Finding the Church
Missionaries work hard to find investigators. Can interested investigators find the Church?One of the senior couple missionaries serving in a large Central European capital told me of an LDS member who moved to the city 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 was open only 2 evenings a week from 5 to 7 pm, so it rang and rang when she called. After several months of searching, she fortuitously encountered LDS missionaries on the street and was able to get church meeting information from them.
I wish that this case was a rare exception, but it is not. 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. More than once I have had to call multiple wards and still not learned any useful information about meeting times. I don't think I've ever missed church because of it (when all else fails, I find a chapel address and show up at 9 am on Sunday hoping that a meeting is going on), but often finding church meeting times is far more difficult than it needs to be.
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.
Other denominations typically have significant walk-in crowds. In the LDS Church, we very rarely have "walk-ins" without prior exposure to members or missionaries. This is unfortunate because some wonderful people have come into the church this way. Why don't we have more walk-ins? Here are what appear to be a few of the main reasons:
1) While most other denominations tend to position their churches strategically on main roads, LDS Chapels are typically tucked away deep in residential neighborhoods where few individuals know that they exist. 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.
2) 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. Over the course of my life, I don't believe I have ever seen an LDS chapel with this basic information. 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. I think potential visitors might feel much more welcome if we let them know what time to come!
3) 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.
With a little awareness and effort, LDS chapels can be wonderful advertisements for the Church. In practice this is very rarely done. So far as I know, I don't think that the typical location of LDS chapels in difficult-to-find neighborhoods and the absence of meeting time signs is any kind of church policy. It appears to stem largely from lack of awareness at the local level. If anyone has information to the contrary, please let me know.
We have an excellent missionary program, but nonetheless it is important to keep our eyes open to other ways that we can increase the church's public exposure. Awareness begins at home. 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 goes a long way!
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Many individuals have been asking for follow-up on the message "Finding the Church" about the difficulties non-members (and even many members) experience with finding out when and where local wards and branches of the Church meet. Below I have included the replies I have received from missionarywow subscribers about this topic in unedited form, except that the names have been removed. More information is located at the end of this message.
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"I can't believe this we would allow this to be a stumblingblock to our missionary efforts! Seriously...At first, when I thought of the suggestion of posting meeting times on the chapel lawn or something like that would be kind of tacky, but I think this could be done without detracting from the dignity that most of our chapels convey. I have heard many stories of those rare walk-ins who are very impressed by the spirit of our sacrament meetings, so it would make sense to increase the number of these walk-ins, as long as we can retain this spirit (which I think we can). Even a little note in the yellow pages might help, and the answering machine message couldn't hurt at all! I've enjoyed your insights, David. It's outrageous that we would let precious souls remain unaware of us when it is so easily within our ability to make ourselves accessible to all."
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"I too have traveled a lot. I also have had difficulty finding out about meetings. I never thought to look at our own ward. Thanks for the insight."
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"Amen! I have often encountered this problem while traveling. Someone did tell me that the Church didn't want that information posted publicly, but I don't know the source of their saying that...Like you, when all else fails I
show up at 9:00!"----
"Our meetinghouse was constructed five years ago on a major intersection in Valdosta, Georgia. You even run into it a half mile before the catholic church; because of this we often get visitors during seminary that want to know when mass starts. The passersby at least get some hospitality from our seminary class."
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"You have touched on a subject that needs attention, my wife works at the local paper and is able to run our schedule and address in the paper within the church section with all the other churches. But we were told by our Bishop that the church did not want this type of publicity, so here is another way of getting the word out that we are not able to use.
[Here is a follow-up message, after I asked about the source of this policy:]
"Well, Brother Dave Stewart thanks for asking the question of policy, because the bishop that originally told me that was our previous bishop and when I again asked my current bishop about it he said he hadn't heard of such a policy preventing us from running an advertisement in the paper of our meeting schedule and address. But that I should first contact our stake media person and verify this with them, and if it is alright with them we will sit down and put it together and we will begin publishing it in our local paper here. Thank you for getting me off and running with this one."
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"I live in the Rome Ward, Utica New York Stake. Our meetinghouse is not easily located here, though it is on a main road. We seem to have some excellent exposure. When I moved here 7 years ago, all the real estate agents knew of the meetinghouse and could tell me when it was built and exactly where it was located. I found that quite interesting. We have our address & meeting times as well as the bishop's name & phone number on the religion page of the local newspaper. At one time there was a little sign on the main door of the meetinghouse with the name & phone number of the bishop as well as the relief society president, and our meeting times. This was quite helpful to visitors, investigators, and newcomers.
"A year or so ago, our bishop purchased an answering machine. The message states the phone numbers of people who can be contacted as well as our meeting times.
"The only thing I have found fault with is that the sign in the field is turned wrong, so you have to be right on top of it to read it, and the material of the sign makes the engraving difficult to read. The engraving blends in with the material and makes it invisible!
"I think we have done an excellent job of trying to inform the community of our presence and letting folks know when we meet and when people are expected to be at our meetinghouse."
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SUMMARY
I have spoken with many additional people, have queried other LDS discussion lists, and have looked into the issue further. The information available appears to support the following:
1. Local publicity efforts, including
(a) messages on LDS meetinghouse phones which include the meeting times,
(b) brief announcements in the religion section of local newspapers, and
(c) where possible, signs on the meetinghouse or its grounds with the meeting time visible from the streetare very important aids to the growth of the Church. They do not replace other types of missionary work, but they certainly can and do supplement conventional proselyting work remarkably well. Many wonderful conversions have occurred in many areas where these basic publicity awareness steps have been implemented.
2. Local publicity efforts are relatively rare. The most common accessibility measure is for wards to include a message on their meetinghouse answering machine with meeting times, although in my experience this is only done in perhaps 20% of LDS wards. Other methods, including announcements in local newspapers (which are often available to religious denominations at minimal cost) and notices with the meeting times available on or about the chapel grounds, are far more infrequent.
3. 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. I have spoken with some individuals who assume that this is the case, but on further inquiry no documentation can be demonstrated. If there is such a policy, I have not as yet found any credible documentation of it. Many seem simply to assume that publicity efforts at higher levels are self-sufficient for local wards. However, the best place to provide effective information is at the local level. The prevalent deficiencies in local publicity appear to result from lack of public awareness and effort among LDS members at the local level, rather than from any official Church policy. All those who have taken steps to increase local publicity for the church are to be commended.
David
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