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Seems a bit of an oxymoron, “semi-active”, but what precisely is the official definition? I don’t know that there is a precise definition. At BYU students are considered active if they attend once per month. Of course I also think there is a distinction between being active in church and being active in the gospel (AKA “living the gospel”). I think one can not be attending church but still keep gospel principles like loving one another.
Well: * Active is in.
* Ex is out.
* Inactive is either out or waiting to be reactivated…
Semi-active and less active?
DarkJedi wrote:Of course I also think there is a distinction between being active in church and being active in the gospel (AKA “living the gospel”). I think one can not be attending church but still keep gospel principles like loving one another.
Oh I totally agree, but I wonder what the correlated official def is.
I recall hearing the “attends Sacrament meeting at least once a month” as the slc definition of minimum attendance for statistically active. Across Christian demoninations, attending a main worship service at least once a month is the default definition of being actively involved. The LDS Church simply goes along with that definition. I think that is a good standard. Many people have issues that keep them from attending every week (or, for example, in the case of Catholicism, attending daily Mass), but regular, monthly attendance still shows intentional involvement. Of course, there are members who don’t attend once a month who still are believers, but that is different than being active attenders.
Also, fwiw, I don’t like the term less-active – especially when it is applied to people who obviously are inactive. I think it is a way to subtly deny inactivity. I like precision in language, and inactivity is different than being active to a lesser degree.
I do think it is describing people who attend church less than once a month, and those that aren’t really engaged to hold any callings to accept assignments. I think our ward has a lot of people like this.
There is always a “not-so-good” feeling about using any label on people that have some various life situations and beliefs. But…it is one way to focus on those that are coming to church to participate and those that may not hate the church and want out…but are just unable to go all the time for various reasons.
Thread jack. You remember those slides that enumerated “issues and ideas leading people away from the gospel?” One of the things that was mentioned was:
Language and cultural problems “-ites”
At church it’s extremely common to hear labels like inactive, semi-active, worthy, in good standing, and investigator being applied to people. “-ites”
Semi-activite.
Inactivite.
Worthyite.
Good standingite.
Full titherite
Investigatorite.
It may be useful to categorize for reporting purposes but these -ites labels have worked themselves into our everyday conversation. I wonder whether that is leading people away from the gospel.
Never mind those Nibbler, it’s the Samsonites that worry me. What have they to hide? SamBee wrote:
Never mind those Nibbler, it’s the Samsonites that worry me. What have they to hide?
A bunch of IOUs.
And what about those vegetarians? You know – the “vegemites”. (Apology to any Aussies I may have just offended) nibbler wrote:Language and cultural problems “-ites”
SamBee wrote:it’s the Samsonites that worry me
LookingHard wrote:the “vegemites”
…perhaps…Widow’s mites?I dont’ know what “ites” they are referring to…the slides really should be more specific. I don’t see a problem with widow’s mites, personally.
:eh: nibbler wrote:
Thread jack.You remember those slides that enumerated “issues and ideas leading people away from the gospel?” One of the things that was mentioned was:
Language and cultural problems “-ites”
At church it’s extremely common to hear labels like inactive, semi-active, worthy, in good standing, and investigator being applied to people. “-ites”
Semi-activite.
Inactivite.
Worthyite.
Good standingite.
Full titherite
Investigatorite.
It may be useful to categorize for reporting purposes but these -ites labels have worked themselves into our everyday conversation. I wonder whether that is leading people away from the gospel.
I think there are lots of -ites in the church. Family-history-ites and prepper-ites just to name a couple. To me they’re all missing-the-mark-ites.
It’s all very ambiguous. Semi active means someone who is less involved in the church, than their church leaders would like them to be. What the requirements are, depends on the Church leader. It could be a member, without a temple recommend. It could be a member who only attends church 50% of the time. It could be a member who wants to attend church, but can’t for health reasons. Or it could be a very inactive member, who hasn’t yet asked to be on the “Do not contact” list.
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