Law of the Harvest — Book Review & Quotes

Review

Everyone is left to decide for themselves what they believe in regards to whether or not there is a God. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Not only do I believe in God, but I belong to a church that believes in proselytizing; sharing the message of what we believe. The discipline of church growth has fascinated me, and this book speaks specifically to the methods and data behind how churches of any denomination grow.

My brother shared a quote with me that struck to the core of why people of my faith go out in such fervor to share our beliefs. The quote comes from Penn Jillette, a famous magician (the Penn in Penn & Teller) and he clearly lays out why, if you believe in a bigger picture, you should do everything you can to share that news (and do note, Penn is a vocal atheist.)

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward — and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself — how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

First, you determine where you stand: is there a God? What is his character? What is his nature? Once you’ve made that decision, you have to act in accordance with that knowledge. For me, when I decided I believe in a God who wants all his children to know what I know, then I set out to understand how best to do that.

This book is a broad swath of insights into how churches grow, why they sometimes don’t grow, and what you can do to help efficiently share your message. While there is more here than I could effectively summarize, the key takeaway for me was that if we firmly believe what we believe then we should be open to ways to improve:

“Those whose faith is grounded in a true testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel will welcome data and objective analysis to church growth.”

Quotes

“Elder Bruce R. McConkie stated, ‘If you will ponder it in your mind, you will come up, in my judgment, with the conclusion that we could bring immeasurably more people into the Church than we are now doing. We could fellowship more than we are now fellowshipping; in practice this could be five or ten or twenty times as many as we are now baptizing. Perhaps in due course it should be 24 times or 100 times as many as at present.’”

“Jim Rohn stated, ‘Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.’”

“We learn from the story of Gideon (Judges 7) that small numbers of people who do the right things can accomplish far more than much larger numbers who do not. Even a small number of missionaries and members who prayerfully study and implement the principles found in this book can have a major impact on worldwide church growth. I pray that those who read and study this book will gain an understanding of what must be done to improve our personal and collective effectiveness as missionaries and member-missionaries, an understanding of how to do it, and the desire and commitment to get it done.”

“A correct understanding of actual church growth, member activity, and convert retention is essential to effective missionary work.”

“While recognition alone does not guarantee progress, it is impossible to achieve meaningful improvement without awareness of present reality.”

“While there are significant external challenges, much of the key to improved church growth lies in the need for better planning, improved methodologies, wider outreach, more meaningful prebaptismal preparation, and better research and education.”

“Those whose faith is grounded in a true testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel will welcome data and objective analysis to church growth.”

“Whenever we talk about missionary work in Church, we always hear those saying ‘it’s so hard, and the Austrians are an irreligious people.’ That cannot entirely be true, or else the Jehovah’s Witnesses would not have had such a growth!’”

“Demographic data contradict the popular belief that the LDS Church is growing rapidly because of large families.”

“A fertility rate of 2.1 children per couple is required for population replacement. With only 22 percent of Latter-Day Saints born to U.S. active families remaining active lifelong and another 44 percent returning to the Church after periods of inactivity, the natural growth of Latter-Day Saints in the United States appears to be below the level required to sustain a stable population.”

“The fact that stakes have been formed at a rate of less than one hundred every four years rather than one hundred or more each year demonstrates that only a fraction of converts become participating members.”

“The total number of LDS lost address file members is unlikely to be much less than 2 million.”

“Those who claim that poor retention is a natural or inevitable result of rapid growth are uninformed. Ammon and his brethren baptized thousands but achieved 100 percent convert retention: ‘As the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away’ (Alma 23:6). In modern times, convert retention rates approaching 100 percent were achieved in the British Isles for more than half a century.”

“Many other groups, including the Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, have consistently achieved excellent convert retention rates in the same cultures and societies where LDS missions have experienced only fractional retention, and so LDS retention problems cannot be attributed to deficiencies of local cultures.”

“The long term dedication of the Church to its members underscores the need for full preparation of prospective converts and discerning prebaptismal interviews, since the baptism of unconverted or insincere individuals who do not remain active presents a lifetime liability to the Church.”

“When individuals are baptized but do not attend church, do not identify themselves as members of the Church, and do not believe or live the teachings of the Church, has the Church grown?”

“Faiths with high convert retention rates are candid and realistic in their measurement of growth. Jan Paulsen, president of the rapidly growing Seventh-Day Adventist church, observed: ‘A growing church is not primarily identified by the increase in numbers. Growth must also be in depth of understanding…it must also be in depth of commitment both to the Lord, to the truth, and to the church; as well as in increased capacity to unite and bond as a family of believers. Lack of attention to this will produce Adventist mutations, which would be an unacceptable development. [Evangelism]…is effective because the new members have been taught and nurtured over many months, they know who they are and what they believe, and they have a network of friends in the church. When this does not happen, ‘growth’ is just a play on numbers and does not reflect the reality we want to see. The very word ‘growth’ means to become bigger, stronger, healthier, and more capable of functioning effectively.’”

“We may not be able to prevent every member from being lost to inactivity due to life-style choices, but we can ensure that prospective converts are properly taught and prepared so that attrition does not occur due to lack of commitment or understanding. When focused effort is made whole-heartedly to improve that which lies within our own power, the results are astounding, and individuals find that results depend far more on their own effort than they had realized.”

“The Jehovah’s Witness faith, established only in 1890, now has far more active and participating members than the LDS Church worldwide because of the direct involvement of the average members in proselyting for sixteen hours each month.”

