Action Guide to Finding
By David Stewart. Copyright 2001.
Version of May 29, 2001
"But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also
sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully." 2
Corinthians 9:6
This action guide is provided to help member-missionaries, ward and stake missionaries, and full-time missionaries to find investigators who desire to be taught the gospel. This guide is provided "not...by way of commandment, but by wisdom" (D&C 28:5), and the contents are the sole responsibility of the author. However, we have seen finding results multiply many times in areas where these principles have been applied. We appreciate feedback on how we can make this guide more useful. Please email us at webmaster@missionaryhelper.com with comments or suggestions.
The most current version of this document is available for download at MissionaryHelper.com. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this document for private or pro-LDS Church related use. However, this document may not be re-posted to other websites without written permission.
Contents
Challenges in Finding
Our Divine Mandate: Speak with Everyone
Make Contacting Enjoyable
Avoid Benefit Consumption
Tracting and Street Contacting
Contacting for Members
Finding through Referrals
Book of Mormon Loan Program
Cottage Meetings
Finding through Family History Work
Other Helpful Finding Methods
Working through Media
Publicize your Ward or Branch
Which Finding Methods are Most Effective?
Measuring the Effectiveness of Finding Approaches
Optimizing Your Finding Program
The 90% Implementation Principle
Contacting as a Backup Plan
Reaching Every Soul for Christ
Achieving Multiple Exposures
Scripture Gift Mission
The Principle of Self-Selection
Keeping an Active Turnover
Common Features of Effective Finding Programs
The Practical Dynamics of Contacting
The Practical Dynamics of Member Referrals
How Every Missionary Can Baptize Almost Every Month
The Practical Dynamics of Finding through Media
Lessons from Dan Jones
Challenges in Finding
"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." John 4:35
(1) According to the Church Missionary Department in 1992, finding represents over 60% of missionary work. Therefore, understanding effective finding methods is crucial to the success of any missionary or member-missionary program.
(2) While church membership and missionary statistics have grown substantially, the yearly number of convert baptisms has actually declined. The average number of baptisms per missionary has progressively fallen from 9.1 in 1989 to 4.5 in 2000 - a decrease of 50%. The decrease in baptisms reflects both a decreased amount of time spent in finding activities and ineffective approaches to finding.
(3) LDS Member-missionary efforts are inconsistent, with the average branch in North America generating only two missionary referrals per month. According to Elder M. Russell Ballard, only 35% of active LDS members in North America share the gospel with any regularity (Ensign, September 2000). The percentage of baptism from member referrals has dropped from 42% in 1989 down to a present low of 20% (ibid). The absolute number of member referrals has also declined (ibid). When one accounts for the fact that only 40-50% of Latter-day Saints 'on the rolls' in North America are active, and about 20-30% in the rest of the world, this means in the best possible case that only about 15% of all LDS members share the gospel with any regularity. Christian researcher George Barna notes that 30-35% of all the US adult Christian population -- an estimated 60 million people -- share Christian beliefs with others, and that most of these do so at least monthly (George Barna, 'Evangelism that Works,' 1994). In other words, Latter-day Saints are actually significantly less likely to regularly share their beliefs with others than non-LDS Christians.
(4) Missionary time spent contacting and tracting has also declined, resulting in fewer contacts and fewer discussions. In some areas, missionaries contact as few as five or ten nonmembers a day, or contact only during specially-planned finding activities two or three times a week.
Why have LDS convert baptisms declined in the face of expanding opportunities for sharing the gospel and improved media perceptions of the Church? Does it take much more time and effort for Latter-day Saint missionary efforts to result in a conversion than for missionaries of other denominations? Facts indicate strongly to the contrary. Worldwide, LDS missionaries spend an average of 300 proselyting hours for every convert baptism, and only a fraction of that time actually involves finding efforts. In contrast, the Jehovah's Witnesses spend an average of 3400 proselyting hours for every new convert.
In this action guide, we'll discuss how to optimize finding success in your mission, ward, branch, or personal member-missionary efforts.
Our Divine Mandate: Speak with Everyone
"Willingly we give of our time and our means with which He may bless us to the establishment of His kingdom in the earth. This we know is our first duty and our great opportunity... In a statement published to the world during the last world war, the First Presidency of the Church declared: 'No act of ours or of the Church must interfere with this God-given mandate.'" Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April 1942
The Lord has made abundantly clear the responsibility of both missionaries and members to speak with everyone about the Gospel. There are many excuses for not sharing the gospel, but none that the Lord accepts. The following scriptures demonstrate our responsibility to consistently share the gospel:
A. In accepting baptism, all Church members covenant "to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God" (Mosiah 18:9).
B. "Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness. Yea, open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your backs, for lo, I am with you. Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying: Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; Yea, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for a remission of your sins; yea, be baptized even by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost." D&C 33:8-11
C. "Thou must open thy mouth at all times, declaring my gospel with the sound of rejoicing." D&C 28:16
D. "You shall ever open your mouth in my cause, not fearing what man can do, for I am with you." D&C 30:11
E. "And he shall not suppose that he can say enough in my cause; and lo, I am with him to the end." D&C 24:10
F. "Wherefore, go ye and preach my gospel, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss." D&C 80:3
G. "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor." D&C 88:81
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Lord teaches that EVERYONE with whom we come into contact is our neighbor.
H. "And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private. And thou shalt declare glad tidings, yea, publish it upon the mountains, and upon every high place, and among every people that thou shalt be permitted to see." D&C 19:28-29
I. The responsibility to open our mouths to all will not be discharged until the Gospel trump has sounded in every ear and "the great Jehovah says, 'the work is done'" (Joseph Smith, the Standard of Truth).
What Should I Say When I Open my Mouth?
Many ask, "what should I say when I open my mouth?" A variety of techniques exist for sharing the gospel. Some missionaries have strong feelings about a certain approaches, of which the Golden Questions are the most well-known and loved. We will deal with specific techniques for approaching others about the gospel in a later bulletin. However, we feel that it is not so important precisely how we share the Gospel, as long as we open our mouths.
In our experience, common features of all effective approaches to sharing the Gospel include:
(1) The individual sharing the message is sensitive to the Spirit and is not simply "following a cookbook recipe."
(2) The approach is tailored to the listener's specific needs and interests.
(3) There is a two-way dialogue, rather than a one-way data dump.
(4) The gospel is shared out of genuine love and concern for others, and not in a judgmental or self-righteous fashion.
(5) Those sharing the gospel study the scriptures daily so that we can accurately represent the Church's doctrine and teachings.
(6) Those sharing the gospel live according to the Gospel to demonstrate a good example to others.
Make Contacting Enjoyable
"Let my servant go and proclaim my everlasting gospel with a loud voice, and with great joy." Doctrine and Covenants 124:88
With the proper attitude, contacting can be one of the most unique and enjoyable missionary activities. People have such a variety of experience and perspectives that it is hard to imagine anything with more potential to be interesting than contacting. Even when people are not interested in the church, one can learn something from them and be enriched by the experience. By varying in one's approach, trying out new words in the mission language, and working to build on common beliefs, one can turn contacting from a chore into an exciting and enjoyable activity. Anyone can teach the "golden investigator," but for me, the most exciting part of missionary work is still participating in the first contact of non-members with the Church.
The importance of having a positive attitude towards contacting cannot be underestimated. One of my Jehovah's Witness acquaintances recently mentioned, "we all really enjoy witnessing about Jehovah." In contrast, Elder M. Russell Ballard points out recent missionary department research that Latter-day Saints are much more likely than non-members to be uptight in the setting of gospel discussions. There is a great deal of fear and hesistancy on the part of most Latter-day Saints, with only one-third of active members making any meaningful attempts to share the gospel at all. I've known very few missionaries who have been enthusiastic and excited about contacting. Most view contacting as an undesirable and relatively unimportant chore to be performed only when other ways to occupy time cannot be found. However, contacting numbers are the greatest correlate of missionary and member-missionary success. These attitudes must change on a large scale for us to meet the world's needs. There are far more receptive people willing to listen, than Latter-day Saints willing to testify to them. It is impossible for individuals to accept the gospel without first having the opportunity presented to them! We must fear God and not man.
Avoid Benefit Consumption
Beware of "benefit consumption." What is "benefit consumption"? Just as individuals with anti-lock breaks are involved in as many accidents as those without (because they drive faster, thinking they are safer), so do missionaries who think that they are called to a "choice" place with many people "ripe for the gospel" and easy discussions slacken their efforts to contact. While such missionaries may have some baptisms, they do not reach their potential in building the kingdom of God. Additionally, those baptisms that occur in areas with low contacting rates are generally of a lower commitment level.
Tracting and Street Contacting
"Thou must open thy mouth at all times, declaring my gospel with the sound of rejoicing." D&C 28:16
"We are to take the gospel to every person. Without exception, without excuse, without rationalization, we are to go 'unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mormon 9:22). Ezra Taft Benson, Regional Representatives Seminar, 5 April 1985.
"It is wonderful what we can do as we practice a little ingenuity. You ought to take advantage of every opportunity in the world to speak with people about why we are there and what we are doing and give them some taste of a gospel message." President Gordon B. Hinckley, LDS Church News, Saturday, July 4, 1998
'The best means of preaching the gospel is by personal contact.' David O. McKay, October 1969 General Conference
"We are in the business of communication. Missionaries need to communicate with people if we are to teach them the gospel...But the missionaries still need to have the right attitude in contacting people. They need to cast aside all fear and be positive about the great message which is here." President James E. Faust, LDS Church News, Saturday, June 26, 1999
"Speak to everyone: shopkeepers, passengers riding buses, people on streets, and everyone you meet." Elder Earl C. Tingey, April 1998 General Conference, Priesthood Session
Talk with everyone everywhere. Testify wherever you are. Never miss an opportunity to teach or testify. Do not argue, condemn, or force.
Many effective missions across the world contact an average of 10,000 or more people a week (this is the case for the mission in our area, which is moderately successful). Even in a small mission with only 60 companionships, this only works out to about 20 contacts per companionship per day. This can frequently be done in a single hour or less. This is not many people, and 50,000/week is not an unrealistic number in missions where missionaries are consistently opening their mouths and working hard.
Nonetheless, some missions do not even approach this minimal number of 10,000 contacts per week. When my mission president asked us to start recording contacts, most missionaries were contacting only about 5 to 10 people per day! Recording contacts was a very important step towards increasing awareness of the need for improvement. Missionaries who contact 50-200 people/day can experience much more success. Contacting this number of people is not hard. All it takes is a positive mental attitude and willingness to put in the work.
