Why Are You Active?

Introduction

I recently posed two questions to 45 active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  These two questions came to me one Saturday morning as I was mowing our lawn.  I was paying more attention to my thoughts at the time than I was to the chore of lawn-mowing.  I was pondering why it was that many of our active young people in the Church were choosing to not serve missions or remain active in the Church, and in some cases simply drifted away.  Watching them drift was very much like a video clip I had seen of a salesman extoling the virtues of “living in a van down by the river.”  Unfortunately, I know some young men who are doing exactly that.

So, I posed two questions to these 45 active members of the Church.  Their answers were as varied as the 38 people who responded (84.4% response rate).  While some provided what amounted to bullet lists, others wrote lengthy paragraphs for their responses.  Some of those responses were difficult to read as they recounted their experiences earlier in life.  Tears easily flowed as I felt the pain that some had experienced in their faith development.

These were the two questions I asked.

   

1. Other than parental influences, what has helped to strengthen your testimony of the gospel?

2. Again, other than parental influences, what has helped encourage you to be obedient to the commandments.

Survey Results

As the answers came in, the more I thought about the two questions the more I concluded that they were essentially the same question.  Therefore, rather than separate the answers by question, I lumped all the responses together.  And while there were responses that were unique, for the most part responses fell into seven major categories of answers.  Unique answers included such things as the effects of the hymns of the Church on the individual, temple attendance, the feeling of safety, a patriarchal blessing, feeling the Spirit while listening to a speaker, the Young Women’s Theme, the unspoken expectations of others, and so forth.

The seven most common categories of answers included (1) Scripture Study, Personal Prayer, and Church Attendance; (2) Special Events such as Camps, Treks, EFY, and Youth Conferences; (3) Strong Friendships; (4) Blessings of Obedience and Passing Through Trials; (5) Strong Leaders and Teachers; (6) Service, Including Missionary Service; and (7) Goal-setting.

Respondents came from four primary sources: young adults I’ve known from New Mexico, returned missionaries who served in New York and New Mexico (largely from Utah), young adults from New York, and other adults from New York and New Mexico.  Included in the mix were a couple of grandchildren, former seminary students of mine, two university professors, a former stake president/mission president/Area Seventy, college roommate, and a current Texan.  The table below shows the responses by category.

Table 1.

Responses by Category

Scripture Study, Prayer, Church Attendance	Camps, Youth Conferences EFY	Strong Friend- ships	Trials and Blessings of Obedience	Strong Leaders and Teachers	Service, Including Missionary Service	Goal-setting	Other
26%	6%	4%	30%	9%	4%	3%	18%

N=141

Questions

It should be no surprise that scripture study, prayer, and church attendance are such great contributors to strengthened testimony and obedience to the commandments.  And after some thought, experiencing the blessings that come through obedience to the commandments and passing through trials also seem like reasonable explanations for strengthened testimonies, though I was initially surprised by those responses.  But both beg certain questions.  For example, why did faithful members study the scriptures, pray, and attend church?  Were they faithful to begin with and therefore engage in those activities or did engaging in those activities lead them to be faithful?  If engaging in those activities lead members to activity, why has it not done so for those who have strayed?  The same could be asked for those who have passed through trials and have been blessed because of those trials.  Why do some stray when they successfully pass through trials while others are strengthened?

Several other questions could or perhaps should be asked.  For example, is it the trek experience, EFY, Youth Conference, or Girls Camp in and of themselves that build testimonies or is it a friendship that is made or a five-minute interaction with a leader that led a desire to strengthen a testimony?  Were there not strong friendships that were developed in youth among those who are no longer active in the Church?  What constitutes a strong teacher or leader among the youth and how do they contribute to strengthening faith among them?  Is rendering service that important to the future activity of youth?  And then there is the other 18-percent.  What of the recitation of the Young Women’s Theme on a weekly basis or singing the hymns of the Church or unspoken expectations?  For several respondents, these seemingly outside-the-norm responses were significant in their testimony development.  Why aren’t they for everyone?  I could go on with the questions.

Conclusion

I should note that the responses were not exactly what I expected.  Yes, I anticipated prayer, scripture study, and church attendance, but I also expected more responses that reflected activities that youth participate in such as youth conferences and treks.  Could there be a cumulative effect of camps, conferences, and treks that lead to church activity?  I also anticipated more responses that pointed to the influence of friends, teachers and leaders.  What caught me totally off guard was the overwhelming number who pointed to the blessings of obedience and overcoming trials.  In the end, I found that I had more questions than answers when I reviewed the responses from those who participated in this little survey.

Finally, nothing should be construed from this little survey to suggest that it was a scientifically conducted research.  Still, the responses should cause one to stop and ponder upon why each of these seven categories as well as all the unique experiences contributed so much to the building of testimonies and a desire to be obedient to the commandments.

Thank you to those who responded to my questions.