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The headline on a news feature this week read, “The New Spiritual Leader on Campus.”
That sure got my attention, since my assignment often includes coverage of Brigham Young University and the other colleges and universities sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The subheading of the story in “The Atlantic” was, “Students are growing less religious. Many chaplains are adapting.”
The basics of the piece were these:
- Many colleges and universities founded on religion have secularized, so college presidents and other leaders devote little or no time to the spiritual life of their students.
- Many schools hired chaplains to fill the gap.
- Chaplains now provide an “interdisciplinary web” of guidance beyond the spiritual as students who are less attached to established religions still seek belonging, meaning and purpose.
Headlines surrounding BYU this year couldn’t have more different messages.
In January, the Church Commissioner of Education said BYU and the other Latter-day Saint schools will not drift from church leadership.
In November, data surfaced that showed enrollment growth at Latter-day Saint universities rebutting the national narrative about young adults losing faith.
As for spiritual guides for students, BYU and the Church of Jesus Christ provide many more than most American colleges and universities.
Like other schools, BYU has a chaplain who works with students who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The 98.5% of BYU students who are Latter-day Saints become members of church congregations created specifically to serve their spiritual needs and provide other guidance.
BYU now has 170 congregations called wards that meet on campus. Those wards are administered by 18 stakes. The smallest BYU-related stake has seven wards.
Each stake has a president and two counselors as well as a Relief Society presidency who provide leadership, spiritual guidance, temporal aid and more.
Each ward has a bishop, two counselors, a Relief Society presidency and an elders quorum presidency who provide closer guidance.
And those numbers actually are larger.
In 2011, the Church of Jesus Christ changed the names of BYU stakes and wards to Provo YSA and Provo Married Student stakes and wards. Here is the total number of those stakes and wards, according to the Meetinghouse Locator at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
- 22 Provo Young Single Adult stakes.
- 4 Provo Married Student stakes.
- 228 Provo YSA wards.
- 37 Provo Married Student wards.
In all, then, the Church of Jesus Christ provides 265 congregations full of spiritual leaders in 26 student stakes with additional leaders.
Multiplying those by a low number of six leaders per unit to recognize just the stake presidencies or bishoprics and the Relief Society presidencies, it adds up to 746 spiritual guides provided in the church/BYU ecosystem that serves students living on campus and in Provo and the surrounding communities.
My Recent Stories
BYU announces the location for its School of Medicine (May 19)
Bible or Book of Mormon? Books of scripture Latter-day Saint leaders used most at general conference (May 17)
Made a mistake parenting a child? Own it and your kids will follow your example, BYU–PW leaders say (May 16)
Is there grace and atonement for baseball’s biggest sinners? (May 16)
About the church
The executive director of the Church Communication Department, Elder Matthew S. Holland, who is a General Authority Seventy, represented the Church of Jesus Christ at Sunday’s inauguration mass for Pope Leo XIV. Elder Holland hand delivered a the congratulatory letter from the First Presidency to the Vatican.
Elder Ulisses Soares dedicated the Nairobi Kenya Temple on Sunday. Read his dedicatory prayer.
The church joined dozens of faiths and charities to provide hope and aid for California wildfire survivors.
Leaders broke ground Saturday for the Natal Brazil Temple.
Read this to compare the church’s statistical reports from 2022 to 2024.
What I’m reading
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday the State Department will look to charitable religious organizations like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as it seeks to adjust foreign aid programs.
A Latter-day Saint woman explained why she won’t be watching Season 2 of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” in a piece that considers the reality of “secondhand embarrassment.”
Another Latter-day Saint woman wrote that the Hulu show exposes the bitter consequences of “sexual liberation”: “In the end, ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ isn’t really about Latter-day Saint wives at all. It’s about what happens when you try to keep the aesthetics of a faith while discarding its substance.”
ESPN’s Wright Thompson is one of America’s great longform magazine writers. His latest piece was right in my wheelhouse, “The Boston Celtics and the price of history.”