Are Mormons losing just as many members as they baptize each year?

Question

"Graphing activity: When the Graduate Center of the City University of New York conducted an American Religious Identification Survey in 2001, it discovered that about the same number of people said they had joined the LDS Church as said they had left it. The CUNY survey reported the church's net growth was zero percent. By contrast, the study showed both Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists with an increase of 11 percent.

'Because membership statistics are prepared and reported differently by various religious groups, the LDS Church does not publish comparisons of total membership to other faiths,' said LDS spokesman Dale Bills on Friday. "

from http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2890645

I hope most people can interpret data/research better than eldad9 can.

Answer 1

Why do you care? If your intention is to degrade Mormons or the church, you don't need to present numbers to do that. It's no secret that other faiths also have people who are on their records, but don't attend. Why single out one church? If you are a member of any church--whether it be Christian or non-Christian, I'm sure they would want you to spend your time worrying about your own life, rather than trying to prove people wrong. It's a waste of time and it certainly wouldn't change my mind.

Answer 2

As a LDS Mormon, and had been a Clerk for many times,
Retention of converts is always a important issue.

We have much growth over all, but new converts who stay faithful is much less than the number of converts. Changing life style is still difficult to many.

Honestly speaking, loosing some members is not my concern,every one has their free agency to choose,

Instead, I am more concern that some of our members are becoming like most mainstream christians, who only show up at Easter or Christmas, and going to church or serving the Lord is more traditional than truly loving the gospel.

Answer 3

This "phenomenon" has been observed in other religions, which do not want to be seen as losing members. A recent question included an independent, seemingly authoritative website which contended that there 'may be more actual Jehovah's Witnesses than actual Anglicans', apparently because these two religions are at opposite ends of membership strictness (official self-reports indicate 7 million JWs and 70 million Anglicans).

The Witnesses have a truly remarkable criteria for counting adherents... they only count those members who PERSONALLY ENGAGE IN PUBLIC MINISTRY in a given month.

Learn more:
http://jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/statistics/worldwide_report.htm

Answer 4

I imagine that it must be difficult to compile reliable data on something like "church membership," since criteria for defining a "member" can be so vague.

Likewise, numbers could easily be pumped up. Data can always be manipulated.

In the United States, the churches with the highest growth seem to be those that attract the most immigrants, and those that are most inclusive of different ethnic backgrounds.

The Mormon Church, on the other hand, did not even accept black members until 1978. Until then, the church cited the Old Testament curse of Ham as a cover for their unabashed racial bigotry.

Answer 5

The church stats are 15 million members in record. However only 5 million believe in the doctrine and history of the church and have remained active. Many who join do so for the economical help the church grate its members but do not believe in anything related to the doctrine. The reason is because of the internet has made it impossible for the church to cover up its real history over the one the church wish it had.

Answer 6

The LDS church claims so many members, and when you leave unless you send in a letter ect. they do not take your name off the members list. In my ward there are over 50 members who are inactive, I have even gone to visit, teach, and befriend about 20 of them. Recently my husband and I have become "inactive" many people are leaving or have left. I think the church keeps the window open incase they want to come back. I'm just deciding which is more fun excommunication or writing a letter.
Who cares though!?!

Answer 7

The problem with the JW numbers is that they only count active publishers, not everyone who is baptize or show up for meetings, as other religions do. Use the standard of Christendom, their numbers are three times as large.

My mother and stepfather are no longer active publishers, as their health prevents it. They attend meetings by phone hook up, though they made the Memorial.

My mother is still on the Catholic lists, as she grew up in a Catholic Orphanage, and they refused to remove her from the list of membership after she became a JW. She's also a Mormon, in that she has used their family search and someone has been baptized in her name. I have a fried who has been baptized numerous times in the name of people taken from the family search lists.

Answer 8

I don't know what you mean "lose members". Any church with members is the wrong one.

Jehovah's Witnesses as a whole form the earthly part of an organized people that serve Jehovah God. No other religion does that.

Answer 9

seems like every religion is losing members. religion is on it's way out the door.

who gives a rats a s s anyway about how many people are in a church? what is this, an F-ing contest?

Answer 10

Yeah Mormons will tell you they got six million members or so but they don't like telling you that over half of their member are not 'active'. You can not quit the Mormon church you can only be excommunicated from it.