“Member missionary program overview

1. An initial meeting, typically conducted as a fifth Sunday joint Priesthood / Relief Society lesson
2. Practical three-minute messages on missionary work are given each Sunday
3. A well-stocked table of missionary resources maintained in the chapel foyer

“Rather, the goal is to change basic member behaviors in a way that will increase referrals and baptisms for years to come by making sharing the Good News a regular part of their life and by providing weekly training to help members refine their member-missionary skills.”

“Most members acknowledge the importance of sharing the gospel and have repeatedly been instructed to do so, yet have never been educated or mentored in basic practical elements of the process. Many face barriers of fear or a lack of understanding. Jim Rohn stated, ‘Education must precede motivation…If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.’”

“Apprehension must be changed to enthusiasm, ignorance to understanding, and avoidance to implementation.”

“Even after a well-received initial presentation, member-missionary involvement will taper off without regular follow-up and ongoing teaching.”

“A few weekly [member missionary] weekly message topics:

1. Conversational openers for gospel discussions, including the ‘golden questions’ and other approaches
2. Ways to handle common concerns or objections, such as responses that individuals believe in nothing beyond the Bible or that they believe in God but do not see a need to attend church
3. Helping members to understand their responsibility to share the gospel spontaneously without waiting for special experiences and avoiding prejudging of others
4. Considering individuals needs and situations and responding to feedback and verbal and nonverbal cues in sharing the gospel
5. Dealing with rejection gracefully and leaving the door open for future discussions
6. Times of special receptivity: major life change, birth or death in the family, marriage, change of job, or a move
7. Educating members about different resources for sharing the gospel and the circumstances under which each can be used most effectively

_________________

*My key takeaways from the way to outline member missionary work:

• Missionary work is a necessary and required part of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
• We are held accountable when we do not share the gospel
• Our personal salvation and righteousness are increased when we share the gospel

“Gordon B. Hinckley noted: ‘I wish I could awaken in the heart of every man, woman, boy, and girl here this morning the great consuming desire to share the gospel with others. If you do that you live better, you try to make your lives more exemplary because you know that those you teach will not believe unless you back up what you say by the goodness of your lives.’ He further declared: ‘I think every member of the Church has the capacity to teach the gospel to nonmembers. I was told the other day of a crippled woman, home-bound, who spends her days in a wheelchair, who has been the means of bringing thirty-seven people into the Church…. We need an awareness, an everyday awareness of the great power that we have to do this thing. Second, a desire…. I am as satisfied as I am of anything that with that kind of prayerful, conscientious, directed effort, there isn’t a man in this Church who could not convert another…. Third, the faith to try. It is so simple.’”

• Unrealistic beliefs about our progress and growth as a Church are damaging

“Most Latter-Day Saints believe strongly that the Church is growing rapidly, but have made no attempt to share the gospel with a non-member within the last year.”

• We don’t OYM (Open Your Mouth aka talk to non-members about the gospel) because we’re afraid we’ll say the the wrong thing when in reality non-members just want to see that we are good people

“A survey of 166 LDS members I conducted in 1999 found that 73 percent of members reported reasons related to fear as the main barrier to sharing the gospel more frequently with nonmembers.”

“I also surveyed eighty-six nonmembers about what was the most important thing to them when individuals of other faiths shared their beliefs. Thirty-eight percent replied that they most valued the sharer’s example of righteous living, while 27 percent cited mutual respect for the belief of others. Twenty-six percent cited the sharer’s expressions of how his or her faith has helped him or her in life, and 7 percent noted that service was a key factor. Only 2 percent cited the sharer’s ability to clearly explain beliefs as being the most important to them.”

“All effective member-missionary programs focus on helping members to develop and maintain the gospel habits that bring the Holy Spirit, including daily Book of Mormon study, daily family prayer, keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and paying tithing. Without these behaviors in place in the lives of individual members, no member-missionary program will ever reach its potential. Over months and years, the great value of these habits for member-missionary work is unmistakable.” — Build your member-missionary program on the foundation of personal righteousness in your ward / branch

• Just OYM

“Too many members and missionaries ask the wrong questions: ‘Which of my neighbors is ready to receive the gospel?’ ‘Which door should I knock on?’ As a young missionary, I learned the fallacy of such practices. When I prayed to know what street to tract on or what doors to knock on, I only felt a stupor of thought. I quickly learned that all people have a right to hear the gospel message — not just a select few whom we feel specifically impressed to approach. I learned the truth of the Lord’s words: ‘Go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss.’ (D&C 80:3). The Doctrine and Covenants alone contains numerous admonitions to open our mouths about the gospel at all times (D&C 19:29, 24:10, 28:16, 30:11, 33:8–11, 80:3).”

— — — — — —

“Talks and lessons [about missionary work] focus primarily on motivating and admonishing members to share the gospel, yet they offer little practical ‘how-to’ information.”

“Many member-missionary programs fail because they focus on the wrong goals, emphasizing referrals and baptisms, while neglecting the reality that few members ever initiate a gospel conversation with a non-member at all.”

“It is appropriate to set goals for our personal effort in sharing the gospel with nonmembers. It is inappropriate to set goals that depend on the response of others.”

“Members who make a habit of speaking with at least one person about the gospel each day can bring many people into the Church over the course of a lifetime. If a member only speaks with someone about the gospel once or twice per year, it is unlikely that he or she will ever bring another person into the Church.” — Our goal should be 1 OYM per day

“Invite the hearer to take some action, whether to read in the Book of Mormon, to pray to God, to attend a family home evening or church service, or simply to discuss matters of faith another time. Individuals should be invited but never pressured.”

