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Current focus concentrates on retaining LDS members

good luck with sheparding you strays. please take me off the mailing list.

Even the though the sentiment is very sweet, members also need to realize that there are many of us who have left the church, and many that are inactive, that are perfectly content (even happier!) in our lives and with our decisions. As long as they honor our wishes to be fairly left alone (if we politely tell you no thanks, then please respect that), then alright. Do what you church believes is the right thing to do. But many alredy take it too far. Please be wary of that.

The Church is no bigger than a ward, according to President Boyd K. Packer. Within this microcosm the ward is dependent on a bishop and an insightful and focused Priesthood Executive Council who are willing to become engaged and set the example. Home & Visiting Teachers should nuture their assigned families. Many church members come into the Church with unrealistic expectations of the Leadership and members. In today's world with so many competing pressures prevents members from fulfilling their responsibilities. The revelations are true and pure; members lag in how to balance their lives from what is essential v. activities which have little substance on impacting the lives of members. My experience having served as a bishop is to set the example through personal visits in the home with each member. People change s l o w l y over time, this requires patience. We are under covenant to serve not assignment. Sadly some less-active do not respond to the helpfulness of members and leaders. Never give up!

Aaahhh, I guess it's about the individual afterall, not about the statistics.

I lost most of my extended family to apostasy. When I was 15, I was ostracized from all the kin. My hometown Ward and Stake also blackballed me also. I have witnessed many in my spouses� family leave also just to end up with sad lives and broken homes.

The church is not some �organization of old men�, as my grandmother once said. The church is the servant of Christ. Yes, many members are having trouble coping with everything that comes with it. The gospel is a frightening thing if you want to look at it that way. If you want a life filled with fear - then go ahead. If folk aren�t listening, well�

Many in the church feel like they�re sometimes in darkness. Well! The easiest path towards the light is straight through the darkness. In the depths of darkness � all you can see is the light, then you go towards it.

Simple.

No normal person is perfect. Those who seem perfect are worthy of my pity. Where�s the excitement and life in that?!

I typed many more words than 200 words and lost them, as I started telling my story in depth. Basically, I am a former bishop, now inactive. I find that any questioning is not tolerated. If want retention need to accept questioning. When I stated in interview that I was struggling, I was cut-off. No contact or invitation to participate now in 2 years. Received email to tell me not to hometeach. Criticism or spiritual seeking not fitting mold is not tolerated in many wards.

If church wants retention then must open up and try to understand both intellectual and spiritual struggles. We now have a hometeacher (good person) who is only required to physically come quarterly. The church isolates those who need friendship, and if they dissent we eliminate activity because they cannot "serve" unless they have a strong, unwaivering testimony - bad choice.

The answer of why so many are falling away from the Church is simple really!! Years ago the answers to all things came from the Prophets and leaders of whatever faith they belonged to. And most believed the answers they were given because that was all they had. Today all one needs to do is to go to the Web to find out and many people see that what they have been told in the past is simply not true. Today, one-liners of how the Earth was formed, being 6,000 years old etc, etc no longer cuts it.

Once truth was decided on by a seemingly inspired select. Today we can check on the answers they gave us by visiting the Web. Many leave simply because answers of the past are no longer valid in the light and knowledge of today. "The truth will make you free'.

Having been a member of the LDS Church for nearly 34 years now, it is nice to see that the leadership at Church headquarters is now starting to focus on trying to retain new converts and even not so old converts active in the Church. The biggest problem that they have is to convince a lot of the "old guard" members of the church who hold temple recomends and attend the temple on a regular basis to assist in this effort. Over the years I have seen a fair number of newly baptised converts join the church, just to stop coming within a short time. Why? They were shunned and ignored by long time members. Instead a helping hand to understand LDS church standards policies, they were snubbed because they did not instantly know what to do and how to do it. I have been in a few different wards and no one would even come up and shake my hand or even acknowledge my presence. Then I would read in the Ensign magazine about how some people were welcomed with open arms to ward meeting. About time this issue was addressed by the LDS leaders.

Those who leave the church - any church - do so for various reasons. Its a sad thing to see them falter, hopefully it is just a temporary case of myopia or loss of commitment. Its a common occurance in all churches. They go to church when they're born, at Christmas (maybe) and Easter, and then again when they die.
The LDS faith is not more or less true than other faiths based on retention statistics. Its an unfortunate part of human nature to be easily distracted away from the right pathways for momentary gratification.

It is true that the early Saints chose the Beehive as their icon. Industry was the word.
Maybe the focus change would spark a different type of icon. A beehive floating on a life preserver?

