By RB Mac
I rarely play with predicting what is coming down the pipe
from SLC. Except for general conference predictions, which are practically required
in the Bloggernacle. But in this case, with the whispers in the crisp Salt Lake
City air that has reached into Texas, and the fact that I have thought this was coming for a while now, I am going to make a prediction:
Missionary calls are
about to change, and the majority of Kids are not going to be serving proselyting
missions, but service missions.
When I say service missions, I am talking about a whole new
type of service mission. I am talking digging
water wells in Africa, Building schools in Asia and teaching in downtown Chicago. Proselyting
mission spaces will shrink for about 65k to about 20k, (I predict we will see
no decrease in convert baptisms) I also predict you will not choose what kind
of mission you go on. Your stake
president will write a recommendation as to what kind of service he feels you
are best for, and the twelve will make the final decision. Terms of service
will go from six months to a few years, but you will be able to select the maximum
amount of time you can serve for. Now
the Big change, you will be able to go on more than one mission. For example, you
could serve a six-month mission serving in Africa on college break, and another
teaching for a year in Chicago after you finish college. And best of all I
predict the cost of serving a mission will NOT go up.
That is my prediction, and I think we will see this announced
before the end of the summer.
Why the change? I
think there are three reasons:
- Missionary work is not going well. When you compare 1990 to 2017, you have 23,998 more missionaries, but you have 97,148 fewer baptisms. Look at it in percentages; you have 30.4% fewer baptisms and 153.6% more missionaries. This begs the question, what is the efficiency of the full-time missionary program today compared to 1990? Sit down; this is going to hurt….. today the missionary program is only 57% as effective as it was in 1990. And everything has been steadily trending down since 1990, sure there are spikes, but the trend has been downwards.
- There simply is not enough proselyting missionary work for the number of missionaries we have out right now. I know the missionaries in my ward have more than enough spare time and spend more time doing service than teaching already. Along with this I also think that our kids do not have the theological knowledge base needed to be effective teachers in this information age. Because of that, even if you are called on a proselyting mission, I think you will see more ward and stake missionaries participating in the teaching of investigators
- .Public Relations. Missionary work as far as focusing on teaching and converts is already and is getting more so…unpopular. And in this church PR rules the roost. The Church's public affairs department is to the twelve what the CIA is to the Whitehouse. If PR says there is a problem, you move!
So there it is my Prediction, and I think this is going to
be a positive change. I think our kids serving missions will have better and more
positive experiences.
I think it will increase the positive public image of the
Church and in the end, I think it will raise the number of convert baptisms we
have each year.
I know this one is far fetched, so feel free to let me have it, you can comments below, or you
can email me at modernmormonmen@gmail.com
attention RB Mac.
Cheers,
RB
P.S. I have some Church membership and missionary data below for your entertainment 😊
