A Safe Place to Explore Faith in Downtown Birmingham
Sanctuary is a community church on the corner of Willits and Bates in downtown Birmingham, Michigan. Its doors open onto a 1929 English Gothic building of Indiana limestone, complete with gargoyles over the front stoop and stained glass windows that have watched over the congregation since the Great Depression. Across 150 years of history, the people gathered at 300 Willits Street have shared a single conviction: that a church is not a building, but a community of good neighbors. The motto on the door says it plainly - a safe place to explore faith - and the church extends that invitation to those who have worshipped their whole lives and to those stepping through the door for the first time.
A Gothic Landmark in the Heart of Town
It is unusual for a church to be housed in an English Gothic structure with gargoyles, but the building and the congregation have grown up together. The first wooden sanctuary was built three years after the church was founded in June 1870. Membership rose steadily through the 1920s, and two visionary pastors, called in succession, inspired the congregation to plan a permanent home. The cornerstone for the present building was laid in 1929, financed by members who mortgaged their own houses. Six months later the stock market crashed, and the young congregation survived on faith and credit, with some members selling parcels of land to meet mortgage payments. The 1929 sanctuary and its striking stained glass, together with the 1959 education wing, are now considered an architectural landmark in Birmingham. The church encourages everyone to visit and tour the building, and the historic stone and limestone details are meant to be seen up close.
Sundays at 10:30 in the Sanctuary
Sunday worship is held at 10:30 in the morning in the traditional sanctuary. Visitors are asked to use the main doors on Willits Street. The order is intentionally traditional, with music led by the Sanctuary Collective and preaching shaped by a teaching pastor who brings nearly a quarter century of parish experience to the pulpit. Services run about an hour. Recent services are posted on the church's YouTube channel, and the worship space is also equipped for live streaming, so anyone unable to attend in person can follow along online. Coffee Hour gathers in the Parlor on the third Sunday of each month right after the service for conversation and community.
Four Freedoms and a Faith That Asks Questions
Sanctuary's identity is rooted in historic Baptist convictions, and the congregation names four essential freedoms as the foundation of its life together. Soul Freedom holds that each person is responsible for their personal relationship with God, without control by clergy or government. Bible Freedom affirms the individual right to read and interpret Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Church Freedom calls the church to meet the wider community's needs, often in partnership with others. Religious Freedom insists that every person should be free to worship, or not, as they are led, with strong support for constitutional protections of religious liberty for all.
The Church Covenant builds on those freedoms. Members commit to upholding Baptist liberties, to engaging in the dedication of children, believer's baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and to welcoming all persons. They also pledge to participate in worship, fellowship, stewardship, and service, to cooperate with American Baptists for Christian unity and interfaith understanding, to be just in their dealings, and to share the gospel as they practice Christian discipleship across a lifetime. The vision statement describes the church as a place where people from all walks of life can pursue freedom, safety, and life-giving faith, even when they do not always think alike, and where Christ's model of acceptance, love, and progressive action shapes the work of the congregation.
A 150-Year Path Through Crossroads
The church's long history is told in a page called Our Path, which frames each generation's work as a crossroads to be crossed with daring faith. In its early years the congregation chose to affiliate with the Northern Baptist Convention, a body that emerged from the split with Southern Baptists over slavery. That early commitment set the stage for a continuing conversation about social justice.
In the 1930s and 1940s the fundamentalist/moderated controversy divided many Protestant churches, and this one was no exception. Ministers with opposing views were called in turn, each lasting only briefly, and at one point two opposing groups met simultaneously in different parts of the building. Out of that painful season came a series of yeses - yes to open membership, accepting baptism by means other than immersion; yes to open communion; yes to ecumenism; yes to modern biblical scholarship; yes to the individual freedom to interpret Scripture; and yes to women in ministry at a time when it was unpopular.
Later crossroads took the congregation outward. After World War II, a pastor shaped by his work alongside Japanese Americans forced into internment camps inspired the church to welcome displaced people. Over the years the congregation sponsored Hungarian, Ukrainian, German, and Laotian refugee families and supported outreach in Hamtramck, a community near Detroit with a high share of recent immigrants. Members have traveled to northeast India to train pastors and teach economic development as part of peacemaking work, and the church supports Freedom House, a Detroit initiative providing housing and resources to those seeking asylum. For more than two decades in the 1970s and 1990s the church helped lead Baldwin House, a non-profit senior housing effort in Birmingham that survived a recall of a mayor, a racial discrimination lawsuit that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and a Sixty Minutes investigation before opening its doors in 1994.
More recently, the church formally identified itself as welcoming and affirming to people identifying as LGBTQ, a step that led some American Baptist regions to disfellowship other congregations who took the same stand. The church distributed a letter to other American Baptist churches, regions, national staff, and boards condemning that disfellowshipping. Today's congregation has chosen to step out in faith again by carving out space for a diversity of people to explore faith in a politically and socially contentious culture.
