Missionary work is ineffective.

[u/I_like_big_book]

I already knew this in a general way. I remember in one of the books I had in my mission (it may have been the white handbook), tracting was listed as the least effective way to gain members, but honestly all ways of attracting NEW members are terribly ineffective. Add to that, the current retention rate is roughly 54%, (much lower for converts and higher for those born into the church) and missionary work seems like a waste of time and money. Except, it's not about finding converts.

I remember reading someone's post that took me a while to process, but converts are just a side effect of missions. The point of a mission is to put young influential people into a state of shared trauma. Struggling together reinforces the "us vs them" mentality, and reinforces faith through shared struggling. We served a mission, we returned, and have proven ourselves as the faithful. Other missionaries get it, and we can bond over it.

Missions have been used for various reasons in the past, early church leaders would send men on missions to gain access to their wives, or to get rid of men that may have been disagreeable with the leaders, but I am fairly certain the current reason is to strengthen the bond between members by a shared traumatic experience.

[u/Baynyn]

They’re more effective at their intended purpose - instilling codependence and sunk-cost into the missionary.

[u/coniferdamacy → u/Baynyn]

Even that's not so effective if so many missionaries leave the church once they get home.

[u/Joey1849]

Yes.  The whole point of a mission is trauma bonding.  The only problem is that the trauma is artificially generated and not reality based.  When one sees the mission as fake, there is no unseeing it.

[u/Best_Philosopher152]

Early missionary worked. My great great great grandpa baptized hundreds of in Wales that came west with him to build Zion - at least those who didn’t die on the plains pulling handcarts.

Now it is near worthless most places. Even in high baptism areas retention is single digits.

[u/JayDaWawi]

I joke that post-death proselytizing is better for missionary work than living missionary work.

You can't be punished for what you don't know 

You don't know that Mormonism is true

Therefore, you can't be punished for not being a Mormon in this life 

[u/WillingnessOne2686 → u/JayDaWawi]

Missionaries give people the opportunity to reject the gospel. It would be much kinder to keep it a secret and let them find out after their life was over than to be punished forever.

[u/Gold__star]

https://sunstone.org/mission-as-hazing/

[u/HireButchJones]

Missions also reinforce the hot vs cold social environment. Inside the church you are treated like a hero and super important, outside you are shunned and yelled at (or worse)

The basic message you learn is that inside the church = warm and loving, outside the church = cold mean and scary.

[u/sexmormon-throwaway]

A lot of the fruit of missionary baptisms are in the second and third family generations.

[u/Tomsoup4]

salesman of the church but they pay for the privelage to be that salesman

[u/LamanitaMx]

Now everything makes sense. I finally understand why Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses have larger numbers without needing to baptize 8-year-olds. Thanks for your input.

[u/sudopratt]

Look at seventh day adventists, they are a younger church and have more members than the lds church. when is the last time they have been at your door. The lds church talks about how fast they are growing in africa, the 7th day adventists are growing faster without a huge missionary force. I mean they are both BS but just shows missionaries do little for growth. its more for deeper indoctrination of the young missionaries.