Retention of New Members

[Dusty52]

In my ward in the last 12 months we have baptised 10
How many of them are active? 2
The retention of new converts is connected to one of my previous threads about missionary work and the disconnect with the ward, but that isn't the whole story!
President Spencer W Kimball said
"Every new convert needs 3 things:
A friend in the church
A Responsibility and
Nurturing"
What inspired wisdom!!
But who takes notice?
In ward council I always bang this drum, but to what avail?
What are your experiences?
What do you think we can do to retain our members?
I'm surprised that the church who have access to all the data do not share best practice throughout the church?
It would make sense to me?
Lets compile a list!
1. More involvement by the ward in missionary work
2. Work on someone in the ward who could be their friend
3. Start nurturing them before their baptism
4. Make sure they are on the agenda of every ward council
5. Assign them ministers for ministering, make sure they attend baptism, I think it would be better if these 2 could baptise and confirm rather than the missionaries as it can form an important bond!
6. Give them a little job to do, this makes them feel that they are needed and important, and it's another reason for them to attend church
Any more??

[inho]

I think it is sometimes really hard to find callings for new members. They aren't usually ready to serve as teachers or leaders. They could be called to nursery, but that would take them away from the adult classes and might prevent them of learning to know other adults, which is important if we want them to integrate in the ward. Some good callings are secretaries in different organizations. Thus they can see the example of members of the presidency and will learn to know at least those members. But there are only few such callings in the ward. And being a secretary in primary, YW, or YM might take one away from RS or priesthood meeting, which is not always desirable. Of course one can always give them calling like collecting the hymn books after the meetings, but does that kind of calling really serve the purpose?

What do you think are good callings for new members?

[Dusty52]

I think it is sometimes really hard to find callings for new members. They aren't usually ready to serve as teachers or leaders. They could be called to nursery, but that would take them away from the adult classes and might prevent them of learning to know other adults, which is important if we want them to integrate in the ward. Some good callings are secretaries in different organizations. Thus they can see the example of members of the presidency and will learn to know at least those members. But there are only few such callings in the ward. And being a secretary in primary, YW, or YM might take one away from RS or priesthood meeting, which is not always desirable. Of course one can always give them calling like collecting the hymn books after the meetings, but does that kind of calling really serve the purpose?

What do you think are good callings for new members?

Yes I agree it's a difficult one
There are no easy answers to any of these issues
We don't want to give them tokenistic callings
They could be called as an assistant to a teacher for example to help do research preparation for a particular lesson?
We just need to get them involved and feel apart of a ward family
It will take a lot of thought and effort to come up with such callings

[inho]

I think that part of the problem is that in Ward Quarterly Reports we only report the number of new members with actual callings. Sometimes we might get them involved otherwise. We might give them some task, perhaps relating to preparations for some activity etc. These non-calling tasks may serve the same purpose as real callings: let them feel needed and important, help them learn to know people, give them chances to study gospel and thus grow and so on.

[Lyster]

Not everything given to a person has to be a "calling". Use of the word calling makes it automatically feel like it's got to be super important, or God-revealed. Then, something that is instead super "not any of those things" that is called a calling feels... weird.

Instead, an assignment. They are told "everyone gets an assignment, and they're not all big"

"I just need you to help me put all the books away after sacrament meeting and we'll chat".
"Will you go through the hymn book each week, and select a hymn that you feel has a good message? We'll sing that to open the meeting."
"Can you go around and gather unreturned items with so-and-so and take them to the library?"

Arbitrary, yes. But, an assignment nonetheless. Given in tandem with someone else helps them build relationships. Searching the cultural things (hymn book) helps them learn the culture. Things like studying the scriptures in a group setting helps them learn doctrine.