Comments on: Mormons will pass Methodists in U.S.

By: LDSUnderground

LDSUnderground — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:31:56 +0000

One reason for growth in Mormonism is the women are turned into ‘human baby factories’ at a very young age. Here in northern Utah it’s quite typical to see Mormon couples in their early 20s with 5 kids. The legal age for marriage here is 14 (it was just raised from 13).The LDS Church also ‘cooks’ their membership numbers, by not removing the names of former members when they leave the church.

By: Ozark Bubba

Ozark Bubba — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:06:51 +0000

Further research indicates that there are currently 60 LDS (Mormon) congregations throughout Arkansas–April 2009. The “average” congregation has about 450 members. So it appears there may be 27,000 Mormons in Arkansas. Latest official statistics from lds.org show 25,296 Arkansas members at the close of 2007.

By: Ozark Bubba

Ozark Bubba — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:52:41 +0000

I wonder how accurate your statistics are regarding Arkansas’ largest demoninations. I notice that Mormons don’t appear in the top ten. However, I also know that there are approximinately 26,000 Mormons in Arkansas spread throughout 56 congregations. The greatest growth has occurred where population gains have exceeded the rest of the state: Northwest Arkansas. There have been at least five new Mormon congregations added in Benton and Washington counties.

By: Brent

Brent — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:42:09 +0000

I suspect that birth rates are much lower among people in mainstream denominations than among LDS and among fundamentalists such as Assemblies of God. People usually jump to the conclusion that mainstream denominations are physically losing members who cross the street to join a fundamentalist church. Actually, I suspect that differential birth rates account for much of the shrinkage or gains.

By: Caleb Powers

Caleb Powers — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:40:56 +0000

I ran a quick spreadsheet on it, and based on each denomination continuing on in the same trend, that is, the Methodists losing .8% each year, and the Mormons gaining 1.63% each year, I come out with the numbers crossing at 2022. The question, of course, is whether the trends will continue.

In the shorter term, it looks like the Assemblies of God (currently No. 10 on the list) will bypass the Presbyterian Church (USA), this year’s ninth largest denomination not in ten years, but next year, if the trend continues.

In the long term, though, these numbers would mean that in another hundred years or so, nearly all of the mainstream denominations (including my own Episcopal Church) will pretty well be dead. That’s why I tend to think that they won’t keep dropping forever. At some point, the mainstream denominations will shrink until they are limited to a small central core of believers, which will probably not shrink further.