- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I recently discovered that a nearby stake redrew ward boundaries and dropped 3 wards from their stake. Meanwhile, my stake added two wards, but redrew boundaries such that it’s like a goofy gerrymandering project. Interestingly, and not surprisingly, the wards in the stake are all smaller and were not bursting at the seams anyway. It seemed odd and unnecessary that a ward was added and it seemed like it was added to give the illusion of growth, when there really has been no noticeable growth for many years. A difference in the 2 stakes is that there is already a temple in the area of the stake that is consolidating wards, and folks in my area have long hoped and dreamed for a closer temple (even though there are two temples about an hour away). Also, the stake pres of my stake seems like a guy who likes and wants to be recognized, so you gotta kinda wonder if the added wards was just to give the church corporation the idea that our stake was growing under our stake pres.
What I’m seeing and hearing is fewer members attending. Smaller congregations on Sunday. Fewer people to do all the jobs. Poorer youth and child programs. Less money delegated to the auxiliary programs.
I think that’s probably consistent with what is happening in other areas in the USA. The church strains to grow but in reality is not. A recent study in Utah suggested that the state is no longer majority Mormon. Yet, the investment fund is growing like crazy.
What you described seems to be happening in a lot of places. It’s definitely happened where I live. My town had four stakes a few years ago, and now after three boundary shuffles, we have five stakes and a number of new, smaller wards. Many wards are also now forced to travel to ward buildings that are across town while passing multiple buildings that would have been closer to drive to. Whoever did the planning here deserves whatever the opposite of a gold star is.
I can’t figure out why they would keep playing around with the boundaries, except for the illusion of growth. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it’s for some better organizational reason. But if it is, I can’t think of what it would be.
I live in an area where the church is actively growing. I think there have been two new stakes created in the last eight years, give or take a year. I can’t say it’s down to convert baptisms, we do get a few but not how many it would require to create two stakes. I think most of the church growth in our area is down to overall population growth. For example, if 100,000 people move into your area and about 1-2% of the general population is LDS, that’s an influx of 1,000-2,000 members.
Our numbers did drop off during covid and stayed down for a good year after we opened back up to in-person meetings. Things seem to have stabilized though, we’re right back to about 45% attendance (eyeballed), which is about what wards in this area have always been at.
I do hear of shrinkage in other areas. If it’s a new trend it doesn’t appear to have reached my area.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.