Our stake conference is imminent. While I wasn't planning to attend anyway, the stake presidency have kindly given members a heads-up so they can also choose to give it a miss.

Unsurprisingly Church Head Quarters has decided that all Stake conferences (worldwide I believe) have to be focused on 'HTW' and also that the usual Saturday evening adult session is to be extended to all 12+ and will also be on the topic of HTW.

They really sound desperate. Losing existing customers and not replacing them quickly enough with quality recruits, despite increased PR/marketing spend/larger salesforce, must really be hurting TSCC (The So Called Church) where it counts.

I also prophecy that this completely over the top approach on HTW will backfire big time. Many members are overworked & spiritually malnourished - asking them to do more on the MLM recruitment front won't go down well. One day or another, members will ask themselves why they don't enjoy church any more, why the focus is all on sales and why their non-member & exmo friends are happier.

I was as TBM (True Believing Mormon) as they come until the introduction of the chapel toilet cleaning programme inspired me to google to see if other members felt as aggrieved as I did.

I also think lots of TBMs I know are not as 'unshakable' as they like to portray. Many have admitted to me privately that they have shelves with multiple issues, many disagree with leaders (gay marriage in particular) and many see that there is a disconnect between the glossy PR/website and what is experienced on a Sunday.

A former Stake President (with some NOM (New Order Mormon) tendencies and a degree of cognitive dissonance) confided to me that he was sick of the constant 'member missionary/recruitment' drive. He noted that unless TSCC focuses more on the actual members that are striving to be there on a Sunday with the hope of being spiritually uplifted (and after serving as SP he was acutely aware of the secret struggles that even some senior, long-serving members had) they should bye surprised when they stop attending. I was early NOM at the time of this conversation and whilst it shocked me, I could completely agree.

If TSCC was actually true and as wonderful a blessing in the member's lives as they like to think, you wouldn't need to keep guilting members into participating in the latest sales programme rehash, members would themselves be hastening the work without any promoting. I truly believe that there's a lot of TBMs that don't really enjoy church that much, they just don't really allow themselves to recognise it yet.

I remember during 2005-2007 that the Ward members were being blamed exclusively for the low convert rate and lack of investigators.

I was shocked how they were told that the church has put the programs in place etc and that members need to be worthy for them to work!

That was a real red flag for me.

I used to look around during the various lessons,EQ, Sunday School Class (not investigator one) and Sacrament meeting and wonder how come no one seem to notice what's wrong with how they are taking all the blame for growth failure and saddled with unworthiness guilt as the reason.

I also attended a Missionary Zone Conference once and it was a complete Vacuum Cleaner sales type pitch throughout by the Mish Pres.

I kept thinking the Vacuum Cleaner will soon come out, instead we all got a booklet called 'Becoming The Bold missionary'. - by zeezrom

I left the church not long before they rolled out HTW. I was Elder's Quorum President at the time. Even as a Returned Missionary and former Ward Mission Leader, I never was good at recruiting/reactivating. I never went home teaching. I always felt like there was all this pressure to drag people in/back to the church. As EQP, instead I focused on making my meetings worth attending and figured that if I offered my guys something of value, they would WANT to attend, instead of just sitting there for an hour listening to me bang the drum about how they should be recruiting/reactivating.

I now realize that preoccupation with recruiting is one of the main textbook indicators of a cultic organization.

The "guilt" I felt for not home teaching/proselyting was one of the leading sources of the cognitive dissonance that eventually led me to realize how absurd it all was. If they keep squeezing, the only thing they'll "hasten" is the number of young "priesthood leaders" like me who see a losing value proposition in church participation. - by Vote for Pedro

HTW is overkill and won't work any better than "Lengthen Your Stride," "Every Member a Missionary," or that stupid "rescue" thing they tried a couple years back.

I once worked for a company that berated its sales force every time we failed to reach their unrealistic quotas. Guilt, shame, blame... same stuff as TSCC. They even had mandatory pep rallies during our lunch breaks, but we weren't allowed to bring food or eat while management sat there with take-out pizza in front of us hungry peons.

It was only a matter of time before people began exiting in droves. Reminds me a lot of what TSCC is doing right now. - by icedtea

Life as a Mormon: Endless meetings about how to get the people that aren't at the meetings to attend the meetings so that there can be larger meetings about how to get the people that aren't attending the meetings.

ad infinitum - by grubbygert

Door-to-door Salesmen to Boss:

"Sir, I've knocked on every door in this neighborhood TWICE! No one wants to buy our vacuum cleaners. They don't like the PRODUCT and they don't like being BOTHERED so often."

Boss:

"The answer is simple. We just need to DOUBLE the number of Salesmen working in this neighborhood!"

Salesman:

"Right, I never thought of that." - by Re-Poster

A non Mormon's perspective of the HTW programs/influx of new missionaries new.

With the talk of the HTW programs and firing up the base, and getting the members to recruit more, like sales pitches and whatnot....

My thoughts on this is; the Mormon church seems bloated at it's middle to upper management levels.

If run completely as a business, they would have to "shed the dead weight, consolidate, and concentrate on its core business(s) and competencies. Does anyone think they could "let go" (retire) some members of the Q70 or out of the GA ranks?

Couple that with the influx of missionaries and the need for them to do some "work", they would get more value for their (recruiting) buck if they were to build schools, homeless shelters, battered women shelters, dig wells, help build water treatment facilities. These are more for countries outside the US but some could apply in the US as well.

Make the missionaries more like Peace Corp workers and they might actually get something accomplished. - by nonmo

In the old days, when missionaries showed up for the first lesson, the investigators knew almost nothing except for what they may have read in their encyclopedia or from friends at work.

Today those investigators have already searched the Internet by the time the Elders show up. Those highly-informed investigators are often too polite to shoot the Elders down. There just isn't a second appointment -- and the Elders never know why.

The truth is that thanks to "Mormon Home Internet Filters" and the church's sanitized education policies, outsiders soon become better experts on history and doctrine than the members themselves!

The prospective buyer actually knows more about the product than the salesman! - by crud

"HTW" was begging for Hindering the Work, Hesitating the Work, Hastening the Washout, Hurrying the Wicked, Haranguing the Harried, Harassing the Willing. - by cricket

Hide The Weiner - by Asteve

Hectoring The Wounded

Hunting The Weak

Heckling The Well-read

Holding to the Withered-rod.

Hoping This Works! - by Surrender Dorothy

Hell The What - by rutabaga

Hassling The Worried - by ozpoof

Harassing The Weary - by Lunat Friend

Hanging The Wash

Hawking The Wares - by Brother Of Jerry

Helping The Whitewash - by Makurosu

Hawking The Whoreshit - by onendagus

Joseph Smith thinks it means: Hump The Womenfolk - by William Law

"Let's Go Shopping!" - by guynoirprivateeye