Mission (Administrative Unit of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
A mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographically delimited administrative unit of the Church to which missionaries are assigned. Almost every area of the earth is within a mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whether missionaries live in the area or engaged in missionary activities. As of July 2018, the Church had 407 missions. On January 2, 2019, the Church announced that 12 missions would be resolved through border shifting and that four new missions would be created as of July 1, 2019. Once these changes are made, there will be 399 missions.
Administrative organizational structure
Geographically, a mission can include a city, a city and its surrounding areas, a state, a sub-state or province, an entire country, or a number of countries. Typically the name of the mission is the name of the country (or, in the USA, the state) followed by the name of the city in which the central administrative office, often called the mission office, is located. New missionaries are given a formal mission call to assign to a specific mission for two years or eighteen months of service. Each mission has an average of about 150 missionaries serving in its area.
Mission president
All missionaries work under the direction of a mission president who, like all missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is called and assigned. The mission president must be a married high priest who holds what is known as the Melchizedek Priesthood; his wife is called to work by his side. In 2013 the wife of the mission president was given a leadership role in the mission.
Mission presidents are typically 40 years or older and usually have the financial resources to devote themselves full-time to their commitments for the next three years. The Church gives mission presidents a minimum income, but this usually has to be topped up through its own resources. As a general rule, like all missionaries, the mission president must learn the local language that is spoken in the mission area. However, many mission presidents have previously served as missionaries or the mission language is their respective mother tongue.
The mission president has at least two counselors, who are usually also members of Latter-day Saints Church of Jesus Christ, who are usually from the mission area and perform such duties alongside their normal business activities. The role of counselors varies greatly depending on the mission area. As a rule, their role is to build a bridge between the mission president and local Church members. In areas where the Church is still poorly established, older men and their wives can be called full-time counselors.
Mission councils
A meeting of the leadership members of the mission is convened to organize the leadership of the mission. Prior to April 2013, this was often referred to as the zone chairperson council, which consisted of the mission president, his assistant, and zone chairpersons. In April 2013, the Zone Chairperson Council was replaced by the Mission Council, which includes the wife of the mission president and some missionaries to lead other missionaries. This means that women are now also included in the management of the missions.
Organization in a mission
Organization in areas with stakes
The missions are organized in two parallel structures. The first is the organization of the missionaries. There are two or more missionaries who serve as assistants to the president (not to be confused with advisors in the mission presidency). The assistants implement the instructions of the mission president and each assign two companionships to one work area for the mission work to be performed. They are also responsible for the welfare and education of the missionaries.
The mission is divided into zones, each of which is led by one or more missionaries who act as zone leaders, i.e. as leaders for a specific area. In many missions, a staff of male elders form the zone leadership. However, there are also missions in which only one elder is appointed as zone leader and his employee has no special management tasks. The mission zones are of different sizes and the number of missionaries varies.
The zones are divided into districts, each led by a missionary as the district leader. A district usually has two to four companionships (English employees). The zone and district leaders train the missionaries, conduct interviews and do missionary work. Generally, only single male missionaries serve as assistants, zone leaders, and district leaders.
Each missionary couple is responsible for a specific area. In this area they preach the gospel.
The ecclesiastical line of authority (also ecclesiology ) of a mission extends from the mission president to the missionaries. Missionaries report directly to the mission president, as opposed to the local branch president, bishop, or stake president.
Organization in areas without stakes
The districts within a mission consist entirely of branches. After the membership increases sufficiently, the branches can be converted into wards and the district can be converted into a stake. Typically, this will not happen until there are at least five ward-sized branches in a district. Once a district becomes a participation, the mission president is only responsible for the missionaries in the area, not the local members of the Church.
The LDS Church Mission, with the smallest geographic area (about 2.5 hectares), is the Utah Salt Lake Temple Square Mission, where missionaries from around the world serve in Temple Square, often serving visitors from their own home countries. These missionaries serve in Temple Square and occasionally on another mission in another part of the United States for a few months, then return to Temple Square for the final months of their 18-month missionary stint. Only female missionaries and older, retired couples are called to serve in the Temple Square Mission.
