Mormon President Says Church Needs More Missionaries

By Peggy Fletcher Stack / The Salt Lake Tribune
Religion News Service

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Despite an impressive number of men and women preaching the Mormon gospel across the globe, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needs even more missionaries, LDS President Thomas S. Monson said.

A two-year mission is a universal expectation for every "worthy, able young man," Monson said Saturday (Oct. 2), speaking to more than 20,000 Mormons in the LDS Conference Center and millions more watching the church's 180th General Conference via satellite.

Young women don't have the same obligation to serve full-time, but can make "a valuable contribution as missionaries," Monson said. "We welcome your service."

And to retired couples, the LDS leader said, "we need many, many more senior couples."

Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles repeated Monson's message, saying, "We need more missionaries."

Nelson mentioned that his large Mormon family had so far produced 49 such missionaries and encouraged every member to share the faith with his neighbors, friends and Internet connections.

The push for more missionaries may reflect an awareness of the church's shrinking proselytizing force, which is down to about 52,000 from a high of 62,000 in the mid-1990s. The decline is due in part to the LDS Church "raising the bar" on missionary qualifications in 2002, LDS spokesman Scott Trotter said last February.

But, Trotter said, "the primary reason for changes in missionary numbers is the fluctuating population of available missionary-age members."

Comments

[brooklyncitizen]

09:25 PM on 10/17/2010

DOn't get these LDS folks at all.

[Bob Kellerman]

04:26 PM on 10/08/2010

SEND
A MISSION
TO

YOURSELVES

[Horux]

05:00 PM on 10/07/2010

Boman wrote (7.33 PM)
---
It is a disturbing thing to see so many folks in this world that have to hate...not just let it be...but hate...what they cannot understand...or embrace. There are process in every society...including ours...where social norms and levels of acceptable behaviors...are established. We should all have the tolerance to allow others to live how they wish...as long as it is not harmful to others...but there is a difference with some that want to impress their "norms" on everyone else...rather than just go about their business. Nearly everyone has some guilt in all of this...
---

You are confusing hate with contempt: people don't hate mormons, they are contemptuous that _anyone_ could insult his own intelligence with the fatuous, low-brow nonsense that the LDS 'religion' is.

[77 lc]

08:14 AM on 10/07/2010

Bob says Christ was about Love, and that Mormons are about Love of Power. We're over 13 million members. Some have power positions (Harry Reid, and RUNNING Mitt Romney), and yes disgracefully Glenn Beck. WOW we're all about power... how silly.

[ModLib Pantheist]

12:16 AM on 10/08/2010

again I point out the dichotomy between leaders and adherents. JS aspired for a true theocracy and ran for president of the US. The common membership may or may not have ambitions of power (many speculate that the specific dynamics of the Mormon system create a context where the power hungry rise to the top). Of course there are plenty of Mormons who just want to live and love and leave well enough alone, but they also contribute to a hierarchy that doesn't report its finances the way most churches do, gets involved in politics (prop 8, ERA, prohibition), and gets a tax-free ride. I believe criticism of Mormons would drop significantly if 1 it wasn't a tax exempt entity and 2 the members didn't get a tax break for tithing funds.

I will provide more numbers if asked but if you average the amount of members and compare it to the church's official humanitarian giving on LDS.org, it comes out to about 5 bucks per member per year going to feed the hungry, etc. That's someone paying 5,000 bucks to the church and only 5 bucks going to actual charitable work. If you assume a much smaller pool of tithers, it goes up to a hefty 12 to 15 bucks. Many mormons are paying 10k a year in tithes.

[Bob Kellerman]

03:52 AM on 10/08/2010

OR --- you all look silly when you do not acnowledge that Packer's statement affirms that your "church" wants power over the morals and actions (even rights!!!) of non-mormons.
That is about power, about greed, about hubris --- and not about Jesus at all


The moral issue is a smokescreen for the elders keeping their ducks in a row and tithing.
----if Gays marry in California, mormon kids might re-examine the values they were taught, adult mormons might notice it worked fine, did not ruin their own marriages,etc

Thus the curtain pulls back on the Wizards of Salt Lake who have you deluded that most of your money goes for good works, rather than into the multibillion dollar businesses.

Churches run by businessmen JUST MIGHT place the business aspects ahead of God, ya know?

