Four Branches in Techiman, Ghana

As part of a continued emphasis by missions in the Africa West Area to implement a church-planting approach colloquially called "The Sunyani Model," the Ghana Kumasi Mission has recently organized its third and fourth branches in the medium-sized city of Techiman, Brong Ahafo Region. The Church orchestrated the opening of Techiman to missionary activity in mid-2013 and simultaneously established multiple member groups to hasten outreach expansion and maximize the saturation of LDS proselytism efforts. These efforts have yielded good results just a year later, asare now four branches that are each led by a local branch president. If the Church were to have followed a more traditional approach to opening Techiman to proselytism that advocates for splitting branches once they become too large to effectively administer, it would have likely taken many years or even a decade or more for four branches to operate in the city.

See below for a map of the four Techiman branches.


View Wards and Branches in the Ghana Kumasi Mission in a larger map

Church Growth News

LDS branch officially created in Burundi

Senior couple missionaries serving in the DR Congo Lubumbashi Mission report that the first official branch has been created in the country of Burundi. LDS services have previously operated as a group. A branch once operated in Burundi in the 1990s, but was discontinued as members left the country as a result of war. Dozens of converts have been baptized since full-time missionaries were assigned last September. Prospects appear to be materializing for mission outreach to expand outside of Bujumbura in the coming months and years.

New stakes to be created

Full-time missionaries serving around the world report that new stakes will soon be created in the following locations:

• Donetsk, Ukraine
• Kananga, DR Congo
• Quetzaltenango, Guatemala area
• Granada, Nicaragua

It is unclear whether First Presidency approval has been granted for each of these potential stakes and I will provide updates once they become available.

Nepal Update

Although not recognized by the government and operating unofficially, the LDS Church in Nepal was reported by the Church to have 133 members in the sole branch headquartered in Kathmandu. No active proselytism occurs in Nepal and Nepalese youth have begun to serve full-time missions in increasing numbers in recent years.

City in Kazakhstan opening for missionary work

Full-time missionaries serving in Kazakhstan report that for the first time in LDS Church history, a second city will have full-time missionaries assigned. Only Almaty has LDS missionaries at present, but next month the capital city of Astana should also have full-time missionaries assigned. There have been plans for years to eventually open Astana for full-time missionary work and it is unclear whether current plans will materialize as past plans never came to fruition.

City in Uganda opens for missionary work; first branch to be created at the end of January

The city of Lira, Uganda has had full-time missionaries recently assigned and the Uganda Kampala Mission President will create the first branch in the city later this month. Full-time missionaries report that sacrament attendance has increased to over 50 and that there are now five priesthood holders.

New missions in 2011 rumors

Although no official plans have been announced, there has been discussion on new missions which may open in July 2011. I announced a couple months ago concerning plans to open a new mission in Lusaka, Zambia. Potential new missions which may be created this year are listed below. These potential new missions have been cited by full-time missionaries serving in the field.

• Ethiopia Addis Ababa
• Angola Luanda/Mozambique Beira
• Togo/Benin

Church planting in the United States

Full-time missionaries serving in Little Rock, Arkansas report that mission and stake leadership have experimented with church planting approaches recently. A group operates in the Little Rock area with a full-time missionary companionship assigned that has grown to 25 some members attending weekly - all of which are recent converts. Missionaries report that they started the congregation from scratch and are hoping to organize an independent branch from the group in the near future as local priesthood leadership develops. This church planting example illustrates the need for such missionary approaches worldwide for the LDS Church in order to improve convert retention, member self-sufficiency, and long-term church growth.

LDS Church Planting in Ghana

The growth of the LDS Church often lags behind other missionary-minded Christian denominations in most countries for several reasons, including greater pre-baptismal preparation and more effective member-missionary programs exhibited by other churches. Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses each have been much more effective than Latter-day Saints in beginning new congregations, expanding national outreach, and developing self-sustaining local leadership. Latter-day Saints have traditionally relied on full-time missionaries from countries with a strong LDS presence like the United States and Peru to perform these tasks, resulting in limited LDS resources in fledgling countries with a small or inadequate native full-time missionary force. The failure of many countries to develop self-sustaining LDS leadership, a full-time missionary force, and effective member-missionary programs has greatly contributed to the slowdown in LDS growth experienced over the past decade.

In the past year, there have been several positive developments which indicate that the LDS Church is beginning to be more flexible and dynamic with the allocation of full-time missionaries and opening of new areas to the Church. To illustrate this recent finding, full-time missionaries report that the Africa West Area Presidency, the two Ghana mission presidencies, and local Priesthood leaders have approved and are carrying out an aggressive church planting paradigm in Ghana. In 2009 alone, 21 new wards and branches were created; a 21% increase. In 2010 however, the LDS Church has only organized one new independent congregation, but has increased and will greatly increase the number of dependent branches and groups.

The Church placed full-time missionaries Sunyani in the early fall of 2010 - the most northern city in Ghana to ever have a Church presence - but there remains no independent ward or branch in the area. Six full-time missionaries and one senior couple serve in Sunyani, where three LDS congregations meet as groups, worshiping in large missionary apartments where church meetings are held. The church-planting approach has been so successful in Sunyani that it will be applied in Kumasi - the second largest metropolitan area in Ghana. At present Kumasi has 10 LDS congregations meeting in eight meetinghouses. Over the six months, the Church will open an additional 14 meetinghouses in large missionary apartments in the Kumasi area that will meet as dependent branches or groups, bringing the total of mission outreach centers in Kumasi to 22. With so many meetinghouse locations, most the population will be able to walk to church without traveling inordinate distances.

As a researcher of the growth of the LDS Church for several years, I applaud the decision by area and mission leaders to use these church planting paradigms as they often increase member activity rates, expand national outreach, and oftentimes lead to self-sustainable growth. Similar approaches have been recently implemented in Mozambique, Madagascar, and Burundi. However, full-time missionaries remain central to LDS Church planting approaches, which restricts the vision and application of church planting due to the plateauing numbers of full-time missionaries serving worldwide over the past decade. Nonetheless, careful planning in the assignment of limited full-time missionaries combined with strong local member involvement may reduce the stagnant growth of full-time missionary numbers and boaster indigenous full-time missionary forces internationally.