Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for New Caledonia. The Church has maintained an official presence in New Caledonia since 1961 yet reports fewer than 2,500 members and only one stake. New Caledonia has the fourth lowest percentage of Church members of any country or territory in the Pacific at 0.86%. Nevertheless, New Caledonian members are known for their faithfulness with regular temple attendance. The Church in New Caledonia has persistently experienced problems with its expansion outside of Nouméa primarily due to tribalism, leadership development problems, and small target populations. See below for the Future Prospects section of this article:
Slow membership and congregational growth in New Caledonia since the 2000s and difficulties with sustainable expansion of the Church into additional areas generate a mediocre outlook for church growth in the coming years. Additional cities may have branches or wards organized, particularly in the Nouméa area where the Church is the strongest and where most New Caledonians reside. However, the outlook for expansion into other areas of the islands appears unfavorable given persistent struggles with leadership development and tribalism in rural communities. The opening of additional cities to proselytism through efforts initiated by stake leadership, greater numbers of local members serving full-time missions, and stronger member-missionary approaches are needed to reverse slow church growth trends.
3 comments:
I knew a nice member from New Caledonia at BYU in the 1990s. Her name was Crystal, native speaker of French that helped at the French houses at the language housing center. I wish the church would expand there more. .86 % is not bad of any population. Would double that be better? What is Okinawa?
We need a vision of loving people to grow the Church more.
What we need most at present is more couples serving missions. I think the best growth prospects on this front are using people based out of their own homes.
Since I work online phone support from my house for Airbnb I think there are prospects for the Church doing the same. I know family search does some.
Im thiniing we could grow out in New Caledonia using these same resources. Assign couples from Noumea to help develop the Church in outlying areas. With modern communications they could first teach remotely or with short visits a group that could then have a local group leader with the couple providing support. After a time in person visits might not even need to be weekly.
I think we have not yet figured out how to use helpful resources like facetime and other video conferencing in missionary work.
We should be able to teach and prep for baptism people in countries with no full time missionaries.
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