Hello again, everyone! Thanks for sticking with me through all the many posts I have done in the last couple of weeks. The sheer volume of Church news there has been to report has been wonderful and amazing to consider. I appreciate your ongoing interest in and support. In this post, I wanted to share my thoughts on Church growth. These are just my own observations. Others do very well in terms of putting these developments into perspective. I won't take that from any of them, nor will I "move in on their turf." What I will do is offer my thoughts about what we might expect in terms of unit information at the end of this year, based on what has already taken place.
So first, as previously noted, there will have been a total of 53 Sundays by the end of this year. There are 13 Sundays left, which means 40 have passed. In those 40 Sundays, the Church has seen a net increase of 45 stakes. That means there has been an increase of 1.13 stakes per week (rounded up). If that continues for the remaining 13 Sundays, we could see an additional 15 stakes created, meaning the Church would have a net increase of 60 stakes for the year, which would bring the year-end number of stakes to 3,326.
The current number of districts (546) is 10 less than we had at the beginning of the year. As previously noted, some of these districts have been upgraded to stakes, and some have simply been discontinued. What has happened in each case has been well documented by others who have expertise in that area. It is sufficient for my purposes merely to note the decrease. Given that there are 10 less districts 40 Sundays later, that means we have lost around one per month. If that continues, we could see 3 less districts by the end of the year, which would bring the total number of districts to 543 by the end of the year.
The Church has also seen a net increase of 55 congregations. Therefore, in the 40 Sundays that have passed in 2017, there has been an average increase of 1.375 congregations per week. Therefore, in the 13 Sundays remaining, the Church could see an increase of around 18 more congregations. If that happens, the number of congregations by the end of this year (in most sources) will be 30,377.
But as also previously noted, there are between 75-100 "sensitive units": congregations which most sources don't count but which are noted in the end of the year statistical report presented in General Conference each April. That would put the actual number of congregations at the end of this year somewhere around 30,465.
That does it for this update on unit developments in 2017. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.
Monday, October 2, 2017
Updated thoughts on Church Growth so far this year/Potential Future Growth
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.
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