Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Heritage

Organized by Joseph Smith at Fayette, New York, April 6, 1830, on the claim that priesthood authority and living prophecy had been restored, with the Book of Mormon as companion scripture to the Bible. Driven from New York, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois — Smith was killed by a mob in 1844 — the main body followed Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Headquartered in Salt Lake City; a majority of members now live outside the United States.

Theological family

By self-description, restored Christianity: God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost as distinct beings united in purpose; salvation through Christ's atonement with covenants made in temples; continuing revelation through living prophets and apostles. Trinitarian churches generally do not recognize LDS baptism, and the church understands itself as a restoration rather than a branch of those churches — the taxonomy marks the family contested and this record describes without adjudicating.

Who decides what

Hierarchical and lay at once: a prophet-president and Twelve Apostles lead globally, while every local ward is run entirely by unpaid members — bishop, teachers, leaders — in callings that rotate. Wards are geographic: members attend where they live, which is why LDS congregations cannot be church-shopped.

What a first-time visitor would find

Sunday sacrament meeting is quiet and plain: hymns, bread and water passed by young men of the congregation, and sermons ("talks") given by assigned members, not clergy — followed by classes. Temples are different buildings entirely, for covenants rather than weekly worship, open only to members holding a recommend. Expect families, and expect to be fed.

What it has always cared about

Family — sealed, in LDS teaching, beyond death; lay service as the engine of congregational life; the welfare system and famous preparedness; missionary service as a rite of young adulthood; family history, which the church has made a world resource; and the memory of persecution and exodus.

Its gift to the wider church

Whatever other traditions make of its claims — and the disagreement is real and mutual — the Latter-day Saints have given the wider religious world a working model of total lay ministry, a welfare and disaster-response capacity every relief agency knows, and FamilySearch, the largest genealogical archive on earth, free to everyone including the churches that dispute its theology.

Commonly confused with

With the Community of Christ and the smaller Latter Day Saint movement bodies, which share the 1830 origin and differ sharply since; with the fundamentalist polygamist groups, which the church excommunicates and which are not it (the church abandoned plural marriage by 1904); and the church itself now asks not to be called "the Mormon Church."

Range of views inside it

Doctrinal range is narrow by design — correlation is a governing principle — but member experience ranges widely, and an active conversation exists at the church's edges about history, faith and belonging. A ward count is not comparable to a congregation count elsewhere: wards are assigned, several often share one building.

Where Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints churches are on the map

4,511 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregations appear on The Church Map, across 51 states.

• Utah — 1,629
• Idaho — 377
• California — 347
• Arizona — 224
• Washington — 218
• Texas — 189
• Oregon — 111
• Colorado — 102
• Iowa — 86
• Montana — 86

Moments this body was part of

• 1830–1847 — The Latter Day Saint movement begins

  Joseph Smith organized the Church of Christ in Fayette, New York in 1830, teaching that it was the restoration of the original church, with the Book of Mormon as new scripture. Driven from New York, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois — Smith was killed by a mob in 1844 — the main body followed Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints describes itself as the restored church of Jesus Christ; trinitarian bodies generally do not recognize its baptism, and this map records the movement's own account without adjudicating it.