[Bob Kellerman]

03:57 AM on 10/07/2010

ANOTHER CHEESEY DIVERSION

By the Church of Sort of Like Jesus, Except He Was About Treating Everyone Well, and Love
(mormons seem to be about love of power)

[Ninja247]

04:10 PM on 10/23/2010

bob how many members of the LDS church have you personally met that doesn't treat others well? You may disagree with what the leaders of the LDS church teaches, but pigeonholing the entire church membership like that is not what Christ would do either... Just sayin'

[A Bond]

10:52 PM on 10/06/2010

I don't like missionaries.
I like other positions- on this issue, of course.

[bomann]

07:33 PM on 10/06/2010

It is a disturbing thing to see so many folks in this world that have to hate...not just let it be...but hate...what they cannot understand...or embrace. There are process in every society...including ours...where social norms and levels of acceptable behaviors...are established. We should all have the tolerance to allow others to live how they wish...as long as it is not harmful to others...but there is a difference with some that want to impress their "norms" on everyone else...rather than just go about their business. Nearly everyone has some guilt in all of this...

[Ioan Lightoller]

06:40 PM on 11/12/2010

It is the Mormons who went and stuck their noses and money to deny us our rights. So no we don't need any more missionaries selling ignorance.

[TeraWatt60]

07:15 PM on 10/06/2010

Betty Bowers has a great take on the A&F clones formerly known as Mormons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E4M39FRIGc

[TeraWatt60]

06:45 PM on 10/06/2010

Just what the Mormons need ...more people in the Missionary Position

[StopMakingSense2]

05:30 PM on 10/06/2010

Maybe atheists should start knocking doors in Utah to do some deprogramming. Would probably get chased out of town for challenging the churches grip on the sheeple. The only thing being saved is the churches coffers. Religion doesn't serve the people, the people serve the religion..

[Mikeeee]

04:31 PM on 10/06/2010

Please, I'm begging you no. There's already enough hardship in the world.

[onionboy]

03:36 PM on 10/06/2010

Dear LDS officials:

Quite persecuting gay and lesbian young men and women, some of whom must already be members of your church, and maybe they'll be willing to be missionaries and even see LDS as a reasonable option for their faith.

Until then...shut up.

[kareemachan]

01:33 PM on 10/06/2010

Two thoughts:

1) glenn beck should answer the call.

2) The last time I had Mormon missionaries (serious young men in suits) visit my door, I told them I was living in sin with a recovering Mormon. That flustered them enough for me to shut the door. Haven't heard from them since! ;-)

[OneFish]

12:57 PM on 10/06/2010

I found this Wilde quote, it fits nicely into this discussion of the Mormons but it applies equally to any religion :

"Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions."

The man was brilliant.

[LintLass]

01:26 PM on 10/06/2010

And frightened people chant 'There's no such thing as ghosts.' :)

Maybe the brilliance is *life.* :)

[OneFish]

04:24 PM on 10/06/2010

I don't understand what you wrote.

[OneFish]

12:34 PM on 10/06/2010

It's like a techie startup that is faltering - you lay off the engineers and get more sales guys. It generates some volume to day but tomorrow's products never happen...but that's OK, because the religions are trying to exist for ever with one product that really never changes...

[ASteve]

12:52 PM on 10/06/2010

No engineers for more than a century in mormonism. They claim to have modern prophets who receive revelation from god, what has been revealed in the past 20 years?

1. Take the death oaths out of the temple ritual (1990)
2. Take the naked groping out of the temple (2005)
3. No piercings for men and women should have one ear piercing max (well one in each ear.) (I forget the date)

[OneFish]

12:55 PM on 10/06/2010

SO many significant advances is so short a time! Very impressive!

[OneFish]

12:57 PM on 10/06/2010

Although the loss of "naked groping" might be considered a step backwards depending on how it was actually implemented...

[Bob Kellerman]

04:33 PM on 10/06/2010

Comparing mormon church to "Techie Startup"

--- if the tech is a better wheel for covered wagons, OK

[OneFish]

01:11 PM on 10/07/2010

Faltering Techie Startup that has no substance and tries to prolong its existence by putting every last dime into marketing tired old products. I've seen it happen. It sorta fits.