Replicating Results From One Mission Field to Another

Last week I read the newly called mission president from the Church News. One of the newly called mission presidents Claude Remy Gamiette is a counselor in the West Indies Mission under Reid Robison. I am sure the 2008 baptisms accomplished in 2008 would bring the mission and its mission officers to the attention of the LDS general authorities. Probably the fact that Brother Gamiette has worked closely with the mission president and there has been some dramatic growth has he been chosen. I don't doubt he was called by revelation nor that he has been involved in some very successful mission work. I am also sure that in a time of declining numbers that some see calling someone with his background as a way to test what he has been involved with for the last year.

The mission has realized unprecedented growth under this mission presidency as reported on the LDS Church Growth blog by Sister Diane Robison wife of the mission president:

Sister Robison of the West Indies Mission reported that approval for the first stake in the West Indies Mission was given and the stake will be created the weekend of February 28th. In addition to strengthening the existing branches in the country for the past year to prepare for stakehood, a new branch was created last Fall in Port Fortin. Converts are joining the Church more than ever before in Trinidad and Tobago and missionaries are doing their best to keep them active. Last year the West Indies Mission baptized over 2,000 converts, most of whom were in Guyana.

I tried to see how much influence or what things Brother Gamiette or his wife might have done by examining the West Indies Mission blog but I couldn't find much. The only post I could find on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 was one in which the mission president's wife compared Sister Gamiette to Sarah Palin and mentioned that "The last picture is of Sarah Palin - the US vice presidential candidate and the first three are of Sister Gamiette, wife of the first counselor in the Mission Presidency (her husband was just released last Sunday as the French District President and replaced by President Eclar)." I assumed that Brother Gamiette must have been both the district president and first counselor in the mission presidency but I couldn't determine that. I also thought but couldn't prove whether he lived in Guyana where all the growth was but couldn't determine that from his Church News bio.

The atmosphere in the mission has been one of exuberance as hundreds of Afro-Carribbean people have joined the church. Success has been feeding on success as people bring friends and family to their baptisms in a bus. I checked Brother Gamiette's picture to see if he was of the same ethnic background but he appears to be of French descent as does his wife. (I have since learned that he and his wife are of Afro-Caribbean descent which makes me more confident in his ability to relate to other diverse groups.) It would have been cool if a minority person had been called. I noticed that both of the Gamiette's were returned missionaries. He served in Florida Jacksonville and she in Washington Seattle Mission about 20 years ago. He works for the CES which means he has been trained in working with youth and church bureaucracy. I am sure as a mission counselor he has been involved in the process that President Robison used for about a year. I suspect he will try to duplicate it whereever he is called. There are a lot of factors that might make it so that may or may not be possible.

I am very interested in his calling as a mission president and wonder if a pattern exists from previous successes that he will carry to his new assignment. Have the counselors of men like Richard G. Scott, William Bradford, Hartman Rector, Carlos Asay been called as mission presidents and did their success in terms of baptisms mirror their mentors. I am going to go back and check the Church News and see if any residual success happened.

The West Indies success I have been following closely and I believe that the background of the people involved from mission president to missionaries to members to new members has something to do with the mass success in baptizing so many. I am not discounting the superb job the mission president and his wife have done to prepare the missionaries but I have seen a charismatic process that is very effective. It is really quite a contagious process and feeds on itself as members are bringing in their family and friends in large numbers. I have argued for a long time that results are mission specific and depend on the mission president, the missionaries and the receptivity of the investigators.

My question is can you replicate charismatic programs throughout the world if conditions are different. I have yet to see where Brother Gamiette being called will lead but it will be interesting if in a more subdued atmosphere with a different demography of people if the West Indies model can be internationalized and used by him to achieve similar results. I suspect he is a different person than Reid Robison with different skill sets. I also think he will feel a lot of pressure to produce which can be a barrier to his success. I am not a doomsayer and would be excited to see him succeed but with a doctorate in adult education I realize there are many factors involved from the ability to the mission president to put forward his mission and vision to the missionaries ability to translate that in to their teaching to investigators even wanting to be baptized. I believe the success of the West Indies is a great deal influenced by the socialization factor or families and friends joining each other. Most are homogeneously the same background which creates different challenges for former members.

I am not discounting Brother Gamiette's background the CES is a good place to train men to relate to young men and women. I think we need a little more excitement in the training of missionaries. Reid and Diana Robison are master trainers as they have come up with slogans like Hurray for Israel or Band of Brothers. I hope Brother Gamiette can replicate the results but I am a doubting Thomas. I am sure of one thing that his missionaries will think he is the greatest mission president of all mission presidents.

I have a few concerns: Can you really transfer one approach from one field to another? Will a different set of missionaries operate the same as the those in the West Indies Mission? Can a mission president create in a different place the same excitement and reception by the members and potential investigators? Just because you witnessed something can you really replicate it?

I will be watching Brother Gamiette for the next three years to see if in the one short year he worked with President Robison if he can accomplish even a fraction of the results. I might become converted to the Hurray for Isreal movement but I suspect it will pan out like the Rector Harvesting the Lord's Way or the baseball baptisms. Where will these members be in twenty years will we have 18% retention. I am certain Reid Robison will join the ranks of the Quorum of Seventy or some other general authority calling. I wonder if Brother Gamiette will go on to to similar achievement.