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I drive by an LDS Church everyday to work. Today I started thinking back to the early 60′s. Back then I was in the mission with Tommy and Ballard as Mission Presidents. The Church was the focal point of my family and community. I loved Church then. It was a family and a community effort. I truly believed the teachings and what was taught. We had road shows, firesides, lots of activities. You could stop in any time of the day or night and someone was there in the building, even the custodian, and they would sit down and talk to you.

In the 70′s we had great single activities, etc. Church was just the place to be. Then things changed. Correlation. Budgets, cutting back on meetings, etc. 3 hour block program. I had just finished my Masters Program and said that the church was doomed. I was right.

People stopped having time for talking. It was rush rush rush for the 3 hour block. Executive secretaries took the place of personal contact with Bishops and Stake Presidents. You could not meet GA’s anymore unless you were in the SP. etc.

Then the 90′s with standardized lesson manuals and standardized classes. The Church grew by lots of members but no one had any time for anyone. You could not get answers to questions. Then it was all focus on the family. If you were single you were a cast away. Primary did not seem like fun anymore. Nothing seemed liked fun. At General Conference the talks got worse and less informative. It was pay, obey and follow. People grew distant in my mind.

Today I drive by LDS Churches, as we have lots in our city. Few cars at night. Closed and locked tight in the daytime. If you do your own studying you come up with lots of questions but no one wants to answer.

I can see why people are leaving. The new members are not taught any depth about the gospel then get blown away by what the older members talk about. The older members are feeling less and less connected to the church. There are few spiritual stories ever told any more in Sacrament meetings. There is very little said about personal struggle like back in the 60′s when people struggled to come into the church.

The lack of leadership at the top is deafening. Just like the deaf sounds I hear as I drive by the LDS churches day after day.

What happened folks. When I was 18 I thought nothing would every stop the church or how I felt about it. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Now if I go to Church with my wife I sit there and feel sorry for the older folks who have limited themselves to paying tithing, going to the temple and denying what they see around them.

It is a very sad state of affairs.

Of course I am a sinner; I have lost the spirit I guess. I have had too many wild things happen to me in my life. I am well educated. I ask questions. I look for answers. The answers are denied by the top. They have to know. BUT I am not empty like the churches I see as I drive by them. Life is good and wonderful. But I still wonder what happened!!!

Becki, sorry dear, as an Returned Missionary, I am fairly confident there is no sneaking around. Maybe the real issue is checking to so how in line your father’s beliefs were with what is now generally held as LDS teachings. A lot has changed in the last 30 years, and I’m afraid quite a few people are stuck in the past.

Becki- Don’t feel too offended– Geoff actually took it easy on you. I mean The Miracle of Forgiveness? Faith vs. works?? You present such an easy target it’s almost adorable.

While it’s nice for you that you found a group of like-minded people to hang out with, what’s not so nice is that its whole existence is based on destroying someone else’s faith.

I love my church. It helps me raise great kids, keep my marriage thriving, give meaningful service to others, and have a happier life. Even more important, it has taught me who I am, it has given my life meaning, it has given me hope for the hereafter, it has brought me to a greater appreciation for the atonement of Jesus Christ, and for his love for all of us.

I find it just sad for you to gloat about depriving a new convert of the opportunity to find out for herself through her own experience what the church is all about.

Becki,
I’m curious as to which doctrine our missionaries should teach if from your position it’s all a farce anyways?

She had specifically asked the missionaries and they had told her that Salvation was completely a free gift given to believers.

Exactly as stated in the Book of Mormon (2 Ne 2:4). Sorry Becki, but however well intentioned you are, your comment makes it fairly transparent that the lack of theological depth in new members is something you prey on rather than lament. Seriously, a “faith vs. works” example of a new member being “misled” by missionaries?

Thank you so much for reminding me of why I left the Mormon Church. Apparently it is not possible to have a civil conversation on this blog. I am very sorry that I thought it would be.

I’m calling BS on you again Becki. It sounds to me like there was an easily resolvable issue about how faith and works are inseparably connected in that case. No doubt you and your anti-Mormon pals were thrilled to jump on the fears of this girl and scare her out of her wits about the church…

I don’t really know what a Calvanist believes. I use the Bible to test what I hear in Church, as well as to learn what God wants to teach me.

Then your pastor probably preaches the blatant falsehoods of Calvinism to you and your congregation every week and you probably swallow it hook, line, and sinker. (Your faith and works comment supports that assumption as well). But as they say, ignorance is bliss.

I agree that the LDS Church is “not losing many people to other churches, but rather to being unchurched.”

I was speaking mostly about converts who don’t really stick around for very long. I recently met a young woman from South Africa who had come to Idaho as a Nanny for an LDS family. The missionaries started teaching her the discussions and she was baptized within three weeks. After about two months, she realized that what the missionaries had taught her was not true. Mostly she was surprised with the LDS doctrine that eternal life is gained through faith AND works. She had specifically asked the missionaries and they had told her that Salvation was completely a free gift given to believers.

I am not wanting to debate whether works are necessary, I am merely pointing out that she felt she had been misled by the missionaries who had taught her the LDS gospel. She left the Mormon Church and started coming to our Church.

I do agree that for Mormons who have been in the church a long time and leave the Church, they do not leave because of doctrine. And, there are many who become unchurched. I am an example of that. For me, doctrine had nothing to do with why I left the church. I spent nine years unchurched.

Wow, I guess I should have given you an example of what I meant. I agree with you 100%. Many anti-Mormons are “out there eager to freak new converts out by convincing them that something Elder so-and-so said 100+ years ago is the true secret doctrine of Mormonism.” I am in complete disagreement with these so-called Christian Ministries that don’t have a clue as to what the LDS Church really teaches. One such example is the horrendous video “The Godmakers”.

I guess that you don’t know anything about the Ministry that I volunteer with. We at Truth in Love Ministry do not even read things that are not current and official LDS literature. I have a data base of LDS quotes taken from the four year LDS curriculum. I often have to use those manuals when I witness to Mormons–because many Mormons don’t know current official LDS teachings. On my blog, the only quotes I use that are not found on lds.org are ones from “The Miracle of Forgiveness”. That book, while it it not considered official, is quoted in many official LDS Manuals, books and magazines.

I was merely to basic LDS doctrine. Things like what a person has to do to gain eternal life; or, be forgiven of a sin. If you notice, that is why I said that I mail LDS prospects the Missionary Pamphlets. I buy the LDS book True to the Faith by the hundreds because I hand them out at Seminars when I teach official LDS doctrine.

I am sorry that I offended you. I was merely trying to offer my opinion as to the dilemma that you were discussing. As to Calvanist beliefs, I don’t really know what a Calvanist believes. I use the Bible to test what I hear in Church, as well as to learn what God wants to teach me.