Category Archives: Church growth

General Authority training – advanced subjects

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Apostles from 1921

Apostles from 1921

OK, you’ve completed all the prerequisite training and life experiences to prepare you for basic General Authority service.  You’ve been a missionary, a bishop, a stake president and have just returned from your latest assignment as a mission president.  You’re somewhat financially stable and are now ready for the real challenge of a call to serve in one of the Quorums of the Seventy.

You’ve been active and faithful in the church all your life and have a deep and abiding testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  You have enjoyed success and found great joy in helping others come to a knowledge of the Lord through your missionary labors.  You’re proven to be a gifted administrator in the priesthood.  You love to study the scriptures and to teach the gospel.

Responding to difficult questions

The Brethren have decided that all potential General Authorities must now take some additional classes prior to receiving the call.  While we are a lay ministry, it is important that those who are called into positions that represent the church have skills developed in responding to difficult questions.  You know the ones I’m talking about.  President Hinckley was asked some of them.

Since you are on that potential General Authority list, you have been selected to participate in this class.  In order to ensure that the training is effective, we have selected some real-world examples of the kind of questions you can expect to encounter.  While you may have had no experience in studying church history, you will most certainly be asked questions like these.

The really hard list

1. Joseph Smith polygamy and polyandry – why didn’t we know about this?
2. Book of Mormon translation – Peep stone in a hat vs. Urim & Thummim
3. Why are there multiple versions of Joseph Smith’s First Vision story?
4. Why did the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon leave the church?
5. Why is there no real archeological evidence for the Book of Mormon?

6. DNA evidence proved that American Indians have no Israelite blood.
7. Egyptian scholars have proven that the Book of Abraham is a fraud.
8. Did Joseph Smith take the Temple ceremony from the Masons?
9. Could a real prophet have been deceived by the Kinderhook plates?
10. That is so exclusionary of us to claim to be the only true church.

11. Did Brigham Young teach that Adam was God and if so, why?
12. Do we currently teach that God was once a man like we are?
13. How can we really believe that man can become a God?
14. How could the Mountain Meadows Massacre have happened?
15. Why did the church practice polygamy after the 1890 manifesto?

16. Your church seems racist.  Why delay giving priesthood to blacks?
17. Why did President Hinckley deny that we teach long-held doctrines?
18. How was President Hinckley deceived by the Mark Hoffman forgeries?
19. Why do Mormons believe that Lucifer and Jesus Christ are brothers?
20. There are documented cases of spiritual abuse by priesthood leaders.

21. Why is the church opposed to work of LDS scholars and intellectuals?
22. Why did the church cover up President Benson’s Alzheimer’s disease?
23. How can the true Church of Jesus Christ reject those who are gay?
24. Why has church growth stopped in the U.S. – baptisms decreasing?
25. How can the LDS claim to be the true church with so few members?

Effect of the questions

These are legitimate questions raised over the years that can be found today all over the Internet.  Many of our young people are asked these questions by their friends on a regular basis.  They are not being malicious or trying to cause problems.  They simply want answers.  Even though they are difficult questions, some have studied them out in an effort to be able to provide the answers.

Sometimes they have discovered that even long-time members have never heard these questions.  They have been told by well-meaning leaders to just pray about it and they will get their answers.  But there is so much confusing information out there and no official LDS source that addresses these questions that they become discouraged and begin to doubt their testimonies of the church.

Rules of engagement

Your assignment as a new General Authority is to address these questions in a manner that builds faith and encourages continued study.  You must not act surprised if you have never heard any of these questions before or don’t understand why they seem so important to those who are asking.  And you certainly don’t want to be dismissive of those who are bothered by these questions.

You must not defer them to others, claiming that “we have apologists who answer this stuff for us.”  That won’t cut it.  You’re now a General Authority and need to know the answers yourself.  Yes, it’s true that most members of the church have never heard these questions and don’t know that these are issues for some.  And yes, some members would be shocked to learn about all this.

The challenge

So your challenge is great.  How do you answer these questions without causing confusion or doubt among the faithful members who do not question?  How do you respond to the one as the Savior taught?  Those who struggle with these questions are a relatively small number and yet they are very active on the Internet, where many people seek information on the church today.

At the same time, focusing on these questions and taking the time to research them, understand them and to be able to explain them is time consuming.  It takes away from one of the primary missions of the church to declare the gospel.  And yet, it fulfills another part of that mission by perfecting the saints.  Most of these questions are raised by disaffected and former members.

A possible response

It seems that we have failed a generation of bright and intelligent young people who have grown up on the Internet.  We did not anticipate what this amazing communication medium could do to supply facts and details about our history and doctrine.  It’s not that we’ve been purposely trying to hide anything from you. It’s just that you have been exposed to stuff earlier than we figured.

