Throwback- Our Savior Lutheran Church- Grand Rapids, MI

I started this post a long time ago and it got buried in my drafts. I photographed Our Savior in October of 2022. Enjoy!

I almost started this post by saying "At Our Savior, everything is about art" but as a good Lutheran posting about a good Lutheran church, I realized that's wrong, of course. In reality, everything at Our Savior is about Jesus, as it should be. But glory is given to God through the gift of art at this church.

Our Savior is blessed to be the spiritual home of one of my favorite artists, Ed Riojas. The sanctuary is wrapped in his Te Deum polyptych. A wonder of mid-century architecture, Our Savior pushes the bounds of what most (not all) Lutherans are comfortable with or used to as far as sacred architecture goes. Its ceiling is low and forces the eye to the front, where we see Jesus on the cross depicted as a tree of life. Immediately above the altar is a skylight, the main place where natural light enters the sanctuary; a beautiful metaphor for where we meet Jesus, at His altar during His Supper. Again, it's all about Jesus.