“When meeting and planning consumes more than 20 percent of time, that time is being used inefficiently and should be reallocated to personal interactions with nonmembers. The world is not ‘fished out’: we simply aren’t doing much fishing.”

“Be a PPP: a polite persistent pest. Arrive early, stay late, and do not sit down until you have sincerely introduced yourself to any individuals you do not recognize. Do more than say hello — be a real friend, not an assigned one. Your task is to make each person sincerely feel as welcome as possible. Encourage other members to do the same.”

“LDS members typically lack hands-on mentoring in outreach. Involvement of members in missionary splits, teaching and fellowshipping visits with investigators, and role playing are essential elements of member-missionary training. Jehovah’s Witnesses are mentored early in proselyting by experienced members, often even before they are formally baptized. The practical, applied focus of the Jehovah’s Witnesses has proven far more effective at inspiring member-missionary participation than abstract, theoretical LDS member-missionary exhortations that rarely reach beyond the pulpit of the classroom.”

“In conjunction with regular church attendance, cottage meetings are typically able to foster a high degree of enthusiasm for the gospel in investigators than attendance at church meetings alone. This is because the problems with many conventional church meetings — the unpredictability of talks, lessons not specifically tailored to investigators, and inconsistent fellowshipping — are almost entirely eliminated in the setting of cottage meetings. Investigators enjoy cottage meetings because they are attractive, relevant, and appealing. Cottage meetings are held weekly on a specific night (other than Monday) in a member’s home with predictable teachers and consistent interaction. Quality fellowshipping in cottage meetings is almost inevitable, and the relationships that develop are much stronger than those developed in Sunday meetings by a greeting and a handshake in the hall. All this is achieved while simultaneously reaching multiple people within a limited time.”

“Vigorous Christians produce vigorous converts.”

“LDS Missionary Department studies document that missionary work ethic and productivity in the mission field correlate highly with having a mother who does not work and with mission expenses that are paid largely or in full by the missionary himself.”

“Similarly, many of the great missionaries of the modern era describe the burning desire to reach the lost keeping them awake at night. Each of us must vicariously feel the suffering of those who have not had an opportunity to receive the full gospel.” — compare Mosiah 28:3

“The Lord can fully answer our prayers only when we have made an earnest attempt to study, contemplate, and understand.”

“Jim Rohn stated: ‘Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge; wish for more wisdom.”

“Jim Rohn observed: ‘The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them.’”

“Time management guru Jeffrey Meyer noted: ‘set goals for activities, not for results, and the results will take care of themselves,’ as long as the chosen activities are appropriate.”

“Jim Rohn advised: ‘Never begin the day until it is finished on paper…. At the end of each day, you should play back the tapes of your performance. The results should either applaud you or prod you.”

“An active turnover of investigators is essential to keeping the finding and teaching pools vibrant.”

“The most notable distinction between great missionaries such as Dan Jones, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Paul, the Sons of Mosiah, and less effective missionaries is not in their teaching program, but in their finding program. Effective missionaries reach vast numbers of people by utilizing every opportunity to share the gospel. Whether in receptive or resistant areas, missionaries who understand and apply correct finding principles can multiply their effectiveness.”

“Missionaries I have surveyed in numerous U.S. missions reported spending an average of less than five hours per week tracting or finding through their own efforts, even though most had fewer than five active investigators.”

“Many other faiths have experienced more rapid growth because they understand the need to contact many thousands or tens of thousands to make a single proselyte, while many LDS missionaries and members expect miraculous results with token effort.”

“The selection process is to occur in the heart of the hearer and not in the mind of the sharer. Our role is to knock into all the doors, to reach all people, and to offer the gospel message universally. Who accepts the gospel message is in God’s hands. Any goal short of providing all people with an opportunity to accept or reject this message is unsatisfactory.”

“Elder Dallin H. Oaks reported that ‘of investigators found through media campaigns, about 1 to 2 percent are baptized. Of investigators found through the missionaries’ efforts, about 2 to 3 percent are baptized. Of investigators found through the members, 20 to 30 percent are baptized.”

“Nearly a century ago, President B.H. Roberts observed: ‘If tracting is the backbone of missionary work, how is it that we do not have some treatise or instruction on the subject, some manual; or some definite course of training in it? There was no answer to the question except to confess to the neglect of the subject; and that, of course, was no answer.’ Today, modern missionary manuals offer little insight into such basic topics.”

“Member visits are best scheduled so that they do not take missionaries off the streets during prime proselyting and teaching time when nonmember families are home.”

“While much can be done to improve member finding effectiveness, this depends much more upon the presence of an effective member-missionary program in the local congregation than on missionary visits.”

“It is usually much more effective to make large numbers of fresh contacts each day than to dedicate large amounts of time to visits attempting to solicit referrals. It is more effective to mentor members in sharing the gospel on splits or in teaching situations than to exhort them to share the gospel over dinner.”

“I find that it is less helpful to bring members on the first discussion unless they are personal friends of the investigator, since the large majority of first discussions never result in a second, and the presence of a member is of questionable benefit for first-time investigators who are likely to have other hang-ups.”

“I have found that it is rarely appropriate to extend the baptismal commitment until investigators have attended church, read in the Book of Mormon, received a divine witness of the Holy Spirit, and demonstrated understanding of the principles of divine authority, apostasy, restoration, and one true and living Church. Missionaries should know whether investigators understand that the Church is true and are willing to observe divine commandments before extending the baptismal commitment.”

