e-Government and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
My final project essay discusses the challenges The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faces as a global entity. It illustrates that as the Church has grown over the past 180 years, even becoming a global entity, technology has played a key part in the growing process, particularly in unifying, standardizing and communicating in the Church.
After first discussing facts about the rapid growth of the church, I discuss various challenges of a global organization and the Church’s approach to dealing with these issues. Though some challenges and resolutions do not necessarily involve technology, this essay focuses on how technology is central to the development and maintenance of a worldwide church. Here are some highlights discussed in the essay:
· The Church’s “accelerating growth pattern has continued with about a million new members now being added every three years or less,” with over 13 million members at present. Membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew 1.71 in the last year alone.
· The Church sends missionaries all over the world to preach. Missionaries are trained to speak the native language of those they teach (e.g. an American might be sent to Chile to preach in Spanish; he/she is trained to speak Spanish before going to Chile).
· The Church has produced web sites like LDS.org and FamilySearch to make Church and genealogical information available to everyone—members of the Church and those as well as those of other faiths.
· The Church has established Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube sites so anyone can find official information about the Church doing a simple Internet search.
· Church leaders encourage members to create online profiles to share their testimonies and personal witnesses about the Church and its mission.
· Technology enables the Church to reach all of its members nearly simultaneously. Every six months the Church holds a worldwide conference (Salt Lake City) and broadcasts live proceedings throughout the globe via satellite television, cable, and the Internet. The proceedings are translated into over 160 languages, providing live audio streaming to non-English speaking members across the globe.
· Church management and standardization of Church meetings for local areas throughout the world are communicated through means of e-mail, training broadcasts, and handbooks of instruction published on the Internet. Local units of the Church are able to access standardized policies, lesson materials, and other information using the Internet.
· The Church encourages members to maintain their individual, regional, and national cultures while holding membership in the Church. They do, however, discourage members from following cultural behaviors contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
· Church leaders are not physically able to visit every part of the world on a regular basis. However, through delegation and technology, members worldwide communicate with leaders of the Church. For example, regional and area broadcasts are given with conferences and other information specific to certain regions of the world. Translation for live streaming is done as necessary.
· The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operates as a successful global entity despite opposition and other challenges as a result of communicating and governing itself, primarily with use of various technologies. Members worldwide can hear live proceedings of general conferences in their own tongue, sign in to ward and stake websites, and find Church materials at anytime on the Internet using LDS.org in addition to several other means of communication/connection. As the Church continues to grow at a rapid rate, there is little doubt that every effort will be taken to ensure new members stay connected with the Church; technology will play a key role in this effort.