The mission with the largest geographic area is currently the Micronesia Guam Mission. The vast majority of this mission, however, consists of an ocean. The largest mission in terms of geographic land mass and population is currently the China Hong Kong Mission, which covers almost all of China's land mass and population. There are no Church missionaries in China outside Hong Kong and Macau. Before its split in November 2007, the India Bangalore Mission had the largest population permitted to proselytize. This mission spans all of India and has more than a billion residents within its borders. It is unclear whether the New Delhi or Bangalore mission should now be viewed as the mission with a larger population because the New Delhi mission also covers Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as northern India and does little formal missionary work outside of northern India .
There are also large-scale missions on Russian territory. In the Russia Novosibirsk Mission it is possible to have to travel a 42 hour train ride to get to the city of Novosibirsk if you are coming from within the mission limits.
Special language assignments within missions
Missionaries are sometimes called to a mission without following standard language assignment. To name a few examples: Kentucky Louisville, with Spanish language allocation; California Anaheim, with Vietnamese language assignment ; Canada Vancouver, with Mandarin Chinese language assignment ; Illinois Chicago, with Polish language allocation .
Central church structure
The work of the missions is overseen by the missions committee, which consists of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . Much of the actual work of overseeing the missions is delegated to the Missionary Executive Council (MEC). This committee has its roots in the Radio, Publicity, and Missionary Literature Committee established in the 1930s under the chairmanship of Stephen L. Richards and Gordon B. Hinckley as Executive Secretary. In the late 1940s, Richards and Hinckley held the same positions, with Hinckley essentially fulfilling duties that were later taken over by the Church's Missionary Department.
In the early 1970s, the Missionary Executive Council consisted of Spencer W. Kimball , Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, and Bruce R. McConkie , and all members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. L. Tom Perry was the chairman until the late 2000 years. He was then replaced by Russell M. Nelson . As of August 2015, most of the members are unknown. Historically, the membership has consisted of two apostles and one member was from the presiding bishopric and the executive director of the missions department who is usually a member of the first quorum of the 1970s. Before August 2015, David F. Evans served in this role. On August 19, 2015, it was announced that Bonnie L. Oscarson, president of the Church's Young Women’s Organization, would be the first woman to be invited to serve on the Mission executive council.
The Church's Mission Department operates under the direction of the Mission Executive Council. The Missionaries Department of the Church does not develop guidelines, only implements them. It directs the missions of the church together with 15 missionary training centers and 20+ visitor centers and historical sites that the church operates.
The story of missions
The part of the "First Mission" is more normally given to the Britain Mission, now considered the ancestor of the England London Mission. This was founded in 1837 under Heber C. Kimball.
Missionary work had previously been done in Canada and the United States, but missionaries were not organized into specific missions. The work of this mission began in Preston, England , in large part because one of the missionaries Joseph Fielding had a brother there who opened his chapel to the missionaries to preach.
They later often preached at the location used by the Temperance Society . The first converted to the British Mission was George D. Watt, who later played an important role in compiling the Journal of Discourses .
The mission's headquarters were relocated to Manchester for the first year and moved back to Liverpool in 1840 , largely to allow mission leaders to play a role in organizing the emigration of Latter-day Saints members to America. When the British Mission was separated from the European Mission in 1929, the headquarters were moved to Birmingham . Around 1930 the main office was moved to London because at that time the Church was no longer encouraging Church members to emigrate from England.
The United States and Canada
Although missionaries served in many parts of the United States from 1830 onwards, no formal mission was organized until 1839. That year a mission was organized in New York City under the direction of John P. Greene. Even so, missionaries continued to serve outside their normal mission area.
With the movement of the main Saints group to the Utah Territory and other western states, the membership in the eastern United States became very small relatively quickly. As mission president of the eastern United States, Wilford Woodruff attempted to relocate all members of the Church from New England and other eastern areas to Utah .
