Two Campuses on South Washington Street
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Naperville, Illinois, is an inclusive faith community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, serving its members across two welcoming campuses just blocks apart on South Washington Street. The main Our Saviour's Campus sits at 815 S. Washington Street, and the Celebration Campus is at 919 S. Washington Street. Together the two locations host Saturday evening and Sunday morning worship, Sunday school, youth programs, music ensembles, an on-site preschool, small groups, and a long-running garage sale that has become a fixture in the wider community.
As a congregation of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA and a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) community, Our Saviour's sets out a clear welcome: every person is created in God's image and is a beloved child of God. The congregation celebrates and affirms the sacredness, dignity, and equality of all persons, inclusive of age, ability, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, socioeconomic status, spiritual background, marital status, family structure, or any hidden difference. Members describe their shared purpose simply: to know Jesus and to make Jesus known.
Worship With Weekly Communion at the Center
Worship is at the heart of life at Our Saviour's, and every gathering, traditional or contemporary, centers around the Lord's Supper. Four regular weekend services give a snapshot of the styles on the menu. Saturday worship at 5:00 pm in the Our Saviour's Campus sanctuary is traditional. Sunday morning offers three more services: a 9:00 am traditional service at the Our Saviour's Campus, an 11:00 am blended service also at the Our Saviour's Campus, and a 10:00 am contemporary service at the Celebration Campus. Music ensembles are woven into the services: the Women's Chorale sings at the Saturday service, the Sanctuary Choir and Bach Ringers lead at 9:00 am, and the Bach Ringers, Children's Choir, and Saxophone Ensemble lead at 11:00 am.
Senior Pastor Brian Wise oversees the vision and direction of all worship services to ensure a harmonious, impactful experience. He is joined by Associate Pastor Elisabeth Pynn Himmelman, who oversees congregational care and engagement along with Children, Youth and Family Ministries, and by Pastor Anna Roper, who preaches and leads worship regularly while overseeing care ministries. Pastoral support includes Pastor Brian, who holds a Doctorate in Ministry from the Pacific School of Religion with a focus on pluralism and new religious movements; Pastor Elisabeth, who previously served as campus pastor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney; and Pastor Anna, a former associate at Epiphany Lutheran Church in Elmhurst.
Worship is livestreamed on the congregation's YouTube channel, and printed bulletins are available for each campus. The Reconciling in Christ designation shapes how the church welcomes everyone into that worship life. As an RIC congregation, Our Saviour's also offers an affirmation of baptism with renaming ritual, a service that celebrates a person's name and identity, affirms God's abiding love, and surrounds them with the prayers and support of the faith community.
Children, Youth, and Family Ministries
Children, Youth and Family Ministries (CYFM) helps young people discover God's love, build lasting friendships, and grow in faith together. With weekend and midweek opportunities for ages three through high school, every stage has a place to learn, serve, laugh, and belong. CYFM Director Brittany Sheldon leads the team.
Daily Bread Sunday School meets at 9:00 am and 10:00 am on Sundays for children ages three through fifth grade. SALT (Serving And Loving Together) gathers 4th and 5th graders twice a month on Wednesday evenings. Surge Confirmation walks 6th through 8th graders through faith formation on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 pm in the upper level youth rooms at the Our Saviour's Campus. Ignition is the high school ministry that meets at the same time and place, focused on faith, fellowship, and service. Children's Choir, open to children in kindergarten through 5th grade, rehearses Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 pm in the Epiphany Room at the Our Saviour's Campus.
Annual offerings pull everyone into the rhythm. Vacation Bible School is a summer program for children ages four through incoming 5th grade. An annual high school summer mission trip, confirmation retreats, sleep-out Saturdays, and overnight retreats for middle and high school students stretch the experience beyond the walls. The 2027 ELCA Youth Gathering is on the horizon, and the congregation is already rallying behind fundraisers like the Flamingo Flocking and the Chili Cook-Off.
CYFM serves the whole family, not just the children. CARE Parents: Beyond the Nest is a welcoming community for parents and caregivers of young adults beyond high school, meeting on the first Tuesday of each month from September through April in the Celebration Campus Conference Room. Moms in Faith offers a welcoming space for mothers to connect and grow through prayer, devotional discussion, and conversation on Tuesday mornings at the Our Saviour's Campus.
A Music Ministry for Every Age
Music has a unique way of bringing people together in worship and connecting people across generations. Whether someone sings, rings, plays an instrument, or is just discovering their gifts, there is a place at Our Saviour's to grow in faith, build community, and help lead others in worship through music. The music ministry is led by Director of Worship Nicholas Davis.
