Organizing the Church of Christ

On April 6, 1830, just ten days after the Book of Mormon was first offered for sale at the Grandin Printshop, Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and others gathered in the home of Peter and Mary Whitmer in Fayette, New York, to organize the Church of Christ.

This day, anticipated by Joseph Smith and his followers for many months, had finally arrived.

More than a year earlier, Joseph Smith’s revelations and preaching began telling Joseph and his followers that they must prepare for the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ.¹ In March 1829, in a revelation to Martin Harris, the Lord declared “The Testimony of Three Witnesses” should be added to the Book of Mormon and that the book’s publication would signal “the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church out of the wilderness” (Doctrine and Covenants 5:14).

In June, as the translation was nearing completion, Joseph took Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris to a secluded place in the woods on Whitmer Farm. After prayer, the three men, now known as the Three Witnesses, were shown the plates and other artifacts associated with the Book of Mormon. In their written testimony, included in every edition of the Book of Mormon, the witnesses declare they had seen an angel of God who showed them the plates and that they were commanded, by “the voice of the Lord,” to bear record of these things (“Testimony of the Three Witnesses,” Book of Mormon, Gospel Library).

A short time later, near the Smith Farm Home in Manchester, New York, eight additional witnesses were shown the plates by Joseph Smith.

Also in June 1829, a revelation directed Oliver Cowdery to “rely upon the things which are written,” especially those portions of the Book of Mormon which discuss the church among the Nephites (Doctrine and Covenants 18:3).² In response, Oliver began a careful review of the Book of Mormon manuscript and compiled a document which he called “A commandment from God unto Oliver how he should build up his Church & the manner thereof.” This document, eventually renamed “Articles of the Church of Christ,” outlined a church government based largely on the Nephite church.³ The renamed document, which was eventually revised by Joseph Smith as the “Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ” (Doctrine and Covenants 20, section heading), was put on hold when another revelation “pointed out to us the precise day upon which . . . we should proceed to organize [Christ’s] Church once again, here upon the earth.”⁴ With the “Articles and Covenants” ready, only the publication of the Book of Mormon remained before the Church could be organized.

After the Book of Mormon was published on March 26, the meeting to organize the Church was scheduled. While no minutes of the April 6 meeting have survived, several of the attendees left accounts which provide us with a detailed outline of the meeting. After an opening prayer, Joseph and Oliver were sustained as the first and second elders of the Church and as teachers by the gathered members. Once sustained, Joseph and Oliver took turns ordaining one another as elders, the sacrament was passed, and Joseph and Oliver confirmed those members who had previously been baptized and bestowed the gift of the Holy Ghost upon them.

After the confirmations were completed, Joseph stood before the congregation and dictated the revelation now found in Doctrine and Covenants 21. Once the revelation was received, Joseph and Oliver ordained several of the men who were present to various offices of the priesthood, and following “a happy time spent in witnessing and feeling for ourselves the powers & blessings of the Holy Ghost,” Joseph Smith wrote later, “we dismissed with the pleasing knowledge that we were now individually members of, and acknowledged of God, ‘The Church of Jesus Christ,’ organized in accordance with commandments and revelations.”⁵

Between April 6 and June 9, Joseph Smith and others held similar meetings in Manchester and Colesville, New York, where they organized additional branches of the Church. On June 9, 1830, during the first conference of the Church held at the Whitmer Home in Fayette, New York, the “Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ,” the document that Oliver and Joseph had created outlining how the Church should be governed, was presented for an approving vote of the members.⁶