One common trait of almost all of the truly effective missionaries I have known is that they contact an average of 50-200 or more people each day. The Church Missionary Department estimates that 65-70% of missionary work is contacting; yet this is an area that is often underemphasized. It is easy to avoid contacting when schedules can be filled up with additional member visits or trips back to the same old investigators who aren"t keeping commitments. Contacting requires discipline and commitment, because one constantly experiences rejection. But this is where the real missionary work is done. As one of my companions told me, "Anyone can teach the golden investigator. The real challenge is finding them!" Missionaries who don't devote daily time to contacting rarely reach their potential. One should never be "too busy" for contacting, the most basic and essential of all missionary activities. In my experience and observation, missionary success over the course of a mission is determined more by the number of people contacted each day than by any other single factor. The results may not be obvious in a single day, week, or even a month but become very apparent when enthusiastic contacting is done consistently over the course of a mission.
Contacting puts most of us out of our comfort zones, but it is also the area where missionaries can make the most difference. Many member referrals would be baptized even without the missionaries. One reason for success with member referrals is that these individuals are filtered from a much larger pool. While missionaries can benefit from member referrals, the primary responsibility for contacting, sorting, and finding remains with the missionaries. The ratio of members to missionaries in Eastern European countries is very low, and the members are expected to carry off much greater responsibilities after much less time in the church than the average member in Utah or California. When missionaries are over-reliant on members for contacts, especially when the missionaries have little success in getting investigators to church through their own efforts, members may feel overworked and stressed. In contrast, when missionaries are dynamic and successful in independent contacting, member confidence in missionaries grows and member referrals are often offered spontaneously. When missionary work is doing well in a branch, members grow too. When the missionary work is not going well, members may stagnate. The cure for this, rather than berating the members, is often to get effective missionary work going in the branch again.
Missionary work depends on spirituality and prayer, but it also operates in accordance with basic physical laws. Let us assume that there is a country where one person in a thousand is prepared to accept the gospel from the missionaries. In this imaginary country, an ineffective missionary might contact an average of only 5 people a day because of latching on to a few who express some interest but are not prepared for the gospel. Over two years, they will contact approximately 3500 people. Perhaps 3 or 4 may be baptized, perhaps 6 or 7, perhaps none. But a missionary who contacts fifty people every single day for two years would contact 35000 people over two years and could have 30 to 40 conversions. This is only an example. In some countries, less than one in a thousand people are prepared to hear the gospel. In other countries (like some regions of South America), more people may be prepared. This is a large number of people to go through, and missionaries who do not understand this principle may be prone to discouragement or depression. Because very large numbers of people must often be contacted to result in one conversion, this principle may not be obvious after a single week or month of aggressive contacting. Almost all missionaries who live this principle can see its fruit clearly at the end of their mission and can testify that it is true. If missionaries aren't devoting meaningful time every day to contacting, they will never be nearly as successful as they could be.
Street contacting and tracting are both widely used worldwide. Below are some advantages and disadvantages of tracting compared to street contacting. A good missionary can be successful with either method as long as it is done enough. Regardless of which methods are preferred, no one should pass up opportunities to share the gospel on the street. Regardless of which method is chosen, one must contact many, many people to find one who is ready for the gospel.
Advantages of tracting compared to street contacting:
- When people come to the door, they [usually] they live there. Missionaries serving especially in central areas of large cities may end up referring the majority of their street contacts to missionaries in other areas.
- By going through consecutive buildings, one economizes travel time and wild goose chases looking for a non-existent address sometimes given by street contacts.
- If someone doesn"t keep an appointment, one's time can be used effectively dropping in on other contacts or investigators in the same area, or one can pick up tracting nearby where one left off.
- Street contacting can sometimes attract the "wrong kind of attention:" drunks, anti-mormons, etc.
Disadvantages of tracting:
- Some apartment complexes have outer locks that may prevent tracting.
- As few as one-third of people in some large Eastern European cities will open their door to the missionaries. In small towns, far more people will open their doors. Don't let the numbers turn you off; rejection comes with the territory.
- To give tracting or any other form of contacting a fair shot, one must work at it consistently over time. One evening of bad experiences should not be enough to turn anyone off to tracting.
Contacting for Members
Contacting has a vital role -- not just for stake missionaries, but for all member-missionaries. Contacting is s a great activity for splits. Certainly, involving members in the teaching and fellowshipping process early -- long before baptism -- is very important. Additionally, involvement in finding -- while it is hard work that requires both members and missionaries to get out of their comfort zone -- is very developmental for local members. According to the Missionary Department, two-thirds of missionary work is finding. No missionary or member-missionary who does not contact regularly will develop a full array of necessary missionary skills. Latter-day prophets have encouraged rank and file members to participate in contacting and tracting:
"...Several decades ago when President David O. McKay presided over the church, he gave impetus to the missionary work in the stakes of Zion. He coined the term, 'Every member a missionary,' and it is obvious that would be a giant step toward the accomplishment of our directives. Certainly we could extend our efforts and 'lengthen our stride' and greatly increase the conversions and build the kingdom and eventually knock at every door. That would only be about 2000 to every missionary, but the ratio would rapidly change if we really did this." Spencer W. Kimball, Regional Representatives Seminar, April 3, 1975
Members who regularly split with the missionaries for tracting get a great hands-on introduction to sharing the gospel with their friends and neighbors. When members tract and do the door approach with missionaries, many apprehensions about sharing the gospel are overcome. Most members cite fear as the dominant reason for not sharing the gospel! When missionaries help members overcome their fear by participating in contacting, many benefits arise for both parties. The members learn how to contact by teaching and example.
When members are only invited to work with missionaries once most of the groundwork with specific investigators is already laid, many benefits are lost. Members may feel more comfortable sharing the gospel in a controlled, pre-arranged setting, but are unlikely to feel more comfortable sharing the gospel with new contacts.
Members who contact with missionaries are far more likely to be aware of, and to act on, the many opportunities around them to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors. Contacting also helps members to overcome false expectations of great success with little work. Experiencing rejection on a regular basis is part of sharing the gospel for anyone who does so in earnest. Contacting with missionaries helps members to cope with rejection in a constructive manner, and helps to avert withdrawal into a distant comfort zone.
My first mission president used to say that if we aren't being rejected many times a day, we aren't doing much missionary work. That's not to say that we don't look for ways to improve our success rates by tailoring the message to the local people; of course we do. When either members or missionaries (or both) try to escape rejection by remaining in their comfort zones, however, little is done to build the Church. My mission president also told us that we should do things that are hard for us every day, echoing an old counsel of President McKay. Not surprisingly, the hardest things for us to do are frequently the most developmental.
Both members and missionaries need to regularly participate in all three aspects of the missionary program -- finding, teaching, and fellowshipping/retention -- for missionary work to be optimally effective. Certainly the balance is different for members and missionaries, and local circumstances also affect the balance.
Many members want to help find people for the missionaries, but simply don't know how to go about it. Showing members how to contact on a regular basis with real people in actual situations is a far more effective way of encouraging them to share the gospel with their friends, than repeatedly telling them what they "should" be doing. As Edmund Burke taught, "example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other!" The Roman statesman Seneca noted, "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
Finding through Referrals
Members and investigators are a significant source of referrals in most areas of the world. These referrals are particularly valuable, since individuals are much more likely to be converted when they know individuals who are members and are pre-selected from a much larger group.
Referrals are most effective when:
(1) Members have spoken with the the referral about the gospel
(2) The individual has expressed interest in the Church
(3) The individual has consented to being contacted by the missionaries.
If any one of these three steps has not been completed, you will likely wish to ask the members to do it before contacting the referral directly. Otherwise, contacting these individuals often alienates them further from both their friends and the Church. It is not appropriate for members to give you long lists of friends and acquaintances without following the above three steps.
Review with members appropriate ways to approach their friends and acquaintances about the gospel. Role-playing is often very helpful. Challenge and commit them and then follow up at a specified time.
The more information included with a referral, the greater the missionaries' ability to approach the person effectively. A standard form with only a name, address, and telephone is not nearly as helpful as a letter or even a paragraph describing the type and extent of the person's contact with the Church, the level of interest expressed, and what interested the person. Was the person a self-referral, or does he or she not even know that an acquaintance has referred him or her? Have they read part of the Book of Mormon and attended church, or are they more interested in the Church from a philosophical standpoint? When missionaries have this information, they can often build on common ground and break the ice with the person referred. It is important to encourage those who submit referrals to include this information.
LDS missionary author Grant Von Harrison suggests that missionaries asking members for referrals ask about the members" own conversion stories and let the members know that they are doing all in their power to work hard, perfect their teaching skills, and live worthily (Tools for Missionaries, p.132).
There are special periods of opportunity when individuals are particularly receptive to the gospel. However, without some kind of contact with the church or the missionaries, such enthusiasm will generally eventually die out. All referrals are high priority and should be acted on promptly, typically within 48 hours of its receipt. The longer the wait before contacting referrals, the less likely a successful outcome becomes.
For detailed information about generating referrals from member-missionary work, please see the Member-Missionary Action Guide available for free download at MissionaryHelper.com.
Book of Mormon Loan Program
As I visit many used bookstores in non-LDS areas, I am surprised at how frequently I come across whole sections of copies of the Book of Mormon -- apparently donated by non-members who had received copies, but never meaningfully read or accepted the work (in contrast, the largest retail bookstore in the state of Colorado -- the Tattered Cover -- contains a large section with commentaries on the Book of Mormon, but not one copy of the actual book. But that is another topic). In one used bookstore with a particularly large collection, I found myself contemplating on how many months or years of Book of Mormon distribution that represented in my ward at the time where Book of Mormon placement reports were given weekly. While I do not know the exact circumstances of placement of all of the copies of the Book of Mormon in the used bookstore, from the practices representative of local wards I suspect that many books were placed by LDS members, but that little meaningful reading or follow-up occurred. Clearly, there is little value simply to placing copies of the Book of Mormon if they are not meaningfully read, discussed, and followed-up on.
Fortunately, there is an approach which is superior in virtually every way to the extremes of both indiscriminate distribution without appropriate follow-up on one hand, and inadequate use of the Book of Mormon on the other. My companions and I used this approach on our mission with great success. The approach which I speak of involves using the Book of Mormon as the "great sieve," as Ezra Taft Benson has asked us to do. I shall call the Book of Mormon Loan Program.
The Book of Mormon loan program involves offering a copy of the Book of Mormon as a loan to contacts or acquaintances after an appropriate period of discussion to determine whether they would genuinely be interested in reading in the book. One makes it clear that they do not need to read the whole book -- just enough to form an opinion. Suggested reading passages are offered if the listeners if they have specific questions or interests. I recommend always giving them a copy of "23 Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon" with the book and recommend and specific questions I feel may be of interest to them. Of course, the contact must first agree to read in the book and to return it if he or she is not interested. Then, make it clear that you would like to meet with him or her to discuss the principles in the book at greater length if he or she finds the contents to be interesting. Of course, if he or she does not commit to read in the book and does not agree to some kind of meaningful follow-up, do not loan him or her a copy. Specific follow-up must be arranged prior to parting, either that you will call or speak with him or her at an agreed upon time or that he or she will come to church meetings.
