Ward told We'd be demoted to a Branch if Attendance doesn't improve very soon

[Ebenezer]

In my ward, located in the shadow of the everlasting hills, weekly attendance is down 50-100 people compared to the Before Times. We still stream sacrament meeting for some reason, and we multiply the peak viewership by 3.8, which hides the drop in numbers, a little. Our 2022 budget was cut by about 10% compared to previous years.

On Easter this year the congregation looked positively enormous. But the actual number in attendance was the same as an average Sunday in 2019.

Words from The Lord of the Rings come to mind:

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.”

[Niemand]

Our attendance is creeping back up again, but at the beginning of this year we were missing at least 1/3 of our formely active members... mostly because they were scared of the Covid.

Stake conference attendance was also down by at least a third.

[Niemand]

If a meeting can be cancelled on a whim, then the meeting must not have been that important.

Our ward isn't like that. But the neighbouring one is. Our bishop and his wife spent a week or two away because of positive tests, but the services still ran, whereas next door, they stopped the entire service due to a similar scenario.

[BeNotDeceived]

… an average Sunday in 2019.

Words from The Lord of the Rings come to mind:

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.”

Is it weird or strange that

viewtopic.php?t=51962

appeared on or near the summer solstice of 2019?

[Reluctant Watchman]

Yes, our ward in NW Missouri may be turned back into a branch as attendance is recently about half of what it was in early 2020 (when I was released as Bishop). Our Bishop is awesome -- its just for some reason a lot of folks only come rarely, if at all. A small increase in numbers since Covid restrictions were lifted (except masks for those passing the sacrament), so we'll see...

I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic with that statement.

[Reluctant Watchman]

I could make a branch with all of the friends I know who have stopped attending or who left the church. Possibly even a small ward. I’m not joking.

[Niemand]

Blame will fall on COVID.

Not without reason. It's destroyed our attendance locally, stopped people popping in, and our bottom line - the tithing - well that's down too.

The church has lost a lot of tithing money off this, and i know that for a fact. Not all of it has gone online. The elderly who did a lot of the tithing here have been frightened off.

In other places, you can't come in without a stab pass. One of our Canadian missionaries was showing his off recently.

[Cruiserdude]

Words from The Lord of the Rings come to mind:

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.”

How true this rings.....

[Niemand]

Apparently:

Organised temple visits by wards and stakes are no longer allowed.

... to our temple.

My mother used to have a saying, "to cut your nose off to spite your face."

Seems like they're doing that here.

[zionssuburb]

Nobody's demoting a ward to a branch unless a couple of other things are happening, a new Bishop being called without someone that the SP feels could perform the job (they have to call a BP anyway) - Or a larger restructuring is going on. There's just too much paperwork involved to care what the designation is.

[Niemand]

Another interesting observation. I just threw out a series of "Come Follow Me" manuals. They often overorder and most folk do prefer to look at their phone, so the numbers taking them have gone down.

While there were a few left from 2020 (maybe half a dozen)... there were a number of boxes full of of 2021's edition, and we had five or six boxes of this year's left over. Each box has maybe twenty or thirty copies. I just said, "It's May, let's chuck them." I hate throwing out so many books, and they've filled up our trash... but a VERY noticeable difference.

[Reluctant Watchman]

Another interesting observation. I just threw out a series of "Come Follow Me" manuals. They often overorder and most folk do prefer to look at their phone, so the numbers taking them have gone down.

While there were a few left from 2020 (maybe half a dozen)... there were a number of boxes full of of 2021's edition, and we had five or six boxes of this year's left over. Each box has maybe twenty or thirty copies. I just said, "It's May, let's chuck them." I hate throwing out so many books, and they've filled up our trash... but a VERY noticeable difference.

Over ordering is probably not the only reason for tossing those manuals…

[OPMissionary]

Seems like the glory days of church attendance, participation, and unity are well behind us. It probably won't get better until the Church of the Firstborn is established.

[Obrien]

Yes, our ward in NW Missouri may be turned back into a branch as attendance is recently about half of what it was in early 2020 (when I was released as Bishop). Our Bishop is awesome -- its just for some reason a lot of folks only come rarely, if at all. A small increase in numbers since Covid restrictions were lifted (except masks for those passing the sacrament), so we'll see...

Bro / Dr Jones - good to see you're still on the ldsff. Please keep us informed regarding the presence of yellow dogs in your area. As long as they are around, I'll stay in TX! Peace and love brother.

[Obrien]

Yes, our ward in NW Missouri may be turned back into a branch as attendance is recently about half of what it was in early 2020 (when I was released as Bishop). Our Bishop is awesome -- its just for some reason a lot of folks only come rarely, if at all. A small increase in numbers since Covid restrictions were lifted (except masks for those passing the sacrament), so we'll see...

Bro / Dr Jones - good to see you're still on the ldsff. Please keep us informed regarding the presence of yellow dogs in your area. As long as they are around, I'll stay in TX! Peace and love brother.

[Obrien]

Yes, our ward in NW Missouri may be turned back into a branch as attendance is recently about half of what it was in early 2020 (when I was released as Bishop). Our Bishop is awesome -- its just for some reason a lot of folks only come rarely, if at all. A small increase in numbers since Covid restrictions were lifted (except masks for those passing the sacrament), so we'll see...

Bro / Dr Jones - good to see you're still on the ldsff. Please keep us informed regarding the presence of yellow dogs in your area. As long as they are around, I'll stay in TX! Peace and love brother.

