Latter Day Saint movement

The bodies descending from Joseph Smith's 1830 restoration, chiefly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

CONTESTED. RCMS 2020 and ARDA count LDS bodies in their US religious-body totals. Trinitarian Christian bodies generally do not recognise LDS baptism, and the Handbook of Denominations treats the movement in a section of its own. The LDS Church describes itself as the restored church of Jesus Christ. This taxonomy places it in a family of its own and records the disagreement; it does not adjudicate it.

The movement descending from Joseph Smith's 1830 founding — chiefly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which describes itself not as one denomination among many but as the restored church of Jesus Christ.

Heritage

Joseph Smith organized the church in Fayette, New York in 1830, following what he described as visions and the translation of the Book of Mormon. The movement gathered and was driven from Ohio, Missouri and Nauvoo, Illinois, where Smith was killed by a mob in 1844. The succession divided it: the largest body followed Brigham Young across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley from 1846, becoming the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; the Reorganized Church remained in the Midwest and is today the Community of Christ; smaller bodies continue other lines.

Theological family

By self-description — the rule this record follows: the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, with living prophets and apostles, restored priesthood authority, the Book of Mormon as scripture alongside the Bible, temple covenants, and salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ. The movement's doctrine of God differs from the Nicene formulation; trinitarian churches generally do not recognize LDS baptism, and the Handbook of Denominations treats the movement in a section of its own, while RCMS and ARDA count its bodies in US religious totals. This taxonomy places the movement in a family of its own and records the disagreement without adjudicating it.

Who decides what

The LDS Church: a prophet-president with counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; locally, unpaid lay bishops lead wards, gathered into stakes. The Community of Christ follows its own trajectory, with a First Presidency and, since the 1980s, the ordination of women.

What a first-time visitor would find

An LDS sacrament meeting is quiet and lay-led: hymns, the sacrament of bread and water, and talks given by members rather than a professional clergy, with classes following. Temples are distinct from meetinghouses — reserved for covenant ceremonies, not Sunday worship — a distinction map users regularly miss.

What it has always cared about

The family — genealogy, and the sealing of families in temples; missionary service, whose white-shirted companionships are the movement's global signature; the welfare system and self-reliance; the Word of Wisdom health code; tithing; and lay service by nearly every member.

Its gift to the wider church

Told in the observer's voice: FamilySearch, the largest genealogical archive on earth, free to everyone — this movement's gift to anyone who has ever looked for an ancestor; a welfare and disaster-response operation studied across the nonprofit world; and a working model of a church run almost entirely by unpaid members.

Commonly confused with

With the Community of Christ and other movement bodies, whose trajectories now differ substantially; with Jehovah's Witnesses, by outsiders lumping door-to-door ministries — the movements are unrelated; and the nickname "Mormon," which the LDS Church has asked since 2018 be replaced by its full name.

Range of views inside it

Between the movement's bodies the range is wide — on scripture, priesthood and temple practice, the LDS Church and Community of Christ differ more than outsiders assume. Within the LDS Church itself, teaching and Sunday practice are notably uniform worldwide.

A note from the mapmakers: Classification is contested, and we record all three facts without ranking them: census-style sources count these bodies; trinitarian churches generally do not recognize their baptism; the LDS Church describes itself as the restored church of Jesus Christ. Nothing here may be asserted of a specific ward or congregation. Sentences drawn from this record attribute every doctrine as self-description.

Sources: Gospel Topics Essays (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) · Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (Richard Lyman Bushman, Alfred A. Knopf) · Handbook of Denominations in the United States (Abingdon Press)

Where Latter Day Saint movement churches are on the map

4,546 Latter Day Saint movement congregations appear on The Church Map, across 51 states.

Bodies and networks in this family

Moments that formed this family

  • 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.

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