Dissertation Summary and Conclusions

INTRODUCTION 

            Growing numbers of former Mormons are finding their way into Christian churches.  Yet the unique features of Mormon culture and congregational life make it difficult for many of them to become fully integrated into a non-LDS church.  Even though the local church is vital to their spiritual nurture, the powerful forces that shape and sustain Mormon identity, together with the foreignness of many Christian church customs, create great obstacles to their engagement in congregational life.  To establish a new identity and world view in a new church body, the ex-Mormon, like an immigrant, must negotiate a confusing journey into a world of new values and symbols, and a number of baffling new practices.  Much has been published to answer Mormon truth claims or to compare Mormon versus Biblical beliefs.  Yet little is available to help former Mormons with the emotional, spiritual and cultural voyage they must make - especially when it comes to finding a meaningful experience of the shared life of God's people.  As a result, many immigrant Mormons end up marginalized on the fringes of the churches they attend, or simply uninvolved in any church at all.

            For this reason, the aim of this project has been to define what a healthy relationship with a local church looks like, and then to develop a focused curriculum that Christian churches can use to help former Latter-day Saints achieve it.  The further aim of the project was to test the effectiveness of such a curriculum by using it with groups of immigrant Mormons in the context of the churches they attend.  By addressing common factors that help and hinder the integration of former Mormons into a local church, it was hoped that this curriculum could provide a road map for that journey.  The curriculum created was a 10-week guided discussion group called Jesus Without Joseph - a reference to a person's decision to follow Jesus while rejecting the authority of LDS founder Joseph Smith.

            This curriculum has in view a particular description of successful church integration, involving three features that it attempts to foster: identification, connection and participation.  "Identification" is the subjective feeling that a person fits in as part of the church family and views the church as "her" church.  "Connection" is the experience of significant, healthy relationships centered in the church.  "Participation" is the experience of involvement in the growth activities and the responsibilities of the church. 

            Integration of immigrant Mormons into the local church is an important goal.  First, salvation plants a new Christian within the communion of believers.  Second, the church is one of the central means God uses for the growth of his people.  Third, the importance of congregational life in Mormonism suggests that the local church has a particularly key role to play for immigrant Mormons.  Thus any work done to help former Mormons must have the local church as its primary context as well as its goal.  This project goes beyond evangelizing Mormons to the Christian faith, and even beyond helping ex-Mormons transition into a new worldview and beliefs.  It proposes to develop practical materials - where none now exist - that Christian churches can use to help immigrant Mormons become fully identified, fully connected and fully participating members.

            With this in mind, the project aimed to test the hypothesis that the use of this curriculum would have no effect on the integration of immigrant Mormons into the life of the local church.  In other words, can it be demonstrated whether a targeted curriculum will help former Mormons become fully integrated into the churches they attend, or not?  Several other questions were posed that related to this central hypothesis.  How might this curriculum compare to other ways that people become integrated into church life?  What is the relative value of the curriculum's content versus the relational context of the group experience in which it is presented?  Various instruments were used to measure, from a variety of perspectives, the answers to these questions.

LITERATURE REVIEW

            To more fully understand the journey of an immigrant Mormon from his cultural homeland in the LDS church, through a transition period and into a healthy relationship with a Christian church, I read extensively from four categories of literature.  First, I looked at works that provide an understanding of Latter-day Saint life and culture.  These works describe the process by which Mormon identity is shaped, and the cultural experiences that define Mormon life.  Thus I was able to understand more about the forces that sustain the unique Mormon disposition, and the framework for what an immigrant Mormon might consider a normative congregational life.  Second, I read sources that discuss the dynamics of religious disaffiliation in general and of leaving Mormonism in particular.  This included both scholarly studies of religious leave-taking as well as the personal stories of people who left the LDS church.  Third, I consulted sources that provide some understanding of how people from a Mormon background make the transition specifically into an evangelical faith in Christ.  Fourth, I looked at writings that describe the purpose of the local church and the nature of Christian nurture, especially focusing on the role of the local church in a believer's spiritual growth. 

            The literature demonstrates that immigrant Mormons come from a unique culture, which shapes their worldview, their identity, and their set of norms for family and church life.  Yet there are many reasons why Mormons disengaged and even disaffiliate from the LDS church.  Nevertheless leaving the Mormon fold is challenging for many reasons, and becoming connected with a Christian church is not easy.  Yet the church is God's vehicle for the growth and nurture of his people into Christ-like maturity.  This is why, despite the obstacles involved in traversing the cultural divide, integration into the church is vitally important for immigrant Mormons.