“Missionaries must help prospective converts to count the cost to ensure that they will be able to continue long-term in full Church activity, even in the face of significant challenges or hardships.” — Don’t let them make commitments they can’t keep

“It is incongruous with intelligence to believe that an investigator is willing to forsake everything for Christ and even to give up his or her own life if necessary, when he or she has been unreliable in making even the petty sacrifices of weekly church attendance, daily scripture reading, and so forth for even four weeks before baptism.”

“Even the ‘foolish virgins’ at least showed up to the wedding of the bridegroom, indicating that Christ was speaking about active members.”

“Convert loss is not inevitable, nor does rampant activity represent only minor collateral damage on the way to meeting monthly baptismal goals. It is possible to generate large numbers of inactives in a relatively short time, yet even years of intensive fellowshipping and reactivation work are rarely able to fully reverse the damage done by prior accelerated baptism programs.”

“Outreach to lost members is time and resource intensive, and Christ refers to the shepherd leaving the ninety and nine to find the one that is lost. One might contemplate how Christ’s ‘ninety and nine’ to one compares to the ratio of approximately thirty ‘found’ sheep to seventy ‘lost’ sheep in today’s church.”

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and extra effort to teach new converts correctly before baptism and establish firm gospel habits often does far more good than hundreds of hours spent working with inactives.”

“The scriptures teach that both quality and quantity, both faithfulness and fruitfulness are expected. The ‘field is white, already to harvest.’ Disciples of Christ are sent not to generate paper lists of inactive members, but to establish a living, vital Church. The Savior emphasized both missions: ‘I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain’ (John 15:16).”

“Poor retention is no more a necessary part of the growth of the Church than sickness is a prerequisite to health.”

“Sociologists have long observed that the world’s rapidly growing missionary churches are not those that require little (Catholic Orthodox, and mainline Protestant churches experience few conversions), but faiths with high membership requirements, such as the Seventh-Day Adventists (growing 8 to 11 percent annually) and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The ‘Hartsem Faith Communities Today’ study, the largest study of religious congregations in the United States in history, found that strictness of member expectations contributes to high growth rather than dissuading prospective converts.”

“Faiths that achieve high convert retention rates require prebaptismal standards. Seventh-Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses have lifestyle, commitment, and time requirements that are comparable and in some ways more demanding to those required for LDS membership. Seventh-Day Adventists follow a law of health that is stricter than the LDS Word of Wisdom, requiring not only abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea, but also a near-vegetarian diet. Seventh-Day Adventists also worship on Saturdays rather than Sundays, which presents social and cultural challenges. Even with these commitments, the Seventh-Day Adventists church is growing rapidly and retains 78 percent of new members. The average Jehovah’s Witness proselytizes nonmembers for an average of fifteen to twenty hours each month. Jehovah’s Witnesses must also give up birthday parties, Christmas and Easter celebrations, and more. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventist investigators are typically expected to attend church regularly, often for months, to complete Bible-study courses, and to adhere consistently to membership requirements prior to baptism.”

“Faiths that require little offer little and fail to mobilize the commitment and dedication that are prerequisites for sustained rapid growth.”

“Joseph Smith taught: ‘A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.’”

“The consistent success of appropriate prebaptismal requirements in elevating convert retention rates from 20 to 30 percent prior to their implementation to 80 to 90 percent afterward demonstrate that benefits are experienced by the overwhelming majority of prospective converts.”

“Time is not a threat to true conversion. In view of the consistent history of crisis-level inactivity left by quick-baptize tactics, those who feel that they have been ‘moved by the Spirit’ to baptize converts without a consistent record of obedience to gospel laws and firm gospel habits should ponder whether the spirit they heed is indeed a holy one.”

“It is not enough just to go to Church on Sundays; we must reach out each day.”

“That is a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only as we reach out to help others are we truly Latter-day Saints.”

“Aristotle noted: ‘Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.’ Jim Rohn stated, ‘Motivation gets you started, and habits keep you going.’”

“Sociologists estimate that it takes at least three to four weeks for repetitive acts to become habits. Converts do not develop gospel habits by accident. Consistent missionary emphasis and follow-ups are vital.”

“Church membership is the path to sacrifice and in no way represents a ‘quick fix’ to personal issues, financial problems, or gaping spiritual wounds. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ does hold the answers to life’s problems, but answers and blessings are often received only with sustained righteous living.”

“Investigators must be taught to join the Church prepared to serve rather than expecting to receive service.”

“Rather than committing investigators to a firm baptismal date, I find that it is more helpful to make a list of the basic gospel commitments for the investigator, including daily Book of Mormon reading for half an hour, weekly church attendance, observance of the Sabbath, Word of Wisdom observance, and daily and family prayer, with the understanding that the investigator will work toward baptism as he or she makes progress in these areas. When missionaries focus on gospel habits instead of deadlines, investigators realize that the missionaries are there to help them to meet their spiritual needs and develop a relationship with Christ rather than merely attempting to rush them to the font.”

“Habits of Faith: For at least four consecutive weeks before baptism, prospective converts should implement habits of faith.