After a few days, call or stop by to follow up. If the individual is not interested, pick up the book (if the follow-up is in person) or he or she returns the book to me at a church meeting or at another convenient agreed-upon time. Interestingly, we've gotten a number of uninterested contacts to church to return books along with the interested ones who come to learn more!
The Book of Mormon Loan Program has many advantages over simply placing copies of the Book of Mormon as gifts. First, it establishes accountability and guarantees follow-up. The individual who receives a "free" or gift copy is unlikely to feel any accountability due to the prevalence of the 'free sample' mentality. Such individuals rarely read meaningfully and are sometimes evasive when follow-up is sought. Loaning copies of the Book of Mormon with pre-agreed accountability screens contacts more adequately to ensure that some meaningful reading will occur. It also ensures that the follow-up occurs in a meaningful time period and is not put off until interest wanes and the experience is forgotten. Additionally, this approach makes economical and effective use of Book of Mormon resources, while fulfilling the divine mandates to use the Book of Mormon as a sieve and to 'flood the earth with the Book of Mormon.' Most importantly, the individuals brought into the Church through this approach remained active because they are truly converted to the gospel message -- not just to the missionaries or to the social aspects of the Church.
The Book of Mormon Loan Program works! Try it and see. I'm convinced that after applying the Book of Mormon Loan program and seeing the results, you'll agree!
Cottage Meetings
The LDS term "cottage meeting" is perhaps the best approximation of the concept of "cell meetings." The main difference, of course, is that cottage meetings are simply an adjunct to missionary and fellowshipping efforts, and are not a substitute for Sunday block meetings. Cottage meetings are specifically authorized by the old General Missionary Handbook.
There are many benefits of cottage meetings. They provide a non- threatening environment for finding new investigators, for fellowshipping both non-members and new members, and for helping existing members learn to share the gospel. The home can often influence non-members in a way that the sterile environment of the chapel cannot. Another consideration is time. Even members with individuals with very limited time availability can accomplish considerable good by holding regular cottage meetings.
Imagine what would happen if all Latter-day Saint families held cottage meetings routinely. The number of member referrals generated by the average LDS ward of 300+ members in North America is only two per month, which represents one of the lowest rates of member- missionary participation for any denomination with an active missionary program. With widespread, regular cottage meetings, the number of referrals generated by an average branch could quickly rise into the hundreds. This is a key to achieving maintained, exponential growth, in contrast to the decelerating linear growth we have been experiencing. The number of Southern Baptist churches among one group in the interior of India increased from 36 in 1993 to 2000 in 1998, with the number of churches doubling every year. Similarly, the number of Southern Baptist churches in Cambodia rose from 6 in 1992 to 194 in 1998, almost doubling every year. The number of LDS church units worldwide grows at a rate of only about 2% per year. This is in large part because Southern Baptists understand the importance of cottage or cell meetings, while this practice has been all but abandoned in most LDS wards.
Finding Through Family History Work
Original article: "Family History as a Missionary Tool," by Christopher K. Bigelow, Ensign, October 2000, pp. 29-31. Summarized by David Stewart.
It's true. Family history can be, and is, a phenomenal missionary tool! In fact, in areas with family history centers, family history can present one of the best inroads for member-missionary work!
The North America Southeast Area has recently adopted a "Tell Me About Your Family" program which is educating non-members about family history work while simultaneously generating interest in the Church . While the program is still relatively new, it appears to be succeeding at inspiring member-missionary efforts where the less-effective missionary dinner program and other initiatives have failed.
Why? Charles Wright, a stake missionary cited in the article, notes: "Religion is personal to people and many times is closely held. On the other hand, nearly anybody will sit down and talk to you about your ancestors. You can ask people questions about where they"re from, and they enjoy letting you know about their heritage."
While the program's main goal is to make genuine friends and help individuals to understand the LDS emphasis on the family, some individuals become interested in the Chuch. Michael D. Knight, President of the Huntsville Alabama Stake, notes: "Sharing the gospel is not as simple as inviting somebody over to hear the missionaries or watch a church video. We've struggled to involve members in missionary work. But we"ve had more member participation in this family history program than anything else we've tried" (ibid.)
LDS General Authorities have encouraged the effective use of family history as a missionary tool. In a Family History broadcast in 1998, Elder Boyd K. Packer stated: "We do not use our family history work for missionary work nearly as much as we could." Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Presidency of the Seventy also noted: "Family history is obviously a crucial tool in redeeming the dead, but it can also play an important role in proclaiming the gospel and strengthening members of the Church. With even minimal coordination between priesthood leaders, family history workers, and missionaries, it will not be difficult to use family history as a tool for conversion and retetion of new members and activation of less-active members." (Ensign, February 1999, p.77) ["With even minimal coordination!" I like that. He tells it how it is.]
Members in the Huntsville Alabama Stake receive widely-circulated "Tell Me About Your Family" cards which help non-members to start recording names, places, and dates. The members then invite the interested contact to a family home evening about family history or a family history open house. Open houses are held up to once a month.
Stake Mission President Dean Dexter wisely follows up on what works -- and what doesn't. He notes, "The most successful open houses included several elements: one, a brief, spiritual presentation on why Latter-day Saints do family history work; two, a demonstration of FamilySearch software, with the computer screen projected for everyone to see, if possible; three, an opportunity for each visitor to sit down at a table and be assisted in filling out the "Where Do I Start?" pamphlet and other forms." He notes that displays of family history work done by other members can be helpful: "Visitors love seeing what other people have done." He states that having full-time missionaries participate "is the most critical and important part of what we are doing at these open houses."
President Knight states that small, hands-on groups are best: "We don't want the open houses to get too big. The key is that visitors actually get to do things, that it's very hands-on. Smaller groups allow us to give personal attention more effectively and to follow up on any teaching opportunities that arise." Stake High Councilor Robert Swenson notes: "The key is to have the full-time missionaries sit at tables and work with people one-on-one and establish a rapport Otherwise it's just another family history seminar. People naturally ask questions that lead to opportunities to share the gospel." President Dexter states that follow-up is crucial to help individuals to continue their family history work and to give them the opportunity to investigate the Church: "We want visitors to leave hungry for more, not overstuffed."
Charles Drake, a member who has invited up to seven individuals to an open house, states: "We try to get the same people to come back by having something new for them each time. We want to get well-acquainted with them so we can invite them to another Church activity and move them toward investigating." He concludes: "I think it's the best missionary approach we"ve had in some years here and perhaps the best ever to reach Southern people, because the family is really important to us."
Family History Work, Retention, and Activation
LDS Church Family History workers from Salt Lake City, Utah stated at a regional conference that retention rose from 30-40% to 80% simply by getting new members started on family history work immediately after their baptisms! It is important to have family history missionaries attend all convert baptisms to establish contact with the new converts and to help them get started on family history immediately. There are also many reports of less-active individuals who have been reactivated through family history work. Family history work is more than just an additional route for sharing the gospel. It is a crucial program central to convert retention and reactivation! For more information on achieving 100% convert retention, download a copy of the 100% Convert Retention Action Guide at missionaryhelper.com.
Other Helpful Finding Methods
"Also, through the Family-to-Family Book of Mormon Program, send copies of the Book of Mormon on missions for you with your testimonies enclosed." Ezra Taft Benson, Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice, To the Elderly in the Church, p. 74
Other finding methods which may be helpful include:
Teaching anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol public service messages in schools
Teaching abstinence and chastity messages
Service projects
Puppet shows
On my mission, we had some success with a variety of these methods. At times, they were very successful; in other areas and at different times they were not as successful. Their effectiveness depends highly on local circumstances. Early in my mission we had some success at getting families to church with public service messages taught in schools. Later on we had much less success with this approach. We did have some baptisms from humanitarian projects, including food and clothing distribution. While the humanitarian projects produced a wave of baptism in the mission, few of those converts remained active, and so it is difficult to say whether service projects were effective as finding tools. We had many discussions and some good baptisms from presentations in schools. Public service messages about alcohol and tobacco are much needed. In addition to building goodwill -- they leave individuals with a message they can use, even if they do not accept the full gospel. It is very important to be creative and make the best use of all finding opportunities.
Ezra Taft Benson suggested that LDS businessmen, lawyers, physicians, and other professionals can place a copy of the Book of Mormon in their waiting room. Other interest-inspiring literature can be used with great effectiveness by both members and missionaries:
- Lamb of God Video cards
- Joseph Smith's Testimony
- Proclamation on the Family
- 23 Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon
- 17 Points of the True Church
- Articles of Faith
- Book of Mormon fliers
- Church invitations
Interest-Inspiring Videos
- Church videos: The First Vision, Man's Search for Happiness, the Book of Mormon, etc.
Important LDS Contact Numbers:
Missionary Referral 888-LDS-7700
Distribution Center 800-537-5950
Free Holy Bible 800-453-2900
"Family First" video 800-832-2900
"Lamb of God" video 800-720-9400
"Together Forever" video 888-393-5669
Locating an LDS Member 800-453-3860
Working through Media
Latter-day prophets have taught that we have an obligation to share the gospel through media:
'When we have increased the missionaries from the organized areas of the Church to a number close to their potential, that is, every able and worthy boy in the Church on a mission; when every stake and mission abroad is furnishing enough missionaries for that country; when we have used our qualified men to help the apostles to open these new fields of labor; when we have used the satellite and related discoveries to their greatest potential and all of the media--the papers, magazines, television, radio--all in their greatest power; when we have organized numerous other stakes which will be springboards; when we have recovered from inactivity the numerous young men who are now unordained and unmissioned and unmarried; then, and not until then, shall we approach the insistence of our Lord and Master to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.' Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 1982, p. 585.
President Hinckley on his media interviews: 'We have something that the world needs to hear about, and these interviews afford an opportunity to give voice to that.' Gordon B. Hinckley, LDS General Conference, April 1996, Priesthood Session
The responsibility to share the gospel through media is not an exclusive responsibility of stake and mission leaders, but extends to all missionaries and member-missionaries. A little awareness of opportunities for publicity can go a long way. Here are some examples from my mission. Many missionaries can testify of similar events in missions around the world.
- One of my mission companions was a convert who was baptized after attending church meetings he found through a simple newspaper ad with nothing but the Church's name, location, and meeting time.
- In one small city in the mission, we wrote an article on the Church in Russian for a local newspaper. We had many discussions and several baptismal commitments due to publicity from the article. Small newspaper ads are inexpensive and can greatly increase public awareness.
