Is the church growing or shrinking where you are at? And where do you live? If growing, is it because of births or move-ins? If in decline, do you know why? Internet, loss of interest, move-outs, etc.

I live in a US military area in the Southeast with two overflowing wards and crowded parking on Sundays. You'd think that the church was really something. But they did just dissolve their Spanish branch.

In my town in Europe mormonism is in decline, mostly due to move-outs.

Metro Indianapolis - growth due to move ins. Not really much covert activity but just enough to keep the faithful thinking the work is moving forward.

Small towns in Indiana - stagnant to decline.

My wife and I just walked into the festival of trees in Sandy, UT. We're here to watch our daughter dance with her ballet company.

But my jaw dropped on the walk in. Like 12 busses were unloading crumb crunchers that came up to my waist. Hundreds and hundreds of whiteys, all with the same t-shirt on. Running, bounding like rabbits.

The school district printed on the busses? Alpine, or, Utah county.

Seriously there were so many of them it just reminded me of rabbits, rabbits everywhere, multiplying forever!

And they all look the exact same! So I'd say 95% all have to be brain washed, cotton headed ninny muggin momos.

In my area of Southern California my ex Bishop told me that they

had to enlarge the boundaries by about three miles on one side

due to declining membership. It used to be a huge ward at one

time. Apparently those days are over.

What area is it in? I'm from North San Diego County.

It appears to me to be on the decline.

I believe that the ward I am assigned to has about 500 members +or-. Last Sunday I counted 47 in attendance at SM.

The problem is "They just don't get it". People are tired of being treated like slaves. They simply quit attending.

The last time I drove past a Mormon chapel, the parking lot was at most, half full and this was during the time when 2 wards have their meeting blocks overlapping. This wasn't the chapel I went to because it's in a residential area.

When the recession hit, many Mormon families had to leave the area because when someone was laid off, they couldn't afford to live here and this was where women worked because it was necessary to pay the mortgage. The growth has been stagnant in my area since the decline as people haven't been moving to the area from Utah and other Morridor areas.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2015 02:56PM by adoylelb.

About the same. We had a new ward added to the stake about 3 years ago. Ironically, two wards shrunk to create that new ward. Growth is not because of the conversions. It is due to member migrations.

Baptisms are still happening but the retention is not. When we have a baptism, they come for about a year or less. Most stop coming. Sustainment is due to birth rate IMHO, very little to do with conversion. My observation is Birthrate far outreaches conversions.

The stake I live in just had one of the oldest stakes in SLC folded into it.

I live in Ogden, Utah. My stake was disolved about 8 years ago and the ward boundaries were shifted due to declining membership. It was attributed to changing demographics of active members moving to further out suburbs.

The number of active members has continued to decline and this is putting an even greater burden on those who are still attending.

Here in North Alabama, the stake split into 2 and a new stake center and ward building were announced. It wasn't long before they powers-that-be changed their minds and cancelled the ward building. Also, a ward became a branch again after all of this. Hard to say what's really going on.

Three wards met in our stake house, and there were four stake houses in our neighborhood. Now, there is only one small combined ward in each stake house--one ward per "stake."

So, it can be reported that we have the same number of stakes. TSCC is "remodeling" (but no one can detect any construction taking place) another stake house in the neighborhood south of us, so all of those people attend our former ward.

Where there were three wards, we have half a ward, plus that other "temporary" ward.


There's a lot of juggling people around, and splitting of wards, too, especially in Sandy. Life-long friends are split into different wards, wards are re-named, boundaries are re-defined, and IMO this is done to confuse people. It confuses me, anyway.

Where I grew up in California, there were three large stakes, and three large stake houses, and 7 wards. Now, there's only one small ward and a university ward, which meet in one building. The other two buildings have been sold and torn down. The one ward/stake house is on a large lot, next to 6-million-dollar houses--prime property!

One ward per stake? I didn't know that was even possible. Must be a lot of active priesthood and wives in those wards?

Stakes used to be 1-2000 people, IIRC. One per stake is....odd....

I don't care;

size (claims of TSCC) Doesn't Matter!

Clearly a decline. Two Stakes became one as Ward names changed.
I did a quick analysis of the LA temple sessions and found that they reduced them over the last 10 years.

I live in southeast Idaho and there appears to be growth. My parent's stake just split. I'm very certain the growth is due to births and maybe some inactive mormons becoming active. Because there are a lot of mormons here, I think the nonmormons are very hard to convert.

There is still a lot of inactive mormons here. My dad is a bishop and he said there are 405 members in his ward and only 266 are active. He said that is higher than the stake, they only have about a 55% active rate. It was very wierd that my family was discussing this in front of me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2015 04:54PM by mlsmit7.

My (ex) BIL was a bishop in Pocatello. 2013, I was stunned by the skeleton crew that ran the ward and the low attendance, especially in eastern Idaho. A small chapel, only about 20 percent full at most. I checked on the other ward meeting in the building when their sac meeting started. Their attendance appeared to be about the same. Those two wards easily could have been combined but that would eliminate an entire set of ward vanity callings (bishoprick and counselors, priestDUD quorum presidents) which would have been taking away the motivation for half of the priestDUD holders that were actually attending, a move that LDS Inc apparently did not feel that it could afford to gamble with. If you are asking me, the scene wreaked of desperation. My BIL openly complained about the majority of the ward that did not attend or just wanted to do the absolute bare minimum to get by and be considered active. The bulk of running the ward was then heaped onto a few willing dupes like him. I attended for my nephew's missionary farewell.