1. Consistently read in the Book of Mormon for half an hour each day
2. Consistently attend all church block meetings
3. Observe the Sabbath Day
4. Hold daily personal and family prayer
5. Obey the Word of Wisdom and completely abstain from forbidden substances
6. Obey the Law of Chastity in word, thought, and deed
7. Receive an adequate baptismal interview centered on basic gospel habits

“Nurturing: Prospective converts should also be nurtured by missionaries and members

8. Missionaries should ensure that active members participate in at least two missionary discussions or visits with the prospective convert prior to baptism

9. Converts should receive a calling within one week of baptism. In most cases, the calling should already be determined by the time of baptism

10. Home teachers should be assigned, and appointments for the first home teaching visit and first new member visit should be established prior to baptism

11. New converts should be greeted by the family history coordinator at baptism and started on personal family history work immediately after baptism

12. In areas where temples are available, converts should be prepared to participate in temple proxy baptisms within six weeks of baptism

“Local leaders must ensure that the new converts are assigned reliable home teachers. Ward missionaries and members who have established friendships or participated in the fellowshipping process can also make good home and visiting teachers, although local leaders must rely upon inspiration in making appropriate assignments.”

“There [is an] assumption that it is easier to reactivate disaffected members than to make new converts. Some argue it must be much easier to reclaim those who have already accepted the restored gospel and are familiar with LDS teachings than to ‘start from scratch’ with nonmembers who know nothing about the Church at all. Such reasoning, however attractive, is not factually supportable. I have consistently found that missions that divert large amounts of missionary time away from proselyting into reactivation work consistently experience a sharp drop in convert baptisms for which the meager number of reactivated members does not come close to compensating.”

“Rick Warren observed: ‘Growing churches focus on reaching receptive people. Non-growing churches focus on reenlisting inactive people….It usually takes about five times more energy to reactivate a disgruntled or carnal member than it does to win a receptive unbeliever. I believe that God has called pastors to catch fish and feed sheep, not to corral goats!’ He continued: ‘Often the local pastor and I would spend the afternoons making envagelistic house calls. Many times the pastor would take me to the same stubborn case that previous evangelists had failed to win. It was a waste of time. Is it good stewardship to continue badgering someone who has already rejected Christ a dozen times when there is a whole community of receptive people waiting to hear the gospel for the first time?…The apostle Paul’s strategy was to go through open doors and not waste time banging on closed ones. Likewise, we should not focus our efforts on those who aren’t ready to listen. There are far more people in the world who are ready to receive Christ than there are believers ready to witness to them.’”

“A balanced perspective must be kept on reaching those who are receptive, whether they are nonmembers in the community or less-active members.” — 32% of Academy Heights Ward turned over every year; those aren’t low yield contacts necessarily, they need to be qualified

“LDS sociologist James Duke cites Stan Albrecht’s Activity and Inactivity study: ‘Of every 100 people born in the Church, only 22% remain active throughout their lives. That means that 78% are inactive for a year or more at some time.”

“Scriptural references to priesthood and leadership offices, such as minister, pastor, deacon (Greek ‘diakonos’ = servant), teacher, and apostle (‘one who is sent forth’), all convey connotations of service rather than rank. Christ taught: ‘But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted’ (Matthew 23:11–12).”

“In most congregations, a minority of active members are responsible for the majority of growth and progress.”

“It is believed that only about half of active adults pay tithing, while only a small minority of active members read scriptures daily or share the gospel regularly.”

“Many administrative factors can enhance or inhibit church growth. Some of the key factors include strategic planning, church planting, use of mass media, and missionary allocation. Jim Montgomery, founder of Discipling A Whole Nation (DAWN), a group that has helped double and triple evangelical growth rates in many countries, observed that churches which adopt appropriate strategic planning measures on average see their growth rates double.”

“Relatively few missions succeed at both baptizing large numbers of converts per missionary and retaining even a bare majority. To a great extent, these differences reflect mission and area leadership.”

“A sincere and righteous person can be an excellent pastoral leader, but a poor mission leader.”

“Outreach leadership demands a much greater ability to collect, analyze, respond, and appropriately act upon information from a wide variety of sources than that necessary for pastoral leadership. Outreach leaders must understand the values, interests, and desires of local nonmembers and develop and coordinate programs to effectively reach them. An understanding of language and culture, people skills, teaching skills, organization, time management skills, the media, and missionary dynamics are essential.”

“Peter Drucker noted: ‘Effective leaders are not those who are loved or admired. They are those whose followers do the right things. Popularity is not leadership. Results are.’ A good leader knows what needs to be done, knows how to do it, and is actively involved in implementation, facilitation, and teaching. All effective leaders lead by example.”

“Finding, teaching, and retention work are not menial tasks, but the very essence of the missionary effort. Tal Bevan stated: ‘Never hire someone who is more than one step removed from the customer.’”

“Few things are more detrimental to the missionary effort than instructions and policies announced to missionaries and members by superiors who have never tried them themselves.”

“No amount of prayer and meditation can bring the Spirit in full measure in the absence of ongoing personal involvement.”

“The Spirit speaks to both mind and heart (D&C 8:2) and not our heart alone, so enhancing our understanding can also increase our receptivity to the spirit. We are commanded to ‘study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people’ (D&C 90:15) and to ‘hasten…to obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms, of laws of God and man, and all this for the salvation of Zion’ (D&C 93:53). The Holy Spirit cannot draw water from an empty well, nor does inspiration occur in a vacuum. The Lord declared that ‘it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance’ (D&C 131:6) and that ‘the glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth’ (D&C 93:36). We might also ponder whether we can effectively minister salvation to others if we do not understand scriptural outreach principles. The Lord declared: ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6), and one wonders whether any fulfillment of this prophecy can be more tragic than the catastrophic convert losses that have occurred in areas where accelerated baptism programs have been implemented by those unaware of their consequences. Effective missionary work does not happen by accident, and the results of zeal without knowledge consistently fall far short of the potential achieved by those who are both dedicated and informed. Gathering the information necessary to become fruitful servants is an essential responsibility of disciples of Christ.”