- We paid for an attractive signboard with information about the Church with our meeting time to be posted near a bus stop. Several individuals came to church as a result of the sign and were baptized. Since many people had seen the sign, contacting was also more successful.
- We presented local libraries with a copy of the Book of Mormon and Gospel Principles book with the church addresses and times pasted inside. The Gospel Principles book was quite popular.
Publicize your Ward or Branch
Missionaries work hard to find investigators. Can interested investigators find the Church?
One LDS member moved to a large Central European capital with her husband. She looked for the Church for two or three months, but was unable to establish contact. The only LDS number listed in the local telephone directory was for a family history office which -- unbeknownst to her -- was open only two evenings a week from 5 to 7 pm, so the phone rang and rang when she called on multiple occasions. After several months of searching, she fortuitously encountered LDS missionaries on the street and was able to get church meeting information from them.
Unfortunately, this story is not simply a rare exception. It had a happy ending, but not all such stories do. Over the past few years, I've had numerous experiences with other individuals (both investigators and members) who have had a very difficult time connecting up with the church in their area and who finally made the connection under fortuitous circumstances. I wonder how many others like them weren't as fortunate. There are many people who are interested in the church, but who simply don't know how to find it.
From mid-1998 to the present, I have traveled to eighteen countries and over twenty states. I've consistently had a surprising amount of difficulty finding out when wards meet even in parts of Utah and other US states. I always appreciate the wards that have phone message with local meeting times, although they are by far the exception. I have often had to call multiple wards and still not learned any useful information about meeting times.
Many members of the Church believe that the reason why meaningful publicity efforts are rarely done at the local level is that there is some sort of official Church policy against this. However, this is untrue. The permission of higher authorities is not needed for wards to conduct local publicity efforts. These problems generally arise because no one has bothered to consider the quality of the exposure of their ward or branch in the community.
What good is a candle if it is hidden under a bushel? Similarly, how does the presence of an LDS ward or branch benefit the members of a community, if locals do not know it exists, or are unable to obtain adequate meeting information? Sometimes we make it very difficult for interested individuals to find the church. In some areas of the world there aren't multiple wards to call, and not everyone is willing to spend an indefinite amount of time trying to track down the nearest LDS ward or branch. In many areas, it is virtually impossible for an interested person to find the church without member friends or some other preexisting contacts. Such important matters cannot be left to chance or circumstance.
How can we make it as easy as possible for individuals to find the Church?
1) Make sure that your ward is listed in the local phone directory and that the listed phone number has an answering machine with local meeting information. Many chapel phone numbers in the mission field are unlisted. For those that are listed, usually there is not an informational message. During the week, the phone just rings and rings. Sometimes there is a message about some upcoming activity, but very rarely is there a message with useful information about local meeting times. A chapel phone number is of little value unless (1) it is publicly available (i.e. listed in the phonebook) and (2) there is either (a) a person there to answer it during the workweek or (b) there is a message with useful informational content.
2) Let passers-by know what time to come! I have often wondered about the 'visitors welcome' sign on most LDS chapels. The vast majority of churches of other denominations list the meeting days and times in a publicly visible fashion. Even if a visitor found the chapel and wanted to attend LDS meetings, I don't have any idea how he or she would know when to show up. Potential visitors might feel much more welcome if we let them know what time to come! Signs that make meeting times visible from the street can be very helpful.
3) Consider regularly announcing meeting times in local newspapers. Such ads are often available to religious denominations at minimal cost. Also, take advantage of local community opportunities.
4) When possible, chapels should be constructed in visible locations that can easily be found. Most other denominations tend to position their churches strategically on main roads, LDS Chapels are often tucked away deep in residential neighborhoods. A number of members who attend chapels in prominent locations have shared stories of how individuals have come into the church by stopping by an LDS meetinghouse on Sunday. If enough people regularly pass by a chapel, some eventually become curious and decide to come in, provided that meeting times are posted.
What kind of information do you get when you call your chapel on a weekday? Could a guest from the community passing by your chapel or calling your chapel phone learn what time to come? A little awareness and effort go a long way!
Local publicity efforts do not replace other types of missionary work, but they do supplement conventional missionary and member-missionary efforts. Many wonderful conversions have occurred in many areas where these basic publicity awareness steps have been implemented.
Which Finding Methods are Most Effective?
Given unlimited needs and limited resources, good stewardship requires not only that missionaries and member-missionaries share the gospel regularly, but that the most effective finding approaches are employed. Which finding method is "best?" Finding through members? Contacting? Or working through media? Often I see lists attempting to rank finding methods as effective or ineffective. Invariably, such lists rank methods in which most of the work has already been done by others -- like work through local members or through media efforts -- as most effective, while contacting and tracting are generally rated as "ineffective." Are such lists accurate or helpful?
Acquaintances of mine who have served in Utah, Idaho, and other areas have experienced numerous baptisms by working with members effectively, while many have experienced seemingly little success with contacting or tracting. In contrast, member dinner appointments were recently banned in the North America Central Area because they waste prime proselyting time while producing poor results that are measurably inferior to those of tracting alone! On my mission in Russia in the early 1990s, we found that contacting and tracting presented gold-mines of "golden investigators." While we did have some baptisms from member referrals and service projects, these did not represent a large proportion of total results due to the relatively small number of members in our area. In contrast, my brother who served in Germany two years later found that well-designed service projects produced greater results in his area than tracting. Of course, he used every opportunity to tract, contact, and work with members, but service repeatedly surfaced as the most fruitful of those methods. What about media efforts? While my companions and I had good success with some local media efforts we implemented in Russia, the missionaries in my current ward in the Southern U.S. state that they baptize more people who they meet incidentally on the way to and from delivering free videos from the "Lamb of God" media effort, than they baptize of the media referrals themselves! In this situation, the fruit of this particular media effort in our area is actually far inferior to that of contacting alone.
It is clear that the effectiveness of different finding approaches is not constant, but vary considerably with local factors, including culture, local conditions, the strength and number of local members, missionary obedience, and more. There are areas that have been both successful and unsuccessful with each method. Claims that one finding method is always superior or inferior to another are categorically inaccurate. Sweeping generic claims that "working with members is always more effective than tracting or street contacting" or that "tracting is the least effective way of finding" are simply not true. The truth is that the tremendous majority of baptisms churchwide continue to come from missionaries" own finding efforts, and that the real challenge is understanding the situations in which each finding method is appropriate and fruitful. Finding through members, tracting, sharing public service messages in schools, street contacting, and working through media are all serve different and much-needed roles.
One should not expect a member referral approach that appears to works well in Idaho, with a very high member to missionary ratio, to produce comparable results in Russia or Japan. Similarly, media efforts that produce a dramatic response in newly-opened areas of the world may not generate such exuberant responses in Western Europe or North America. Simplistic approaches which categorize one or a few finding methods as "effective" and others as "ineffective" -- when taken as absolutes apart from the actual conditions and context under which they are used -- are neither accurate nor helpful. LDS General Authorities have encouraged LDS members and missionaries to find people to teach through a variety of approaches, including work with members, media efforts, tracting, contacting, service, family history, and more. In fact, to be obedient, missionaries and members need to find the proper balance between a variety of approaches. What this balance is, however, varies considerably depending on the area. One should expect different balances to exist in Utah, Florida, Peru, Germany, India, and Lithuania. An approach which produces dynamic results in one area and at one time may be ineffective and appropriate in another area with differing circumstances. Polarizing into a single "camp" that promotes one or two finding methods at the expense of others is counterproductive. Each finding method has a valuable role, and each method can be employed in effective or ineffective ways. The real question is not whether to find through members, through one's own finding efforts, or through media (as all are needed), but how to employ each approach to maximum advantage. The most effective missionaries use a balance of finding approaches, although the optimal balance depends greatly on local circumstances. The task of full-time and member-missionaries is to understand those roles in order create effective, balanced finding programs optimized for local conditions.
In striving to understand how to build the church most effectively in one's own area, there is simply no substitute for attempting to learn and intelligently understand the factors at play in one's own area which may help to find the right balance. There is also no substitute for hard work and creativity in enthusiastically applying a variety of methods, and modifying approaches based on actual feedback and results. Approaches which emphasize finding through members, which produce adequate results per missionary in areas where missionaries service areas with many hundreds of members (like Utah) may be disastrous when applied as the dominant finding method in areas where there are only a few active members per missionary companionship. Similarly, tracting and contacting may not be as effective in areas where individuals have had multiple past opportunities to hear about the Church, but may be very effective in mobilizing spontaneous interest in religion in areas where many individuals have not yet had an opportunity to hear the gospel message.
Claims that one should work with members "instead" of contacting, or work through media "instead" of contacting because it is "more effective," inevitably reflect a basic misunderstanding on the part of the individuals making the claim. In fact, finding through independent contacting, through members, and through media all are necessary, and all represent a heterogenous variety of approaches rather than a single entity. There are more and less effective ways to work within each category. For example, missionary-member dinner programs, which occupy considerable missionary time during prime proselyting hours but which rarely produce meaningful results, represent an ineffective way of soliciting member referrals which is generally inferior in results to tracting or street contacting. In contrast, involving members on splits is much more effective. Similarly, different contacting and media approaches vary in their effectiveness and impact. The prudent missionary and member-missionary does not ask "which" category of approaches is best, but strives to optimize results using the most efficacious and appropriate finding methods within each of the three categories. Effective missionary work requires a balance. Individuals who understand the proper application of different finding techniques recognize that each finding technique has a different application. Public service messages in schools can only be arranged and taught during school hours (and during the school year) -- hours when few individuals are at home and tracting is poorly productive. Media and service efforts are also best done during the hours of the work day, while tracting is most productive in the evenings. Few of the missionaries in my mission ever found service projects to be very productive, although some individuals in other areas had somewhat more success. Their effectiveness varies depending on the approach. Also, opportunities for public service messages, puppet shows, etc. are finite, while the opportunities for tracting and street contacting are virtually infinite. Does this mean that one is superior, or that reliance on one alone is adequate? Clearly not, as both have different roles and applications.
Occasionally, some seek to establish growth by setting restrictions on finding approaches (i.e. don't tract, don't teach women, etc.), rather than by implementing positive and effective programs. Restrictions generally stunt growth rather than fostering it. Restricting one will generally only result in loss of finding through the respective method, and rarely lead to a concomitant increase in the other. Setting restrictions conveys a basic misunderstanding of the dynamics of finding techniques. This results in many missionaries sitting at home or wasting time when their finding method of choice is not available. No finding method is available all of the time, so exclusive focus on a few finding methods will result an immense loss of finding opportunities and many lost baptisms over a two-year mission.
