Content preview - You need a premium account to view this content.

Growth of Stakes

Dale J. Stevens

A stake in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an administrative unit encompassing five to 12 wards or congregations. A stake is organized after the local population of an area reaches approximately 3,000 members and there are sufficient Numbers to assume leadership roles in the ward and stake offices. Otherwise, in areas where Church membership is limited, members belong to branches and are under the jurisdiction of a mission. The stake or mission is an administrative level of Church organization between the wards or branches and Church headquarters. The function of the stake is to guide and direct the local affairs of the Church. A stake is led by a stake presidency consisting of a president, two counselors, and a 12-member high council of high priests.

The term stake symbolically represents the tent pegs holding in place the tent of God's covering over the Church. Isa. 54:2 refers to stakes, or pegs, firmly holding the curtains around the tabernacle or sanctuary and seat of the Lord. The stake serves a similar purpose in the Church today.

The first stake was organized in 1832 in Kirtland, Ohio, with Joseph Smith as the stake president. The second stake was organized in Clay County, Missouri, in 1834. Before the Saints were forced to move from their settlements in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri, ten stakes had been organized. No stakes were organized during the troubled years 1841 to 1846. Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the Salt Lake Stake was established.

Between 1847 and 1877, stake organization was not given as much emphasis as during earlier and later periods. Their main function during this time was to host conferences, to instruct ward leaders, and to discharge disciplinary actions that were brought before the stake high councils. The general trend was that directions to ward bishops came directly from general Church authorities. During this period, seven stakes were organized in Utah, as well as one in San Bernardino, California, one in St. Louis, Missouri, and one in Carson Valley, Nevada.

A major restructuring of Church organization was begun in 1877 by Brigham Young. He declared that all stakes were equal and autonomous and that the Salt Lake Stake held no authority over other stakes. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were released as stake presidents and several of the largest stakes were divided. Quarterly stake conferences were instituted, to be presided over by a visiting General Authority. Stake presidencies were to be involved in overseeing the wards in their stake and to call local priesthood leaders to be home missionaries. The stake thus became the major governing unit between the wards and Church headquarters. Between 1847 and 1880, twenty-three stakes were organized. Although most were in Utah, stakes functioned in Arizona and Idaho, while the San Bernardino, St. Louis, and Carson Valley stakes had been discontinued. The first stakes organized outside of the United States were in 1895 in Cardston, Alberta, Canada, followed by one in Colonia Juárez, Mexico. The following illustrates the growth of stakes to the beginning of 1993. In October of 1993 there were 1,956 stakes in over 50 separate countries of the world.