i LOVE this, but i’m fairly sure that none of the shows i watch would be chosen. i mostly watch on hulu, but even on regular tv i rarely see a mormon ad.

Everyone deserves an opportunity to be exposed to the gospel, no matter what TV shows they watch.

One of the popular misconceptions in the church is that we have to be as efficient as possible and have to maximize our return on investment in advertising or proselytizing.

Well, we do have to be wise and prudent, and do things in an orderly manner that is in accordance with the Lord’s will. But the Lord said _everyone_.

We, wrongly, only want to talk about the gospel with people who are going to end up getting baptized, or at least take the missionary discussions.. We fear rejection so much, or we’re just too busy, that we only want to offer the gospel to people who we think are going to accept.

If numbers and efficiency were paramount, the church would pull the missionaries out of wards where they baptize few or no converts, and focus on higher baptizing areas both in the US and oveseas.

If you think about it, a full size ward with a low baptizing rate doesn’t really need full-time missionaries. The authority to find, teach and baptize people already resides among the members. Priests and Laurels could go around knocking on doors. Almost anyone could teach missionary lessons.

Our ward’s full time missionaries only teach a couple discussions each week. That could easily be handled by members. There could even be a separate Sunday School class for the six missionary lessons. Missionary discussions could be taught by parents to investigators while the parents wait at the chapel during youth night.

But to answer your question, which shows? I’d guess soap operas.

Marta–maybe no ads, but I bet someone somehwere has pretty specific ideas about the kind of person watching those shows
Bookslinger–true enough
liZ–maybe 60 Minutes?

I don’t see many commercials anymore wither, but the “I’m a Mormon” ads I did see were on daytime TV talk shows. Maybe those are people seeking to better themselves?

ZD: the Mormons, or “pre”-mormons, who you knew in the pre-existence will find you.

I think I saw that in a movie.

WML, re: pulling missionaries.

I say go for it. Not that it would result in more baptisms, but that it might shake up and wake up the members, so that when missionaries are put back in the ward, members will not take them for granted. An attitude adjustment sort of thing. Maybe try it for 6 months.

I’ve found that contacting really doesn’t take that much time. You can do contacting and handing out business-card size pass-along cards (I kind of dislike those 3×5 cards), while you do other things. At the check out line at stores, at restaurants, gas stations, etc.

Another ideer I’ve had is new-member branches. They would overlay the ward boundaries, ie, cover the same geographical area. Maybe one branch covering 2 or 3 wards. Call just enough existing members for a BP, a BP counselor, an EQ pres and counselor, a RS pres and counselor. Then all new investigators and recent converts (for those 2 or 3 wards) go to that branch and see what happens. Maybe grow it into a full branch, or eventually merge it back into the 2 or 3 wards, or merge it back into the 2 or 3 wards at the same time as creating a new ward.

That way, investigators and converts can keep their excitement and not be “contaminated” with the blase’ attitude of the old-time members. Then when the branch is eventually merged back in, hopefully the newbies will be strong enough to let their excitement rub off on the older members.

Glee. Ward choirs could benefit from an influx of musical theater enthusiasts.