We wish it had been otherwise.  We would have preferred that you had knowledgeable mentors to guide you through your discovery of all these difficult issues.  We were aware of them and decided not to share them or at least not promote discussion of them in the church curriculum.  We are seeing now that this may have been a mistake.  It was not our intention to deceive you.

Personal responsibility

We understand that many of you have felt shocked and betrayed when you first learn about these things.  Please don’t lose faith in the entire church teaching system that has brought you to the point you are now.  We should have found a way to inoculate you before you encountered these troublesome issues but were concerned that exposing you to them early could also be disastrous.

Please accept our apologies for not teaching you about these things in a more open and honest manner.  We accept the responsibility for our failings in this area and will work harder in the future to ensure that the upcoming generation does not have to suffer what you went through.  But we hope that you will also be just as responsible for your own church history education.

Summary and conclusion

This is obviously just a thought exercise.  Please don’t seriously think that my ponderings here have anything to do with the reality of the way the church is responding to this problem.  You may legitimately wonder if some leaders in the church are even aware that this problem exists.  Perhaps those that are aware feel just as frustrated as you that we don’t address it more openly.

For those that have struggled or are struggling with questions like those I have listed, please be aware that there are many thousands of us who have faced and answered the same questions.  We recognize their potential impact to destroy faith, but have found that God is faithful and will send peace to the troubled heart.  Sometimes satisfactory answers will only come over the test of time.

Mormon Church is not the fastest growing

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According to the National Council of Churches, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not the fastest growing church in the United States. The National Council of Churches produces the Yearbook of Canadian and American Churches. For 2008, it lists the Jehovah’s Witnesses as the fastest growing at 2.25%, while the LDS Church is listed second with a growth rate of 1.56%.

Let’s take a closer look at those numbers. The Jehovah’s Witnesses do not rank in the top five or even the top ten in number of members. In fact they are listed at dead last in the top 25 at just over one million members. American membership statistics for the LDS Church are 5.8 million members, making the church number four on the top of the list.

Worldwide numbers for the Jehovah’s Witnesses are about 17 million, but they are very careful to only count active members – those who attended and spent ten hours witnessing each month. I wonder how the numbers for the LDS Church would look if we counted only those who come to at least one Sacrament meeting each month. Our numbers would easily be cut in half. Instead of thirteen million members, we could only count about seven million ‘active’ members worldwide and maybe three million in the United States.

The Roman Catholic church is listed first at 67.5 million members, with the Southern Baptist Convention second at 16.3 million members. The United Methodist Church is listed third at nearly eight million members. After the LDS Church at fourth (5.8 million), the top five is rounded out by the Church of God in Christ at 5.5 million members. Can we apply the same percentages for active members to other churches or is it worse for them?

Of the 25 churches listed, only six showed growth. All others were flat or showed decreases. The churches listed in order of growth percentages are the Jehovah’s witnesses at 2.25%, the LDS Church at 1.56%, the Roman Catholic Church at 0.87%, the Southern Baptist Convention at 0.22%, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at 0.21% and the Assemblies of God at 0.19%. Not very many churches showed growth.

Every church seems to report their numbers differently. For comparison purposes, most use the number baptized. If you look at the total number of baptized members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States, that number would be 2.35 million. The National Council of Churches used their ‘active’ membership instead of their baptized membership. You can also see the same report for 2007 on their website.

In 2006 the Jehovah’s Witnesses claimed 1,059,325 active members in the United States at their peak. In 2007 that number was 1,084,005. That’s an increase of 24,680 or only 0.25%. I guess it all depends on how you count the numbers. 37,243 were baptized in 2007 while only 28,915 were baptized in 2006. That’s an increase of only 8,328 in the United States. In 2007 the LDS Church reported 272,845 adult converts baptized and 94,006 children added. The breakdown in the United States is not reported.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses reported 298,304 baptisms worldwide in 2007 and 248,327 in 2006. That’s an increase of about 50,000. In 2006 the LDS Church reported 243,108 converts for 2005 and 93,150 children added. Our numbers are always for the previous year. The increase of 29,737 is obviously less than the Jehovah’s Witness increase of 50,000. So yes, the Jehovah’s Witnesses church is growing faster than the LDS Church in the United States.

But who cares about numbers? Religion is all about how we treat each other and how well we live according to our faith that really counts. Are you surprised by the numbers?

NOTE: This blog has not been conforming to the official style guide in reference to the name of the church. The name of the church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I just couldn’t fit that in the headline.