Optimizing Time Management
Clearly, first-line prime time proselyting time should generally be reserved for the finding methods that consistently demonstrate the best results in one's immediate area. No conscientious missionary can neglect tracting and street contacting without consequence, however. By the very nature of missionary work, many appointments -- often 30-75% -- simply don't turn out. It is vital to have a backup plan at all times. Fortunately, missionaries who find their investigators not at home at the time of a planned appointment have tracting and street contacting in the area immediately available! Even if sharing public messages in schools is one's most fruitful finding method, one can not arrange and teach such a message in school on short notice at 6 pm! In such a setting, tracting and street contacting cannot be held to the same standards of productivity as finding in schools, because the latter finding method is not available. Thus, the real issue in such a setting is not whether to tract or teach in schools, but whether to tract or to do nothing. Clearly, tracting is vastly more productive than the alternative. When evaluating the effectiveness of different finding methods, one can validly consider only the finding methods that are immediately available in that particular setting. When claims rating the effectiveness of different finding methods are divorced from the setting in which they are available, such claims become misleading and unhelpful. All methods are effective in their appropriate setting and application, and ineffective when inappropriately applied.
Most time should be spent actually sharing the gospel, rather than talking about sharing the gospel or attempting to motivate others to do so. Unless members are already highly motivated to share the gospel, attempting to motivate members or others to sharing the gospel rarely inspires members to put forth an effort of the magnitude of the visit itself. It simply doesn't make sense to expect busy members with two or three callings in a small branch where the ratio of active members to missionaries is very low to produce large numbers of referrals to keep missionaries constantly busy. It doesn't make sense to spend large amounts of time meeting with members in their homes and attempting to motivate them to share the gospel if referrals are infrequently obtained. It doesn"t make sense to tract during the working day in areas where few individuals are at home. It does make sense to make the best of every opportunity, to plan the most effective finding methods at the times when they are available, to try new methods which may be better than those one is currently employing, to regularly reassess how one can improve one's effectiveness, and to always have a backup plan.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Finding Methods
When measuring the effectiveness of approaches, it is vital to assess results per unit time, rather than results per contact. While some finding methods may produce higher rates of investigator interest, they may also gain much less exposure. For example, which is more effective -- spending ten hours soliciting referrals from members, where only one in ten visits may lead to a referral, but where member contacts are -- individually -- more likely to accept the discussions, or contacting fifty people an hour, if only one in a hundred accepts a discussion? Most people would answer that the first is more "effective," when in fact the second method produces five times as many discussions. Additionally, the second approach fulfills the divine mandate to 'sound the gospel in every ear" in a fashion that the first approach does not. It is crucial that the dominant consideration in contacting must not be, "how can I fill up my schedule" -- as this leads to accepting low-quality discussions and using time poorly -- but "how can I make the gospel available to as many individuals as possible." If all missionaries and member-missionaries would think like that, baptisms would increase instantly and dramatically.
It is crucial that missionaries and member-missionaries understand that member referrals and referrals from independent contacting efforts cannot be validly compared on a one-to-one basis. No analysis of effectiveness can be valid without accounting for the fact that hundreds of individuals can be given the opportunity to hear the gospel by street contacting or tracting in the time it takes to obtain a single member referral! Often I have heard of areas where missionaries expect members to carry almost the entire responsibility for finding, and do very little finding on their own. Everyone would agree that missionaries need to actively solicit referrals from members and pursue other independent finding methods which, at times, may produce better results per unit time invested than tracting or street contacting.
Optimizing your Finding Program
Here are some factors to keep in mind in allocating one's time and in considering how and when to best employ each finding technique:
(1) Some finding methods are available only on certain days, times of day, or times of the year. For example, public service messages in schools can be arranged only when school is in session, and must be arranged in advance. Newspaper editors can often be approached about potential stories only during working hours. Time within those windows should preferentially be allocated to such approaches.
(2) Some finding approaches may be available at any time, but are more effective in certain time windows. For example, street or park contacting are usually most productive during the day, but much less effective at night. They are often slightly more effective on weekends when families are together and individuals are less rushed. In contrast, tracting has low yield during business hours, but a higher yield in the evenings and on weekends when families are home.
(3) Some finding methods require significant advance planning, while others do not. Media efforts, community presentations, family history workshops, etc. must be arranged in advance. In contrast, tracting and street contacting can be done almost anywhere with little preparation or advanced notice. When appointments fall through as 40-70% do, for most missionaries it is vital to have a backup plan. Street contacting and tracting provide excellent backups that can immediately turn time that would otherwise be lost into productive finding time. Never pass up an opportunity to share the gospel just because your most favored finding method may not be immediately available! Individuals who fail to consistently employ backup opportunities when the primary plan falls through lose a tremendous number of gospel contacts and potential baptisms over the course of a mission. Claims that contacting is ineffective are counterproductive, since -- unlike all other contacting methods -- opportunities to share the gospel through contacting are always available.
(4) Some finding methods are saturable or face diminishing returns. Missionaries who cover multiple wards with many hundreds of members in Utah or Idaho may be able to productively allocate their time almost exclusively to soliciting and teaching member referrals. In contrast, missionaries in areas where the member to missionary ratio is more modest should of course regularly solicit member referrals, but should not expect the small number of local members to keep them continuously busy with people to teach. Member referrals in such areas plateau at a certain point, and time spent beyond that bestows little additional benefit. School or community public service presentations can be valuable, but the number of opportunities under those circumstances can be finite due to the limited number of schools or community institutions in one's area willing to participate. A few repeat visits to the same class or community group may produce some additional contacts, but returns also plateau and diminish after a certain point. In contrast, tracting and street contacting are not usually subject to saturation or diminishing returns: they are limited only by the missionaries' desire and work ethic.
(5) Some methods can be effectively employed while consuming little time, or can be ineffectively employed over much longer periods. For example, you can go out of your way for frequent and lengthy referral-soliciting visits with members in their homes, or you can ask members for referrals at church, follow-up by telephone during the week, and drop by briefly to follow-up and provide additional resources if you are already in the area. You can also stand passively by a park display or sign board waiting in vain for someone to approach you, or you can boldly approach passers-by and keep a constant dialogue running. It's not how long you spend; it's how much you get done. don't think in terms of filling up your schedule. Think in terms of reaching souls.
(6) 90% of one's time should be spent actually sharing the gospel, finding and teaching face to face. Planning is important, but if non-finding and teaching activities consume more than 10% of one's time, one must seriously re-evaluate one's priorities and approaches. No one is baptized because of meetings, personal errands, etc.
(7) Work hard and evaluate progress objectively and regularly. Listen to the Spirit. Set reasonable expectations and realize that rejection is the most common response at every step. Nonetheless, don't perseverate in tired approaches that clearly aren"t working. Find out why it isn"t working, modify your approach as the situation warrants (be creative!), and re-evaluate later for fine-tuning.
The 90% Implementation Principle
Regardless of the finding methods one uses, it's vital to spend 90% of the working day working. I knew many missionaries who got caught up running lots of meaningless errands or sitting at home studying the language or writing talks instead of working because they believed that contacting was not effective and didn't have other appointments. As ineffective as contacting may seem at times, contacting is vastly more effective in sharing the gospel than running errands or sitting at home. An important reason to contact is that the Lord has asked us to do so, and it works. Results come with consistent effort. Once a good work ethic exists, there are many things that can be done to enhance success and improve finding effectiveness. But nothing can compensate for lack of work ethic, nor is failure to open one's mouth ever justified.
Contacting as a Backup Plan
By using tracting and street contacting as backups, one can turn what would otherwise be lost time into golden opportunities. And with as many appointments as are missed, all conscientious missionaries will end up having very many tracting and street contacting opportunities during a mission on a backup basis alone. While tracting and street contacting may not be as "effective"as high-profile public service messages and the like, tracting and street contacting represent vastly more effective ways of sharing the gospel than traveling to and from broken appointments, sitting at home, or running errands.
Reaching Every Soul for Christ
The Savior himself commanded his disciples in what is referred to as the Great Commission: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). Modern prophets, like Spencer W. Kimball, have reiterated the need for us to knock on every door. I fear that many non-LDS groups take this scriptural counsel to heart more than we do: most full-time missionaries, member-missionaries, wards, branches, and even missions have no viable plan for how to reach every person or enter every home! In fact, most have no meaningful contacting goals, and many even go so far as to generically claim that contacting is not effective. It isn't, if you don't do it! A focus on baptisms without distinct plans and goals for reaching people is clearly less effective.
Achieve Multiple Exposures
Even under the most favorable circumstances, only a small fraction of individuals contacted and taught will be ready to accept the message of the restored gospel. Not everyone is willing to adhere to basic gospel commitments or to live a Celestial law. Additionally, it may take multiple contacts even for sincere individuals to develop a desire to investigate the Church. How many exposures to the Church has the average convert had at the time of baptism? While this varies depending on the area and local circumstances, estimates in the United States range between six and twenty exposures. In light of this, one can appreciate that approaches that focus on devoting a large amount of time to sharing the gospel with only a few contacts are less effective. missionaries who understand that multiple exposures are generally needed for conversion cannot be satisfied by making only a handful of contacts each day, nor do they get "tunnel vision" on a few "eternal investigators." There are many fine people who may not accept the gospel the first or second time they have contact with the church. Missionaries should set clear goals not only to reach all of the people in their area, but to ensure that individuals have multiple contacts with the Church.
Since people are receptive to the gospel at different times, often only for a window period, and since many individuals require multiple exposures to the gospel before accepting it, we cannot consider our duty to be done when each individual has had one gospel exposure. Rather, our task is to reach enough people on a daily basis that, over time, each individual in the community will have multiple direct contacts with missionaries and member-missionaries -- preferably ten or more. We must offer the gospel with adequate regularity so that it is available to individuals when they are ready, and not simply when we feel ready to make the effort to share it with them.
For the sake of simplicity, let us suppose that it takes an average of ten exposures to the church before the average retained member decides to join. How long would it take missionaries to reach every person in the world an average of ten times? Since there are 60,000 LDS missionaries worldwide and 6 billion people, everyone in the world could be contacted in 1.4 years if every missionary contacted 100 people a day or 200 per companionship, recognizing that the population served by different missions varies widely. Everyone in the world would be contacted an average of ten times in just fourteen years at this rate. However, with current low rates of missionary contacting, it will take us closer to 200 years to meet this goal. The problem with that is that the population of the world is not static, but doubles approximately every 50 years.
