Convert Retention

Convert retention is the central metric of Law of the Harvest (David G. Stewart’s critique of LDS Missionary Work): the argument that retention, not raw baptism counts, is the real measure of Church Growth. Stewart’s provocation — “When individuals are baptized but do not attend church, do not identify themselves as members of the Church, and do not believe or live the teachings of the Church, has the Church grown?” — treats baptisms-vs-retention the way Christensen treats measuring what matters over what’s easy to count. With roughly two-thirds of members inactive, raw baptism numbers mislead.

The book’s empirical claim is that poor retention is not an inevitable cost of rapid growth: Ammon and the sons of Mosiah achieved 100% retention (Alma 23:6), the British Isles sustained near-100% for over half a century, and other high-demand faiths (Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses) achieve excellent retention in the same cultures where LDS missions see only fractional retention. The remedy is front-loaded: thorough pre-baptismal teaching and discerning interviews (“an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”), since rushed baptisms create a “lifetime liability” that years of reactivation work rarely reverse. Stewart’s summary line: “Poor retention is no more a necessary part of the growth of the Church than sickness is a prerequisite to health.”

Where this appears

• Law of the Harvest — the book’s core thesis: retention (fruit that remains, John 15:16) as the true growth metric, with the Ammon and British-Isles cases as the 100%-retention ideal