How vain & stupid & pathetic are they to be going through with the guided tours, when they failed miserably in the test areas? You would think they would learn, wouldn't you?

Honestly, IMHO, they are one of the stupidest corporations in existence. The reason why they have any sort of money is because people are abused & brainwashed into giving them money. But all of their sub corporations are pathetic, except maybe the massive cattle ranching & real estate investing.

Why do they need to test a divine and inspired 'revelation' anyway?

I mean, God should know if it's going to work or not? don't you think?

The cult is reminding me more & more of a chicken with its head cut off, running to & fro, not being able to see where it's going, running into things, & also not realizing that it's dying.

Indeed!

LDS Inc hired a Jewish PR consulting firm to help them spread their MORmON version of the Christian word, that's a de facto concession of how MORmONISM really works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kkema-oqtM

CFR that the trials failed.

They may have different failure conditions than you.

For example, perhaps the guided tour method results in less missionary attrition. Even if it results in fewer converts, more missionaries are retained; thus, a success, as missionaries who go home early from their missions have a lower activity rate.

Alternately, maybe investigators who visit the church are more likely to be retained post-baptism. Thus, fewer converts, but higher retention rates.

Tracting was and is a terrible way of conducting any business. The only people whom one would see during daylight hours are:

-- Retired, probably set-in-their-way types who have already heard of Mormons and decided they're not interested in it.
-- People who work nights and thus will get pissed for ruining their time off.
-- Unemployed.
-- SAH parents w/kids who don't appreciate the interruption.

By offering tours, two pretty significant hurdles are being cleared, namely:

1) Self-motivation. People who come to a tour have the means to get to church and the desire, meaning they would probably continue attending if baptized; and
2) Already done some modicum of research and haven't walked away.

I doubt it will go over particularly well, tho. There are some interesting chapels, but most of them are like walking through cheap office space.

I after seeing the results of the the test trials, but I'm not seeing any data from the OP.

Other churches simply publicize the hours of their services and invite anyone who is interested to attend. All comers welcome.

It's called transparency and is anathema to anyone with something to hide.

Projected tour reactions:

"Hey, this would have been a great place to shelter the victims when the tornado hit last summer. Too bad they didn't offer it."

"Wow, look at this basketball court. Wonder if they would let our Boys and Girls club use it once a week? It's so close by...let's ask."

I predict it will make people mad to see the resource-hoarding that is practiced by the LDS. It will make the church look even more selfish.


Anagrammy

My impression of the whole thing is that they were desperate to make a big deal about nothing and get people fired up. Members were SO excited about the missionary age change. I think they wanted to create similar buzz.

Their REAL goals may be different that the stated goals. If they want to promote guilt, this is a good way to do it, because people will STILL avoid missionary work and/or fail to convert their friends.

I was a true believer. This sort of campaign is nothing new. I remember many times when there were big pushes for members to give referrals, and a couple of times when missionary leaders met with individual families to try to get us to prayerfully consider who to share the gospel with. I NEVER gave them a name, and I felt bad about it. But God never helped me pick someone out. It must have been my fault (sarcasm alert).

+1ML

When someone senior has an idea that is claimed to be revelation from the big man, it's difficult for anyone else to refute this idea, even if you draw on empirical data. "Where's your faith brother? Do you doubt The Lord?"

In Mormonism it just isn't cool to tell a superior his idea is stupid. That would show a lack of faith. Everything that a superior suggests is a great and inspired idea that will change the world. No exceptions.

So the members will pretend to be all excited about this new program. They may even post about it on face book. In their hearts they are truly grateful that they don't associate with non-members so they won't actually have to invite anybody to tour their lame church building.

Just because they open the meeting house to a "tour" doesn't mean that there will be any fools (ah, I mean, investigators) take them up on this offer...


I've seen many a event that my LDS church sponsored for the public (usually emergency preparedness fairs, where we really DID have something of value to offer), and most of the time, the only folks who attended were the active LDS members themselves.


(Remember, I live in the mission field.)

"Excuse me Elder"
"yes, how can I help?"
"Why are you Church's so bland when you're Shopping Malls are so fancy?"

They are just catching up with trying new ideas in a changing world.

The underlying issues are still two fold:

1) Why aren't we getting as many converts as other religions who proselytize?"

2) Why aren't we retaining new converts/members?

But the real answer to those two questions can't be fully addressed because it would be the end of the church. So the church must ask:

No matter why we are bleeding new converts/members - HOW do we get more people in?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2013 12:08PM by Raptor Jesus.

Someone made a joke about how this was really just an attempt to get the missionaries to clean the chapels. I think that may be what is actually going on here. Can't give a tour if the building isn't clean.

The problem with the tours, is that there is nothing to see. An LDS ward house is a rather drab and unpleasant place. Now if they were architectural marvels, or had the intrinsic beauty of a Catholic cathedral, then the Mormons might be onto something.

I also wonder if the church, on some level, may be realizing the hell they are putting missionaries through, and perhaps the non-believing apostles came up with a plan to save the poor missionaries the heart ache of tracking, and to give them an excuse to hang out in air conditioned church buildings when they have nothing better to do. It would be out of character, but then, they probably have a lot of guilt they need to ease.

Wonder what the ratio of Sister missionaries to Elders will be "called" to "chapel Cleaning" duty.

as a missionary I would have given an arm and leg to clean the church instead of having to tract.

missionaries would try to do anything to get out of tracking.

Very soon there won't have been any mishies still out who have done tracting at all.
Then you will hear, "I'd rather do ANYTHING other than clean the chapel again!"

I hear you though. Semi-solitary work rather than random social interaction will always be my preference too.

I expect more social extroverts will find this rather isolating and depressing, not knowing what tracting is really like, they will imagine they would prefer it.

I wonder if taking them out of tracting like this, they really intend to drum up some enthusiasm for how things used to be. I wouldn't be surprised if they come up with a rotating schedule eventually.
After all, they prefer their members to be the type A, extrovert, social butterfly type, and probably can't understand the building resentment against tracting.

They are desperate to give the mishies something to do which appears official and productive, at least for the next two years.
After that, the numbers will have leveled off again and missionary work will be back to its boring routine.

But why would any sane person want to tour those austere looking buildings, especially during the week when most middle class people are working???

The only people who will wander in are the usual assortment of homeless, helpless, jobless and mentally ill individuals the missionaries are so familiar with.