I have been less active but it was me who made the first step back. That was 32 years ago . I am so grateful to be a member of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter day Saints. It is true and I know President Thomas S. Monson is Our Lord's Prophet on the earth today. Come back and enjoy the sweet spirit with the other saints who are not perfet but are trying to live the gospel.The Lord is mindful of each one of us and wants us to "Come unto CHRIST.

I am getting unhappy. If we are a family than why when I have asked for a blessing for a member who is inactive does her ward ignore her. She has bone cancer and it seems that no-one from her ward cares.
Maybe if someone would care about her than maybe just maybe we could get her active again.

This essay wasn't intended to express sympathy for those Mormons who have "fallen away"; it was intended to reinforce the complacency of those who have never questioned the dogmas or dictates of the religion, and perhaps to reel back in those who are taking their first tentative steps toward independence. They are instructed to view "apostates" or those who have found better uses for their time as shivering, pathetic figures best looked on with condescending, self-satisfied pity. The truth is that there are hundreds of thousands, like myself, who left Mormonism as adults because we grew weary of worshiping a corporation and the men who direct it. It's also worth pointing out that those who suffered at Martin's Cove did so because they followed the self-appointed "prophets" of Mormonism; this wouldn't have happened had they possessed the good sense to leave.

To Non Retained, the former Bishop. I'm sorry you had a hard time and feel excluded. That ain't right in anyones book.

I've been ex'd for 9 years and have a 7yo with the chap i'm marrying in summer. Still attend weekly for my girl. The ward have been fab, the bishop is doing our wedding service, I have monthly VT's, participate in class and choir.

Sounds like you're in a crummy stake, not a crummy church and sorry you are going thru that experience.

I'm always in trouble for holding a different view to the herd (baaaaaa) so started posing "devils advocate" questions in class to pour oil on troubled waters. I have a testimony of the creation, fall, atonement, and first vision. From there it gets a bit fuzzy.

I figured that my church activity and receptivness is an internal thing between me and God, and others either helped or hindered. Church should facilitate that personal God/individual relationship and not obstruct.

Although your neighbours are trying to make you feel that way - you really aren't alone.

I wish you'd been my Bishop.
Kindest regards.

On retention: The church can't keep using the same old tired rhetoric and expect different results.

This was an interesting article. The problem is, being �active� in a spiritual sense like an active wire isn�t necessarily correlated with actively participating in the Church. Can we admit that getting a weekly dose of the same correlated lessons from the same authorized manuals is like watching endless reruns? It�s not active.

For many of us, conforming to the church actually causes you to become spiritually inactive. Quoting Emerson:

�The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character...so much force is withdrawn from your proper life...

�If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word? Do I not know that, with all this ostentation of examining the grounds of the institution, he will do no such thing? Do I not know that he is pledged to himself not to look but at one side, � the permitted side?�

Just to throw out another perspective, I think the internet has actually helped me in finding answers to my questions. Naturally, there are things in the history of all religions that may cause people to struggle with their faith, but the trick is to struggle in the Spirit until you find answers. I've found that questioning (although done privately) is actually good--it invites growth and revelation. This questioning process has actually confirmed my faith. I sympathize with "non-retained" above, because I suppose some of your leaders weren't confident enough to help you with your struggles. If you, like I, can still come out stronger and with answers to the things that caused you to seek, question, and struggle in the first place, then think of the power for good that you can be in the lives of other members of the Church when they too confront things for the first time that might have jarred their faith. Having walked that sometimes frustrating and lonely path, you'll be more equipped to help those who come to you in an interview expressing doubts than others were with you in the past.

As a convert of 6 years, what I've experienced contradicts what 'Not Retained". I have found that our leaders welcome SINCERE questions and answer these questions by refering to the scriptures. And as to the assertion that one cannot 'serve' unless they have a strong unwaivering testimony is false blanket statement. And statements to the effect that people fall away because of information they get from the internet, well.......of course! Is not the internet of the world? It's just another avenue for people to get the wrong information and falsehoods of the Church. Stay strong in your FAITH.

Retention is up to each person. We all have our freedom to chose whether we want to be retained or not. We will have have reasons to retain or not retain. We will all have leaders who will offend us because they are human and we are human. We all have the choice to pray and search and discover the gospel for ourselves. Life is hard, it was meant to be hard, therefore, "Don't give up" is a perfect plea to every member active or less active....I have prayed it many times for many people and even for myself. No one is responsibile for my retention, but me. What a freeing truth that is.