Hello,

I haven't attended services for over a year. Recently, the missionaries wanted to talk to me. Curious, I let them come to my home. They seem to want me to come back to church. I am an older single man. I'm not someone the church ever took notice of after my baptism and have only attended sporadically for the last few years. Are they so desperate for people that they're using the mishie's to lure back those who they never considered important before? I agreed to go back to a service soon, just to see how they would react. Anyone know if this is a new tactic to drum up the numbers. I know it's not altruistic on their part.

New reactivation push direct from the mother ship. You're a box they can check off and feel good about themselves.

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2460059

Yes. And my guess is that OE4E won't see any difference if he goes back to church.

The reactivation effort is driven by SLC, not by the members. The latter won't care if he comes back--not in any lasting way.

Thanks for the info. I figured it was some new gimmick to get people back. I looked at a video the Morg sent out on this. It's more like a paper pushing exercise to help SLC headquarters.

I feel so special.

I think your read is accurate. The new program is devoid of concern for the individual; it is a book keeping exercise.

At the local level, missionaries have no one to teach and are stuck doing service projects or proselytizing via social media. So every once in a while, for a change, they go out to see a human face to face. But that's about it.

My guess is that if you went back, two or three people might say they missed you but in a month's time it would be back to your old anonymity.

Sorry.

Yes, so true, because at their core, true believers have no idea how to be real friends, or how to care for someone without having some sort of profit motive.

People who are converted as adults are never admitted into the inner social circles; they are never fully trusted. There's no incentive to go out of one's way to help them.

They get baptised, attend for a while, then lose interest and wander away. And no one on the inside really notices. . .

How very true. Adult converts are suspicious. They'll "let" us join, but the born-in-the-covenant leadership are very careful that converts do not get prestigious callings or marry their daughters. They express themselves in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways.

Yes, it's obvious and it's cruel.

I was one of their "golden converts" because I was a university student. Most converts are nearly destitute without much potential. Many are illiterate.

I first noticed their attitude during my first semester in Institute with other students who had been raised in the Church. When the instructor taught that "we" were the future leaders of our Stake did he really mean me?

Thanks everyone. If I do check things out, I won’t take it too seriously. Sometimes, it’s good to visit to remind yourself why you left to begin with.

I definitely would not give the church any money. You may have missed the news, but the church has a $100 billion dollar trust fund. Yes, that's billion with a "b." There is another investment account -- I can't remember how much that one has, but it's something like $30-40 billion or more. The church is rolling in cash, and could easily operate on the interest from investments alone. For the most part, church authorities refuse to spend more than the tiniest fraction of that on charitable works. Save your money. You need it far more than the church does.

You might have them continuing to contact you for a while since you answered the door and agreed to go.

It was hard enough for me to get them to stop contacting me the first time.

If you are a single adult male, they might NEED some fresh meat for all the women who hope for their Mr. Celestial Prince Charming. Be aware of what your own needs are and how you might be vulnerable. Above all, like summer said, they already have plenty of money. There is increased pressure the past few years to get to the temples, so that means paying them money.

Return and report if you find out anything new!

I was going to say roughly the same thing. Agreeing to attend was the worst thing you could say to the missionaries. They are desperate for things to do, and "visit OE4Y" is now on their short list.

Anything short of you telling them to effectively eff off and die will be interpreted as "he might be ready to come back, so we must keep trying".

And as long as your name is on their books, the Church is liable to attempt to reactivate you. It is what they do, sometimes as part of a program, like now, or sometimes somebody in the ward just felt inspired to be annoying.

Exactly. They think their program is working. Swell.

Thanks everyone. I'm already losing interest in going just out of curiosity!

An older single man? Well, who are you going to leave your estate to? Cha-ching!

While not 100%, there are church people who would be thinking that.......

I can't help but be impressed by how inspired the church is!

Is it any wonder that it remains the Fastest Growing Church in the Universe?

By their fruitcakes, ye shall know them...

“By their fruitcakes, ye shall know them.”

I’m going to have to remember that.

You will be on their membership rolls until age 106. Does that make you feel better ?

Not to quibble, but age 110.

Every reply is spot on.

They do not care about you, they care about the money.

The missionaries stopped by because you are check mark in a box.

Now that you have agreed to attend a meeting, you are a statistic.

Until the new program came out, when was the last time anyone came by to see how you are doing, without bringing up attending church? My bet is never!

Any attempt to contact me, is by way of a message through my wife. I have yet in the past couple of decades had anyone come by to see how I was doing because they cared.

Mormanism and religion in general is about image and feelings, and is lean on substance.

  
  
    They keep fine-tuning it!


    Eventually, they will have the
    data available to put a number
    to just how many members they
    lose for every temple that gets
    announced.

    It won't really that big a deal.
    They'll just take the number of
    of temples announced that year,
    and divide it into that year's
    total number of new inactives
    and resignations.

    There's no real correlation; it
    will just be for shiz & giggles
    because it sounds hilarious to
    say, "Every time a new temple
    is announced, 1,590 members of
    record either resign or just
    quit attending church & paying
    tithing!"

  
  
  
  
(it may look like I'm trying to write a poem; I'm not.  I simply like how neat and tidy it looks.)

☺♂♫

They can't get NEW members, so, they're thinking...
Hmm, maybe "old members" would be easier

That is exactly what they are thinking.

It is inconceivable to them that people would leave because the product is lousy. They left because they are weak, even though they "know" the church is tawooo. With the proper encouragement to strengthen them, they may come back.

TSCC is so lost! Maybe it figures formons (former Mormons) generally are too. What fools

30 years ago, there was a plan to reactivate members and it was a FLOP.

I was part of an experimental missionary plan to lead the stray sheep back into the fold. Some takewaways after working firsthand in such program.

1- It took a lot of time to find, build a *fake* relationship of trust and say something to hoodwink members to give the Mormon church another try.

2- It required members and local leader's assistance and who can get excited on a Tuesday nite trying to find an address that doesn't exist. Lots of fake addresses were used when missionaries had baptized any person walking down the street.

3- Occasionally, you might get a member to give the ward block meetings another try. I think the church required 3 out of 4 Sundays to be counted as a "success".

4- Some were long time members became upset when the church decided to paint over the natural beauty of the local meetinghouse (they painted river rocks white and the planks brown). A member of stake presidency looked down at his shoes and left Messy to offer some kind of apology/explanation.

5- What's the point when the mission president no longer supported the reactivation program or the ones who returned were criticized for their "Sunday Best"? One sister ostracized newly "reactivated" members by giving her honest testimony that church clothes shouldn't come from the rummage sale. We never got that family to return or even open the door to us.