
A Defense of Alvin R. Dyer’s “The Challenging and Testifying Missionary”
We have noticed that in many corners of ye oulde Bloggernacle, there has lately emerged a growing consensus–likely fueled by Bob Wright and Gregory Princes’ otherwise outstanding “David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism”–that President Alvin R. Dyer of the Seventy’s 1960 address “The Challenging and Testifying Missionary” was one of the infernal catalysts for the high-baptism/low-retention approaches towards missionary work that have bedeviled the Church since at least the post-war period.