Getting sent to Germany without purse or scrip would probably mean deportation, or ending up living with an LDS family, who would have to send their teen daughters to boarding school for the duration, but yeah, the New Testament is a great model for missionary work!

Good thing JS clarified that revelation only goes downward in the hierarchy or this would be mighty confusing. I’m all for brainstorming ways to improve the missionary program, but I’d rather stand on the shoulders of (aging) giants than reinvent the wheel. Anyone object to the missionary program as revealed in the NT as a starting point?

That is a good individual question, for sure. If you aren’t proud to share it, don’t.

If we could bring in the missionaries only after those we are bringing to church with us are ready to listen to them, and if we were bringing people to church with us on a regular basis, the missionaries would be so busy they wouldn’t have to tract for hours each day.

That’s my opinion, anyway, and it’s the OFFICIAL program of the gerontocracy. I don’t blame the leadership at the top when the problem is that those lower than them aren’t following their directions.

The Spanish-speaking branch in our stake is flourishing largely because they GET this. Nearly all of them are recent converts, so they know they can’t “teach the Gospel”. Instead, they just invite their friends to worship and play with them. A little over a year ago, the branch averaged about 40 people in sacrament meeting each week; now they average 110-130 – often with as many as 15-20 investigators. Recently, they had an activity where there were OVER 300 in attendance. That same attitude has been the one consistency in every quickly growing unit I have observed over the years.

That’s “sharing the Gospel” in the truest sense – and what I meant by being complacent. If we stopped worrying about PREACHING and started focusing more on SHARING . . .

I have to disagree here – I don’t think it’s complacency – I think it is very real discomfort with trying to do missionary work – there is a ton of negative publicity out there about Mormonism right now (between Romney, RLDS, anti websites, etc.), plus people in general just aren’t that interested in religion at least in the USA anymore, so draggin it up in casual conversations is harder – and noone wants to make their next door neighbor a project. We have had tons of discussions about this in RS – and people just aren’t comfortable with every member a missionary, despite how hard that has been pushed.

One of the biggest reasons that so many missionaries struggle is that they are forced to find people through ineffective and difficult ways – because the members aren’t bringing people to church with them. It’s not the program that is stuck on stupid; it’s largely the membership that is stuck on lazy.

Mike,
Amen brother!

I will tackle the mission reform issue in another post, just because there seems to be interest, and I don’t think it’s 100% tied to gerontocracy. FWIW, I think the key problem is tracking (just like at work usually). How do you track success on such an intangible? Baptisms are just an easy thing to track (in Mormonism, not in other churches where 1) baptism isn’t always required, 2) you can sometimes ‘transfer’ your baptism from one sect to another, 3) there is no ‘centralized’ tracking database, or 4) there’s no missionary effort in the first place!).

Didn’t I leave a comment here last night?

Never mind.

Let’s get back to the “mission reform” issue, which I think is quite valid. The core question is: what is the purpose of the missionary program? Is it to make impressive numbers of baptisms? Or is it so that — in the Savior’s word — “this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come, or the destruction of the wicked” (JS-Matthew 1:31)? Or both? That could have a big influence on how things are ‘reformed’. ..bruce..

Sounds like there is call for a mission reform post. I will make sure we get one out there soon and really crank out some ideas.

Corporate America constantly reinvents itself, and so can Mormons. And frankly, we can keep much, just need to tweak here and there, revamp this and that. In school, there is often little margin between a passing grade and an A.

All comments welcome.

As for Steve EM’s claim that this gerontocracy and a “cannon fodder” missionary approach has somehow inhibited church growth, I’d simply point out that the church has managed to grow — with that gerontocracy and that approach — from 3.2 million members when I left as one of those “cannon fodder” missionaries in 1972 to over 13 million members today. My mission — Central America (Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama) — had at that time (1972-74) a grand total of five districts, maybe 25-30 branches, and 10,000 members (of which perhaps a few thousand were active). Today, those same four countries have over 250,000 members, 40 stakes, 247 wards, 30 districts, 220 branches and 5 missions, with one temple in operation and two more announced. I think that Steve EM’s perspective is just a bit too parochial, both in time and geography.

There has been a slowdown in convert baptisms in the past decade, but that’s a slowdown from an average of around 4-5%/year to 2.5%/year. I don’t think that’s been a bad thing; remember that Elders Oaks and Holland were dispatched a few years ago to the Philippines and South America, respectively, due to growth problems, not problems with “shrinkage”. Likewise, there are indications that the Church has deliberately slowed down growth in Africa in order to ensure stability and quality in local leadership.

