Seeking a “Second Harvest”: Controlling the Costs of LDS Membership in Europe
Armand L. MaussIt is not often that we see a convergence in predictions between apostles and sociologists, though, to be sure, this is not the first prediction from Rodney Stark that has proved pleasing to the LDS leadership. Yet, for today’s LDS members in Europe, the predicted “great days of gathering,” or, in President Hinckley’s terms, “second harvest,” must seem as far off as the Millennium itself. Certainly Stark’s earlier projections of enduring Church growth have proved rather optimistic for Europe, where the rate of new converts has barely kept pace with the defections. The seemingly static membership in western Europe is no secret, nor is the Church’s ongoing struggle with retention. Well-researched articles on such topics have been appearing for more than a decade, and a series of 2005 articles in the Salt Lake Tribune brought the problem forcibly to public attention.
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