Growth of the Church
Competition

The Mormon religion is but one of many religions and life philosophies competing for the dedication of individuals. It is beyond the scope of this paper to investigate the specific strengths and weaknesses of the LDS faith. However, we can measure how well it is competing in the market of religion.

The following religions all have faster growth rates than the LDS Church:1

1. Seventh-day Adventists

2. Assemblies of God (Pentecostal)

3. Pentecostals

4. Jehovah's Witnesses

5. Evangelical Christians

Of these 5 movements, only the Jehovah Witness movement is smaller than Mormonism in total membership. There is no way the Mormon Faith can grow exponentially to hundreds of millions of members without cutting deep into the current and projected memberships of these other faiths.

The size of the LDS Church does not grow in a petri dish--it grows in a world with many different religions that are engaged in fierce competition for the dedication of people. If we look at the size of these various religions and the rates at which they are growing, it is hard to construe the LDS Church as the one that has the competitive advantage.

Without a significant competitive advantage over other religions, Mormonism cannot grow to become a major world religion, but rather will be constrained to filling a relatively small niche in the religious ecosystem.

 

1.  See http://gatheringofisrael.com/gospelclock/

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