The wards in my part of Brisbane Australia are growing very slowly due to breeding and immigration of Samoans.

I know of a few Samoan wards that were dissolved in order to better integrate the members and they've pretty much reverted to speaking Samoan because no one else attends anymore.

I work half way across the city and there are about ten TBMs where I work; all Samoan despite my workplace being in an area with a high Taiwanese/Hong Kong/Chinese and a lot of Arab/Afghan/Iraqi/Pakistani people.

It's turning into a Samoan church.

"The wards in my part of Brisbane Australia are growing very slowly due to breeding and immigration of Samoans.

I know of a few Samoan wards that were dissolved in order to better integrate the members and they've pretty much reverted to speaking Samoan because no one else attends anymore"

Noticed the same in Brisbane west and Ipswich almost all Samoan with a few token Europeans. Most stake positions are held by the white and delightsome though.

Stagnant...I live in the westside of Portland Oregon...People are moving here big time...so some members are entering..but...no new converts...and a lot of people just leaving or inactive...I see that a lot

They sent all the new missionaries here in the Corners cause Europe don't want them.

All of the the growth in my stake is in the hispanic branch. It takes WHITE PEOPLE to run it, but it is made up of hispanic U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants that primarily speak Spanish in their everyday discussions.

Most baptisms. Most overall growth. Still JUST a BRANCH.

Families don't get baptized in our stake any more. Single adults or part member family children.

Every unit in the stake has its own missionaries that have A LOT of time on their hands.

Over the past couple years some new church buildings in the Fort Worth to Denton, TX area have been built. An educated guess would point to the growth coming from people relocating here for jobs. Although there is growth here, the places they are coming from should be shrinking. The suburbs are getting further and further out with more new homes going up.

I do know that they are now down 1 person due to my recent resignation. :-)

I live in Alpine, UT, and the church has never been stronger. I am a NOM, and as look around the chapel during sac meeting I feel completely alone. (Wife is a ultra TBM).

Lots of great data at http://www.fullerconsideration.com/membership.php and http://roundelmike.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2015 01:52AM by scotchipman.

Large metropolitan area.

English-speaking family wards declining due to people moving out as soon as they have kids.

Spanish-speaking wards stable due to moderate convert growth keeping up with those going inactive.

YSA wards stable due to influx of college kids, however, there's a huge drop in single graduates.

It appears to be on the decline

I see little change at the LDS chapel I pass on my way to coffee on Sunday mornings but the evangelical church 1/2 mile east of there just keeps growing.

RB

Davis County, Utah here. Haven't been to church in two years and DH and I resigned in October. LDS church parking lots are always full on Sundays when we drive by, unfortunately. I did hear that the YSA ward that has met at our wardhouse for 30+ years has just been dissolved/eliminated! Also this past summer, I noticed that the local Costco parking lot is full of Mormons on Sunday. I wish they'd go back to keeping the Sabbath. :/

Here in the Grande Prairie Alberta Stake, it's hard to tell, but I would say slowly declining. The ward in Fort St John was moved from two to one ward probably about 10 years ago. And there is new people coming in, but mostly just transplants from 6 gen ultra-tbm Mormons from the States and Alberta. It seems like we trade a lot. People moved down to Cardston area, and people from there come here. Not many baptisms, but of those, mostly BIC children and the occasional single person looking for acceptance. They never stay. I have had the privilege of living both in FSJ and GP, and I would say the stake house in GP isn't much better. Still a morning ward and afternoon ward, but neither are full. I remember showing up one morning for church at my assigned ward, and it was 5minutes to start, and I thought I had the wrong time because there were so few cars in the parking lot. A lot of people in the stake are related, but because of the land mass, different wards. Still have a lot of long time Mormon families just scattered around.

Interesting enough, there was one family that I can think of for sure. Ultra TBM family, temple marriage, BIC children, faithful as faithful to the church, last I heard, they were inactive. I saw the wife in the grocery store this summer, and I am sure she was not wearing garments. I recently overheard my girlfriend, an Rcently returned RM, say that if all the inactive or excommunicated people came back to the stake, they would have to split the stake and build a temple. Makes me wonder how many people they really do have on the membership rolls.

One more interesting thing. The area around here has a lot of deeply religious people. Like we are talking hard working farm families at your local baptist church on Sunday. Everything revolves around the church and the harvest. Same with oil workers, they all can be found at the local church on Sunday when not in camp. We have the highest birth rate in Canada per popula, and yet look at the breakdown below.

FSJ Ward - 70-100ish
Dawson Creek - 30ish
Grande Praire 1st - 100ish
Grande Praire 2nd - 100 or less
Fairview Branch - less than 50
Peace River Branch - less than 50
High Praire - less than 30
Valleyview - less than 40
High Level - less than 30

Can someone please tell me that in a geographically HUGE area with thousands and thousands of devout Christians, how the more only has about 530 people on a good day? That would be maybe one church here in FSJ!!!!

I'm glad that I am so far removed from ChurchCo that I have no idea what its local status is like.

+1

We had the mishies drop by last week (We resigned in October, but that's a story for another day), and one was from Sweden. When we mentioned the exodus from the church in Sweden, he defensively replied that that's the norm for Europe. Then later reluctantly admitted that his ward in Sweden has gone from 90 active members to 18. That's right....only 18 people attend now according to him!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2015 12:52PM by contrarymary.