PROJECT DESIGN

            To test whether the use of the Jesus Without Joseph curriculum might help in the church integration of immigrant Mormons, the project was organized into four phases.  Phase One involved identifying the most common factors that help and hinder church integration for ex-Mormons.  These factors were identified in four ways.  First, I drew upon my own experience as a former Mormon and as a pastor in Utah.  Second, as mentioned, I reviewed existing literature.  Third, I surveyed former Mormons who are now successfully integrated into local churches as to the process they went through.  Fourth, I interviewed people who have had extensive ministry working with immigrant Mormons.

            In Phase Two, I prepared the actual curriculum, which was designed with two goals in mind.  First, it was intended to create an environment of mutual encouragement where former Mormons could converse about their common experiences.  Second, it was written to provide a biblical basis for understanding the process of transition as well as the practices common in evangelical churches.  A printed study guide and leader's guide were prepared.

            Phase Three of the project consisted a field test of the curriculum.  I led three groups of immigrant Mormons through the curriculum in three different churches, in a setting that encouraged relationship-building and open discussion.  Each group was designed to meet weekly for ten weeks.  Participating churches were recruited and scheduled well in advance.  After leading a pilot group through the material, I refined the design and execution of the study.  Starting in January 2007, I led groups through the curriculum from First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City, Westminster Presbyterian Church of Fruit Heights and New Harvest Community Church of Clearfield. 

            Phase Four involved collecting data at the conclusion of the three test groups.  Various instruments were used to gather information from two types of sources.  First, I surveyed and interviewed group participants to learn how they perceived their own level of church integration before and after the course.  Second, I surveyed and interviewed each church's pastor to discover how these pastors perceived the level of integration for each group participant before and after the course.  I also used a survey at the end of the course to help answer the project's other research questions.  The survey asked participants to rank and to rate various elements of the whole Jesus Without Joseph experience.  It also asked them to describe other activities they were involved in within the congregation, and to rank Jesus Without Joseph in comparison to those. Furthermore, I asked questions in surveys and interviews, to both participants and their pastors, to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum.

FINDINGS

            The findings of this study are explored in three areas.  First, we can evaluate whether the basic hypothesis is valid or not.  Second, some of the study's findings focus on related research questions.  Third, the findings of the study will help evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum. 

            Before discussing these findings, the limitations of the study should be clearly noted.  The study is limited, first of all, by variables that cannot be controlled.  For example, a number of forces independent of the curriculum can be assumed to be working for or against church integration in the lives of participants.  These can be described and assessed to some extent, but not controlled.  For example, one subject went through a divorce during the time frame of the course.  What's more, different factors will come into play in different subject churches.  Some churches may simply be better than others at integrating their people.  The largest group of variables involves the differences between participants in personality, outlook, and past and current life experiences.  Different personalities, backgrounds or experiences may make one individual's integration process harder or easier than that of others.

            The study is limited, secondly, by certain built-in weaknesses.  For one thing, the measures of successful church integration are highly subjective.  Moreover, experimental subjects tend to want the study to succeed, or may desire to please the group leader.  This may lead to a false reporting of positive results.  Also, the limited length of the course dictates that many issues that could be impactful to participants will be left out or minimized. 

            A further limitation has to do with flaws in the data collection process.  It was not possible to obtain every survey instrument from every participant, nor to insure that the sample of subjects was always exactly the same in surveys taken before and after the course.  Furthermore, surveys were received from all group participants, whether they had ever been Mormon or not.  Five out of the 17 respondents were never Mormon, although four of them were married to a Mormon or former Mormon.

The Hypothesis

            Nevertheless, the study remains valid because several separate lines of evidence supported the conclusions.  First, the surveys taken by group participants before and after the course were designed to measure how subjects viewed their own integration into the churches they attend.  The mean scores for each question, before and after the course, were compared.  The results of the paired t-test show a statistically significant increase in how participants viewed their own integration after versus before the course. 

            Second, the surveys taken by pastors yielded the same result.  When the mean scores for each question were compared using the paired t-test, the results showed an increase in how pastors viewed the integration of their members after as compared to before the course.  These two before-and-after comparisons both suggest that the study's hypothesis is invalid, and that the curriculum did, in fact, have a positive effect on the church integration of those who attended the course.

            Third, representative subjects from each group, consisting of about 25% of each group's total membership, were interviewed about their experience.  Those interviewed were the members in each group who most closely fit these criteria: they had been more active as Mormons, had been out of Mormonism for a shorter time, and had been attending their current church for a shorter time.  Questions were asked to specifically probe how respondents felt about the course's impact on their identification, connection, and participation with the churches they attend.  These interviews demonstrated a number of ways that group members experienced greater integration.  For example, the course reinforced other positive dynamics occurring in each church.  Members gained greater trust in their church based on better understanding its ways.  They also benefited from meeting others with a common background and experience.

