Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in East Tennessee, the Kingsport Tennessee Stake—created in 1980—was split during a March 9 conference in Kingsport to create the Johnson City Tennessee Stake. An Elizabethton resident, Ryan Hackett, is part of the new stake’s leadership.

Similar to a diocese in the Catholic faith, a stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a group of congregations, called wards and branches, in a geographic area. The directive to form a new stake came from the church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City.

The formation of the new stake resulted in leadership changes. The Kingsport Tennessee Stake presidency—Jeffrey Bauserman, Brent Young, and David Carter—was released and replaced by Kingsport resident Jason Pickup (president), with counselors David Durfey and Michael Peterson. The newly formed Johnson City Tennessee Stake presidency consists of Johnson City resident James Boone (president) with counselors Hackett and Ryan Youngblood (Blountville).

“The growth of our church in this area brings new opportunities to serve Christ, strengthen our congregations, and build deeper connections with our faith-filled neighbors,” said Boone, who will lead the seventh Latter-day Saint stake in the eastern Tennessee area. “We look forward to continuing worshiping and working alongside our neighbors to bless our communities.”

The Johnson City Tennessee Stake will be comprised of seven congregations: the Abingdon Ward and Marion Branch in Virginia; and the Bristol, Gray, Johnson City, and Watauga wards—as well as the Kingsport Young Single Adult Branch—in Tennessee. It will serve about 2,500 members.

The Kingsport Tennessee Stake, serving about 3,000 Latter-day Saints, has five Tennessee-based congregations: the Greeneville, Kingsport, and Lakeway (Morristown) wards, and the Rogersville and Newport branches—as well as the Powell Valley Ward in Virginia.