ONE IS A small metropolis of fewer than 120,000 folks. The opposite is dwelling to extra residents than New York Metropolis and Chicago mixed. But one factor binds Provo, Utah, and São Paulo, Brazil: each boast white temples with a single spire that reaches in direction of the heavens. One is surrounded by mountains and the opposite by palm timber, however the easy structure of Mormon church buildings imply they resemble one another. This sameness is a trademark of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as Mormonism is formally recognized. Cristiane Fernandes, who worships on the temple in São Paulo, says the church is “like McDonald’s”, in that “the entire world is having the identical lesson right this moment”.
Mormonism is a distinctly American faith. Its early leaders travelled—and have been chased—from upstate New York to the church’s present non secular and cultural capital in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah. But in latest a long time the Christian sect has additionally unfold past America’s borders. The church estimates that there are 16.6m Mormons around the globe, a 50% improve since 2000. Matt Martinich, an unbiased demographer who runs a weblog dedicated to the church’s development, estimates that baptisms of American converts could now account for less than 20% of worldwide baptisms.
That appears like muscular, international development for a faith that claims lower than 2% of People as believers. However accounting quirks embellish the true image. “The soiled little secret that everyone who has gone on a mission is aware of is that numerous this development is on paper solely,” says Rick Phillips, a sociologist on the College of North Florida. Anybody ever baptised or born into the religion is counted as a member, even when they're now not energetic within the church. Mr Martinich reckons that solely about 40% of American Mormons are energetic.
Brazil has the third-largest Mormon inhabitants on the earth, after the US and Mexico. Church rolls counsel there have been 1.1m Mormons in Brazil in 2010, however solely about 227,000 Brazilians recognized as Mormon within the census the identical yr. “Latin America has all the time been the problematic case,” says Patrick Mason of Utah State College. “On the one hand, it’s the poster-child for Mormon development exterior the US. But it surely’s additionally the poster-child for low retention charges.”
The McDonald’s mannequin
Students who research Latter-day Saints level to a few predominant the explanation why Mormonism could wrestle to retain converts overseas. The primary is the centralised nature of the church. The church’s wealth, management and theological teachings nonetheless emanate from Salt Lake Metropolis. Ms Fernandes’s quip that, like McDonald’s, Mormon church buildings around the globe are related has lengthy been some extent of delight. “The company mentality in post-war America was that you'd have one company tradition on your firm—whether or not that was GE or IBM—after which wherever you went around the globe, that will be the tradition of your small business,” says Jana Riess, writer of “The Subsequent Mormons: How Millennials are Altering the LDS Church”. “The church succeeded with that mannequin for a very long time.”
However can a one-size-fits-all faith thrive on a world scale? The sameness that makes a Mormon church in São Paulo really feel like a church in Provo could also be comforting to some, nevertheless it prevents the faith from adapting to totally different cultures. Extra decentralised Christian sects, equivalent to Pentecostals, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, have grown extra shortly in lots of international locations.
Second, the congregation a Mormon joins relies on the place they stay. “If I’m a Pentecostal, and…I desire a pastor who is a bit more strict, or one who’s a bit of extra liberal, I can discover my theological area of interest,” says Mr Phillips. Not so for Mormons.
Third, some counsel that Mormons may reform their missionary practices so as to retain members higher. About 55,000 missionaries are serving worldwide; 20,000 or so have been prepped at a coaching centre that resembles a small school campus in Provo. When your correspondent visited simply earlier than Christmas, all of the missionaries sure for Brazil had been not too long ago dispatched. However Portuguese may nonetheless be heard within the halls. One group destined variously for Lisbon, Cape Verde and New York started their language class by singing “Noite Feliz” (“Silent Night time”).
A lot emphasis is positioned on baptising new members; missionaries knock on doorways and use social media to achieve potential converts. However church leaders and teachers agree that this alone is inadequate. Using missionaries who grew up in locations the place the church is rising comparatively shortly, such because the Philippines and west Africa, to proselytise to their very own countrymen may additionally show simpler than sending People.
Some issues are beginning to change. Ms Riess factors out that the handbook of directions that church leaders use was not too long ago revised to permit for extra musical types and devices in worship. The church’s leaders and its missionaries are, slowly, changing into extra geographically various. In latest a long time, missionaries have additionally been allowed rather more contact with their households. A part of that's the results of higher expertise. However it could even be a intelligent option to enhance retention charges: the extra Mormon dad and mom hear about their missionary’s expertise, the extra linked to the church they might really feel.
On the coaching centre in Provo, existential questions on the way forward for the church really feel very distant. Quickly-to-be missionaries parade round with identify tags saying the place they may serve. Tearful dad and mom drop off their youngsters for coaching a lot as others drop their youngsters off for faculty. Right here, not less than, fervour for the worldwide church is alive and nicely. ■
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