During the 1990s, the Church burst forth out of obscurity. (See D&C 1:30.)
General Authorities were spreading an understanding of the Church in their travels throughout the world in a new "bridge-building" program, and the world's attention was drawn to the Church more than ever before because of various activities, most especially the Pioneer Sesquicentennial. The Church was also recognized for its increasingly generous humanitarian aid to disaster victims and others in need.
"It has been a great decade," said Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve during a Church News interview. "Our doctrine, our service and our history are becoming recognized worldwide."
In a decade when the Church has been presided over by three prophets, membership grew from 7.8 million in 1990 to approaching 11 million by the end of the '90s. A major public relations firm was contracted to find ways to share the Church's message on a wider scale and, as the Church's leader in the last years of the decade, President Gordon B. Hinckley met with the media and many prominent people as he traveled more than any other Church president. Satellites were increasingly utilized to broadcast Church messages around the world, and the Church opened its own Internet site and put family history information online for computer users. Along with the Pioneer Sesquicentennial, the Church led or joined in celebrations marking the centennials of the Salt Lake Temple's dedication and of Utah statehood. The Hotel Utah was remodeled and rededicated as a Church-centered building and construction moved forward on a Conference Center where future general conferences will be held.
The growth of membership and an increased understanding of the Church and its mission around the world went hand in hand during the decade. A major milestone was reached when the Church announced in February 1996 that more than half its members lived outside the United States. In November 1997, membership reached 10 million.
There was an unprecedented expansion in temple building which brought added blessings to members in more areas than ever. It also made the Church more visible in those areas. The first temple dedicated in the 1990s — the Toronto Ontario Temple, on Aug. 25-27, 1990 — was the Church's 44th. Because of an acceleration in the rate of temple building, due in large part to the addition of many smaller temples, there are now 115 temples operating, under construction or planned. (A report about temples, the No. 2 story of the century, will be published in a subsequent issue of the Church News in the "Top Stories of the Century" series.)
Of all the events of the decade, the Pioneer Sesquicentennial celebration — "Faith in Every Footstep" — during 1997 attracted the most attention. And the happening most popular among the media during the celebration was the re-enactment of the 1847 Pioneer trek from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Winter Quarters, Neb., to the Salt Lake Valley.
The trek ended at This Is the Place State Park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon on July 22, to the cheering of a gathering of 50,000 people.
More than 1,000 newspaper articles were published covering the trek, as well as numerous magazine articles. Many television stations aired reports or documentaries on the trek.
The media coverage "highlighted both the effective use of media by the Church as well as the interest the media has in our story," said Elder Richard B. Wirthlin of the Second Quorum of the Seventy during a Church News interview. "It gave people an understanding not only of the event itself, but also, in almost every article, the driving force of faith was highlighted."
The spirit of the Sesquicentennial spread worldwide among Church members, as evidenced by smaller-scale celebrations. For example, there were parades in Rome, Italy, and in Belgium, and members of the Church pulled a replica of a pioneer handcart through some major cities in Russia and Ukraine.
In conjunction with the Sesquicentennial celebration, a Worldwide Day of Service on July 19, 1997, resulted in 20,000 Church units contributing more than 3 million hours of service in their local communities. Some representative samples of service were: Members of the Benoni South Africa Stake gave more than 5,000 hours fixing up a children's home, making quilts for the elderly and teaching homemaking skills. In Australia, members planted trees, and Madrid Spain Stake members refurbished a historic nature park.
There was the traditional Pioneer Day parade in Salt Lake City on July 24, 1997. A Sesquicentennial Spectacular was staged in BYU's Cougar Stadium the evenings of July 24-25, with members of the First Presidency participating in the program. More than 130,000 spectators attended the two nights of the show.
The First Presidency also marked the Sesquicentennial Pioneer Day by breaking ground for the new 21,000-seat Conference Center on the block north of Temple Square. April 2000 general conference is scheduled to be the first event in the building with dedication set for the following October.
While there were more reasons during the decade for the world to look at the Church, there was also a need recognized by Church leaders to take the Church's message to the world. The result was a bridge-building campaign designed by Edelman Public Relations Worldwide with corporate headquarters in Chicago and New York, a firm engaged by the Church to increase its public exposure in a positive way. The campaign's strategy was to arrange meetings for General Authorities with media representatives, government leaders, business leaders and other prominent and influential people so the Church's message could be spread clearly and accurately.
The bridge-building program is an "attempt to put the Brethren in contact with some of the leading thinkers and leading political lights of our time as well as notable businessmen and women," said Bruce L. Olsen, managing director of the Church Public Affairs Department. He explained that the General Authorities go to where those people are and explain a little bit about the Church and discuss specific interests the people may have. Those interests may be in areas such as family, education, welfare and Church history.
At the first bridge-building meeting, President Gordon B. Hinckley and Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve attended a luncheon at the Harvard Club in New York City on Dec. 13, 1995. Among the prominent people President Hinckley became acquainted with at the luncheon was Mike Wallace of the highly rated CBS news magazine program "60 Minutes." As a result of that meeting, President Hinckley was interviewed by the TV journalist. The interview was broadcast as a segment of the April 7, 1996, "60 Minutes" program.
At the October 1996 general conference, during the priesthood session, President Hinckley spoke of the reason for giving media interviews such as that on the "60 Minutes" program and another in 1998 with Larry King, host of nationally broadcast radio and television talk shows. He said: "It represents an opportunity to tell the world something of our story. As Paul said to Festus and Agrippa, 'This thing was not done in a corner.' (Acts 26:26.) We have something that this world needs to hear about, and these interviews afford an opportunity."
Brother Olsen concluded that the bridge-building program "has been a highly successful program and has done the Church a lot of good and will continue to do the Church a lot of good as people learn more about the Church."
As the leader of the Church, President Hinckley has been an accessible spokesman around the world. At the October 1996 general conference, he said, "I have determined that for so long as I have the strength to do so, I will get out and meet with the Saints I love, both the youth and the adults."
True to that statement, he has traveled extensively, visiting every continent except Antarctica and speaking to hundreds of thousands of members. While traveling more than any other president in the history of the Church, President Hinckley has, according to Elder Ballard, "been fearless in the sense that he's not afraid to meet with the media when he is out there."
While Church leaders were personally taking the Church's message to the world, technological forms of communication were also increasingly utilized. Especially important was the use of computer technology as more and more people gained access to personal computers.
As the decade opened, the Church released FamilySearch computer software to assist in family history work. A few years later, in 1993, TempleReady software made it possible for names from family history research to be cleared rapidly for temple work. The continuing progress has led now to the family history Internet site and the online availability of many family history tools. When the site officially went online in May 1999, it was overwhelmed by around 100 million hits a day. It has now leveled off to about 5 million hits a day.
"We have always wanted to make full use of technology as it has evolved, and in the '90s it has evolved at full speed," said Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Seventy and executive director of the Church Family History Department in a Church News interview. "We think it has been created, in part, for this purpose."
However, he emphasized, despite recent advances, the key to family history has been and will remain the efforts of Church members whether or not they are familiar with the latest technology. "Family history in its essence doesn't rely on the computer. Most people just need to search their memory, draw on the memory of other family members, draw on the records and other information they find in their homes. Most members will find a number of names they can take to the temple with no more technology than paper and pencil."
Putting family history resources on the Internet has helped the Church beyond its own membership. Elder Christofferson said, "The Internet service has developed a tremendous reservoir of goodwill for us. People are grateful the information is available for them where they can get at it."
Another computer benefit for the Church added in the latter part of the decade was its own official Internet site containing information on the Church's basic beliefs, on member resources such as Church publications and conference reports, on family history resources, and information for the media such as recent press releases.
Elder Wirthlin pointed out: "There are two things that make communications so critical for the Church now. First, growth has given the Church higher visibility than it had in the '70s and '80s. And second, the revolution in the way we communicate. The multiplicity in television channels and the Internet give us the ability now to communicate with each other and various audiences in ways that weren't with us a short 10 years ago."
The Church is also reaching out to the world with service and is distributing an ever-increasing amount of humanitarian aid.
Elder Ballard said, "There has never been a period in the history of the Church when more has been done internationally on humanitarian service than during the 1990s."
Conflicts and disasters around the world have created the need for service while the expanding size and scope of the Church have put it in a position to provide much needed assistance. Throughout the decade, from the devastation of areas of the Southeastern United States from Hurricane Andrew early in the decade, through military conflicts in Kosovo and major earthquakes in Taiwan and Turkey near the end of the decade, members of the Church at the local level, as well of the Church in general, have been there to provide relief.
Harold C. Brown, managing director of the Church Welfare Services Department, expressed during a Church News interview an understanding of why such generous aid for the needy has been possible: "The spirit of the wonderful Latter-day Saints has been the reason, and has given the Church the ability to do what has been done. It is the members' unselfish contributions of time and money and means, for people throughout the world, for people they have never met."
Tons of clothing, food, and other necessities have been donated by the ever-increasing membership of the Church and subsequently prepared by volunteers to be shipped by the Church wherever needed. In one continuing project directed by the Relief Society, the number of quilts donated for victims of various calamities rapidly approaches 100,000.
The Church will continue its efforts to relieve suffering and foster self-reliance throughout the world. According to Brother Brown, "As long as there are those who hunger, thirst, who are sick or who are in need, Latter-day Saints, with their kind hearts and willing hands, will stand ready to help."
The decade of the '90s dawned under the leadership of President Ezra Taft Benson, and an era of celebrations began with the Salt Lake Temple centennial in 1993. The temple was prepared for its anniversary by receiving a thorough exterior cleaning. The refurbished temple then was featured in a movie about its construction, "The Mountain of the Lord," that was released during the centennial events.
Later, the temple was used in the film "Legacy," a dramatic portrayal of the early years of the Church produced for presentation in the Legacy Theater in downtown Salt Lake City. On June 27, 1993, the former Hotel Utah, after total renovation, was dedicated as the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and now features, along with the Legacy Theater, other public areas on the main floor and mezzanine and in restaurants on the top floor. A Church Distribution Center and Beehive Clothing Store are in the basement. Church offices fill most of the other floors.
As the decade progressed, President Howard W. Hunter was ordained president of the Church shortly after President Benson's death on May 30, 1994. A significant milestone of growth occurred during President Hunter's administration when he presided over the organization of the Church's 2,000th stake in Mexico City in December of that year. He died on March 3, 1995, and President Hinckley was ordained and set apart as Church president on March 12.
In an event that Elder Ballard noted "folded into the 1997 Sesquicentennial," the Church participated in the yearlong celebration of Utah's statehood centennial which began on Jan. 4, 1996. Elder Ballard, who was asked by then-Utah Gov. Norman Bangerter to sit on the centennial commission, said, "You can't tell the story of our state without telling the story of the Church."
Two changes in Church administration in the 1990s were the replacement of regional representatives in 1995 by Area Authority Seventies, and their assignment to the newly organized Third, Fourth and Fifth Quorums of the Seventy in the April 1997 general conference.
As the end of the decade approached, the Church said farewell at the October 1999 general conference to the Salt Lake Tabernacle as site of general conferences. It seemed fitting that as the Church increased its stature on the world stage, that it would be moving its general conferences into the larger Conference Center as the new century approaches. With continued Church growth and activity, the move out of obscurity promised to continue at an accelerated pace.
