| Jörg Klebingat | |
|---|---|
| First Quorum of the Seventy | |
| 5 April 2014 – | |
| Called by | Thomas S. Monson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 December 1967 Zweibrücken, West Germany |
| Spouse(s) | Julia Poltorak |
| Children | 3 |
Jörg Klebingat (born 19 December 1967) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since April 2014. He is a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a general authority is a member of the highest levels of leadership in the church who has administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church. A general authority's jurisdiction is church-wide, in contrast to the responsibilities of a local authority or an area authority, which relate to a particular area, unit, or department of the church. As a group, the general authorities are often referred to as "the Brethren". As of October 2017, there are 109 general authorities.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16 million members and 67,000 full-time volunteer missionaries. In 2012, the National Council of Churches ranked the church as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 6.5 million members reported by the church, as of January 2018. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
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Klebingat was born in Zweibrücken, West Germany. In 1985, he joined the LDS Church. He served in the German army for 18 months and later became a full-time missionary for the church in the Colorado Denver Mission.
Zweibrücken is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.
West Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, and referred to by historians as the Bonn Republic, was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the western portion of Germany was part of the Western bloc during the Cold War. It was created during the Allied occupation of Germany in 1949 after World War II, established from eleven states formed in the three Allied zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Its capital was the city of Bonn.
Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —widely known as Mormon missionaries—are volunteer representatives of the LDS Church who engage variously in proselytizing, church service, humanitarian aid, and community service. Mormon missionaries may serve on a full- or part-time basis, depending on the assignment, and are organized geographically into missions. The mission assignment could be to any one of the 421 missions organized worldwide.
He earned both a bachelor's degree in Russian language studies and a master’s degree in organizational behavior from Brigham Young University. [1] Klebingat's professional career included time as a business consultant for Price Waterhouse [2] and Arthur Andersen. He was later employed by the LDS Church in several capacities. [3]
A bachelor's degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelor's degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. In countries with qualifications frameworks, bachelor's degrees are normally one of the major levels in the framework, although some qualifications titled bachelor's degrees may be at other levels and some qualifications with non-bachelor's titles may be classified as bachelor's degrees.
Brigham Young University is a private, non-profit research university in Provo, Utah, United States completely owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and run under the auspices of its Church Educational System. Approximately 99 percent of the students are members of the LDS Church and one-third of its U.S. students are from Utah. The university's primary focus is on undergraduate education, but it also has 68 master's and 25 doctoral degree programs.
Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was an American holding company. Formerly one of the "Big Five" accounting firms, the firm had provided auditing, tax, and consulting services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational companies.
Klebingat has served in the LDS Church as elders quorum president, ward Young Men president, stake high councilor, bishop, and president of the Ukraine Kyiv Mission (2011–14). While serving as a mission president, he was sustained as a general authority at the church's April 2014 general conference.
Elder is a priesthood office in the Melchizedek priesthood of denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, a quorum is a group of people ordained or endowed with priesthood authority, and organized to act together as a body. The idea of a quorum was established by Joseph Smith early in the history of the movement, and during his lifetime it has included several church-wide quorums, including the First Presidency, the Presiding High Council, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Anointed Quorum, and the Quorum of the Seventy, as well as numerous local quorums for each congregation. The Council of Fifty, or General Council, was not part of the church, but a quorum-like body designed as a forerunner to establishing a theocratic government.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a ward is the larger of two types of local congregations, the smaller being a branch. A ward is presided over by a bishop, the equivalent of a pastor in many other Christian denominations. As with all local LDS Church leadership, the bishop is considered lay clergy and as such is not paid. Two counselors serve with the bishop to help with administrative and spiritual duties of the ward and to preside in the absence of the bishop. Together, these three men constitute the bishopric. A branch is presided over by a branch president who may or may not have one or two counselors, depending on the size of the branch. Groups of wards are organized into stakes, while groups of branches are organized into districts.
As of late 2016, Klebingat was serving as an assistant executive director in the church's Temple Department. [4]