How many contacts does the average missionary companionship make in a day, month, or year? It is difficult to estimate with precision, as this data is not routinely recorded. Indeed, it is not considered to be particularly important and contacting is not emphasized in most areas. Mission directives and missionary work ethic also vary widely, and with them contacting numbers. The people of the world can be reached quite slowly or quite rapidly, depending on our work ethic. Contacting rates very widely by area, although they generally tend to be very modest. Contacting rates of 5-10 a day are common in many areas, and missionwide contacting rates above 20 a day are quite uncommon.
Achieving rapid growth with excellent retention need not be a protracted process. Growth is not a matter of time, but of fervent prayer, good planning, vigorous implementation, and honest evaluation and improvement. Most of all, we have to care much more about people. When we really care about people, we naturally have a desire to share the wonderful message that we have with them now. The people of the world deserve better than "maybe someday."
Scripture Gift Missions
Scripture gift missions distributing tens of millions of copies of the Bible each year -- with local projects generally being conducted with 25,000-50,000 copies distributed in a region by a single church - - have become popular among Protestant missionaries in recent years. Other efforts, like the 'every home' campaign, attempt to place scriptural or religious literature in every home. While only a small fraction of individuals receiving copies of scripture join any religious denomination, Scripture Gift Missions and Every Home Crusades have achieved superior success in comparison to most traditional proselyting approaches. It is ironic that no successful Protestant church planter would seriously consider scripture gift missions not to be worthwhile, while a great many Latter-day Saints still harbor such notions.
I've often heard it stated in LDS circles that simply giving out copies of the Book of Mormon is ineffective. I challenge this. With 5.26 convert baptisms per missionary per year worldwide (306,000 LDS converts and 58,000 missionaries), this represents 2.27 missionary- months per convert (and much more in some areas). With missionary support fund (MSF) for missionaries currently at $375 per month, that represents $852 in missionary living expenses alone per new convert. If only converts that are retained are counted, these numbers triple or quadruple. If the value of missionary time, calculated very conservatively at U.S. minimum wage rates, is included, these numbers further triple. In sum, it costs almost $3000 in actual missionary expenses and $5000-$7000 worth of missionary time to baptize a single convert who remains active. In most Eastern European missions, the direct and indirect costs are several times as high as that! If copies of the Book of Mormon can be printed and distributed for approximately $2 each, that means that 1500 copies could be distributed for every single LDS convert who remains active, and approximately three times as many if the value of missionary time is included. However, in reality, we print only 18.3 copies of the Book of Mormon for every baptized convert (5.6 million books/year, 306,000 converts/yr).
I do not intend by any means to imply that living converts can be reduced to sterile statistics of hours, dollars, or copies of books. Converts are priceless. Rather, my intent is to provide an objective frame of reference by which the effectiveness of different proselyting approaches can be accurately evaluated. What is the point of all of these these statistics? Simply that our actual use of the Book of Mormon is at least two orders of magnitude below the level that would be required for anyone to validly conclude that passing out large numbers of copies of the Book of Mormon is ineffective! Whatever the basis for those claims, they cannot be justified objectively or scripturally. When we fail to use the Book of Mormon as the center of our proselyting approaches, I wonder how much we really differ from spiritless missionaries of the other denominations that have nice families, good fellowshipping and social support systems, and sincere (although erroneous) beliefs.
I do not claim that simply distributing copies of scripture is necessarily the optimal missionary approach, although even at incredibly low return rates of one retained convert per thousand books, it would still be significantly superior to conventional proselyting approaches. Is it possible that we can distribute too many copies of the Book of Mormon? The excess implied by Ezra Taft Benson's challenge to "flood the earth" with the Book of Mormon is certainly far superior to scarcity. When we make the gospel message widely known, the responsibility is on the people of the world to accept it. When we fail to make it widely known, the sins of the world come upon us. How can we sound the gospel in every ear without well-planned, viable strategic goals to do so? Perhaps Book of Mormon gift missions and 'every home' crusades deserve a second look after all.
Ezra Taft Benson also specifically cited the 'Family to Family Book of Mormon program' as one of the most effective missionary approaches, and noted the need for us to send copies of the Book of Mormon on missions for us. The Book of Mormon can work even when we aren't there! I find that the converting potential of the Book of Mormon can be maximized by applying all of these points:
1. The book should include a copy of a printed personal or family testimony which focuses not simply on assertions that the Book of Mormon is true, but on the blessings one has personally received through following its principles.
2. A photo of the individual or family. In some cases, an address may be helpful also.
3. A copy of "23 Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon," complete with page references, to stimulate meaningful reading.
4. Local contact information for the Church. Even if individuals accept the Book of Mormon, they receive little benefit if they cannot find the Church, or do not understand the implications of accepting the Book of Mormon!
Again, I do not advocate indiscriminately giving away large numbers of copies of the Book of Mormon. I like to ask people to read enough simply to form an opinion, with the understanding that the book will need to be returned if they are not interested. Then follow-up! The Book of Mormon does make "more and better converts" as Ezra Taft Benson has promised.
The Principle of Self-Selection
After obedience and a dynamic work ethic, the principle of self-selection is one of the most important building-blocks of effective missionary work. In D&C 29:7, the Lord tells us: "Ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect, for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts." All effective missionaries understand that their role is to win souls to Christ by making the gospel message widely available, and letting those with the desire to follow Christ select themselves out by demonstrating commitment.
One of the most widespread errors in missionary work is that often we try to make celestial people rather than find them. Of course we do not expect perfection at once, but we do expect that interested individuals will follow through with fundamental commitments. Some missionaries spend numerous visits with individuals who fail to keep basic commitments, while making little effort to make the gospel message available to large numbers of people who have not yet had an opportunity to receive it. Time spent with one investigator who is not progressing must be weighed against the possibility of spending it with others who are potentially more interested. The effective missionaries I have known have actively tried to carry out the Lord's admonition to sound the gospel in every ear by giving large numbers of people the opportunity to hear the gospel through active contacting, and letting those who are prepared to receive the full gospel select themselves out through adherence to commitments. There simply isn't time on a mission to turn telestial or terrestrial people into celestial people, but only to find those who are ready to receive the fullness of the gospel now. The Lord tells us that "this is a day of warning, and not a day of many words." We do not have unlimited time to glean a handful of souls into the church. The day of harvest is now, and we must not be in gleaning mode. A missionary or member-missionary who does not know when it is time to move on will not be able to bring large numbers of solid converts into the Church, regardless of how receptive local people may be.
I have often found it remarkable that some missionaries, who speak the local language fluently, have difficulty even getting a few new investigators to church each week in newly-opened nations, while many non-LDS pastors who do not speak the local language at all are able to quickly organize large congregations. What makes the difference? For some denominations, the level of commitment required of members may not be as high, while in other denominations (Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses) the commitments required of members are comparable. However, differences in commitment requirements cannot explain poor success in even getting investigators out to church!
A much more important factor is that successful missionaries of all denominations allow potential converts to self-select, while less effective missionaries focus large amounts of time and effort on a few vacillating investigators. By making the gospel message available through large numbers of people, whether through media, contacting, member-missionary efforts, or a combination of those, and letting those who are interested declare that interest by coming to church and fulfilling commitments, the number and quality of converts achieved is high. In contrast, a common pattern of poorly effective misionaries is that they repetitively visit a few friendly but lukewarm investigators who have read little of the Book of Mormon and often have not even attended church, while contacting only a few new people each day. This pattern is comfortable, but it does not fulfill our divine mandate of sounding the gospel in every ear.
Keeping an Active Turnover
Finding and Teaching pools
- Uninterested Don't visit
- Interested -- Visit to get commitment
- Investigators -- Visit only to teach
- Members Visit only to teach
When missionaries are not contacting regularly and keeping a dynamic turnover, investigators control them. In this situation, missionaries feel pressured to give discussions to investigators who are not truly ready for them to increase their numbers. Rather than working to reinforce commitments and finding out and resolving all concerns, the pressure is great to barge onward with the discussions and give investigators new commitments which will only confuse them when they are not living more basic ones. Why? Productive find-out and commitment reinforcement visits don't show up on your report to the president, while all of the standard discussions do -- dead-end or not. The pressure to baptize is also great, and the criteria for a baptism becomes not true conversion to the Gospel as demonstrated by keeping the commitments, but simply reaching the "end of the line" with the discussions and checking off all of the boxes on the baptism checklist. I have heard missionaries on more than one occasion state, "we don't have anything else to teach [him or her], so I guess that [he or she] is ready for baptism."
When missionaries contact regularly and keep an active turnover, they realize that they don't have to baptize everyone. They realize that they can afford to selectively baptize the people who are ready for baptism and are genuinely converted. They understand that the commitments in the discussions are not simply obstacles keeping their numbers down and "making them look bad," but keys to true conversion. They realize that "good proselyting numbers" come with hard work, but that the ultimate goal - conversion - can't always be put in a box on their president's letter. Because they have many options, they use better judgement. Just as investigators make better decisions when they are not pressured to meet artificial dates, so missionaries often use better judgment when they are not pressured to meet artificial goals or quotas.
It can be difficult gather the courage to say good-bye to old investigators who like having the missionaries over, but fail to progress or keep basic commitments. However, the sooner each missionary learns to do this, the more effective he or she will be. It is important to learn to do this in a tactful manner that does not offend, but puts the responsibility on the investigators and leaves the door open for them to progress when they develop a willingness to observe previously discussed commitments.
Common Features of Effective Finding Programs
What unites the exceptional areas of relatively high missionary success? It is clear that effective finding approaches:
(1) require a good work ethic
(2) involve a balance of both independent missionary finding efforts and consistent and well-coordinated member-missionary efforts
(3) make the gospel message available to large numbers of people on a consistent basis
(4) keep a vigorous, active turnover and do not allow finding and teaching pools to stagnate.
(5) tailor approaches to local circumstances
(6) focus on the fulfillment of basic gospel habits for both members and non-members
(7) make use of finding opportunities through media
"Make sure you don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won't laugh at you." Jim Rohn
"The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car... a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little." Ben Sweetland
"If you will ponder it in your mind, you will come up, in my judgment, with the conclusion that we could bring immeasurably more people into the Church than we are now doing. We could fellowship more than we are now fellowshipping; in practice this could be five or ten or twenty times as many as we are now baptizing. Perhaps in due course it should be 24 times or 100 times as many as at present." Bruce R. McConkie, Mission Presidents' Seminar, 21 June 1975
"To be worth anything, character must be capable of standing firm upon its feet in the world of daily work, temptation, and trial; and able to bear the wear and tear of actual life...Cloistered virtues do not count for much." Samuel Smiles
Practical Dynamics of Finding Approaches
Some finding approaches -- like street contacting and tracting -- are subject to linear dynamics, where contacting is regularly available, and where contacting five times as many people produces five times the results. In contrast, many other finding methods -- whether finding through members, through public service messages in schools, and so forth -- reach a point of saturation and diminishing returns due to limitations of the availability of that finding method due to the number and obedience of local members, the number and timing of public service message opportunities, and so forth. As a result, spending a few hours a week finding through members or working through media may be appropriate, while spending many hours each week on a single method may be counterproductive as additional time makes progressively less difference. While finding approaches with linear returns are limited only by work ethic and effort, those with non-linear results demonstrating a point of diminishing returns due to limited availability generally do well when combined with other finding methods, but produce suboptimal results when used as sole finding methods.
