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

[Sunain]

Our ward was told this week we'd be demoted to a branch if attendance doesn't improve very soon. Is anyone else noticing this trend in their areas?

[Mamabear]

Our ward told this week we'd be demoted to a branch if attendance doesn't improve very soon. Is anyone else noticing this trend in their areas?

There are a handful of wards in our stake that should be branches. Nothing is being said. One of them has 50-60 people every Sunday. It’s been like that for years.

[Robin Hood]

Our ward told this week we'd be demoted to a branch if attendance doesn't improve very soon. Is anyone else noticing this trend in their areas?

A ward I served in on my mission is now a branch, and the ward I was in when stationed in Germany is now a branch too.
I can't take all the credit though.

[silverado]

Since 2019 two wards in my area have been disbanded and absorbed into neighboring wards. At the same time the population is really growing.

[kittycat51]

Our ward told this week we'd be demoted to a branch if attendance doesn't improve very soon. Is anyone else noticing this trend in their areas?

May I ask where?

[LostCreekAcres]

I much prefer a Branch. Usually more work, but much better in my opinion. I have lived in my current home for about 3 years - ward has split in that time and I'm betting we will split again in the next year (tons of houses going up nearby). I bet I can name about 6 people that I know. Granted... the hoax has caused a lot of the issues with not knowing folks.

[TwochurchesOnly]

Our ward told this week we'd be demoted to a branch if attendance doesn't improve very soon. Is anyone else noticing this trend in their areas?

A ward I served in on my mission is now a branch, and the ward I was in when stationed in Germany is now a branch too.
I can't take all the credit though.

LOL

[tribrac]

Last area we lived in made 2 wards out of every 3, and made 2 stakes out of 3.

It made it so our ward had about 80 active. Our rolls showed nearly 400, though I doubted half of the inactives still lived in the area.

[BroJones]

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...

[Sunain]

Our ward was told this week we'd be demoted to a branch if attendance doesn't improve very soon. Is anyone else noticing this trend in their areas?

May I ask where?

Mainland BC Canada. The long covid restrictions in Canada have taken their toll.

[Chip]

The CoJCoLDS church building up the street from my childhood home is up for sale. At least two wards used to meet there.

[Luke]

Don’t know why it would be a “demotion”. Where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of them.

[Wolfwoman]

Our ward/ stake was recently rebalanced which resulted in my ward going away. So new boundaries for many of the wards and one less ward in the stake.

[Serragon]

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...

In our ward, we have a very large group of "semi-active" members who come out once every month or two. This is new since Covid.

I think a lot of people found that attending sunday meetings wasn't really that important or necessary to them. I think there has always been a portion of people who attended meetings more out of duty or social pressure. The church's decision to shut down and make people do ridiculous things helped relieve people of those notions.

As the church has gotten more stale and coordinated over time. It has much less of a feel of community or family unless your ward is working extra hard to maintain those things. Put all that together and you are going to get a whole lot of people who still consider themselves mormon, but don't put a high priority on being active in church.

[JuneBug12000]

Joined a ward in 2006 in Provo so large that our first Sunday the chapel was full, the full size gym was full and we were still standing on the back wall with our kids and other people.

I was primary president there a few years later and we had 4 nurseries and over 100 kids in a primary room for 60. Then 2007-2008, suddenly it was all gone. Only a handful of kids in senior primary, back to 2 small nurseries. Never recovered.

We moved to Orem years later and our stake was reorganized to take out a ward. My mom stake' also in Orem also reorganized at the same time lost wards and combined to the point that they emptied a building and gave it back to SLC to do something with.

About 2018 our stake had a building in Orem vandalized by fire. They said they were going to rebuild, but they ended up tearing it down and selling the land.

Keep in mind from 2015 until now tons of people moved to the area and lots of high density housing built, even in our neighborhood in Orem. We had a stake conference at some point, maybe 2017? that said they were expecting huge growth in the church because of all the people moving in and the housing being built.

But it didn't happen. We just kept shrinking. And that was all pre-COV.

It has only gotten worse.

[tribrac]

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.)

[Subcomandante]

Our ward hasn't really suffered a shrinkage. We do keep on getting baptisms occasionally and they do come back for more. But we haven't really grown too much either. Maybe with a few extra Priesthood we would be able to split our ward to form a branch within the stake.

Keep in mind, I'm in central Mexico, but I would not be telling the truth if I were to say the Church was growing like it was when I was a missionary in another region of Mexico. Today the missionaries brag when they say their mission had 50 baptisms in a month. While in my days we were regularly between 100 and 130 with a couple of months in the 80s and one month at 160.

According to the missionaries, the 50 baptism a month mission is above the nationwide average. When we had our 120 baptisms a month we were below the national average and by a significant amount. Back in those days, we were baptizing 50 thousand new converts a month. We are lucky to get a third of that nowadays.

[h_p]

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.

But that 2-hour block was the prophetic guidance that made it possible for us to get through the 2020 lockdowns!

[tribrac]

Maybe...

IMO...it was considered because of a cost savings on chapels but it was the lawyers who told them they had to ...because of me.

[Pazooka]

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.

But that 2-hour block was the prophetic guidance that made it possible for us to get through the 2020 lockdowns!

I realize you’re being sarcastic - and I cringe every bless-ed time I hear someone say something like that but I’m not sure how they can believe it. There were rumors for years before it was announced that such-and-such a ward was going to do a pilot program for a 2-hour block. That’s just the way it was heading. 3 hours is just way too long for a lot of people to set in hard seats. We had a closet full of cushions for the 3rd hour - lol.

[Sunain]

Don’t know why it would be a “demotion”. Where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of them.

While that maybe true, have a bishop instead of a branch president is a significant difference in the operation of a church unit and for the members in that area.

[JohnnyL]

Joined a ward in 2006 in Provo so large that our first Sunday the chapel was full, the full size gym was full and we were still standing on the back wall with our kids and other people.

I was primary president there a few years later and we had 4 nurseries and over 100 kids in a primary room for 60. Then 2007-2008, suddenly it was all gone. Only a handful of kids in senior primary, back to 2 small nurseries. Never recovered.

That was from Proposition 8, I believe. 50% of one of my relative's extensive friends left the Church during that time period.

[WikiUp]

Beside membership count, what is the difference between a Ward and a Branch? I don't get the significance.

A rose by any other name is still a rose.

I was once a Branch President and we functioned exactly like a Ward. Same organizational structure, etc. Even built a LDS Chapel building, just without a formal Chapel section. It was smaller due to less population, but still an LDS building. We had everything any other LDS building had, just no Chapel, we used what is now the Primary Room as the Chapel. The building was then expanded to include the Chapel and a half size Cultural Hall when it became a Ward. Population did not increase all that much.

[largerthanlife2]

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

[largerthanlife2]

My housing development had 15 active families when we first moved in to our home. All the families moved away. Hard to make friends that way.