Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints breaks ground on temple in south Springfield

Last edited 3:53 p.m., June 8, 2026 [Editor's note: A typo in the headline has been fixed.]

At 83, Deanna Hinnen, a founding member of the Branson stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, remembers a time when the nearest temple was in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Visiting the temple is important in the faith tradition, because that’s where sacred ceremonies, called ordinances, occur, according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website. These include marriages – called temple sealings – as well as baptisms and baptisms of the dead, as well as endowment ceremonies that include sacred promises to God.

Hinnen made the 1,200-mile-plus trek to Utah for her religious observances.

“No sacrifice is too great and no price too heavy in order to receive the blessings of the temple,” she said Saturday during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new temple – one that will be right up the road for Hinnen at 2720 E. Farm Road 188 just south of the Springfield city limits.

Springfield Stake President Devon P. Jarvis, 50, grew up an adherent of the faith in Willard. Jarvis recalled in an interview after the ceremony that when he was young, his family had a choice between the two nearest temples, one in Dallas and the other in Chicago. Together, they would make the trip faithfully, once a year in the summer.

After that, temples were built in Missouri – St. Louis, dedicated in 1997, and Kansas City, 2012.

Now, Jarvis said, there is a temple in Bentonville, Arkansas, that gives his 18-year-old son an advantage Jarvis never had.

“He said, ‘I want to go once a week,’” Jarvis said, and that has happened, deepening his son’s faith life in ways that were only possible through proximity.

Jarvis said he has watched the way the temple has influenced his teenagers, even two hours away.

“We’re 20 minutes away; we can go as often as we want to,” he said. “Being connected to the sacredness of this holy house has influence on our kids, which I think has influence on our communities.”

The temple is designed as a 29,000-square-foot, single-story building on a 38-acre site. It will have two instruction rooms, two sealing rooms and a baptistry, according to a fact sheet provided by church officials.

Estimates are that 20,000 church members across six stakes, or groups of congregations, will use the temple, the fact sheet states.

Tied in with the spiritual significance for church members is the economic development benefit of having a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Springfield. The temple will serve more than the surrounding stakes; it will draw an entire watershed of church members for whom Springfield is closer than the surrounding options.

Sarah Saucedo Carey is communication director for the Springfield South Stake – one of two stakes in the city along with the Springfield Stake. Saucedo Carey said that likely means some benefit for restaurants and other local businesses, with perhaps a small uptick for lodging establishments, though most who travel to the Springfield temple will be able to return home within a two-hour drive.

The ready availability of a temple is attractive to those church faithful who would relocate for work or build businesses in Springfield.

Richard “Biff” Williams, president of Missouri State University, was present at Saturday’s ceremony and was invited to turn a shovelful of soil.

Williams said it was a happy occasion to be part of.

“It’s been a real fun journey for us here,” he said. “When we were interviewing for the position, of course faith is really important for us, and so that mattered a lot to us. Knowing that there is a temple being announced here today is just the start of a very exciting time.”

Also wielding a gold shovel was former Springfield Mayor Ken McClure, under whose term the effort to bring a temple to the Queen City began.

“This is very special for the Springfield community,” McClure said. “This location is very good; I think it’s very meaningful to the faith community, and Springfield will continue to be a magnet, I think.”

Plans for the temple were announced in 2023, with the location announced in 2024. An exterior rendering of the temple was released later that year.

The architect is Richardson Design Partnership LLC of Salt Lake City, and Olsson Inc. is the civil engineer, with Zwick Construction Co. Inc., also of Salt Lake City, serving as construction manager. Church officials say the temple is estimated to be completed in late 2028 or early 2029. They declined to disclose the cost.

Past Springfield Business Journal reporting cited the most recent data from the Association of Religious Data Archives, dating from 2020. It shows that among Springfield metro area people who identify as belonging to a religious group, 1.7% identify as Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members.

The data showed 672 congregations from all faiths within the metro area, including 16 Latter-day Saints congregations with 8,022 adherents.