Reaching the Nations

Why it’s on the list: A country-by-country data almanac of LDS church growth — the empirical base under most arguments about the church’s international future.

Where I heard about it

• My own Kindle library — started and highlighted, not finished.

Connections

• Religious Intellectualism — the portfolio idea; this is the primary-source data layer for it.
• Volume I covers the Americas, Oceania and Europe; Volume II (Asia and Africa) is a separate 944-page book.

Highlights

2 highlights captured while reading. Kyle has not finished the book — this is an anti-library entry, not a read-library one.

• Dr. David G. Stewart, Jr., a successful pediatric orthopedic surgeon, proved to have a passion well outside his professional practice. As a former missionary for the Church in Russia and a periodic traveler to various LDS mission fields, Stewart recognized the weaknesses not only in the official figures on church growth, but also in the actual proselytizing and retention efforts of the Church operationally.
• In 2011, we estimate that approximately 30% of worldwide Latter-day Saints regularly attend church meetings and that 22% of the world’s population resides in a location with an LDS congregation that they can legally attend.