            Fourth, the pastors of the test churches were all interviewed after the course was concluded.  These interviews covered a broad range of topics.  Unlike participant surveys, questions were not specifically linked to aspects of integration.  Yet each pastor cited at least one example of how the course had contributed to a healthier church relationship for its members.

            Finally, I gathered information about the course's impact simply by listening to and observing what was happening in each group.  A variety of anecdotal data points support the same conclusion, as I observed group members making and solidifying commitments to Christ and to their churches in many ways.

            These five streams of evidence all point to the conclusion that the study's hypothesis cannot be valid.  Participants' surveys demonstrate a statistically significant positive change in the subjects' sense of their own level of integration.  Pastors' surveys also verify a significant positive change in pastors' assessment of the group participants' integration.  Participant interviews, and to a lesser extent pastors' interviews, provide evidence of a number of ways the curriculum catalyzed healthy church integration.  Finally, anecdotal evidence supports the same conclusion.  Thus the use of the Jesus Without Joseph curriculum did, in fact, have a positive effect on the integration of immigrant Mormons into the life of the local church.

Other Research Questions

            In assessing the effect of the Jesus Without Joseph course, the study also asked: to what extent did church integration result from this curriculum, as opposed to other factors in each church?  In the post-course survey, subjects were asked to identify and rank the experiences that most contributed to integration in their home church during the time frame of Jesus Without Joseph.  The top contributors appear to be involvement in service, small groups, and relationships.  What sort of relationships helped?  Respondents focused on welcome, attention to needs, love and unconditional acceptance.  When integrative experiences were ranked, Jesus Without Joseph appeared on ranking lists more than any other experience and was ranked among the highest.  The surveys suggest, and participant interviews confirm, then, that Jesus Without Joseph was one very significant integrative experience, among other contemporaneous factors.  For most subjects, it appears that integration would have taken place without a specific course about Mormonism.  But it would probably have taken place at a slower and more haphazard pace for many.  In other words, Jesus Without Joseph made a key contribution that paralleled other important activities in church life.

            Another research question approached by this study had to do with the relative impact of different aspects of the curriculum.  What was the value of the curriculum's content compared to the context in which the material is presented?  In the post-course survey, participants were asked to rank the helpfulness of ten aspects of the group experience.  Certain of those aspects represent the group's context: they mainly emphasize the inter-relational sharing of experiences and opinions of the gathered group.  Other elements represent the group's context: they mainly involve the communication, interpretation and application of information.  In the rankings, context elements seemed to be viewed as somewhat less meaningful compared to content elements.  Yet the surveys show that almost every one of the ten features of the course had very high significance to some people, and very low significance to others.  I suspect that both elements of the course are vital, and that the experience would not be as valuable if either aspect was emphasized to the exclusion of the other.  This conclusion is supported by interviews with course participants.  In fact, the curriculum was designed to incorporate both content and relational context in a significant way, and both elements were valued by course participants, according to their own particular needs.

Strengths and Weaknesses

            In the post-course survey and in interviews with participants and pastors, questions were asked to help evaluate the overall strengths and weaknesses of the Jesus Without Joseph curriculum, with a view to improving the curriculum for possible future publication.  It appears that the greatest strengths of the curriculum are its sound use of the Bible, the relevance of the topics addressed to the needs of its particular audience, and the quality discussion engendered about those topics.  Also, the study guide gives the leaders and the participants some excellent tools and resources.  And the design of the group provides a context for former Mormons to share their experiences and encourage each other.            

            On the other hand, the curriculum would be better if more help was provided for the leader.  It could also profitably be expanded in a couple of ways.  It could deal in greater depth with more of the journey issues and the differences in culture and experience that immigrant Mormons face.  It could also include discussion of key comparative belief issues and apologetic responses to LDS truth claims.  Finally, the curriculum would be more useful if it were available in a format that could be used individually or in a group setting.

RECOMMENDATIONS

            The study raises a number of questions that might suggest avenues of further research.  Some of those questions relate directly to the Jesus Without Joseph experience.  For example, what is the ideal length of a curriculum for maximum effect?  How can it be intentionally linked to other integrative factors in the church?  Would any sort of group experience, regardless of content, have the same or similar results?  Is the curriculum likely to be less effective if led by someone who was never a Mormon?  Can the curriculum be transferable for use by any leader?  Would it be as effective used in a one-on-one mentoring relationship versus a group setting?  Could it be adapted for use by an individual studying alone?  Would it be equally effective for highly committed versus nominal Mormons, or for birthright Mormons versus converts?

            The study also suggests further research questions relating to the overall understanding and experience of immigrant Mormons.  For example, who are the former Mormons in Christian churches?  Is there a pattern of common characteristics of the former Mormons in Christian churches?  Are temple worthy Mormons in the minority?  By and large, have they recently left Mormonism?  How long ago?  Did they disengage from Mormonism as teens, young adults, or adults?  Understanding the general characteristics of immigrant Mormons who attend would help churches focus their ministries more effectively.