Your mileage, as always, may vary. ..bruce..

On your mission reform thoughts – in general, I agree with some of the commenters on the link you sent: mission reform should be grass roots vs. top-down. The apostles should retain the vision/strategy for opening countries, etc., but as for the program, from what I’ve seen the young guys in HQ are the ones driving the reforms we’ve seen. IME, mission presidents also had a LOT of latitude to run the program however they saw fit. Like Ghandi said, you have to be the change you seek. As an RM mother of three, I’m making sure my kids are aware of other cultures and open-minded. I’m helping them to understand what’s most important about your mission (loving the people and keeping the spirit). I’m generally in favor of the Raising the Bar. Kids who are on the fence are going to be less likely to throw it all away in a moment of weakness if there are more dire consequences. I met lots of kids at the Y when I was a freshman who were open to experimenting sexually and repenting later. Obviously, that’s not a great way to spend your mission prep years. What if instead they had spent that time more wisely rather than pursuing fleeting pleasures? There were plenty of missionaries on my mission who had their own personal problems to deal with; that can really weigh down a companionship. While we were the highest baptizing mission in Europe, retention was very poor. Perhaps that is a contributing factor.

I don’t want to threadjack this discussion too much, but this is what I just posted on another blog that has an active mission thread about an individual’s struggles to resolve the very real and extreme difficulties of his mission:

“I already mentioned that I think this post is profound and moving, but I need to add one thing:

Up to the end of my mission, it really was the best two years of my life – spiritually, but in other ways, as well. It was incredibly difficult, but it was wonderful – and not just in hindsight. I extended for an extra month, even though I was officially engaged, because I recognized the growth of the previous 24 months and wanted the extra growth that month would give me. I grew on my mission in a way that I don’t think I could have done in any other way – and it happened then and consciously.

I truly respect greatly the way that (the author) has come to terms with his mission and the way that he has articulated it here, as well as the others who have experienced similar retrospective understanding – but that is not the universal experience of all missionaries. The experience of each missionary is as varied as the missionaries who serve, and (the author’s) should not stand here as the “norm” that is presented to those preparing to serve – or in the minds of those reflecting back on their own past – or those who read this post but don’t comment.

Neither should mine.”

hawkgrrrl,
Here’s the link regarding Gs: http://mormonopenforum.blogsome.com/2005/07/05/temple-fashion/

Here’s a link regarding some past thoughts I had about the missionary program and old apostles: http://mormonopenforum.blogsome.com/2005/07/12/sucky-missionary-program-and-retiring-apostles/

Think of me as an LDS Martin Luther, nailing needed reforms to the temple door but lacking Luther’s energy. Like Luther, I have no interest in starting another church, just encouraging reform. I believe in grace, hence the EM (Evangelical Mormon).

I’ve got mixed feelings on the comment about the missionary program. I agree that more changes are due and will come in time (sooner would be better). But I also feel that some of the changes since I served, while not a total overhaul, are important steps in the right direction, especially localized training centers in the countries they will serve, more focus on volunteerism in local communities, equal monthly cost regardless of location, and changes to the discussion format which have come a long way in terms of flexibility. Missions don’t serve the same purpose as youth outreach programs in the Catholic or Evangelical churches, and IME the b’nacle is not representative of the RM population at large.

I have to agree Steve EM…….one only needs to see what the evangelicals do with youth development, as well as the catholics with their World Youth Day event and the amount of youth they draw in to see how outdated both our missionary program is and the YM/YW programs (which are really based on the scouting movement of the early 1900′s). We aren’t even allowed to run activities at the Area wide level, only three or four neighboring stakes can take part.

They could off course grant emeritus status to the apostles, especially men like Haight and Hales who probably don’t travel much these days. But they never will since its all about power…they run the show and want to keep running it even if they are weak and hospitalized.

And off course they are out of touch, proof? Elder Ballard talk that he had trouble working out how to use an ipod, and then saying ‘use new media’ to defend the church -to YSA because he’ll never know how to do it. Also Elder Oaks telling a YSA fireside that he tried to buy an ‘electric typewriter’ but the 20 year old clerk looked back at him bewildered. The man still wants to use electric typewriters almost 3 decades after wordperfect! They are definitely out of touch, not maliciously so just due to their age.

“God’s Really in Charge. He can kill off potential leaders before their time” Brilliant!