A Quick overview of church leadership and organization

When Joseph Smith was called of God to restore the New Testament Church in the latter days, he was set apart as a prophet, Seer, and Revelator. This calling was not new, as over the course of the worlds history, God has always called prophets to reveal his will to the world.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has continued this practice from the beginning of the founding of the Church. leadership culminates with the prophet and designated as the president of The Church. Members believe that the prophet is the mouthpiece of the Lord for all of Heavenly Father’s children. To learn more about church leadership you can visit, “How is A New Prophet or Apostle Called in The Church”.

In very simple terms, the authority of the prophet is delegated to the general authorities through the stake authorities to the ward authorities. There is no power or authority of the priesthood equal to the prophet except through his authority to delegate said authority to other leaders within the boundary of their callings.  The only individual with more authority than the prophet is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The church has adopted many models of church gathering in the past, but the current basic building blocks of church gatherings consists of branches, wards, and stakes. To learn more about church organization you can visit, “Wards and Stakes” on the Church website.

​The word mission can be confusing to those inside and outside of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A mission can be constituted as a geographical place, with missionaries as those who serve in the mission. Today those missions include little physical investment and are simply boundaries for work being done all over the world. In the time period of the history we are documenting, missions were both temporal and spiritual. Missions were outposts where Latter-day Saints would serve to build and improve infrastructure, trade, and logistics. Many of these missions would provide the building blocks to keep the Church self sustaining. Later as the church membership continued to grow in the areas originally established as missions, they became set apart as stake, wards and branches.

Bishops

Bishops can also be confusing for those who are not well versed in church leadership. Most Latter-day Saints think of the bishops in their local congregations, or wards. Bishops could be described as the leader of local congregations much like pastors are in other christian faiths. There is one big difference that sets Bishops apart from other leadership callings and that would be their involvement with the physical well-being of the community and church members.

The authority of the bishop in small southwestern towns is often overlooked by modern scholars. The fact is, all the communities between Salt Lake City and San Bernardino, California were mostly Church settlements, planned and established by Church President Brigham Young and his desire for the expansive dream which would give the Church a road to the port on the Pacific Coast.

Within the boundaries of the communities and missions set up by the Church, the bishop was a local judge for the spiritual and physical laws of the community. In the early years, bishops were called by the top leadership of the church and sustained by their local Church members by a unifying vote of common consent. These members would then commit to obey and support their bishop’s decisions for the community. 

In 1901, William E. Abbott was set apart as bishop of the new community of Mesquite. As bishop of the Mesquite Ward, he was recognized by his community members as their leader. Bishop Abbott had the energy and gift of communicating his vision to make Mesquite important enough to become a place travelers had to pass through to get further along the road.

Mesquite, Nevada was exactly halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The road coming into Mesquite was nearly impassable. In fact, the Virgin River was the road between Beaver Dam/Littlefield and Mesquite. The road from Mesquite to Las Vegas was more established in that it no longer followed the Virgin River to St. Thomas, Nevada. Bishop Abbott with the help of community member built bridges and improved the roads to and from Mesquite to help boost the local economy and change Mesquite from just an agricultural economy to both agriculture and travel. The roads welcomed weary travelers with newly modified hotels, service stations and eating establishments.

The ST George Stake

The ninth oldest and continually active Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was established on November 7, 1869, in St. George Utah.  At that time the St. George Stake included every settlement west of St. George to the Pacific Ocean.

​Apostle Erastus Snow called Joseph W. Young as the first president of the St. George Stake.  In 1875, at the death of Joseph W. Young, Robert Gardner as his first counselor, and A.F. McDonald as his second councilor, presided over the Stake until J.D.T. McAllister was called as Stake President on April 7, 1877.

​On January 7, 1877, the Bunkerville Branch of the Santa Clara Ward, held it’s first Church meeting on Settler’s Point, on the south side of the Virgin River.  Then in early 1879 the Bunkerville Ward of the St. George Stake was organized with Edward Bunker Sr. as Bishop.

​In January 1880, the Mesquite Ward was organized with William H. Branch Jr. as Bishop.  The communities of Beaver Dam, Littlefield in Arizona and Overton, St. Thomas, Logandale, in Nevada were Branches of the St. George Stake with Bunkerville Ward being their presiding authority.

​In 1883, the Mesquite Ward was dissolved due to the settlers moving away.  It became the Mesquite Branch of the Bunkerville Ward.

Wards and Branches in the Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley were reorganized several times.  The most notable being the re-establishment of Mesquite Ward in 1901.  William E. Abbott was called as Bishop and served until 1929 as one of the most influential bishops in Mesquite.

​In 1884 or early 1885, Isaiah Edward Cox was set apart as Bishop of the Overton, Nevada Ward.

The Moapa Stake

On Sunday, May 9, 1912, at a Stake Conference held in Overton, Nevada the Moapa Stake of Zion was created. The boundaries of the Moapa Stake included all communities west of St. George, Utah within the Great Basin. These communities
included Overton, Logandale, Bunkerville, Mesquite, St. Thomas, Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, Goodsprings, Panaca, Pioche, Caliante, Alamo, Hiko, and Dry Lake, in Nevada and Kingman, Littlefield, Beaver Dam, in Arizona. The majority of church members lived in the Virgin Valley and the Moapa Valley.

In 1916, the Las Vegas Branch of the Bunkerville Ward had gained sufficient members to become an independent Branch. Between WW I and WWII, a significant number of members living in Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley had moved to Las Vegas to find work. Through their missionary work, the numbers of converts in the Las Vegas area grew quickly. By the end of WWII, more members
of the church lived in the Las Vegas Area than in the rest of the Moapa Stake combined. Moapa Stake headquarters had moved from Overton, Nevada to Las Vegas. The hardship of traveling from far distant communities of the Moapa Stake to Las Vegas for Church meetings and business created a request that the Moapa Stake be divided.

On October 8, 1954, in an historic first ever televised Stake Conference, the Las Vegas Stake was organized and the Moapa Stake was reorganized. The Las Vegas Stake included all communities in the Las Vegas Valley, Boulder City and Goodsprings, in Nevada. The Moapa Stake included Overton, Logandale, Moapa, Warm Springs, Dry Lake, Bunkerville, Mesquite, Alamo and Hiko, in Nevada and Littlefield, Beaver Dam, in Arizona. Kingman, Arizona was placed in an Arizona Stake. Caliante, Panaca and Pioche, Nevada, were placed in the Uvada Stake with Enterprise and Beryl Utah.

The Logandale Stake

August 28, 1988, the Moapa Stake was reorganized into the Logandale, Nevada Stake. Mesquite, Bunkerville, Nevada and Beaver Dam/ Littlefield, Arizona were placed into the Bloomington Hills, Bloomington, Utah Stake. At this time there were three wards in Mesquite, two wards in Bunkerville, a Spanish Branch and members in Beaver Dam/Littlefield and Scenic, Arizona.

The Mesquite Stake

February 13, 1994, the Mesquite, Nevada Stake was formed. The new Stake boundaries includ Beaver Dam, Littlefield, Desert Springs, Scenic, Arizona and Mesquite, Bunkerville, Riverside, Nevada. So it was that 118 years from the time the first church meeting was held at Settler’s Point for the Bunkerville Branch of the St. George Stake, the founding families of all the wards in Southern Nevada finally achieved the status of having their own stake.