Historical Ministries of Our Savior’s

“That we may live out your impassioned response to the hungry and the poor;

 that we may live out truth and justice and grace,

 let us pray to the Lord”

From the Kyrie, Lutheran Book of Worship

 

We provide this history of Our Savior’s and its ministries so you can know, “Oh, so this is who this church is.”  Our history is our present.

A short history of a long story

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church was built at the corner of 9th Avenue and Emerson Street in Denver in 1923.  It was formed from two congregations founded primarily by Norwegian immigrants in 1881 in the Five Points neighborhood.  So its history goes back more than 140 years.

By the 1950s, several urban Lutheran congregations relocated to the suburbs.  But Our Savior’s chose to remain in Capitol Hill.  Gradually the church began to minister more actively to its neighbors, tutoring neighborhood children and serving as a city recreation site.

The 1970s saw the beginning of a new surge of activism, which continues to this day.  This activism was spurred by an understanding that Jesus’ message to love God and our neighbors calls us to address proactively the many needs of our world, as well as to provide for our spiritual needs. 

Ministries of 1970 – 2020

Of the many ministries of Our Savior’s in the half century from 1970 – 2020, several themes emerge.

      – Fostering spiritual growth;

      – Meeting immediate needs of food, clothing, and shelter;

      – Training people for employment;

      – Supporting social justice; and

      – Addressing the needs of the elderly.

For reasons of space, we list only a handful of ministries in each section.  Our purpose is, again, to give you a feeling for the church.

1. Fostering spiritual growth

                    Formal worship, ongoing and weekly, includes word and sacrament as well as music.  We also hold special services such as during Lent.

                    Christian education has encompassed many activities including children’s Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, adult education, and Bible Study.

2.   Meeting immediate needs for food, clothing, and shelter

                   Needs of the People has provided free food and clothing to thousands who come to the church in need since its beginning more than 40 years ago.

                   Family Promise/Interfaith Hospitality Network shelters families experiencing homelessness in metro churches for a week each, four times annually.  We 

                   participated in this program for almost two decades, with volunteer help provided by more than half the congregation.

                  Community Kitchen provided home-cooked meals to hundreds, mostly neighbors, three times weekly for several years.

                  Project Angel Heart makes meals for severely ill people free of charge.  For several years they prepared the meals in our kitchen, which we had updated to                                    accommodate them.

3.   Training people for employment

                  St. Luke’s Ministry supplied training for more than a thousand people to become Certified Nursing Assistants.

                  Turnabout focused on training formerly incarcerated people for jobs in construction.

4. Supporting social justice

                  National Namibia Concerns organized to free the southwest African nation of Namibia from the rule of apartheid South Africa.  It was housed at Our Savior’s due to                    the close personal relationship between Namibian pastors and members of the church.  Because of its political activities, NNC was not a formal ministry of the                              church.

                  Reconciling in Christ is a Lutheran organization by which congregations affirm their welcome to the LGBTQ community.  We adopted this designation in the early                          2000s.  We continue to affirm this identity.

                 New Beginnings provided worship services including Our Savior’s musicians to people incarcerated at Colorado Women’s Prison.

                 Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, and Cornerstone Peace and Justice Center, among others, had offices at the church.

5.   Addressing the needs of the elderly

                  Senior Center provided low-cost meals as well as entertainment, education, and socializing to thousands of elderly people over four decades.

                  Emerson Gardens offers 30 apartments to low-income elderly and people with disabilities just north of the church.  Developed by the church more than 30 years                          ago, we continue to sponsor this HUD-managed building.