In 1854, after 3 years in which the Eastern States Mission had not existed, it was formally reorganized. John Taylor was the official President of the Church during this period. Its main function was to publish a newspaper whose main function was to spread the teachings of the Church. His other job was to oversee immigration from Europe as the first to meet the European Saints once they left Castle Garden . He presided over the few Saints in New York City, but did not serve the Church in the greater area.
During the months of the Civil War , missionary work in New York and the other eastern metropolises advanced rapidly. Since there was a call to gather in Utah, supported by the sermons and leadership of Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow, it prompted many saints "to flee Babylon and gather in Zion"
The advance of the American Civil War and the connection in the thinking of the Saints with Joseph Smith's prophecy about war caused the majority of the Saints to leave the eastern United States and rally into the Utah Territory
Expansion after World War II
In 1945 there were the following missions in the USA:
- Northern California (1942)
- Navajo Zuni (1943)
- New England (1937)
- Spanish-American (1936)
- Texas (1931)
- East Central States
- North Central States
- Western States
- Central States
- Southern States
- Eastern States
- Northern States
In May 1945, the Texas Mission was renamed the Texas Louisiana Mission. In October 1947, the Central Atlantic Mission was transformed into the East Central States Mission. This mission was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia. In 1970 the mission was renamed the North Carolina-Virginia Mission. In 1974 it was renamed the Virginia Roanoke Mission again. It was renamed the Virginia Richmond Mission in February 1992 and is now based in Richmond.
In 1949 the Great Lakes Mission was organized. It included the states of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. A mission to the central states was organized in 1950. It consisted mainly of Montana and Wyoming. Then there was a pause in organizing new missions in the United States. No new mission was organized in the United States for the next eight years. The idea of naming the missions after the states for which they were responsible was resumed in 1955. The Texas-Louisiana Mission has been renamed the Gulf States Mission.
References
- ↑ The main exceptions to these rules are the Singapore Mission and the Baltic States Mission . Furthermore, in missions, such as the Washington, DC South Mission , the eponymous city is not even in the mission area, but was still selected because there is no sufficiently large city within the mission boundaries. In the Michigan Detroit Mission , the mission office is in Farmington, Michigan , but the largest city name was used. All exceptions to this rule can be found in the 2007 Deseret News Church Almanac .
- ^ A b Joseph Walker: Sister LDS missionaries will have key role in new Mission Leadership Council . April 5, 2013.
- ↑ Listing of Vietnamese speaking missions in the US ( Memento of the original from July 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Loren C. Dunn, "A Mission Call," in New Era , July 1973
- ^ R. Lanie Britsch, "Missions and Missionary Organization" in A Firm Foundation: Church Organization and Administration , ed. David J. Whittaker and Arnold K. Garr (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2011)
- ^ Tad Walch: In a significant move, women to join key, leading LDS Church councils . In: Deseret News , August 18, 2015 .
- ^ British, "Missionas and Missionary Organization"
- ↑ Jenson, 1941, pp = 237-238
- ↑ 2006 Church Almanac. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Morning News) p. 484-489
- ↑ 2006 Church Almanac. p. 274
- ^ Church Almanac. p. 275, 489
- ↑ 2006 Church Almanac. p. 488
credentials
- 2001-2002 Deseret News Church Almanac (2000). Salt Lake City: Deseret News .
- 2006 Deseret News Church Almanac
- 2007 Deseret News Church Almanac
- 2010 Deseret News Church Almanac
- Cowan, Richard O. (1985), The Church in the 20th Century, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 0-88494-541-3 .
- Jenson, Andrew (1936), Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4, Salt Lake City, Utah: Andrew Jenson Memorial Association.
- Jenson, Andrew (1941), Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Publishing Company.
Related Links
- Van Orden, Bruce A. Building Zion: the Latter-day Saints in Europe . Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co., 1996. ISBN ISBN 0-87579-939-6
Others on the left
- LDS Mission Network - index of LDS missionary alumni websites
- Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - BYU Library Online