“Church growth researcher Dr. James Montgomery stated: ‘Develop, maintain and use a solid base of data. The Living Bible translates Proverbs 18:13 thus: ‘What a shame — yes, how stupid — to decide before knowing the facts.’”

“There has been an understandable official reluctance to provide large amounts of material on missionary work in the fear that over-regimentation would stifle local creativity and inspiration, yet the deficiency has not been one of over-regimentation (the old ward mission handbook had only ten pages), but of failing to convey essential principles at the same time that programs such as missionary dinner programs and ‘set a date’ programs conveyed serious misconceptions. It is no more reasonable to expect each mission president, missionary, and member-missionary to receive the inspiration necessary to effectively build the Church to its potential without adequate education on outreach principles, than to withhold the Doctrine and Covenants and expect each bishop to receive the principles of local church governance by personal revelation.”

“Christian researcher George Barna expressed his disappointment at the failure of his ten-year informational campaign to improve outreach and reverse concerning trends in many Protestant and evangelical churches, stating: ‘Most of the information users in ministries don’t know how to use information. We kill ourselves to give them good information, good research, and they nod their heads approvingly and then they don’t do anything with it. Disney, we give them the information and the next day they’ve got a policy; they’ve got a program; they’ve got something to convert that into practical action.’ He continues: ‘The strategy was flawed because it had an assumption. The assumption was that the people in leadership are actually leaders. [I thought] all I need to do is give them the right information and they can draw the right conclusions…. Most people who are in positions of leadership in local churches aren’t leaders. They’re great people, but they’re not really leaders.’ I believe that many of today’s LDS leaders have a much higher capacity for genuine leadership than their average Protestant or evangelical counterparts. However, even the most compelling research findings are often not translated into viable plans for practical action, and when such action occurs at all, it is often very late.”

“There is almost always a gap between theory and practice. The average person contains in his library vast amounts of wisdom which are never implemented. The task of leadership is to distill practical insight and to provide a framework that facilities its implementation.”

“Brian Tracy noted: ‘No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.’”

“Although the LDS Church has nearly as many full-time missionaries as all other US-based denominations combined, there is no forum for communication or discussion of missionary matters beyond district meetings, mission conferences, and ward member-missionary correlation meetings. Both on my mission and since, I have learned far more about effective missionary work from peers than from leaders.”

“Communication and sharing of ideas in wider circles does not supersede hierarchal authority, but seeking outside information and experiences is often a necessary element of fulfilling our divine mandate to do all that is within our power to further the purpose of missionary work.”

“In 1990, Elder Boyd K. Packer remarked: ‘In recent years I have felt and I think I am not alone, that we were losing the ability to correct the course of the Church.’ Less effective unofficial programs such as missionary dinner appointments have gained a life of their own while becoming virtually institutionalized in LDS culture, while many core mandates such as President Benson’s instruction to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon or President McKay’s ‘every member a missionary’ challenge have seen only scant implementation. Other mandates, such as President Kimball’s vision of worldwide gospel radio, have never been implemented at all. Tares grow quickly, but wheat is choked out without constant cultivation.”

“Church growth expert Rick Warren wrote: ‘The wrong question: What will make our church grow? The right question: What is keeping our church from growing?…All living things grow — you don’t have to make them grow. It’s the natural thing for living organisms to do if they are healthy….Since the church is a living organism, it is natural for it to grow if it is healthy. The Church is a body, not a business. It is alive. If a church is not growing, it is dying….The task of church leadership is to discover and remove growth-restricting diseases and barriers so that natural, normal growth can occur.’ Warren noted: ‘If it works, I like the way that you are doing it.’”

“A strong social acceptability reporting bias in missionary work filters out much potentially unpleasant information. There is a widespread unwritten belief that all information reported must be positive and that to report negative information implies a lack of faith or personal disobedience.”

“Information on challenges and problems is often the most valuable kind, because it provides the greatest opportunity for growth and improvement.”

“Our primary obedience belongs to the Savior. The fact that mission leaders are called by church authorities does not provide a carte blanche, and the scriptural warning that ‘many are called but few are chosen’ applies as much to leaders as to missionaries. Leaders have a responsibility to adhere to scriptural mandates and can expect the loyalty of their missionaries only to the extent that their own programs and agendas are consistent with scriptural and prophetic teachings. A Chinese proverb declares: ‘He who sacrifices conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain ashes.’”

“Growth has relatively little to do with the amount of money spent in an area but correlates strongly with the work ethic of individual missionaries and members and the way that money is spent.”

“The LDS Church has spent far more money per convert than any other major denomination in Eastern Europe, including those with comparable membership requirements and better retention.” — “Convert Acquisition Cost aka CAC

“Rick Warren stated: ‘When finances get tight in a church, often the first thing cut is the evangelism and advertising budget. That is the last thing you should cut. It is the source of new blood and life for your church.’”

In reference to the explosive growth of no-frills house churches… “One sacrament speaker claimed that for a ward or branch to function fully, 212 individuals would be needed to fill callings. Many Latter-day Saints cite heavy time commitments to church-related activities. Church activities can spread across most of the week for a family with children of several different ages. Wards with the most peripheral programming typically have some of the lowest rates of member-missionary participation. Utah, with thousands of large wards with extensive church programming, averages only 1.5 convert baptisms per year per ward, a convert growth rate of less than 0.5 percent per year. Actual harm is done when member time and resources are consumed by peripheral programs while core tasks such as member-missionary outreach go undone. Evangelist Larry Stockstill observed that any child can take all of the toys out of the closet and clutter the room — it takes wisdom to know which ones not to take out.”

