Posted by:
Ex-CultMember
(
)
Date: March 09, 2014 04:04PM
I believe that unit growth is one of the best indicators of Mormon growth in the world. You can baptize as many people you want but the people who show up to keep the show (facade) going are the ones who really count and you can't have a ward without people so looking at the change in the number of units in a geographical location is a great way to see how well Mormonism is doing.
So I've been analyzing the data and charts of "unit" (wards & branches) growth on
http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=countries&cnt_res=2&wid=13&cmdfind=Search and its apparent that the church is truly declining in Asia, Europe (both East and West), and most of Latin America. Growth stopped in the late 1990's and began to decline in about the year 2000. I was shocked to realize this is the case with even South America. I knew they haven't been getting baptisms in Europe for decades but they still get tons of baptisms in South America but it appears that the members are no longer "sticking" anymore down there. While they have actually been producing baptisms, the number of wards and branches have actually been SHRINKING in most of these Latin American countries.
The only parts of the world where there is REAL growth appears to be in the Morridor (Utah and its adjacent states), a handful of other states (mostly Southern ones), Mexico, the Philippines, and Africa (ironically). Internationally, they only got the poorest countries, which doesn't fare well down the road.
It looks like this started happening in the 1990's. My home ward in the Midwest grew from a small branch in the 1970's to a huge ward that split in 2000 only to consolidate back a couple years later. They have since plateaued in growth. My parents were "quality" converts back in the early eighties and there was real growth back then with real converts, or "quality" converts, ones who stuck around, fulfilled callings, and kept the show running. But something happened in the 1990's with those types of "converts." Most people in the last 25 years who joined the church in the last 25 years simply aren't the type to stick around or be able take on leadership positions to replace the old stalwarts.
From those of you who spent time out in the "mission field" either as missionaries or as ward members, at what point in time did you start to see "quality" baptisms decline and active members start to leave the church? And please state when and where this was. It looks like this happened for much of the world about the year 2000.