What happened

Mixed outcomes. A repeatable training and outreach system operates across successive missionary cohorts. Conversion and retention vary across settings, and recruitment totals alone do not show how many people develop lasting participation.

  • Missionary training includes study, practice teaching, preparation for missionary life, and initial language learning. Missionary Training Centers
  • Centralized administrative changes beginning in the 1960s altered the organization of church activity; conversion and retention varied geographically during later decades. Conversion and Retention in Mormonism

What might explain it

Plausible

Shared training and curriculum can make outreach repeatable across cohorts. Missionary Training Centers

Alternative explanation: Participants are self-selected and supported by a wider religious community; training is only one component.

Plausible

Standardized recruitment may fit local community integration unevenly. Conversion and Retention in Mormonism

Alternative explanation: Migration, existing relationships, economic circumstances and different meanings of membership may also explain retention.

Understanding the outcome

Organizational socialization and conversion careers

Training can make an invitation repeatable, while durable belonging depends on what happens after that invitation is accepted. Local relationships connect the recruitment process to continuing participation. Missionary Training Centers Conversion and Retention in Mormonism

Religious commitment involves beliefs, family relationships, and personal meaning. Recruitment practices detached from that setting may work differently.

Questions to take into practice

  • What happens six months after someone joins?
  • Does onboarding develop local relationships as well as transmit a standard message?

What remains uncertain

  • How do local relationships, migration, material circumstances, and administrative practices affect participation after conversion? Following people who remain, leave, or participate intermittently would reveal more than a single membership total.

Sources