Mormon Church Growth Surpassing Baptist Church Growth
In his article titled “Six Reasons Why Mormons Are Beating Baptists (In Church Growth) , dated 10 July 2012 which was posted on the patheos.com website, David French begins his article with the strong statement, “Our churches face a demographic crisis.” What he is speaking of is not so much a decline in actual church growth, but rather the losses that many Christian denominations are facing as numbers of their young people are beginning to leave their churches. In particular, French makes a stark comparison between the growth rate of youth in the Baptist Church and the growth rate of youth in the Mormon Church, noting that at a time when some youth are abandoning their church affiliations, the growth rate of youth membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referred to as the Mormon Church) is consistently increasing.
In his opening comments he states:
Young people are leaving, even the Southern Baptist Convention is starting to lose members, and when you drill down deeper – comparing church attendance with population growth – the picture grows even more bleak. Simply put, when America’s fastest-growing religious segment is “nonreligious” we have a problem. [1]
After compiling the results of a number of national studies, the Barna Group (an Evangelical Christian polling firm based in Ventura, California), published a list of six reasons why young evangelicals leave the Church. The six reasons that were listed are: the church is overprotective, their experience of Christianity is shallow, churches seem antagonistic to science, the church’s approach to sexuality is judgmental and simplistic, they wrestle with the exclusivity of Christianity, and the church feels unfriendly to those who doubt. [1] (more…)
In an address delivered on 22 September 1996 at the Salt Lake Tabernacle titled “
Having endured their own battles for freedom in the early history of the Church, Latter-day Saints (or Mormons as they are often referred) know and understand all too well that freedom is not free. The freedoms that they, as well as their fellow Americans hold dear, are often wrought through the precious spilt blood of many comrades-in-arms who championed together for the cause of freedom and liberty. Some gave more, some gave less, but many gave the last full measure of their devotion, their lives, in defense of their country, in order that it would always be the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” 
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often misnamed Mormons) believe that God is the father of all of our spirits. Each of us lived with God, our Heavenly Father, before we were born. Paul wrote, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (