HomeThe Church
What your Latter-day Saint colleague believes and does, explained without a sermon
You do not need to share the faith to work alongside it, but it helps to know why the coffee machine sits unused on one floor, why a colleague vanished for two years at 19, and where a tenth of a paycheck goes. These thirteen pages describe what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe and do, attributed and without argument, with the figures a business reader wants: 17,887,212 members as of December 31, 2025.
- 01City Creek Center: a roof that opens and doors that close on Sunday
City Creek Center opened in Salt Lake City in March 2012 at a cost of up to $2 billion. Who owns it, why the stores shut on Sundays, and what critics said.
- 02Every bishop has a day job: how the priesthood works
Covers the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood, the unpaid lay ministry, ordination ages, the 1978 revelation, women's roles and what callings teach managers.
- 03Finding a testimony: the sentence that starts with I know
Explains what Latter-day Saints mean by a testimony, how the monthly fast and testimony meeting works, and how executives say conviction shapes decisions.
- 04Missionaries: two years, unpaid, and the résumé line that follows
Who goes on a mission, at what age since 2012, what a family pays each month, how the Provo training center works, and what two years of it does to a career.
- 05Receive the Holy Ghost: four words said over every new member
Explains confirmation after baptism, what members believe the gift of the Holy Ghost is, how it differs from the Spirit's influence, and how members use it.
- 06Sacrifice: what a tenth of everything looks like on a tax return
Ten percent of income, two skipped meals a month, years of unpaid church work and a family-funded mission: what Latter-day Saints give, with the figures.
- 07Same Jesus, extra book: what members share with other Christians and where they part
Sets out what Latter-day Saints share with other Christians, where the Book of Mormon and living prophets differ, and the honesty and Sabbath rules at work.
- 08Service: a grain silo, 46 thrift stores and 6.6 million volunteer hours
How a church with no paid local clergy runs a welfare system, a thrift-store chain and $1.45 billion a year in aid, and what executives take from it to work.
- 09Temples: the building you will only see from the outside, and the six-month exception
Temples are not the buildings Latter-day Saints attend on Sunday. What happens inside, who gets a recommend, how many there are, and the Salt Lake renovation.
- 10The Church's businesses, from a pioneer co-op to a $32 billion portfolio
A dated tour of the companies the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has owned since 1850, which ones survive, and which of them pay tax.
- 11The Word of Wisdom: why your Latter-day Saint client orders water
The 1833 code that keeps Latter-day Saints off alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea: what it says, how strictly it is kept, and how it plays at a business dinner.
- 12Where did I come from, why am I here, where am I going: the whiteboard version
Walks through the plan of salvation as missionaries draw it, from premortal life to the kingdoms of glory, and the long view members take of failure and risk.
- 13Why a Latter-day Saint's answer to "are you Christian" takes a minute
Sets out the belief in three separate beings, how it differs from the Trinity, the 1830 to 1843 dates, and why members answer the Christian question slowly.
About this section
The Church publishes its own numbers and I use those in preference to anything else. As of December 31, 2025: 17,887,212 members, 32,046 congregations, 211 operating temples and 78,596 full-time missionaries. Its Utah page listed 2,206,370 members, 5,365 congregations and 24 temples when checked in September 2026. Wikipedia counted 216 operating temples in July 2026; where the two disagree, the explainers use the Church's figure and its date.
The practical explainers are the Word of Wisdom, a revelation Joseph Smith dictated on February 27, 1833, which bars alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea and has been a condition of temple admission since 1921; tithing, one-tenth of income; and the priesthood, which sets who leads a congregation. The corporate explainers are City Creek Center, Deseret Management Corporation and Ensign Peak Advisors, the parts of the Church a business reader meets first.
13 explainers, 15,317 words. Beliefs are attributed, not argued.
Questions people ask
- How many Mormons are there
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 17,887,212 members worldwide as of December 31, 2025, organized in 32,046 congregations, with 78,596 full-time missionaries serving and 211 temples in operation. That is the Church's own count of members on its records, and it is the figure this site uses throughout. Utah's page listed 2,206,370 members when checked in September 2026, in a state of 3,538,904 people (2025), which is how the state ends up with 24 temples.
- How much do Mormons pay in tithing
- One-tenth of income, in the Church's own words, given "to the Lord through His Church". The Church says tithing funds build and maintain temples and meetinghouses, sustain missionary work and educate members. The Church's investment manager, Ensign Peak Advisors, handles the assets that accumulate; the SEC's February 2023 order said its equity portfolio grew from $7 billion to about $37.8 billion between 1997 and 2019, and the order came with a $4 million penalty for Ensign Peak and $1 million for the Church.
- Can Mormons drink coffee
- Coffee and tea are the "hot drinks" named in the Word of Wisdom, a revelation Joseph Smith dictated on February 27, 1833, that also covers alcohol and tobacco. Observance took decades to harden into a rule; in 1921 Church president Heber J. Grant made adherence a prerequisite for entering a temple, and it remains one. For a business reader the practical effect is the drinks list at a client dinner and the missing coffee budget in a Utah office, both of which the explainer covers.
01
02
03