A Latter-day Saint historian from the United Kingdom reflects on the Church's "baseball baptisms" era—when missionaries in the 1950s-60s converted young people through sports leagues, often without meaningful religious instruction—and cautions against losing "sight of the Savior" in contemporary conversion efforts.

The piece, appearing in The Salt Lake Tribune, also examines why the Church counts members the way it does, a perennial source of debate given widely reported inactivity rates.

The term "baseball baptisms" has become shorthand within Mormon culture for high-volume conversions that don't result in lasting membership.