The analysis contrasting our Church's approach to missionary work with the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventist's approaches was particularly disheartening.
I must be honest. Their approaches sound better and more Christlike than our Church's approach. I've noticed the same thing in the differences between these churches' approaches to education in less-developed countries and ours. They put the resources into building schools. The Adventists have over 7,804 low-cost, but extremely effective schools throughout the world. We think that we can do this with BYU Pathway Worldwide, but honestly, the results just aren't there. Until we have teachers in the local communities we will NEVER be that effective. Our graduation rates with Pathway students are in the single digits.Contemporary Jehovah’s Witness and Seventh-day Adventist approaches to conversion have long utilized principles of “low-pressure selling” (Stark and Iannaccone 1997, 140). These groups have implemented more rigorous baptismal standards, baptized more converts, and achieved higher convert retention than the LDS Church. Jehovah’s Witnesses typically conduct baptisms only three times annually, and emphasize “a strong, rational basis underlying their wish [for baptism], rather than just emotion” and firm, demonstrated commitment to keeping one’s promises (Secaira 2016). Witness converts typically attend for six months to a year before baptism, and some longer. Seventh-day Adventists do not prescribe a specific period, but for decades have required “a radical change in the life” of prospective converts. Candidates must complete dedicated Bible study and receive approval of the local church board to safeguard from “unknown problems in a candidate’s life that should have been taken care of before baptism” (SDA 1981). Many prospective converts attend for months; the most enthusiastic are rarely baptized with less than six to eight weeks of study. These deliberate, unpressured approaches emphasize full implementation of required life changes before baptism and help prospective converts to “count the cost” of discipleship, with the sober recognition that parting ways is better for all parties than the baptism of unprepared converts.
The saddest part is that ten years ago we had a highly motivated membership and plenty of funds and could have been a real force for good in the world. Today we have too much money and a not-too-particularly motivated membership and it feels like the window for the Church's influence for good is closing rapidly, all the hidden hundreds of billions of dollars be damned. And maybe that is the point. Instead of using the Lord's money to do good in the world, we buried our talents and didn't build the watchtower and now that money is damning us.