NOM

Apparently the ward I live in has a new bishop.

He's the brother of the last one. He's also the one that told LEO not to report a crime against a child because "we handle this in house". He's a frequent leader in 2 wards. He lives on the boundary and they revise the lines depending on which job they want him in. 2 of his brothers are in stake leadership. Family affair, you know.

I'm told many people walked out of church when he was called, rolling their eyes.

And I don't think they had any other options. Sounds like all isn't well in Zion.

How long until they combine wards? We used to have 4 and 2 branches in our neighborhood. Now we have 3 and 1 branch. There's barely anyone at church in my ward.

Any new indicators of shrinkage in your area?

We used to have 2 wards and a branch in my area. Overtime that all got consolidated down to one ward. About 70-100 active any given week.

Now we have members of the former branch demanding that the state re-open the branch. 3 families have gone so far as to stop attending the ward and are meeting on their own. I think they are even using their old branch building that hasn't been use for several years. Don't think it is officially allowed, but someone had keys and they are using it.

There have been a lot of feuds in the area over the years. There are several old, large families that make up the church and they tend to butt heads now and then. While not Hatfield/McCoys level, the mentality is still here.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out. The church is struggling on a good day, but this stuff it only making it worse.

The phrase "key indicators" made me go into seizures. We had that beaten into us when I was a young bishop being trammeled by an SS Commander SP.

Anecdote: in 2019 an old mission comp (super TBM guy with family connected to GAs in one of those GA-rich wards, and a dad in a high-profile church office job... all of it) reached out to me and shocked me with news that he and his wife/kids left in 2019, as did his brother. On top of that, he had a group of 12 pals who all went on missions, BYU, temple and they stayed in touch over the years. As of 2019 6/12 are out with their families intact and out. This is in the heart of mormon power community.

I was as TBM as they come. I realize now how little joy the church brought me. DW and I used to say "I'm glad the church is true because these meetings (or TREK, early AM seminary, etc) are BS". I got comfort from the "knowledge" of being int he true church and being TBM, not joy. Going through a crisis of truth/faith also shines a light on the many sucky parts of being Mormon and I think they're losing people because it just sucks being an active mormon a lot of the time. I have said that I loved being in the church. I'm starting to realize that what I loved was the comfort of the existential questions having answers, not that the answers were all that great.

In our area the church is growing. We're part of a new stake that was created in the past year, building is full with 3 wards, and there is talk of what would happen if a 4th ward was created.

Now, don't get the idea that the church is growing because people are joining. That isn't the case. I attend church every week, and I can only think of one convert baptism in the last 18 months (it was a 9 or 10 year old kid from an inactive family). Rather, the area we live in is growing like crazy. Lots of new homes being built, lots of people moving into the area.

I do see a parallel though, and that is some leadership still comes from long-term families. A counselor in the stake presidency has a son who is a counselor in our ward's bishopric.

Sadly, I no longer attend, so I am unaware of any KPI's related to the activities of the local multi-billion dollar real-estate corporation masquerading as an over-the-top fundamentalist religious community. Wait... "Sadly" is definitely not a good word to describe the emotion I feel about not attending.


Like Advocate, I live in an area where the church is "growing" due to new homes being built... "My" particular "ward" has slowed down, but the "last time" they divided "my ward," leadership was begging apostates similar to myself to "choose a calling" and come back. (I guess my apostate-leprosy is so bad that no-one dared take a chance and beg me to return.) This is the only anecdotal KPI I have, and it is a few years old.

Assuming that NOMies are the truest reporters, how is everyone's ward doing in terms of membership gain or loss?

moksha wrote:Assuming that NOMies are the truest reporters, how is everyone's ward doing in terms of membership gain or loss?

Since I have stopped being social with most members of the ward and contact via attendance is limited, I have no way to know other than an anecdotal visual scan of sacrament meeting attendance. Our small 1950s era building still ends up with people in overflow seating. This is in the northern wasatch front. Same 5 people bear their testimony every fast Sunday. I would think a better way to gauge growth or shrinkage is in monitoring the foreign lands and the unit consolidation occurring there.

Our stake boundaries remained the same while the ward boundaries were changed, thus adding one more ward and decreasing the size of all wards in the stake. So one new unit with no growth or increase other than ward boundary changes.

Baptisms? About one or two a year from a nearby apartment complex. They’re usually inactive or have moved within 6 months.

My ward in southern Salt Lake County has been pretty stagnant, neither growing nor shrinking significantly.

2/4 of my oldest nieces and nephews have tattoos and appear to be moving on from TBM life. Another comes home from her mission next month and her brother leaves for his mission in May. None of my generation have tattoos and most went on missions.

Judging by facebook friend suggestions, there are new people who live in the ward that I no longer attend. However, I live far from Morridor and this ward is like almost all wards I've lived in--a backbone of the local families who have lived there forever and then professionals who move from UT or other places for better employment opportunities. Last time I checked, the bishop was a UT-raised dentist. #shocker

I haven't darkened the doors of an LDS church in years, so I really don't know what it looks like on an average Sunday. I live in a city of 300Kish, and there are an entire 2 wards in the city and a ward a small town half an hour away that draws parts of the city to make it survive.