“If the average active member spends numerous hours per week in church activities but fails to accomplish essential tasks, is it any wonder that so many feel burned out rather than edified?”

“We must transcend the small-minded thinking of ineffective programs such as ‘who is going to feed the missionaries on Tuesday’ and focus on the bigger picture of ‘how are we going to reach our ward area, mission area, or world with the gospel.’”

“President Boyd K. Packer stated: ‘In recent years we might be compared to a team of doctors issuing prescriptions to cure or to immunize our members against spiritual disease. Each time some moral or spiritual ailment was diagnosed, we have rushed to the pharmacy to concoct another remedy, encapsulate it as a program, and send it out with pages of directions for use. While we all seem to agree that over-medication or over-programming are critically serious problems, we have failed to reduce the treatments. It has been virtually impossible to affect any reduction in programs….We do not seem to be able to solve a problem without designing a program with pages of instruction and sending it out again. The most dangerous side effect of all we have prescribed…is the over-regimentation of the Church. This…is a direct result of too many…instructions…. Local leaders have been effectively conditioned to hold back until programmed as to what to do, how, to whom, when, and for how long. Can you see that when we overemphasize programs…we are in danger of losing the inspiration and the resourcefulness that should characterize Latter-day Saints? Then the very principle of individual revelation is in jeopardy and we drift from a fundamental gospel principle!’”

“When standards are not standardized, the statistics are uninterpretable.”

“The Savior’s Parable of the Shepherd leaving the ninety and nine to find the one lost sheep seems to bear little resemblance to the modern Church, where nearly two-thirds of the members are completely inactive. The Parable of the Shepherd teaches that efforts must be focused to be effective. I have frequently seen new members who could have been retained with only modest effort fall through the cracks in areas where the efforts of local members and leaders have been spread too thin on home teaching and reactivation programs. Many are so overwhelmed by the responsibility of reclaiming long lists of individuals who have been inactive for years that new converts are rarely contacted or visited promptly when they become just one more name on a long list of primarily unreceptive assignees.”

“Members should be assigned to visit monthly only those who are willing to be visited and taught.”

“Yohannan’s Gospel For Asia group offers from its Website Revolution in World Missions, a free book, which demonstrates sound principles of native missionary recruitment and training and which deserve careful study and consideration by anyone involved in mobilizing international missionaries.”

“President Spencer W. Kimball taught repeatedly of the need for powerful strategic planning for reaching every soul with the gospel message: ‘Could we bring concerted action to a ‘lengthening stride’ movement that would bring into the missionary activity the good members of the Church the world around. The approach and the attack will need to be planned very carefully. We will need to impress upon stake, ward, and branch leaders around the globe their opportunity and responsibility. There will be need for strong, well-organized stake, ward, and district missions. It cannot be left to a mere suggestion, and a comprehensive score must be kept as a stimulant to the workers. Such a special, organized and developed program could bring many other of the blessings of the Church to more people as we have said.”

“Opportunities for sharing the gospel are greater than ever, yet LDS growth rates have decreased. Most missionaries and mission presidents I have asked about how they are going to reach every soul in their area with the gospel message are unable to articulate a viable plan. Replies such as ‘we’re trying to strengthen existing members and reactivate the less active,’ ‘we have a new referral program that we’re excited about,’ or ‘members need to share the gospel more frequently’ do not answer the question of how the gospel is to be sounded in every ear within a finite time frame. Rationalizations such as ‘it’s difficult to tract after dark,’ ‘working through members is more effective than contacting,’ or ‘the culture here is closed to strangers’ are not substitutes for well-researched, scriptural, and effective strategies for reaching the world.”

“No efforts are made to track the number of people being reached by contacting or referrals in the vast majority of LDS missions. When measured, the actual number of contacts made by missionaries is often surprisingly low. How can we accurately evaluate progress in reaching the world with little idea of how many people are being reached? A mission with one hundred missionaries who average ten gospel contacts per day per companionship in an area with ten million people will take fifty-five years to provide each person with an average of just one contact with the gospel. If this rate is increased to 100 gospel contacts per day per companionship, the same task could be done in only five years. Since many individuals require multiple exposures to the gospel before they join the Church, the rate at which new contacts are made must be increased. Unless we enlarge our vision and establish powerful strategic plans on a mission, ward, and branch level, how will we ever reach the world with the gospel?”

“The years of 1998–2001 saw the baptism of approximately 3,000 new Latter-day Saints among the 130 million people of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church now has over 4 million active members in Africa and baptized 10,000 converts in Tanzania on a single day, virtually all of whom had already completed prebaptismal Bible study courses.”

“Johnstone and Mandryk’s Operation World provides a wealth of information for mission planners and detailed country by country breakdown of evangelical mission needs, opportunities, and challenges. The Joshua Project, the Joshua Project II, and Caleb Project have cataloged over 17,000 people-groups worldwide and help church congregations and individuals to ‘adopt’ unreached or underreached people groups. Bethany World Prayer Center has created carefully researched profiles on over 1,500 unreached and underreached people-groups worldwide.”

“Among Latter-day Saints, there are no concerted attempts to educate members about unreached people-groups and no proactive efforts to prepare outreach resources in their languages.”