            It would be fruitful to explore further some of the issues immigrant Mormons face.  For instance, what kind of spiritual experiences did ex-Mormons encounter in the LDS church?  What did those experiences mean to them then?  How have they interpreted those experiences now, since rejecting Mormonism?  What spiritual experiences are common to them now?  Or what about family relationships?  It would be informative to learn more about what former Mormons experienced from their families when they left the LDS church and when they started attending a Christian church.  Are there particular points of family stress in the immigrant Mormon's journey?  How have they handled their families' response to them? 

            The data on disengagement and disaffiliation from Mormonism suggests further study of how "leave-taking" can be better understood.  Such insights might be profitably applied to the discussion of how churches reach out to their Mormon neighbors, especially in Utah.  Immigrant Mormons could be surveyed to discover the factors that influenced their exit from Mormonism in the first place, and what role churches or Christian ministries might have played, as well as factors that influenced their decision to attend a Christian church in the first place.

            Based on the findings of this study, clear recommendations can be made for how to make the Jesus Without Joseph curriculum more effective in its stated goal.  First, the name of the course is confusing and might be considered by some to be derogatory.  A better title might be something like Post-Mormon Christians: A Guide to Following Christ after Leaving Mormonism.  Second, the curriculum could be expanded to include material designed to equip and guide the group's leader. 

            Third, the chapters could be broken down into shorter segments.  For example, Chapter Five: "New Ways to Grow Spiritually", contains three major sections.  Each of them could stand alone as a separate topic of discussion:

• The means by which Christians grow in our faith
• How we measure our growth in maturity
• The role of grace versus merit or legalism in Christian growth

Under the topic of the means of spiritual growth, it would be fruitful to give separate consideration to subjects like the role of the Holy Spirit, suffering, and spiritual disciplines.  Of course, each subject would be examined from the perspective of the normative Mormon thinking and practice about such things.  In similar fashion, Chapter Seven: "Worship and Symbolism in the Church" could be divided into separate discussions about the definition and meaning of authentic worship, the meaning of particular worship practices, the centrality of the cross as a Christian symbol, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.  Again, each of these topics poses particular problems for someone coming out of Mormonism.

            Fourth, the curriculum could be expanded to include key areas of comparative doctrine and central apologetics issues.  A few that come up most often include: the authority of the Bible, the nature of God, the boundaries of the term ‘Christian', the LDS claims of unique authority and continuing revelation, the tests of a legitimate prophet, temples, and the priesthood. 

            All in all, there is probably enough significant material to support a 26-week study guide.  Ideally, such a guide would be organized so that members of a support group or individuals using the material with a mentor could proceed through the chapters in any order, based on what the users need to learn or talk about.

            There may also be other fruitful ways to organize the material for use by immigrant Mormons and/or the churches they attend.  It could be arranged in a handbook format, with all the information written up into short articles and sidebars.  This format would make the material accessible to individuals or to groups.  At the end of each key chapter or segment, a number of questions for group discussion could be included.  The handbook would cover four core areas of information:

• Comparative doctrine (God, salvation, humanity, etc.)
• Journey issues (emotions, relationships, trust, culture shock, etc.)
• Church practices (worship, baptism, stewardship, role of pastors, etc.)
• Apologetics (authority of the Bible, continuing revelation, etc.)

            One suggestion made by more than one individual was to somehow package the printed material with a DVD, perhaps with tips for guiding the discussion, or showing a prototypical group using the material, or containing an informational lecture on key topics.

            Another way to deliver the material to immigrant Mormons would be by means of a web site.  Certainly all the information could be readily available to the target audience, but the relational dynamic of mutual sharing and support would be missing.

            One further product is suggested by this study.  Many churches would probably find it helpful to have a brief guide prepared for their pastor and leaders on understanding the former Mormons among them.  I envision something of pamphlet or booklet length, featuring mainly short bullet points, describing what ex-Mormons are like, what they need from the church, what they expect, and pitfalls to avoid in ministering to them.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this study successfully demonstrated that a targeted curriculum, created specifically for former Mormons, can be very effective in helping them become integrated into the life of a local church.  In spite of the many challenges to that goal, incorporating ex-Mormons into church life is vitally important to their fullest spiritual growth.  An effective curriculum takes into account specific obstacles in the ex-Mormon's journey.  It is specifically designed to facilitate greater identification, connection and participation with a church.  It balances the needs former Mormons have for both good relationships and good information.  And it works in concert with other experiences and activities in the life of the church.  The test curriculum developed in this project can certainly be improved.  But it presents very encouraging prospects for the future, as increasing numbers of people leave the LDS church to find their way into Christian congregations.