank you, New Name Noah, for your service.

[MsJack]

Not surprised.

Between my ex-husband and his four siblings, only two are still active in the church. XH has been inactive for years and is shacked up with his long-time non-Mormon GF. Ex-BIL #1 fled from the Provo MTC at age 19 and is now a YouTube star with 1 million+ subscribers; he got married and is now divorced. Ex-SIL was inactive and in the process of divorcing her husband when he died of COVID last summer in his mid-30s.

The other two brothers and their wives are active (I think) but at least somewhat unconventional; for example, ex-BIL's wife is an outspoken bisexual with bright pink hair.

These five were all raised in a by-the-book TBM Mormon home. I imagine stuff like that is going on all over the church.

Turns out their son marrying a Protestant (me) was the least of my ex-in-laws' kid problems.

(And before anyone says it, yes, I am aware there is a similar membership decline in evangelicalism. Frankly, we deserve it.)

[MG 2.0]

The temple statistics came up in a couple of Reddit threads. It seems Nelson has announced 100 temples during his tenure as President, but only 2 of those 100 he announced have opened.

The number of temples Nelson has both announced and completed so far is 2: Praia Cape Verde Temple, Yigo Guam Temple. An additional 12 have been completed during Nelson's tenure that were announced by predecessors.

… 46 temples currently under construction. Of those announced by Nelson, 39 have had their groundbreaking or have a groundbreaking date set in the near future.

https://www.reddit.com/user/ldsstatistics

So 100 announcements by Nelson, 2 completed, 39 have had a groundbreaking or have a scheduled future groundbreaking date. That leaves 59 temples announced by Nelson in 4 years, with no plans. I wonder what the logic is in having so many in limbo? Has land been purchased, at least?

Read, then report back.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... ng-process

https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2 ... son-228547

By the way, not to be disrespectful, but is this where you typically get your information on the church? Reddit?

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Marcus, I have you on ignore so I’m unable to see your posts on any thread I participate in. So I guess you can say whatever you want and get away with it without any interference from me.

I noticed you had made a comment after mine recently on this thread but I am, by choice, not able to see it. I would imagine you’re going to have a field day or two. I’m not going to look at any of your posts.

I can’t spend any more time with you.

Thanks.

Regards,
MG

[drumdude]

Marcus, I have you on ignore so I’m unable to see your posts on any thread I participate in. So I guess you can say whatever you want and get away with it without any interference from me.

I noticed you had made a comment after mine recently on this thread but I am, by choice, not able to see it. I would imagine you’re going to have a field day or two. I’m not going to look at any of your posts.

I can’t spend any more time with you.

Thanks.

Regards,
MG

Can you see his replies when someone else quotes them?

[IHAQ]

The statistical report for 2021 is out and membership numbers continue to look dismal.
2021 stats
Here are the numbers from the year before.
2020 stats


Overall membership in 2021 was 16,805,400
Overall membership in 2020 was 16,663,663
A net increase of 141,437

New converts in 2021 = 168,283

Membership increase didn't even cover the number of new converts.
World population growth is about 1% which would also be more than the increase in membership growth.

The church isn't losing them by the thousands, or tens of thousands. Existing members are formally leaving the church by the hundreds of thousands. How else does one explain these numbers?

It will be interesting to understand these numbers within the context of geography. If one part of the world is doing particularly well for growth (usually the “newer” opened mission fields with limited internet access) then the more established regions will be diminishing to make these numbers balance back to the overview given at Conference. A less than 1% membership growth in an era where general population growth 1.03% suggests the problem for the Church extends down to the organic growth pipeline of existing members producing children who become members. The Church, in real terms, is actually shrinking.

In additional, the point has already been made that the overall membership number does not accurately reflect the number of engaged and active members. I read a seemingly well informed post on Mormon Dialogue & Discussion that put the overall defined activity rate at 50%.

[Fence Sitter]

In additional, the point has already been made that the overall membership number does not accurately reflect the number of engaged and active members. I read a seemingly well informed post on Mormon Dialogue & Discussion that put the overall defined activity rate at 50%.

That is what is so glaring about the numbers they are posting. The loss they are reporting does not even take into account people who just walk away without resigning, it only reflects those who actually take the time to ask for their membership to be stricken from the records. There were over a 100K people who officially left last year which means the numbers of those who no longer consider themselves Mormons is much much higher.

I also suspect that they stopped announcing the numbers in conference because things are much worse than even the numbers show.