The Practical Dynamics of Member Referrals
Member referrals potentially provide quick success with relatively little effort. There is a psychological reason for the preference of many missionaries for member referrals that perhaps better explains its common usage than actual effectiveness data. Who would not greatly prefer to spend an evening in the comfort of a member's home, rather than out on the street knocking on doors and facing rejection time after time? The drawback of member referrals from a missionary standpoint is that they can quickly become saturated, resulting in a rapid decline in effectiveness.
The dynamics of soliciting referrals and contacting for missionaries can be described as follows. The number of potential baptisms from member referrals rises dramatically with increasing effort by missionary companionships up to a certain point. After that point, additional time spent soliciting referrals results in very little increase in productivity. Where that point is depends on both the total number of members (active more than inactive) and the relative obedience to the gospel and helpfulness of the members. In many newly-opened areas, where very high missionary to member ratios exist, this point of diminishing returns is reached very early, usually with only a few hours each week. In some other parts of the world, the threshold may be significantly higher. In areas like Utah with extremely large numbers of members per missionary, the return from work with members may be more linear. In every case, a point of diminishing returns is reached.
The fact that saturation is reached is demonstrated in areas like Belarus, where missionaries cannot contact and all referrals come through members. Over the past decade, the missionary complement has fluctuated greatly. However, beyond a minimum number of missionaries, the number of baptisms from member referrals has demonstrated little if any correlation to the number of missionaries serving. Member referrals are important and should be solicited regularly. It only makes sense that the number of member referrals available to missionaries only depends a certain amount on the missionaries' efforts, as the members are the ones putting forth the real work. The number of member referrals has instead depended upon the number of members and their strength and faithfulness. Therefore, a focus on member referrals is a wonderful focus for members, but beyond a certain point it is a poor focus for missionaries as increased missionary effort may not lead to better results.
There are both efficient and inefficient ways for missionaries to work with members. Many believe that one cannot find through members without a long period of building trust -- often through frequent visits and inappropriate socialization. This belief -- while it provides an ostensible justification for avoiding the hard work of sharing the gospel oneself -- simply does not make sense, as frequent missionary transfers make it impractical and inappropriate for each member to get to know each missionary on a social basis. Nor does such inappropriate socialization generally result in the generation of productive referrals. The missionary dinner program is a perfect example of an ineffective way of soliciting referrals from members -- it consumes large amounts of time, while generally producing results which are inferior to tracting. In contrast, utilizing all opportunities to speak with members at church meetings and functions and following up closely with appropriately-timed phone calls can save many needless trips and fruitless visits. Some meetings with members are still necessary, although one can accomplish much more with much less time by adopting this approach.
When too much time is spent visiting members or soliciting referrals, returns diminish progressively. Actual damage can be done when missionaries should not stay too long or visit too frequently, as this breeds dependency. This dependency in turn undermines the very purpose of the increased emphasis on member work. With contacting, there is generally no such diminishment of returns because new ground is constantly being broken. Every new contact provides a new opportunity.
On my mission, we were told by visiting authorities that if we would work with members effectively, baptisms would double. So missionaries spent less time contacting, and spent up to 50% of their time with members. Yet baptisms halved instead of than doubling, and continued to decline over the next several years. Was this because working with members is not effective? I believe that the instructions were fully accurate, and that member work is vital. Yet spending large amounts of time with members does not equal "effective" member work. Areas where finding is restricted to members (like Belarus and Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) consistently have only a fraction as many baptisms as areas where finding involves a balance of missionary and member efforts (like the other cities in the Ukraine Donetsk mission where contacting is permitted).
A major difference between the more successful and less successful missions - both with commitment to member-missionary finding is the presence of viable alternative finding methods in the successful missions, and the lack of viable alternative finding methods in unsuccessful ones. Clearly, "working with members" while vital does not represent the key to dynamic church growth in the absence of vigorous, independent missionary finding efforts.
Over the past decade there has been considerable emphasis on finding through members in North America. While missionaries spend more time than ever in members' homes, the number of baptisms per missionary has continued to decline over the past decade and member referrals have fallen to less than half of their prior levels. Missionary dinners with members were banned in the North America Central Area in 2000 (unless less active members or non-members were present) because such dinners consume considerable time during prime proselyting hours, while rarely produced meaningful results. Missionaries are spending more time with members than ever, and yet members account for only 20% of baptisms in North America -- an area with very high member to missionary ratios -- down from 42% only a decade ago. The relatively small amounts of time spent contacting account for the great majority of the baptisms. It's impossible to say that working with members is "always" more effective than contacting, or vice versa. So -- while member-missionary work is vital, the effectiveness of missionaries in inspiring member-missionary participation is often questionable. Are there more effective ways to inspire member-missionary efforts than dinner appointments? Absolutely!
Missionaries in Utah and other areas with very large numbers of LDS members and where members do almost all of the finding sometimes baptize seemingly impressive numbers per missionary. Does this "prove" that such finding methods are most effective? Hardly. Missionary results with working through members produce an average of only 1.5 baptisms per ward per year in Utah. With members doing the great majority of the work, this represents a doubling time of 200 to 500 years per ward when youth baptisms and move-ins are subtracted! It would be very difficult to consider "all-member" finding techniques to be a successful model for application in other areas.
Of course, missionaries in Utah, Southern Idaho, and other areas with large member population bases where a single companionship covers multiple large wards will rely heavily on member referrals, while in areas where two or more companionships cover a single small ward or branch, the missionaries will need to rely much more heavily on their own finding efforts. This does not mean that all missionaries cannot benefit greatly from member referrals, but it does mean that all missionaries must understand local conditions when determining their approach.
In typical circumstances, most members go for months without making any attempt to share the gospel. Even under the best circumstances, enthusiastic member-missionaries generally share the gospel with relatively few nonmembers each week. So spend much or most missionary finding time soliciting member referrals in areas with relatively few active members is a sure method to stunt church growth.
A single member referral has a higher chance of progressing than a single street contact. Why? Because referrals are to some extent self-selected, while street contacts are not until after the initial approach. But is obtaining one member referral comparable to making one street contact? The answer is generally "no," since multiple member visits and significant travel time are often required to obtain a single member referral. In addition, following up on the referral may require significant travel time. If it takes two twenty minute member visits to obtain a referral and there is twenty minutes of travel time each way, at least two hours is expended before the referral is even contacted. In contrast, many, many people could be contacted in this same time on the street or by tracting.
In countries like Germany where missionaries tract and street contact for many hours each day appointments are relatively scarce and relatively few individuals are willing to listen, the value of each referral is high, and more time is justified in obtaining referrals. However, in areas where individuals expressing some degree of interest in the Church are relatively abundant, relatively less time should be put into obtaining referrals and relatively more into contacting. While missionaries should always ask for referrals, they should be aware that a point of diminishing returns is often reached at which extra time soliciting referrals may not produce a proportional increase in quality teaching opportunities.
Member work clearly is needed. The key is to do it effectively and keep it in balance, and in areas without very high membership the balance can generally be reached with only a few hours of member work each week. No missionary who works effectively can completely fill up one's schedule with member referrals. When time is managed wisely, there is always time available daily for contacting even in weeks when over twenty discussions are taught and numerous member visits are made. No missionary anywhere can ever be "too busy" to contact. Such missionaries consistently miss wonderful opportunities due to lack of awareness or effort. Unfortunately, sometimes this is actually a goal: filling up one's schedule with visits, trips, and meetings, often regardless of the quality, to minimize or even eliminate contacting time. Anyone who does not find consistent time for contacting every day simply is not managing his or her time appropriately.
Effective finding through members involves at least three factors:
1. The presence of viable independent missionary finding methods. When missionaries are successful in finding and baptizing new converts independently, members can be more effectively inspired to invite their non-member friends. Conversely, when a stagnant environment exists where missionaries put forth little effort to find people to teach on their own, it is very difficult to inspire members to consistently participate in member-missionary efforts.
2. Strengthening individual members in the fulfillment of basic gospel habits that generate spiritual growth. Members who consistently read the Book of Mormon on a daily basis, pray daily, keep the Sabbath Day holy, and pay tithing are much more likely to participate in member-missionary efforts consistently than those who do not.
3. Reasonable expectations based on the ratio of active members to missionary. In areas like Utah, with very large numbers of members per missionary, members can realistically and appropriately be expected to find most of the individuals the missionaries will teach. In areas like Poland or the Czech Republic where there are only a handful of active members per missionary (and where members already feel stretched thin by missionary visits), it is important to emphasize member-missionary efforts, although one should expect the bulk of the finding to come from missionaries. Expecting large numbers of referrals to come from the few active members is neither realistic nor appropriate, and it is impossible for small numbers of members to keep hard-working missionaries productively occupied. In areas with intermediate numbers of members, one should expect finding to involve more of a balance between member-missionary efforts and independent missionary finding.
The Practical Dynamics of Contacting
Sometimes missionaries and member-missionaries wonder what to do with their time. There is always something to do with our time: sound the gospel in the ears of the millions who have not yet heard it. We need to be anxiously engaged in giving as many people as possible an opportunity to accept or reject the gospel. There are many excuses for low contacting, but except in areas where contacting is illegal, none are valid. Failing to contact is fearing man more than God. Fear, apprehension, and indecision are the devil's tools. In the mission field our task is to work and to preach the gospel, and not just to enjoy the ride waiting for the Lord to bring people into the fold while we do not make use of the means which He has provided. I have known missionaries who have caused serious political difficulties for the church, but in every case it was because of idleness and breaking mission rules, and not because of diligently going about sharing the gospel face to face. Sometimes, missionaries suppose that because they are in an administrative position (zone leader or whatever) that they are somehow exempt from diligent contacting. This is doubly problematic.
It seems remarkable how often it is claimed that contacting and tracting are "ineffective" -- often by individual who have done little of it -- when in fact more converts are brought into the church worldwide every year by contacting and tracting, than by all other finding methods combined, in spite of the fact that most missionaries spend considerable amounts of finding time -- even a majority in many areas -- working through members.
