Former Latter-day Saint who is now a Community of Christ leader shares her conversion story
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IDAHO FALLS – Becoming a member of Community of Christ is something Michelle Phillips never would’ve imagined would happen when she was introduced to it.
The Ogden, Utah, woman, now 41, grew up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a mission in Independence, Missouri — right across the street from a Community of Christ temple. She was baptized into Community of Christ — an offshoot of the LDS Church — in 2022 and is now preparing to lead its Inland West Mission Center. Phillips is poised to be the mission center’s president and is tasked with “proclaiming Jesus Christ” throughout Idaho, Montana and parts of Utah, Wyoming and Washington.
If sustained at the church’s world conference in October, Phillips will be the first woman to serve as a mission leader in this geographic area. For Phillips, it’s also a historic moment as the first former Latter-day Saint to oversee this mission.
It’s a historic moment for the church in other ways as well. Stassi Cramm was ordained as the faith’s first female prophet-president on Friday.
On the heels of a visit to eastern Idaho where Phillips attended an ordination service at the Pocatello congregation, Phillips spoke with EastIdahoNews.com about her faith journey.
As she reflects on the historic nature of this call, she says it’s an exciting opportunity.
“We see a lot of interest and growth in our mission center and a lot of those folks are questioning or have left their former faith. That transition can be really difficult and to have a leader who has been through that is exciting for us,” Phillips says.
Phillips’ faith journey
Although Phillips was introduced to Community of Christ more than 20 years ago, she didn’t start actively exploring it until recently.
It all started in 2016 when she attended her first worship service. She and her husband had recently divorced and the idea of attending the LDS Church no longer appealed to her.
As a Latter-day Saint missionary in Missouri, she’d learned a great deal about her former faith’s interactions with Community of Christ — formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — and their common history with The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.
That history had always been a point of interest for her.
Amid the turbulence in her personal life, a Mormon feminist organization supporting the ordination of women to the priesthood caught her attention.
“Some of my friends had posted ordain women profiles on their website. One of them was Brittany Mangelson, who’s now the pastor of Community of Christ. I was like, ‘Wait a minute! I remember those people from my mission. What are they doing now?'” Phillips recalls.
Its support of female ordination wasn’t the main takeaway for Phillips, but gender equality was. She’d heavily supported LGBTQ rights in 2008 when leaders of her own church were supporting a ban on same-sex marriage in California — something that didn’t sit well with Phillips.
Phillips says LGBTQ ordinations have taken place in Community of Christ since 2013.
As Phillips continued to attend worship services, the more she felt called to join its ranks.
Still, Phillips had always been taught as a Latter-day Saint to honor the sacrifice of her forbearers — something that was important to her.
Her fourth-great-grandfather, Edward Phillips, was one of about 200 people who joined the LDS Church in England in 1840 after listening to some missionaries. He and his family later settled Davis County, Utah.
Michelle’s great-great-grandmother, Serena Torguson, was disowned by her family when she became the first woman in Norway to join the church. Michelle says Torguson’s husband died in a shipwreck as they were preparing to come to America, forcing her to leave everything behind and travel with her children alone.
“She walked across the plains to Utah with her little children and eventually married Archibald Gardner,” says Michelle, explaining that Gardner is the namesake for Gardner Village shopping mall in West Jordan.
This sense of loyalty to her ancestors, and her thoughts about leaving a church they had given everything to build, was a hard pill to swallow.
Ultimately, it was Torguson’s experience that helped Michelle “have the resolve to follow her own heart.”
“I was thinking about her one day while doing the dishes,” says Michelle. “I was kind of talking to her in my head, saying I really feel like God’s calling me on this other path and I just had this overwhelming feeling: That’s what she did. Her family didn’t understand it. She didn’t really know what it would mean, but she knew that God was calling her and she was willing to follow that call.”
Six years after attending Community of Christ services for the first time, Phillips was baptized.
Just like her ancestors’ experience, Michelle says her family didn’t understand or approve of her decision and it was difficult for them.
But in many ways, Michelle’s decision to join this faith hasn’t been anything like Torguson’s experience.
“They (my family) have been as supportive as they can be,” Michelle explains. “I have really good relationships with most of my family. My mom and sisters came to my baptism and my ordination. It’s been really heartening to see.”
It ‘feels more authentic’
Three years after her baptism, Michelle feels her new faith allows her to fully be herself and “grow into the person God is calling her to be.”
Today, Michelle is one of about 250,000 Community of Christ members worldwide. She says its message now is less about The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and is more focused on peace and justice through Jesus Christ.
“We gave up years ago the idea of one true church,” she explains. “We’d rather see ourselves as part of the great Christian story, part of God’s story here. We have a very unique … but important place in that story. To me, that feels more authentic.”
Michelle is excited about her new calling and to be in eastern Idaho more frequently. The Pocatello congregation is growing and three of its members from Idaho Falls recently launched what she calls house church. It’s an informal meeting once a month for others to learn more about Community of Christ.
EastIdahoNews.com asked to speak with one of the Idaho Falls members but did not get a reply.
Michelle invites those who’d like to learn more to attend a worship service or visit the website.
WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH PHILLIPS IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.