Meet the Pastor and the Worship Team
Rev. John Miller is the Teaching Pastor. He joined Sanctuary in July 2023 with a bachelor's degree in religion from Hope College and a Master of Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary, and he brings almost 25 years of parish experience to the role. He is excited to develop the education program at Sanctuary and to work with the worship team. He lives in Shelby Township with his partner Kathy and is the proud father of a recent high school graduate son, Ethan.
Worship music at Sanctuary is shaped by the Sanctuary Collective, a community of professional artists and musicians from the Metro Detroit area who provide high-quality music and video for the congregation. The collective is led by Creative Arts Director Will Lobb, and its collaborators include vocalists Sofi Washer and Martyna Gogołkiewicz, saxophonist Kate von Bernthal, guitarists and bassists, pianists, drummers, and a sound engineer. Recent services are posted on the church's YouTube channel so that the musical life of the congregation can travel beyond the sanctuary.
Growing in Faith: Discipleship Class, Bible Study, and Sanctuary Sisters
Adult education is centered in the Discipleship Class, which meets in the Fellowship Hall on the second Tuesday of every month at 6:30 in the evening. Dinner is provided, and Teaching Pastor Rev. John Miller leads a class following the meal. The night is intended as a relaxed gathering for food, fellowship, and learning, and all are welcome.
On Mondays at 7:00 in the evening, a hybrid Bible Study gathers in the Parlor at 300 Willits Street and on Zoom. The group chooses its first study of the year together on opening night and stays together through the spring, with new participants invited to join at any point.
Sanctuary Sisters is a weekly group focused on support, friendship, and ministry opportunities for women and girls, locally and globally. The group meets on Zoom on Thursday mornings at 10:00, and participants can simply join the Zoom call to be part of the conversation.
Loving the Neighborhood and the World
The church's social justice work is framed by Jesus' command to love the neighbor, which the congregation understands to extend to everyone regardless of affiliation, gender or gender expression, race, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, finances, or ability. Locally, Sanctuary is proud to affiliate with a long list of partners in southeastern Michigan, including the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Oakland Café, Career Dress, Henry Ford SandCastles, the Michigan Veterans Foundation, Welcome Inn, HOPE Shelters, HAVEN, Detroit Friendship House, and Micah 6 Community. Welcome Inn Day Center, operated by South Oakland Citizens for the Homeless, is the area's only low-barrier winter day center and offers a winter emergency shelter, warm meals, case management, medical support, clothing, and hygiene facilities, with a five-year plan to grow into a year-round 24-hour residential shelter.
Each year the homeless neighbors of the Birmingham area come to live in the church building for a week, with members providing meals, transportation, and personal contact. Globally, Sanctuary supports missionaries in China, Thailand, Hungary, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it has long supported international disaster relief, global peace-making efforts, and micro-loans to entrepreneurs through KIVA. A Mission Moment after worship on the first Sunday of most months introduces the wider congregation to one of these partners.
A Building That Hosts the Whole Community
Sanctuary's spaces are available to the wider Birmingham community. The Sanctuary itself hosts weddings, funerals, baptisms, concerts, recitals, presentations, lectures, and speaking engagements, with audio and video recording and live streaming available. The Fellowship Hall offers a large space with a stage and an adjoining kitchen for special events. The Conference Room is suited to round-table discussions and small group meetings, with a conference table, kitchenette, and white board. The Gymnasium supports games, sports, and other activities that need an open floor. A Wedding Handbook and a Funeral Handbook are available to help families plan services in the historic building.
Care, Listening, and Confidentiality
Sanctuary is a safe place to share what might be troubling a person while being supported by someone who truly cares. The church is not a professional counseling service, but on its staff are people who are mature in their faith and gifted in listening, caring, and being present, and confidentiality is honored. A contact form on the Care page is available for anyone who feels depressed, alone, fearful, or distraught, or who is facing an upcoming medical procedure or a significant loss, or who simply wants unconditional support outside of family and friends.
Community Groups Sharing the Building
Beyond its own ministries, Sanctuary hosts several community groups that meet in the building. Alcoholics Anonymous meets on Saturdays from 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning and from 8:00 to 9:00 in the evening. The Michigan Orchid Society gathers on the third Sunday of every month from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon, and Toastmasters meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month from 7:00 to 9:00 in the evening. These groups reflect the church's longstanding practice of sharing its facilities with the wider Birmingham community.
Ways to Give
Support for the church's ministry can be given online through PayPal, by mail to 300 Willits Street, or through a bank's bill-pay feature. Special gifts can be directed to the monthly communion offering, to a specific ministry, or to a mission by writing it on the memo line of a check or in the note field on PayPal. A monthly newsletter keeps supporters informed about groups and events.
Walking In
Visitors are welcome at any service or event. Sunday worship begins at 10:30 in the morning, and the main doors on Willits Street open into the historic Gothic sanctuary. The church office can be reached at 248-644-0550 or info@sanctuary-church.com, and the building itself stands ready, stone by stone, to welcome the next generation of good neighbors into its pews.