Church Growth
In the Sunday morning session of the October General Conference President Hinckley made the following statement, “The Church has become one large family scattered across the earth. There are now more than 13 million of us in 176 nations and territories. A marvelous and wonderful thing is coming to pass. The Lord is fulfilling His promise that His gospel shall be as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands which would roll forth and fill the whole earth, as Daniel saw in vision (see Daniel 2:31–45; D&C 65:2). A great miracle is taking place right before our eyes.”
When President Hinckley’s talk was reported in the Deseret Morning News, one reader responded, “LDS Church growth extolled? According to Wikipedia, the world's population is believed to have reached over 6.7 billion, as of September, 2007. Mormons represent 13 million out of 6.7 billion humans (according to the LDS Church's statistics), or .0019 percent of the world's population.” The writer continued by comparing the size of the LDS Church to other major religions and concluded, “Give me a break. The 4th column of government (free press) deserves better critical thinking and better representation.” Besides not interpreting his calculator correctly,[1] the author did not attempt to understand that which President Hinckley was teaching.
President Hinckley was not making comparisons to the size of other religions, rather he spoke about the remarkable growth of the Church throughout the world and the incredible story of the restoration. Indeed, the growth of this “large family scattered across the earth” has been nothing less than awesome. In the year of my birth, the membership of the Church was a little over one million members. While serving my mission in the early 1970s, membership passed the three-million mark. Last year Church membership surpassed the 13 million mark. As wonderful as we find this growth, I do not think we need to make membership and growth comparisons to other churches or religions. This is the Lord’s work and it will go forth as he so directs.
I would like to make a couple of comments regarding Church growth. Nephi made the following prophecy, “And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw” (1 Nephi 14:12). The way I read Nephi’s prophecy, it would appear that as long as there is great wickedness upon the earth, the size of the Church will be small in relation to the total population of the world. However, though the saints are few, they will be upon “all the face of the earth.” President Hinckley stated that there are now members of the Church in 176 nations and territories. Nephi’s prophecy seems to be near fulfillment. Daniel’s prophecy, as cited by President Hinckley, will not be completely fulfilled until the millennial reign. How much larger will the Church grow prior to the millennium? We do not know, but according to Nephi the numbers of those belong to the church will be small in comparison to the rest of the world.
I have been tracking membership growth throughout my life, more particularly in the last two decades. I started noticing an interesting trend. In 1990, convert baptisms reached an all time high of 330,887 new members. That number has not been surpassed in the subsequent sixteen years.[2] In fact, each of the years 2003 through 2005 reflects the lowest number of converts since 1987. It seems to me that the number of convert baptisms should increase exponentially in relationship to the overall size of the Church. However, baptism numbers have been relatively level over the past several years, meaning that annual converts are becoming a smaller percent of the whole.
What does all of this mean? At a time when the Church is receiving unprecedented coverage, I would think that there would be greater interest in the restored gospel. I might suggest one possible reason for this change. In 1995, the Brethren issued the Proclamation on the Family. I believe the Brethren saw disturbing trends in our country and throughout much of the world that were impacting the stability of the family. I think these continuing negative changes may be a significant contributing factor affecting the number of convert baptisms as people are turning away from the basic principles and moral values of the past. A prime example of this may be seen in the lack of religion and liberal lifestyles of so many living in Europe. The growth of the gospel in that part of the world appears to have reached a standstill. We know that at some point the missionaries will be called home. The Lord will not call those missionaries home until every person that should hear the gospel has heard the gospel. Clearly, that time has not come yet. 300,000 converts per year (give or take a few thousand) is still a wonderful increase. But as the numbers show, something has changed.
We need to remember that the Lord has not released us from our responsibility as bearers of the good news of the kingdom. We need to continue our efforts as friends to our neighbors and associates. We need to continue to be positive examples and stand as a beacon to those around us. And we need to stand up for the truth when we hear the Church being maligned. It is time to renew our commitment to the Lord and join hands with him in bringing to pass the “immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 3:5).
[1] The figure is actually .19 percent, or almost one-fifth of one percent of the world’s population. This is still a small number, but not as infinitesimal as the author might suggest.
