A district was recently discontinued in Northeast Brazil. The Goiana Brazil District was discontinued and branches became part of the Paulista Brazil Stake just north of Recife. The district had three branches: Two in Goiana and one in Timbauba. The Goiana Brazil District was originally created in 2004. Prior to the district's creation, one ward functioned in Goiana and one branch in Timbauba. The district was likely discontinued due to its close proximity to Paulista and low prospects of greater growth resulting in additional congregations. There are 230 stakes and 50 districts in Brazil.
Not exactly relevant to this post, but relevant to LDS growth as a whole.
ReplyDeleteSomeone on a post previously said that by mid september 2009 church membership stood at 13,750,651. If this is correct, this is an increase of 242,142 members since the membership was stated at the April 2009 General conference.
Now september was 5 months after the conference and if we divide 242,142 by 5 we have an average number of 48,428 apparently joining the church within this period. Now the gap between september (when this estimate was apparently took) and the next general conference is 7 months. If this "average" was to remain the same, 7 times 48,428 would equal to exactly a growth of 338,998 members from september-April.
Now adding this "338,998" to the already estimated April-September growth of 242,142 would equal an annual growth 581,140, which does sound off the mark to recent growth trends to be honest.
However if the April 09 to September 09 increase truly is about 242,142, then because the length from September 09 to April 10 is longer, it must mean surely the number of converts to add onto this is larger as a consequence. Meaning it "seems" we have had a tremendous year for growth if so.
The only thing that can be used to disagree with this is that the April 2009 to September 2009 member increase of 242,142 is wrong. As if we looked at where membership growth was by september under last years growth trend, it would be smaller as a result.
Interesting ey? 581,000 annual converts would be the largest in the churches history, but I do think it is off the mark by a slight. Though I would not rule out an increase of 350,000-400,000, as looking at previous reports (such as convert baptisms up 18% in the US) the growth rate has certainly increased by some amount, i (just possibly not the amount my math estimated!)
Tom-
ReplyDeleteIt would be wonderful if membership growth increased in 2009 as you calculated but it did not. Statistical figures in General Conference are reported in April but come from December 31st from the year before. The statistic of 13,750,651 members came from the Ensign for September 30th. This indicates that membership increased by an average of 26,905 during the first three months of 2009. If growth trends remained constant for the last three months of 2009, worldwide membership would likely be around 13,830,000, an increase of 322,856 from the year before.