From Samuel Smith’s first missionary efforts in June of 1830 to the newest missionary joining the now more than 88,000 missionaries worldwide, the Church continues the modern-day effort to fulfill the Lord’s mandate: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 29:19). Though the first formal missionary effort outside the borders of the United States occurred only a few months after the official organization of the Church in April 1830, the Church remained largely a North American institution through the next 130 years.[1] As of 1960, only three percent of the 290 stakes of the Church existed internationally, and almost all of those were stakes which combined areas within the United States with contiguous areas of Canada and Mexico.[2] Suffice it to say things have changed from those largely American beginnings.

A quick look at the last thirty years shows how dramatically the Church has transformed. Numbers never tell the whole story, but they can illuminate trends and point to important issues. This is certainly true regarding the internationalization of the Church. The following graph illustrates the demographic change that has taken place:

In thirty years, the international membership has grown from less than a quarter of the total Church population to over 55 percent. While US and Canadian growth came in at 61 percent over that thirty-year period, international growth came in at a staggering 537 percent. And the trend shows no sign of changing. In 2013, the Church announced fifty-eight new missions, with over forty of them located in international areas.

Though international growth has far surpassed US and Canadian growth in the last 30 years, as might be expected, that growth has varied widely by area. For example, though European growth has been almost three times that of US and Canadian growth by percentage, it pales in comparison to Central American growth (which was over 18 times larger by percentage) or African growth (which was almost 44 times larger by percentage). The following chart gives detailed growth statistics by area worldwide:

As a result of international growth, the current demographic makeup of the worldwide church is vastly different than it was fifty years ago when less than 3 percent of stakes included international areas. As of 2011, 48 percent of all stakes are located in international areas with total international membership at 55 percent. As the following chart shows, the international Church has a strong Latin American flavor. Mexico and the countries of Central and South America combine to include 39 percent of total Church membership. However, Asian growth over the last ten years has almost equaled Latin American growth, and African growth has more than doubled it. With growth in Africa, Asia, and Latin America each far outstripping growth in the United States and Canada, the Church will become less and less an “American” church and more and more an international church as time passes. This reality will require a much greater emphasis on the study of the international Church than has previously been undertaken.

One step in that direction came in March 2014 when Brigham Young University and the Church History department jointly sponsored the Church History Symposium entitled The Worldwide Church: The Global Reach of Mormonism. One highlight of the symposium was President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s powerful keynote address entitled “Seeing Beyond the Leaf.” Emphasizing the importance of learning our history, President Uchtdorf took his title from a remark made by Michael Crichton in which he stated, “If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” President Uchtdorf went on to encourage us to be more diligent in our study and working in Church history and challenged us to take the lessons learned and make a difference both in our personal life and in the Church as a whole. Terryl Givens provided another keynote address in which he highlighted the universal nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The symposium included fifty-eight total presenters who shared research that covered dozens of countries and numerous important topics regarding the international Church.

As a result of this symposium, many scholars, some who had not worked in the area of international Church history before, as well as others who had, made several important contributions to our understanding. Several of these scholars are members of the religion faculty at Brigham Young University. Ken Alford analyzed the pioneering work of soldiers establishing Church units within Afghanistan. Scott Esplin and Barbara Morgan both added research regarding the Church Educational System in Mexico. Richard Bennett examined how not only the LDS Church but other Christian denominations have blossomed in Africa. J.B. Haws studied the impact of the suspension and reintroduction of the work of the Church in Ghana. John Hilton contributed original research on the beginnings of the Church in Taiwan. Greg Wilkinson investigated the Church’s standing as a new religion in Japan. I continued my research on the foundation of the Church in Thailand. Roger Minert examined the introduction of the Church in Austria. Mauro Properzi examined how interfaith relationships have impacted the growth of the Church in Italy. Mary Jane Woodger examined the pioneering work of Wallace Toronto as an early mission president in Czechoslovakia. Three of our faculty members examined issues related to the international Church which were not tied to a specific geographic area. Craig Manscill spoke on conflict and martyrdom, and Craig Ostler examined the impact of humanitarian work in the international Church. In addition, Richard Cowan made a study of how the Church leadership has adjusted to administer an international Church. Several part-time or adjunct professors in Religious Education also took part in the conference.

As we continue to investigate the internationalization of the Church, it is crucial that we study the international Church in context. We must continually seek to understand the Church within the larger context of other cultural, political, and religious influences. For example, it is important to understand how local culture and traditions influence the growth of the Church in each land. We must also look at how local politics and legal realities influence the spread of the Church internationally, especially how these factors affect the religious freedom different countries and cultures. The intersection between the LDS Church and other faith traditions will continue to be fruitful ground for investigation. Social issues and structures often differ across cultures. These social issues, such as gender and family relations will need to be included as scholars seek to understand the international Church.

Besides understanding how external context influences the growth of the Church, another important facet that needs to be examined is how the internationalization of the Church impacts culture and administration within the Church. For example, how does the internationalization of the Church impact curricular issues? What impact will the increased demand for translation of Church materials and the need to make them quickly accessible to an ever broader worldwide membership have on the Church? How does the continued growth of the Church in less affluent areas impact Church finances, not to mention the ever increasing and diverse physical facility needs? How will the administrative structure of the Church need to adjust to effectively teach and train leaders and members worldwide? These are only some of the ways the internationalization of the Church will impact culture and administrative reality within the Church.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, “The Church has done many difficult things, and from these achievements one would not wish to detract. But all the easy things the Church has had to do have been done. From now on it is high adventure!”[3] That statement was made in 1979. Though true thirty years ago, that statement seems even more appropriate today. As the Church moves forward in the twenty-first century, it will be facing unique challenges made all the more daunting because of the worldwide scope of the work. In his address at the Church History Symposium mentioned earlier, Terryl Given’s asked, “How do you export and disseminate the gospel in all its purity and goodness to myriad peoples, nationalities, ethnic groups and societies, without the cultural trappings and accretions it has acquired? The problem is as old as Christianity.” Just as the Lord’s church in former times learned to operate globally after starting on a far more local scale, the Lord’s church in the latter-days must also learn to thrive on a worldwide scale after starting with similarly local origins. Ours will be the task of not only helping with that work, but documenting it for all to see and understand.

Notes

[1] The mission of Joseph Smith, Sr. and Don Carlos Smith to Canada in September 1830 began international missionary work in the latter-days.

[2] This statistic and all of the statistics in this article were taken from Deseret News Church Almanacs for the respective years.

[3] Neal A. Maxwell, “The Old Testament: Relevancy within Antiquity,” in A Symposium on the Old Testament (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979), 12.