Latter-day Saint Temples vs. Churches: What's the Difference?

Drive through almost any town in Utah, and increasingly through cities on every continent, and you will see two kinds of Latter-day Saint buildings. One is a modest brick chapel with a single spire and a sign inviting visitors. The other is larger, carefully landscaped, with no meeting times posted and unusually quiet grounds. They look related, but they are not two versions of the same thing.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worship on Sundays in the first building, called a meetinghouse, and regard the second, the temple, as distinct and set apart. That distinction explains nearly everything that puzzles outsiders, from why temples are closed on Sundays to why you can tour one only at certain times.

The meetinghouse: where Sunday worship happens

The meetinghouse is the centre of weekly congregational life. A local congregation, called a ward, meets there on Sundays for sacrament meeting, where members partake of the sacrament — bread and water blessed and passed in remembrance of Jesus Christ — and listen to sermons given by fellow members rather than a professional clergy.

Meetinghouses are open to everyone. Visitors are welcome at Sunday services without invitation, membership, or any kind of interview, and the buildings stay busy all week: youth activities, classes, choir practice, community events, and family history centres often housed in the same building. Meetinghouses are numerous by design — built close to where members live, sized for a few hundred people, and meant to be walked into easily and often.

The temple: the House of the Lord

A temple is not a bigger church, and it is not where a congregation gathers on Sundays. In fact, temples are closed on Sundays. Latter-day Saints consider each temple the House of the Lord, set apart from everyday worship for specific ordinances — sacred ceremonies — and for quiet devotion.

The words "Holiness to the Lord — House of the Lord" appear on temples. No weekly congregation is assigned to a temple, and there are no Sunday sermons. A temple serves a wide region of members who travel to it, sometimes for hours, on weekdays and Saturdays.

Inside, temples are arranged in rooms designed for instruction and ordinances rather than for a large assembly. Members describe the experience as peaceful and unhurried, and speak about temple ceremonies with restraint, treating them as sacred rather than secret.

What happens inside a temple

Three kinds of ordinances are most often mentioned when members explain temples in their own terms.

First, marriages. Couples who choose a temple marriage are married and sealed in a temple sealing room. Second, sealings more broadly: spouses are sealed to each other and parents to their children, expressing the belief that family relationships can continue beyond death. Third, ordinances for the dead. Latter-day Saints teach that people who died without receiving essential ordinances, such as baptism, should not be shut out from them, so living members stand as proxies and receive those ordinances on behalf of deceased persons, often their own ancestors. That practice is one reason family history research holds such a prominent place in Latter-day Saint life.

Members also receive their own endowment, an ordinance of instruction and covenants, ordinarily before a mission or a temple marriage. By member accounts these ordinances are quiet, symbolic, and centred on Jesus Christ and on promises about how to live.

Who can enter, and what a temple recommend is

Before a temple is dedicated, anyone can go inside. After dedication, entry is limited to members who hold a temple recommend — a fact that causes most of the confusion, and sometimes hurt, around temples, especially when a family member cannot attend a wedding inside.

A temple recommend is a small card, now often held digitally, that a member receives after interviews with local leaders, typically a bishop and a stake president. In those interviews the member affirms basic matters of faith and conduct: belief in God and in Jesus Christ, support for the Church and its leaders, and living standards the Church teaches, such as honesty, chastity, and the Word of Wisdom, its health code. It is renewed periodically, and members understand carrying one as a statement of readiness, not a badge of rank.

Once dedicated, a temple is not open for tours or sightseeing, though its grounds are open to visitors in most places. None of this applies to meetinghouses, which remain open to all, all week.

Open houses: the moment anyone can tour

There is one generous exception. Before a new or renovated temple is dedicated, the Church holds a public open house, usually lasting several weeks. Anyone may tour, free of charge, walking the same rooms where ordinances will later be performed, guided by volunteers and explanatory materials.

Open houses draw large crowds, including neighbours of many faiths, because everyone understands the window is temporary. After it ends, the temple is dedicated in prayer. If you are curious, an open house is the opportunity members themselves would point you to.

Why so many temples are being announced

Longtime observers have noticed a clear acceleration. Temples that once numbered in the dozens now number in the hundreds between those operating, under construction, and announced, and announcements at general conference have become a regular feature.

The reasons members and Church leaders give are practical. The Church has grown internationally, and for most of its history a temple trip could mean days of travel and great expense for members in Latin America, Africa, Asia, or the Pacific. Building temples closer to members puts temple worship within reach of people who could never have made such a journey. The result is smaller temples in more places, alongside large landmark temples in major cities.

The angel Moroni, and why he is often missing now

For much of the twentieth century, a gilded statue of the angel Moroni, trumpet raised, stood atop most temples and became one of the most recognisable images of the faith. Moroni is a figure from the Book of Mormon, a prophet and record keeper, and the statue signalled a temple from a distance.

Many newer temples do not have one. Recent designs have favoured single spires without a statue, architectural styles drawn from local surroundings, and in some places no spire at all. Some older statues have also been removed during renovation or after damage. So the absence of Moroni does not mean a building is not a temple. The lettering identifying it as a house of the Lord is the more reliable sign.

Keeping the two buildings straight

A useful rule of thumb: if it has Sunday meeting times posted, it is a meetinghouse, and you can walk in. If it stands quiet behind landscaped grounds, closed on Sundays, it is a temple, set apart for ordinances members regard as among the holiest in their faith.

In Faith Map, the Latter-day Saint track presents the faith's scriptures and lessons in that same spirit, with reading and lessons free. Your faith is beautiful, and so, Latter-day Saints would say, is the house they build for the Lord — it simply serves a different purpose than the chapel down the street.