Of the variables related to missionary work, the number of fresh contacts made each day is the single greatest correlate of missionary and member-missionary success. Contacting numbers give a much better picture of what missionaries are actually doing than proselyting hours (which, as reported, frequently include administrative hours, meetings, member work, and other non-proselyting activities) or even the number of discussions taught. Therefore monitoring, accurately reporting, and honestly evaluating actual contact counts is vital to efforts to increase missionary success
Why do some missionaries in areas of the world where the vast majority of people have never even met a missionary sometimes to go for months at a time between baptisms? Most frequently, this occurs because they are not out meeting people diligently as they should. Sometimes I have known missionaries who are off carrying out their own program, be it a quota of member visits or whatever, who feel that their program somehow excuses them from consistently opening their mouths about the gospel and contacting as the prophets have told us time and again. These missionaries consistently fell short of their potential. Sounding the gospel in every ear by personal contact is the Lord's program: No one is exempt, and no other program or philosophy excuses us of this fundamental obligation.
With contacting, the initial return is small. However, the return rises linearly, generally without any point of diminishing returns. So an increase in missionary work ethic and total proselyting hours generally results in very dramatic increases in contacting baptisms, while the effect on referral baptisms may be small.
No missionary should be "too busy" to contact. An hour or two of contacting a few of times a week does not fulfill the missionary commission. When we are not teaching, we should be contacting. Missionaries must not rely on chance or circumstance to meet those ready to receive the fullness of the gospel. The stakes -- the souls of men and those of the individual missionaries as well -- are far too high to justify indifference. Vigorous, organized daily contacting efforts are essential to tap the potential of conversions.
Should missionaries tract? Yes. Should missionaries street contact? Yes. Should missionaries solicit member referrals? Yes. But beyond a certain critical point, too much time spent with members only detracts from missionary effectiveness. Member referrals, no matter how many visits one makes, are finite from a missionary standpoint. A missionary who relies mainly on members can rarely if ever bring large numbers of people into the church. Contacting opportunities in any are area virtually infinite -- they are limited only by work ethic and determination. Contacting has unlimited potential.
If a missionary consistently contacts 100 people a day, in two years he or she can reach over 70,000 people. Even if only one in a thousand is baptized, that is over seventy baptisms, compared to three or four if only five a day are contacted. If a member speaks with one person about the gospel a day, even if only one in three hundred receives the gospel, he or she can bring at least one person into the church consistently each year. Contacting a hundred people a day consistently can be easily done with a by almost any missionary companionship anywhere if the effort is made, and talking to one person about the gospel a day is a simple task any member can learn to do. Unfortunately, in practice this is rarely done by either missionaries or members, often because we have false expectations of great success with little work. Missionaries who want a baptism for every fifty or hundred people they contact may quickly conclude that contacting isn't worth their time, when in actuality it can be quite productive when done vigorously and constantly. If a member only speaks with someone about the gospel once or twice a year, it is unlikely that he or she will be able to bring anyone into the church over an entire lifetime. This is not because people are all "hard-hearted," but simply because those who would have been interested were never approached, or were not approached with adequate frequency.
How Every Missionary Can Baptize Almost Every
Month
The Effectiveness of Contacting
How can every missionary baptize almost every month?
On my mission I found that we had to contact at least a thousand people to get a baptism. But in my mind contacting was very effective. Why? Because one could contact 100-200 hundred people a day, and have a baptism virtually every week. Perhaps in other areas the critical number of contacts may be substantially higher. Perhaps in some areas one must contact five or ten thousand people for one to be converted. Even so, a companionship that works hard consistently can contact this many people on a month (5000) so, a missionary who works hard can do this in a month (5000) or two months (10000). In areas with a baptism a year per companionship, even if one had to contact the unbelievably high number of twenty thousand people to average one convert baptism, the baptismal rate would more than quadruple if companionships only contacted two hundred people a day. If only one contact in 2,500 was baptized, if 50 companionships contacted only 100 people a day, that would still be over five hundred baptisms a year. Not effective? It is very effective when done consistently over long periods. Can't contact that many people? It has been done by some and can be done by all. One must look for ways to do it with a can-do attitude.
Missionaries who contact the critical number of individuals each month will have, on average, a baptism every month. Why are there some areas where many missionaries go for many months without baptisms? The most common reason is that in most areas, missionaries do not even come close to making the required number of contacts to achieve consistent proselyting success. If a missionary contacts five or ten people a day and one needs to contact an average of 5000 people for one to be baptized, one might have a single baptism in two years, or perhaps none. Certainly contacting is not very effective when it consists of speaking to only a handful of people each day, or contacting significant numbers of individuals only once or twice a week. Many missionaries, who may not be contacting much at all to begin with, quickly come to the conclusion that contacting is not effective. In areas with modest or low growth rates, no missionary who has not consistently contacted at least a hundred people a day for many months is in a position to make such a conclusion.
The Need for Consistent Hard Work in
Contacting
As President Benson stated, the secret of missionary work is work. Work, work, work. It's hard work. Contacting does not provide for quick or easy success, but it brings results when done consistently over time. Contacting requires consistent hard work to be effective. The problem is not that contacting is not effective, but that relatively few are willing to put forth the effort in contacting that is required for it to be effective. Often, we want great success with little work. Some want to sit back and enjoy the ride while the Lord steers the ship of Zion. It's easier to carry the banner of 'someone else's job' than to put the shoulder to the wheel ourselves.
Our responsibility, as the scriptures tell us, is to warn every man his neighbor, and all are our neighbors. That means that we need to try to reach as many people as possible. I am confident that if we did this in full earnest, the problem of baptisms would take care of itself.
Contacting is Consistently Available
Contacting is where the real work of missionary work is done. Any missionary can teach and baptize the golden investigator, but it takes a good missionary to find one. Avoidance of contacting (and the rationalization thereof) destroys the very foundation of missionary work and offends the Spirit.
When missionaries rely primarily on member referrals, they become almost entirely dependent on others for proselyting success. Such mssionaries may have an occasional baptism but also tend to have long periods of drought. If the missionaries serve in an area with helpful members, they may have some success. Then when they are transferred to another area with less favorable circumstances, their prior successes may not be duplicated.
In contrast, contacting offers every missionary the opportunity to be effective almost anywhere. Missionaries who contact extensively of course should take advantage of referral opportunities, but for the reasons I've pointed out, referral opportunities are generally the last thing to be neglected. Contacting is vastly more reproducible in its results than working off referrals, and therefore is key for missionaries who deeply desire to build the church. Additionally, the availability of contacting on demand provides a crucial advantage for the dedicated missionary.
Contacting Penetrance: The Field is White
Anyone who seriously looks into it will find that the number of people worldwide who have actually ever been approached by a missionary is surprisingly low. I've spoken with many hundreds of people in many large European cities, very few of whom appear ever to have met LDS missionaries. The only ones I met on my last trip who had met "Mormons" were proprietors of a souvenir shop in one European capital city where missionaries had served for over a decade. "Why yes, we know the Mormon missionaries well, they come here all the time!" No, contacting may not bring quick or easy success, but I promise -- it is vastly more effective at bringing people into the church than grocery shopping, taking trips to the post office, and so forth.
When my mission president first asked missionaries in my mission to record the number of contacts we made each day, I was surprised to learn that the mission average was only 5-10 contacts a day. I think everyone had imagined that our actual contacting exposure was much more than it really was. For each companionship that was contacting 100 people a day (which in my opinion is a very modest and consistently realistic number, even during weeks with 15-20 discussions), there were a dozen other companionships that were doing virtually no contacting at all. Recording the number of contacts made each day was a wonderful and inspired idea. It provided missionaries with accurate information about their own contacting work and helped them set goals to do much better.
I served the last two months of my mission in Vyborg (Russia), near the Finnish border. Vyborg is a small town with 87,000 people; it was the first city opened in Russia and has always been a site of strong anti-LDS activity. When I served there it had been open for over 4 years with a significant missionary complement (at times as many as 4 companions had served there). One would think that every person in the city would have had an opportunity to accept or reject the church, but this was far from the case. I was actually quite surprised to find that the considerable majority of people we contacted, while they may have seen the missionaries from afar or heard of the "Mormons" from second hand, had never actually been approached by an LDS missionary! So while it may seem like everyone in small cities should have had an opportunity to hear the gospel, when one examines actual contacting rates, they are often surprisingly low. I have found that the common perception of our missionary contacting efforts is often greatly inflated.
Occasionally there are towns like Velenje in Slovenia, where the town was finally closed after the 'last chance missionaries' tracted out 'every house in the town' twice with still no baptisms. I think these cases are relatively rare. The important thing is that in every situation we have done our all to give every man and woman a chance to hear the gospel so that the world will be left without excuse. When we have not made the effort to contact vigorously, the sins of the world are answered upon our heads.
In many Eastern European nations, missionaries have contacted only a tiny fragment of the population, often a total of 5% or less over a period of a decade. How it validly be concluded that contacting is not effective, when our efforts have generally been on a very small scale? Given the fact that only a tiny fragment of society in almost any Eastern European nation has had firsthand interaction with a missionary, how then can one be surprised when baptism rates are low?
Example of Other Denominations
In both 1999 and 2000, the Jehovah's Witnesses baptized approximately twelve thousand per year in both Russia and Ukraine and over six thousand members in Poland. LDS missionaries in Ukraine baptized less than ten percent of that number, and in Poland, less than one percent of that number. [I would point out that Poland is a special case, since JWs had a firm foothold there from illegal proselyting dating back to the post-WWII era. In Ukraine and Russia, however, the story is different.] What is the primary finding method of JWs ? Contacting. The ten hours a month they spend sharing the gospel (this is the standard in many areas) is inevitably spent primarily with people who they don't know, since family members and close contacts are relatively quickly approached about their religion. Approaching people who we don't know about religion is contacting, whether it happens to be done by members or missionaries.
Ineffective? Hardly. Many are quick to point out that there are many factors involved which may not be directly comparable. I agree. But is there something worthwhile to be learned from their example of consistent large-scale contacting, high baptismal rates, and excellent retention? Certainly there are many people ripe for the gospel who can be found by contacting. Many LDS missionaries who have served in a variety of countries have told me that if LDS missionaries and members would work at sharing the gospel message with the tenacity and work ethic of the Jehovah's Witnesses, convert baptisms would soar. Why are the JWs so much more successful at achieving dynamic and reliable growth? Because their message is vastly more appealing than the message of the restored gospel? I don't think this is the case. Their member requirements are comparable. All too often they simply work much harder than we do. Spreading the gospel requires understanding and application of natural laws. When ten times as many people are contacted, it stands to reason that the potential for contacting baptisms is ten times greater. Preaching the gospel effectively requires obedience to natural laws as well as spiritual ones, since the gospel circumscribes them all. It only stands to reason that, when the Spirit and all other factors are the same, that if we give ten times as many people an opportunity to hear the gospel, the Church can grow ten times as fast.
The Practical Dynamics of Finding thro