[solo]

The mass exodus from the church is a casualty of the culture war and instant information. Prop 8 made a lot of members pause, but it was when the church said children of gays couldn't get baptized that good stalwart members began to question. Those questions in the past were harder to turn into apostasy since information was harder to get. But with the explosion of social media at your fingertips you are only 7 days away from being a TBM to a bitter apostate if you've been slighted or offended by members, leaders, rules, and policies by the church. I've seen it first hand in too many cases over the past 16 years.

[Silver Pie]

I have never known BroJones to be sarcastic.

Yes, our ward in NW Missouri may be turned back into a branch as attendance is recently about half of what it was in early 2020 (when I was released as Bishop). Our Bishop is awesome -- its just for some reason a lot of folks only come rarely, if at all. A small increase in numbers since Covid restrictions were lifted (except masks for those passing the sacrament), so we'll see...

I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic with that statement.

[Silver Pie]

But with the explosion of social media at your fingertips you are only 7 days away from being a TBM to a bitter apostate if you've been slighted or offended by members, leaders, rules, and policies by the church. I've seen it first hand in too many cases over the past 16 years.

I know a lot of people who are no longer members of the LDS Church, but who never turned into bitter apostates. In fact, there are a good number of them who were kicked out or told to resign.

[BroJones]

But with the explosion of social media at your fingertips you are only 7 days away from being a TBM to a bitter apostate if you've been slighted or offended by members, leaders, rules, and policies by the church. I've seen it first hand in too many cases over the past 16 years.

I know a lot of people who are no longer members of the LDS Church, but who never turned into bitter apostates. In fact, there are a good number of them who were kicked out or told to resign.

"or told to resign."
I've not heard of this before! pls explain...?

[Reluctant Watchman]

I have never known BroJones to be sarcastic.

Yes, our ward in NW Missouri may be turned back into a branch as attendance is recently about half of what it was in early 2020 (when I was released as Bishop). Our Bishop is awesome -- its just for some reason a lot of folks only come rarely, if at all. A small increase in numbers since Covid restrictions were lifted (except masks for those passing the sacrament), so we'll see...

I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic with that statement.

Maybe he was joking then…

I guess the phrase “it doesn’t take a scientist to…” directly applies here.

[Silver Pie]

"or told to resign."
I've not heard of this before! pls explain...?

I know an older couple. Very good friends of mine. Their son and daughter-in-law were incorporating some things into their lives (for example, she was a RS prez and decided to have the women visit who they were led to visit instead of being assigned - after she had asked permission. VT stats shot up, but it came to the attention of the stake prez and was frowned on). I forget all the particulars, but they decided the couple were apostate (I think for listening to Denver Snuffer, though they were not preaching his stuff in Church). They got kicked out.

Well, the older couple lived in the same stake, but in a different town. They and all of their children (all adults living in various places) were viewed with suspicion and interviewed. The older couple also believed Denver, but I forget the specifics of their bishop's questions. They were advised to resign.

They thought about it, talked about it, and prayed about it. They finally concluded that God would hold their bishop less guilty if they resigned than if he kicked them out when they were not actually apostate, so they resigned.

It seems like there were a few other instances where people I know were told/asked to resign, but I don't recall if they did so.

[ransomme]

Blame will fall on COVID.

I wonder though how much has to do with the 2 hour meeting block?
-fewer weekly callings
- less social interaction
- church feels impersonal and rushed.


Our once strong youth program is a dumpster fire with 15% attendance. Kids meet with YM/YW leaders only 2 times a month.

On Sundays the adult attendance is way down. Easy to explain. If it is priesthood week the Sunday school teachers stay home, if it is Sunday School the preisthood teachers stay home(RS too.)

the two-hour block was an actual godsend! My entire mission (95-97) was two-hour block, and I prayed for it until it happened 20+ tears later

[JuneBug12000]

Another interesting observation. I just threw out a series of "Come Follow Me" manuals. They often overorder and most folk do prefer to look at their phone, so the numbers taking them have gone down.

While there were a few left from 2020 (maybe half a dozen)... there were a number of boxes full of of 2021's edition, and we had five or six boxes of this year's left over. Each box has maybe twenty or thirty copies. I just said, "It's May, let's chuck them." I hate throwing out so many books, and they've filled up our trash... but a VERY noticeable difference.

Might try putting the boxes in the foyer.

I know a lot of people who would get one, but for the effort of hunting one down after church where the crowds gather near the bishops office/executive secretary office.

[Niemand]

Another interesting observation. I just threw out a series of "Come Follow Me" manuals. They often overorder and most folk do prefer to look at their phone, so the numbers taking them have gone down.

While there were a few left from 2020 (maybe half a dozen)... there were a number of boxes full of of 2021's edition, and we had five or six boxes of this year's left over. Each box has maybe twenty or thirty copies. I just said, "It's May, let's chuck them." I hate throwing out so many books, and they've filled up our trash... but a VERY noticeable difference.

Might try putting the boxes in the foyer.

I know a lot of people who would get one, but for the effort of hunting one down after church where the crowds gather near the bishops office/executive secretary office.

It's May now, if they haven't got one by now, they likely never will. 2021s are still there.

By the way, I did put some of them out earlier in the year, but some ward members wouldn't pick them up because they feared getting "cooties" as they'd say in the States. Hand gel everywhere, masks. No touchee.

Plus our attendance is down by over 1/3, and ministering in folk's homes isn't happening for the same reason, and those folk aren't inclined to let people in.