“In a predominantly Hindu nation traditionally resistant to Christian proeslytism, GFA’s missionaries are organizing an average of six new congregations per day, or two and a half times as many new congregations as the LDS church organizes across the entire world. Why are GFA missionaries, who live on a shoestring budget of $90 to $150 per month, so successful? Instead of seeking to find contacts by repeatedly visiting the few existing members several times per month to ask for referrals, with an hour or two of tracting or street contracting thrown in once in awhile, Gospel For Asia missionaries are constantly breaking new ground. Each GFA van staffed by two missionaries travels to an average of twelve to fifteen remote interior villages each day to share the Christian message. Equipped with bullhorns, VCR equipment, and the ‘Jesus’ video, GFA missionaries reach hundreds or thousands of people each day. Those who are not allocated vans travel on bicycles with bullhorns and lanterns for evening evangelistic meetings. GFA missionaries are also well-stocked with tracts and Bibles and conduct vigorous literature distribution campaigns. Even with only fractional response rates, GFA missionaries experience tremendous success. Gospel For Asia and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church each organize more new congregations in India every four days than Latter-day Saints have organized in the country over the past 150 hours.”

“Many missionaries and leaders have claimed that widespread distribution of the Book of Mormon is ineffective. I challenge such claims, which demonstrate light-minded attitudes toward the Book of Mormon for which the Church is under condemnation.”

“The tiny sum of one dollar per year per member spent on the Book of Mormon is dwarfed by tremendous expenditures for budget, ward social activities, meetinghouse construction, and other high-cost, low-impact items.”

“There is still not a single full-time outreach-oriented LDS radio station anywhere in the world, and the few stations that carry LDS messages are directed almost exclusively toward enrichment of existing members.”

“I have traced the collapse of many new congregations to patterns of indiscriminate and rushed baptism of individuals poorly prepared to sustain their own spiritual needs, let alone serve in the Church.”

“The average LDS missionary in North America spends only nine hours each week teaching investigators. Having ‘no one to teach’ or only a few investigators who are not progressing are the greatest frustrations of most LDS missionaries today.”

“If there is not time to ‘go over all Isreal’ and reach everyone in the world once, how can there be time to give a few fortunate peoples dozens or hundreds of opportunities at the neglect of others?”

“Vibrant, missionary-oriented congregations can be a great asset to missionary work, but relatively few LDS congregations fit this description.”

“It’s easy to…[develop] such a close-knit fellowship that newcomers are afraid or unable to break into it. Too often, a core group planning a new church spends so long in the small group stage that they become comfortable with it and lose their sense of mission. The fire of evangelism dies out.”

“My research has found no evidence that the construction of chapels has had any measurable, independent, positive impact upon growth, convert retention, or member activity. In the most cases, the growth rate of local units actually slowed after chapels were built.”

“The most spectacular LDS growth has historically occurred in areas without meetinghouses, and the same is true today. Many years elapsed between the restoration of the Church in 1830 and the construction of the first LDS meetinghouse. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was initially a ‘house church’ meeting in homes, stores, and even in the open air. Resources were directed to the printing of the Book of Mormon, missionary travel, and other projects far more important than the construction of meetinghouses. The most successful modern missionaries, including Dan Jones, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, and others, rarely had the benefit of an LDS chapel in which to preach. While buildings provide amenities, they do not build testimony. The lack of freestanding meetinghouse cannot hinder growth, although the misplaced belief that buildings are essential can become an impediment.”

“The church without walls is not a relic of the past but the wave of the future for exponential growth in frontier areas.”

“The real pathology is not that too many sisters are living their covenants, but that international male activity and retention rates are low.”

“Frequency of contact should be based on individual investigator needs and availability, not on such sweeping directives. Investigators taught to provide spiritual self-nourishment through daily scripture reading do not require daily contact to remain receptive.”

“Baptismal goals ignore the moral agency of others. Missionaries should set goals for their personal effort, such as the number of individuals to be contacted, but never for results that depend upon the response of others. The focus on setting monthly baptismal goals and deadlines undermines convert retention, is manipulative of both the missionary and the investigator, and demonstrates misunderstanding of gospel principles of moral agency and prebaptismal preparation.”

“Surely we should invite people to be baptized only when they are ready as the scriptures indicate. The methods described above resemble more high-powered business sales techniques than training and motivation for the Lord’s missionaries.”

“Low worldwide LDS convert retention rates suggest that missionaries and leaders do not have the ability to discern accurately which converts can forgo adequate preparation. Instead of looking at the minority who survived reckless experiences without major harm, we might be better served to examine the casualties of these practices and their cost to society.”

“In any case, if the potential convert cannot stand up to the social consequences of joining the church, it is better to learn that before baptism than afterward.”

“With few exceptions, LDS media convey the message that: ‘All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well’ (2 Nephi 28:21). One need only read further in the verse to learn what the Lord feels about those who teach or believe this. Proponents of selective reporting claim that their mission is to publicize only faith-promoting material. Which style of reporting better builds and conveys faith: the systematic exclusion of data that one does not find favorable or candid acknowledgement of challenges and harmonization of faith and facts? Jim Rohn observed: ‘Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.’ Do we, like the ancient Israelites, have ears that will only hear ‘smooth things’ rather than ‘right things’? (Isaiah 30:10).

“The way in which we report our growth and the extent to which we are willing to be candid about challenges defines the potential for improvement. Selective reporting fuels complacency and is anathema to any attempts at constructive learning. Jon Madonna wrote: ‘Nothing stops an organization faster than people who believe that they way that they worked yesterday is the best way to work tomorrow. To succeed, not only do your people have to change the way they act, they’ve got to change the way they think about the past.’”

“Acknowledgement of our own inadequacies and failures may stretch us beyond our comfort zones, but it offers the only way to grow beyond past backslidings toward future victory.”