Thursday, February 27, 2020

Corona-virus Disrupts Missionary Work and Church Operations in Asia

Click here for a summary of changes announced by the Church in regards to its operations and missionary program in several Asian countries. Countries affected by these changes due to corona-virus have experienced slow or stagnant Church growth for many years. Thus, the impact of these changes on Church growth appear negligible in this area of the world at present. In fact, these changes may serve as a catalyst to accelerate growth through greater member participation due to the reduction in the number of missionaries serving and use of options such as online proselytism to identify receptive individuals. For example, the Ebola crisis in West Africa appeared to have a positive impact on leadership development and church growth in the following months and years due to greater self-sufficiency required to operate the local Church. However, the virus may have a deleterious impact on growth given very slow growth rates in most of these countries and restrictions on person-to-person contact and meetings. Nevertheless, greater spread of the virus to countries where significant Church growth continues to occur, such as the Philippines, may have measurable impacts on Church growth for the year 2020 and beyond.

I will provide more analysis regarding the impact of the spread of the virus on church growth in the coming days.

26 comments:

James Anderson said...

Just in off social media, seminary teachers were told to do their classes online. Has been done in the States as a convenience, but this is the first I have heard where they apparently are asking regular classroom teachers to do this.

Pills & Pillows said...

@James Anderson, Thanks for sharing. I appreciate these updates. I'm grateful we have the technology to carry-out the work regardless of what comes are way. Thanks again!

James Anderson said...

Just watched the Temple and Family History Leadership meeting, and while all of it was good, about the last five minutes where Elder Bednar speaks is extremely significant. Temple and family history work overall, along with other things, from what was also said elsewhere in the broadcast, is going to be a catalyst for church growth as well.

Michael Worley said...
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Johnathan Reese Whiting said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Yeah, I third that.

Pills & Pillows said...

Have the missionaries in northern Italy been reassigned yet? Has the church issued a statement similar to what it sent to Hong Kong, S. Korea, Japan, etc.? Are they still meeting for Sunday meetings? (I haven't found an official statement from the Church regarding N. Italy).

Pills & Pillows said...

And do we know why Italy hasn't been addressed by the church yet?
Maybe they are working on arranging that as I type.... Things in N. Italy are looking grim. Prayers 🙏🙏🙏

Luke said...

The Italy Milan Missionaries have been transferred out as of yesterday, it came from a primary source (a full-time missionary serving there)

Christopher Nicholson said...

I wasn't worried about the coronavirus until the Church asked people outside the US not to travel there for General Conference. To my knowledge, the last and only time a disease significantly disrupted General Conference was the 1918 flu epidemic.

Valenzuela y Escobar said...

Hello! On which page did you watch the Family History video? was it in spanish? Was he sponsored by Rootesch? thanks

John Pack Lambert said...

I believe there was one general conference cancelled in the 1950s due to a disease pandemic.

I did watch some of the family history program. I thought if was very good especially their addressing facing issues that are uncomfortable. I see my wife benefitted by that. Her family has many generations of dysfunction.

John Pack Lambert said...

The family history broadcast has caused me to think about how little we ever talked of family history work or focused on getting new converts to the temple in my mission.

My current branch focuses on it, but I think we need to prioritize getting people to the temple even faster.

One of the sisters in the broadcast mentioned being baptized on Saturday, confirmed on Sunday and in the temple on Tuesday. We are not moving nearly that fast in my branch.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@Historia Familiar Valenzuela Escobar:

Here is where you can find the video. Touch the screen while the video is playing and there is a drop-down menu where you can select "Español."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts?lang=eng&video=6135466651001

Chris D. said...

Or here directly,

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/broadcasts?lang=spa&video=6135466651001

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

Thanks, Chris.

That works even better.

Mucho mejor.

Daniel said...

I seem to remember hearing about that, yes. It probably would have been the flu pandemic year in the 1950s. Both flu and coronavirus are more dangerous for older people (and lots of the leadership of the church are older), so it definitely makes sense. The great thing today is that, theoretically, in a time of need, conference could be held in a closed session of just interpreters, film crew, and general authorities and still be broadcast around the world.

Daniel said...

I know temple and family history work is a powerful tool for convert retention, I’ve heard it before from local leaders in various parts of the US, and I’ve seen it myself. Many people join the church (without realizing it) in part due to the influence of their ancestors who want the ordinances of the temple. So, when new converts attend the temple with names of their ancestors, they gain a double blessing, and their ancestors likely shout with joy!

Daniel said...

Dunno. There’s definitely community spread going on, and it’s a level 3 “avoid non-essential travel” country according to the CDC, but it and South Korea aren’t yet subject to mandatory screening/quarantine for arrivals (although, within a week or two, I expect that to change for Italy at least, as most of the recent coronavirus cases outside of known community spread areas are imported from Italy).

Daniel said...

I assume they’ll be under observation for 14 days, as standard for Coronavirus, before being reassigned.

Pills & Pillows said...

What is your guys' predictions concerning the temporary closing of the temples in covid-19 outbreak areas (that, to my knowledge, remain open). When do you predict the short closing of the Paris, Frankfurt, Rome temples, etc (and church meetings and missionaries in these regions). They have more cases than Hong Kong, Singapore, & Japan.... So when do we predict this announcement??? (And do you think the Seattle area will fall under similar circumstances in the near future?)

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