The Kuna Idaho East Stake was recently created from a division of the Kuna Idaho Stake, which had 15 wards. The new stake has eight wards and becomes the 120th stake in Idaho. The Kuna Idaho Stake was created from stakes in Nampa in 1995 with only five wards.
Thanks for the updates. Do you know anything as to why convert baptisms have been down lately? In the 2007 statistical report there were listed 279,218 convert baptisms, in the 2008 report it was only 265,593 -- a difference of over 13,000.
ReplyDeleteThe number of convert baptisms fluctuates year by year. Of course we like to see that number increase every year, but that is not always the case. In 1986 there were 216,210 converts baptized. That number increased every year, peaking in 1990 with 330,877 convert baptisms. This number declined to 274,477 in 1992 and rose slowly again to 321,385 convert baptisms in 1996. We then saw a trend of lower numbers of converts joining the Church from year to year until 2004 where there were 241,239 convert baptisms. Convert baptisms then rose every year until peaking at 279,218 in 2007.
ReplyDeleteWe would expect to see a steady increase every year. After all, if the Church is growing larger every year, then it is able to provide more opportunities for people to join the Church.
One of the reasons for why we do not always see more converts baptized than the previous year is because in some areas of the world the focus periodically shifts from finding and baptizing to reactivation and training leadership. Of course it's best when this and convert baptisms happen in abundance, but in some places of the world the leadership is not developed enough to take care of the growth that the Church has experienced. So keep in mind that as some areas of the world are primarily focused on baptizing and retaining, others are more focused on reactivating and training leadership.
Much of how many members join the Church depends on how willing and prepared members of the Church are in different areas around the world.
As for missionaries, although we have seen a drop in the number of missionaries serving proselyting missions by 10,000 or so since 2002, we have not really seen a change in the number of convert baptisms. Surely the more effective, well-studied and full of faith missionaries are, the greater the work of the Lord will go forward. Unfortunately we are likely to see the number of missionaries serving decline this year because of a demographic drop in the number of mission aged young men in the Church in the United States. However there is great news from places like Central America, where Elder Clarke of the 70 stated that the entire Central American Area of the Church will be self sufficient in terms of missionaries serving by the end of the year.
Thanks for clearing all that up ... that's a lot of statistics.
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