Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Houston Texas Temple Closed for Restoration
Hello, everyone! Just wanted to post a minor update to let you know that the Houston Texas Temple, which as previously noted, was damaged by flooding, is currently closed for restoration. It is not anticipated to take too long. And since this is a restoration (wherein furniture will be replaced, along with anything else that might have been damaged), a rededication will not be necessary. How grateful I am that the Church has experience with dealing with temples damaged by natural disasters. You can depend on my reporting any updates in temple news. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray the Lord's blessings upon each of you until then.
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.
Funeral Arrangements Announced for Elder Robert D. Hales
Hello, everyone! This may be old news to some of you (as I am coming to it a little late) but funeral arrangements were announced earlier today for Elder Robert D. Hales. Those services will be held on Friday @ 11:00 AM, For more details, click here. Any comments are, as always, welcome. For now, thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.
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.
Monday, October 2, 2017
Updated thoughts on Church Growth so far this year/Potential Future Growth
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.
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.
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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