The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is getting ready to build a new temple in Springfield. A groundbreaking is set for June 6.
The Springfield Missouri Temple, at 2720 E. Farm Rd. 188, will be the third dedicated temple in Missouri. There are two others – in St. Louis and Kansas City.
Dale Rodman, communications director for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for southwest Missouri, said temples are places where ordinances, like marriages, are performed.
"It's significant for members of the church in the fact that they're able to go in there, get away from, you know, the everyday busyness of the world and go in and make covenants with God and to meditate and to ponder and receive instruction and participate in those kinds of ordinances where they don't do that in other buildings or in other places," he said. "And so, it's a quiet place to receive instruction, a quiet place to receive inspiration, a quiet place to be able to feel closer to God."
Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are different from meetinghouses or chapels where Sunday worship services are held. Each temple is considered a house of the Lord, according to the organization’s First Presidency in Utah, “where Jesus Christ’s teachings are reaffirmed so that families can be united for eternity.” It said church members can “seek peace and guidance in the temples, learn more about the purpose of life and make covenants to follow Jesus Christ and serve their fellow men.”
The new temple will be approximately 29,000 square feet and will sit on a 38-acre site along with a meetinghouse and distribution center. President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to build the Springfield Missouri Temple at the April 2023 General Conference.
Rodman said the general contractor, Zwick Construction, is based in Utah, but they’ll use local companies for the work as well as local materials.
"Some of the materials will be focused on, you know, like maybe the state flower or the state tree and so forth, will be incorporated in some of the design of that, maybe in some of the motifs or some of the stained glass windows and so on and so forth," he said.
Rodman said having a temple in Springfield will mean that members of the church will no longer have to drive to temples in Bentonville, Arkansas or St. Louis or Kansas City, Missouri.
More than 84,000 Latter-day Saints live in Missouri and meet in around 180 congregations.
