Hello, all! I am posting with some thoughts and estimates about the potential for unit growth during this year. I will not offer analysis of this information, just my thoughts on what the Church might be looking at numbers-wise by the end of this year. Here's what I know: By the end of 2017, 53 Sundays will have been observed. Tomorrow marks the 32nd Sunday of this year. Within the 31 Sundays thus far, the Church has seen a net increase of 35 stakes (or just over 1.13 new stakes established each week). The Church has also seen a net decrease of 12 districts (although quite a few of those districts were upgraded to stakes, as noted by many of you who regularly read and comment on my blog posts. The number of wards and branches has seen a net increase of 36 (with many created and several discontinued). And with the merge of the two Russian missions (which the Church announced several months ago), the number of current missions stands at a worldwide count of 420.
So what does this mean in terms of what may happen by the end of the year? Well, with the 1.13 stakes created per week thus far (which, as noted, is a net increase of 35 stakes), if that continues for the remaining 22 Sundays of this month, a net increase of 25 stakes could happen. If it does, that means the Church would have seen an overall net increase of 60 stakes.
My research on this matter demonstrates that within the last 4 months of last year, 37 of the 100 new stakes from last year were created. Since around 3 stakes were discontinued during that time (if my research is correct), then the Church last year had a next increase of around 34 stakes from August-December of last year.
With all that in mind, I am venturing a prediction that the Church could see an overall net gain of around 57 stakes, which, in the 53 Sundays of the year, would mean that roughly 1.07 stakes would then have been created during each week of 2017.
Whatever the case, we can be sure that the LDS Church Growth Blog and the unit page of the LDS Church Temples site will continue to contain the latest updates in that regard. And I will continue to do my best to keep track of all of that as well, and to pass along anything I find out.
For now, hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for the privilege of your time. Any comments are welcome. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best.
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Unit Growth Thoughts
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.
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And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.
Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.