The growth of the church is evident all around us. Let they who have eyes see.

Sweet, another one down.

They just joined them together, they didn't collapse one into the other. Just sayin'.

Gotta get the facts straight...mumble...mumble...

/sarcasm off

They didn't just actually straight up combine two stakes into one did they? I mean that might look bad. They usually borrow a ward here, a branch there, and then give the new stake a whole different name than the previous two stakes. Right?

All the big LDS families are migrating further out into the valley, aren't they, abandoning the closer in neighborhoods to the normal people? If so, then while these stakes combined, another one was probably created out in the 'burbs.

LOL, yea reminds me of four years ago when TBM friend of mine (who's in the closet I might add) was telling me that his neighborhood in Las Vegas area was growing by leaps and bounds and that his ward had been split three or four times. Well I happened to be working in Vegas at the time and I kept noticing all of these abandoned LDS Church buildings all around the more central part of the City, so when I asked my friend about this he said "yea, that's why the wards in our neighborhood are growing so much, all the people leaving the central city areas and moving out to the suburbs"

So white(some and delightsome) flight from the central city = Church growth? LOL, yea right

There's more going on than that. The grandparents own the houses and they are Boomers now, no kids. No kids, no youth groups. No youth groups, no scouts, fewer callings, fewer Sunday school classes, etc.

People have commented on this board how many more older people, fewer young couples. It's just the demographics.

Also, when they sell these homes, who buys them? Certainly not the young couples, it's out of state people who are moving here for promotion advancements and have the $$. And are mostly not mormon, so no peeps adding to the ward.

Anagrammy

Sharapata, who are the stake presidents of these two stakes and who was put over the one new stake? I think I may be related to one of these SP's, but I never visit my family in UT, so IDK.

I went to church there...I hope the church goes broke, has to sell and I can finally live my fantasy of turning the roof into slides and ski jumps.

See what answers this guy has:

http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2011/03/church-growth-news.html


Regarding closure of the Sydney Parramatta Stake, he at least admits, "The number of congregations in many Australian stakes is much lower than other nations, which jeopardizes the continued operation of some stakes if large numbers of members move away and few new converts are baptized and retained. Overall Australia has experienced moderate membership growth rates among industrialized nations but has experienced stagnant congregational growth." But that's a pretty sanitized statement.

Dissolution of Miami South Spanish stake: "The number of congregations in these stakes has been declining for a number of years. One of the major reasons for the stake dissolution was that many members are moving away from the area and convert baptisms have declined...

"This is the third stake dissolved in the United States this year. I want to make it clear that there are many more new stakes being created in the United States and around the world versus stakes being dissolved.

"It does appear that we are going to see a fairly large drop in the number of new stakes created this year for the Church. This is primarily because few stakes have been organized internationally. However, we should see a jump in the number of new congregations created outside of the United States this year,..." (read: Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo).

He also says, "We are also likely to see quite a few new stakes created in Utah considering nine stakes have over 14 congregations in them and many more have 12 or 13. Stakes typically have five to 12 congregations." Whaaaaaa'? Must be smokin' something.

Then, "In 2007 we did not see as large of an increase in congregations, but a big jump (around 20,000) in terms of membership increase." Yeah, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo. He then explains, "This is likely due to the lag time between converts getting baptized in a large enough quantity (and staying active) to merit a new congregation being created."

It's not cumorah.com, but he's apparently trying to be truthful and positive at once, and I have to give it to him for that. But on the other hand, much of what he's doing in his blog is mere turd polishing.

I assume the Mormons in this area don't really think too much about this sort of thing, correct? I mean the total number of Mormons in Utah is still growing, albeit more slowly. They still ARE the babymaking capitol of America, right? At least among the white & delightsome. ;-)

Some older, smaller buildings may get sold off or abandoned as TSCC builds bigger and more modern buildings. They usually have more parking too and so have to be built further out in the suburbs, which is where a lot of the member growth is ... it is mostly natural (birth) growth and also members moving back from other states. That, and abandonment of the urban core in various larger cities will change the landscape in the future.