As members of the LDS Church gather in Salt Lake City for their 172nd Semiannual General Conference this weekend, those attending will represent a microcosm of the church's growth in the United States and internationally.

Considered one of America's most successful homegrown faiths, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has increasingly come under the microscope of statisticians and researchers in recent years. Its explosive growth, particularly during the past three decades, has generated no small amount of discussion in scholarly circles.

And Utah's role in February as host of the 2002 Winter Games shone the spotlight of popular culture on the faith in a way unprecedented in its history.

Last month, the church was named the fastest-growing denomination in America during the 1990s — percentage-wise — by scholars with the Glenmary Research Center, whose survey of "Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000" has been touted as "the most complete data available on U.S. religious affiliation."

The survey reported data for 149 religious bodies in the United States by state and county, surveying 268,254 congregations with more than 141 million adherents. It showed the LDS Church is present in 1,802 of the country's 3,141 counties. Like the fast-growing Evangelical faiths — most notably the Assemblies of God — the LDS Church has more concentrated growth in major metropolitan areas, according to Glenmary researcher Dale Jones.

"In the majority of major metropolitan areas, we find the Latter-day Saints are one of the faster-growing groups. It's a nationwide phenomenon, and it shows they're doing a good job of reaching more people."

Statistics provided to the Deseret News by the LDS Church show that at year-end 1997, 45 percent of the church's domestic growth had come from convert baptisms, with 55 percent of new membership coming through "in-house" membership growth as children are born and baptized.

U.S. membership has grown by roughly 1 million each decade since 1980, according to the church, reaching 5,208,827 in the year 2000.

Sociologist Rodney Stark predicted nearly two decades ago that church membership would top 267 million members by 2080. Five years ago, he told members of the Mormon History Association the estimate may actually be too low, because the church was growing faster than his highest estimate.

Jones said "some scholars have difficulty with" Stark's projection because "the assumption is that the way things have historically been will continue, and we know the world changes. The Latter-day Saints already are a major player in many areas of the world. If you apply the figures and assume things will continue as they are currently, that (predicted growth) will happen."

Since February 1996, the church has had a larger membership internationally than in the United States, and Latin American membership has skyrocketed in the past 30 years, far outpacing every other region of the world in percentage growth. As of 1997, 90 percent of members outside the United States were converts.

But Jones said denominational growth has proven fickle over time for several historic mainline churches. The United Methodist Church was growing so rapidly 100 years ago, it would likely be much larger than today's fast-growing churches, but it became so large so fast, it wasn't able to instill a commitment to the principles that made the church's doctrine unique, he said. Children of believers also began to leave the church, rather than retaining their spiritual heritage.

Other Protestant faiths — all of them democratic in nature — faced much the same problem, he said, and today their membership is either stagnant or shrinking.

He said the question for the LDS Church is,"Will their size get to the point that it's just too tough to continue their outreach?" meaning the ability to keep their members focused and doctrinally cohesive.

United Methodists "didn't change the doctrine itself at first, but by being inclusive enough, the new folks led to a change in doctrine. . . . That's the thing all Evangelicals are facing and Mormons are facing: Do we, when we win them, sell them on our vision as well and be content to have bigger numbers, or will we include them and eventually be outvoted?"

Though the Catholic Church is considered by many to be fairly strict in its moral doctrine, "to keep the focus on behavioral expectations is a real challenge when you have fast growth" as that faith is experiencing, according to Jan Shipps, emeritus professor of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University. Statistics show that a large percentage of U.S. Catholics, in particular, disregard the church's ban on birth control and its stance on divorce.

Shipps said the LDS Church has a unique answer to Jones' question about doctrinal purity that other faiths don't share. "Correlation. . . . There's nobody else that has anything that tight" in terms of doctrinal purity or inside communication and direction, she said.

As a central clearinghouse for lesson manuals, church magazines, formal communications with local church leaders and even LDS general conference talks, the church's Correlation Department has helped keep the church "from becoming a bunch of different Mormonisms," Shipps said.

The structure of the church as a hierarchy, rather than a democracy, also helps keep doctrinal drift at bay, she said.

Only time will tell whether growth projections for the church will actually pan out, Shipps said,

LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley has told the media on several occasions that while one of the church's three major goals is missionary work and spreading the gospel message, growth is the major challenge the church faces now and in the foreseeable future.

Hoping to reverse the trend in some areas where people are baptized and then fall away from the church, he has repeatedly implored church members to make sure new converts are welcomed into the faith with three things: "A friend, a responsibility and nurturing with the good word of God."

• General sessions are scheduled for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the Conference Center. A priesthood session is set for 6 p.m. Saturday.

• Tickets have already been distributed. Doors open 90 minutes before each session. Those attending must be at least 8 years old.

• General sessions will be carried live on KSL-TV, KBYU-TV, Direct TV channel 374, DISH Network channel 9403 and on the Galaxy 11 satellite, transponder 17.