CHURCH FORMS NEW CONGREGATION IN TYLER

TYLER– The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the creation of a new congregation in the Tyler, Texas, area today.

Congregations of the Church are organized geographically, and members attend worship services near their homes. Each member belongs to a ward or congregation depending on where they live.

The new congregation is called the “Legacy Trail Ward,” and was created from sections of the preexisting Tyler First Ward, Tyler Second Ward, and Whitehouse Ward. These wards all have about 300 members regularly attending every Sunday. The new Legacy Trail Ward will also have about 300 memberships due to the reorganization of members.

The announcement came under the direction of the stake presidency, the leadership that oversees the 3,800 members of the Church in the Tyler, Texas, area. President Charles Rhodus presided at the meeting, and the membership of the Church sustained the changes. There are now ten wards in the Tyler Texas Stake.

President Rhodus says the growth in Smith County is what prompted the changes. The local leadership submits the request to the headquarters of the Church, and the new congregation is approved by The First Presidency, the highest leadership body of the Church overseeing 16.6 million members. There are more than 30,000 wards and branches worldwide.

“We have had an exuberant response from the members,” says President Rhodus “With the growth of the population of Smith Country, we’re also seeing the membership of the Church grow exponentially. It’s exciting! We have so much gratitude for devoted Saints moving from all over the world to Tyler.”

The lay leader of a ward is called a bishop. He is a member of the congregation who has been asked to serve as a volunteer in this position.

With the creation of the new Legacy Trail Ward, a new bishop was also called. Justin Sacks, an interventional radiologist in the Tyler community, will now serve in this volunteer clergy position, in addition to his professional career. Sacks and his wife, Julie, have five children.

Sacks will serve with two counselors, Rod Caesar as the first counselor and Brett Leavitt as the second counselor.

The creation of a new congregation is a special occurrence for the Church, as the last time this happened in Tyler was in 2011. Rhodus says in the Tyler Second Ward, there were more than 160 new members just this year, and in Tyler First Ward, there have been close to 100 new members. At the stake level with more than 3,800 members, the Church has seen an increase in 700 members from the five counties just this year (Henderson, Cherokee, Smith, Anderson, and Van Zandt).

The new meeting times for the Church building on Shiloh Road are as follows: Tyler First Ward meeting at 9 am, Legacy Trails at 10:30 am and a special meeting for young single adults at 12 pm.