[2] I have prepared a graph showing Church growth 1990-2006. It is posted at: http://beardall2000.com/extras/membership_growth.PDF.
When President Hinckley’s talk was reported in the Deseret Morning News, one reader responded, “LDS Church growth extolled? According to Wikipedia, the world's population is believed to have reached over 6.7 billion, as of September, 2007. Mormons represent 13 million out of 6.7 billion humans (according to the LDS Church's statistics), or .0019 percent of the world's population.” The writer continued by comparing the size of the LDS Church to other major religions and concluded, “Give me a break. The 4th column of government (free press) deserves better critical thinking and better representation.” Besides not interpreting his calculator correctly,[1] the author did not attempt to understand that which President Hinckley was teaching.
President Hinckley was not making comparisons to the size of other religions, rather he spoke about the remarkable growth of the Church throughout the world and the incredible story of the restoration. Indeed, the growth of this “large family scattered across the earth” has been nothing less than awesome. In the year of my birth, the membership of the Church was a little over one million members. While serving my mission in the early 1970s, membership passed the three-million mark. Last year Church membership surpassed the 13 million mark. As wonderful as we find this growth, I do not think we need to make membership and growth comparisons to other churches or religions. This is the Lord’s work and it will go forth as he so directs.
I would like to make a couple of comments regarding Church growth. Nephi made the following prophecy, “And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw” (1 Nephi 14:12). The way I read Nephi’s prophecy, it would appear that as long as there is great wickedness upon the earth, the size of the Church will be small in relation to the total population of the world. However, though the saints are few, they will be upon “all the face of the earth.” President Hinckley stated that there are now members of the Church in 176 nations and territories. Nephi’s prophecy seems to be near fulfillment. Daniel’s prophecy, as cited by President Hinckley, will not be completely fulfilled until the millennial reign. How much larger will the Church grow prior to the millennium? We do not know, but according to Nephi the numbers of those belong to the church will be small in comparison to the rest of the world.
I have been tracking membership growth throughout my life, more particularly in the last two decades. I started noticing an interesting trend. In 1990, convert baptisms reached an all time high of 330,887 new members. That number has not been surpassed in the subsequent sixteen years.[2] In fact, each of the years 2003 through 2005 reflects the lowest number of converts since 1987. It seems to me that the number of convert baptisms should increase exponentially in relationship to the overall size of the Church. However, baptism numbers have been relatively level over the past several years, meaning that annual converts are becoming a smaller percent of the whole.
What does all of this mean? At a time when the Church is receiving unprecedented coverage, I would think that there would be greater interest in the restored gospel. I might suggest one possible reason for this change. In 1995, the Brethren issued the Proclamation on the Family. I believe the Brethren saw disturbing trends in our country and throughout much of the world that were impacting the stability of the family. I think these continuing negative changes may be a significant contributing factor affecting the number of convert baptisms as people are turning away from the basic principles and moral values of the past. A prime example of this may be seen in the lack of religion and liberal lifestyles of so many living in Europe. The growth of the gospel in that part of the world appears to have reached a standstill. We know that at some point the missionaries will be called home. The Lord will not call those missionaries home until every person that should hear the gospel has heard the gospel. Clearly, that time has not come yet. 300,000 converts per year (give or take a few thousand) is still a wonderful increase. But as the numbers show, something has changed.
We need to remember that the Lord has not released us from our responsibility as bearers of the good news of the kingdom. We need to continue our efforts as friends to our neighbors and associates. We need to continue to be positive examples and stand as a beacon to those around us. And we need to stand up for the truth when we hear the Church being maligned. It is time to renew our commitment to the Lord and join hands with him in bringing to pass the “immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 3:5).
[1] The figure is actually .19 percent, or almost one-fifth of one percent of the world’s population. This is still a small number, but not as infinitesimal as the author might suggest.
[2] I have prepared a graph showing Church growth 1990-2006. It is posted at: http://beardall2000.com/extras/membership_growth.PDF.
posted by Bill Beardall at
7:15 AM