The Sanctuary Choir, open to anyone high school age and up, rehearses on Wednesday evenings from September through May at the Our Saviour's Campus. The choir leads music at the 9:00 am Sunday service three weekends each month and at major holiday services and special celebrations. The Celebration Music Team rehearses on Monday nights from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the Celebration Campus and leads worship during the 10:00 am Sunday service under Contemporary Worship Leader Jim Stellmacher. The 11:00 a.m. Ensemble is open to all ages and leads during the 11:00 am service.
The Women's Chorale rehearses Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 8:00 pm September through May and sings at either the 5:00 pm or 11:00 am service throughout the choir season. The Bach Ringers handbell ensemble is open to adults and rings during different Sunday services. The Children's Choir program, for ages preschool through 5th grade, shares their voices at different weekend services under Director Shelley May Hutchison. Each December the Cantata Choir invites community members to join as singers and instrumentalists for the annual Christmas Cantata.
Midweek Meetup on Wednesday Nights
Midweek Meetup is designed to fit real life. Members are invited to join whenever they are able for dinner, prayer, community, and opportunities to grow in faith together. From 6:00 to 6:30 pm, a community meal is served in Fellowship Hall at the Our Saviour's Campus. A short sending prayer at 6:30 pm sends people to their different gatherings: Children's Choir from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, Surge Confirmation and Ignition from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, Sanctuary Choir rehearsal from 6:45 to 8:15 pm in the Bach Room, and several adult small groups and Bible studies. Nursery care is available from 6:30 to 8:15 pm for children from birth through Pre-K.
The Well is the centerpiece of adult formation during Midweek Meetup. The Well for the Female Spirit meets from 6:45 to 7:45 pm in the Gathering Room in the music wing. The Well for the Male Spirit meets at the same time in the CYFM Lounge. LIFT, a separate group for adult women, meets from 7:00 to 8:30 pm in the Bonhoeffer Conference Room, studying the previous Sunday's Gospel using an ELCA-based curriculum, followed by prayer and conversation. Drop-ins are welcome.
Small Groups for Every Stage of Life
Our Saviour's small group life reaches far beyond Wednesday nights. Bible Study meets on Wednesday mornings from 9:30 to 11:30 am and is currently reading Ten Men of the Bible: How God Used Imperfect People to Change the World. Moms in Faith offers a Tuesday morning rhythm of prayer and devotional conversation. Bible Journaling gathers monthly on the third Monday at 2:30 pm in the Bonhoeffer Conference Room. Each fall, the congregation works through a six-week small group study of the Gospel of Matthew using lectionary texts, with options for men, women, online, and even walking groups at McDowell Grove Forest Preserve.
Other ongoing groups include the Banned Book Club, which meets quarterly on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm in the Bonhoeffer Conference Room; the Caregiver's Journey, which meets on the last Friday of each month at 9:00 am; the Senior Lunch, which gathers on the first Monday of each month in Fellowship Hall; and Active Adults, a group for older adults focused on outings and shared meals. Room4Both brings together LGBTQIA+ adults from across DuPage and Will counties on the second Monday of each month for honest conversation about faith, identity, and queerness. Faith and Yoga incorporates movement, prayer, and meditation each Wednesday morning on the lower level of the Our Saviour's Campus. Thrive offers gentle stretching, a devotional, mindfulness, and fellowship for adults of all abilities on the last three Mondays of each month in Fellowship Hall.
Pickleball is one of the most popular sports at the church. Afternoon Pickleball runs Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at the Celebration Campus, and Monday Evening Pickleball runs from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at the same location. A Games Group meets Tuesdays from 1:00 to 3:00 pm in Fellowship Hall for cards, board games, and conversation. The Running Club heads out from the Our Saviour's Campus on Saturday mornings, and Cycling and Movement Connections is a women's group that meets Saturday mornings at rotating locations.
The MEGA Garage Sale and Local Partnerships
The MEGA Garage Sale is one of the largest outreach events at Our Saviour's. What begins as donated household items, clothing, toys, books, décor, outdoor furniture, and hidden treasures becomes meaningful support for ministries, mission partners, and families in need. Over 200 volunteers typically amass more than 4,500 donated work hours, with members of the congregation providing more than half of those hours. In 2025 the sale grossed $54,139, and in 2026 it grew to $58,343. Items that remain after the sale continue serving the community through donations to organizations such as Wayside Cross Rescue Mission, local pet shelters, and LAHPERO, which collects gently used sports equipment for youth athletics.
Baby Care is a year-round ministry that shares care, compassion, and practical support with families locally and around the world. Through generous donations, creative hands-on service, and meaningful partnerships, Baby Care provides essential items for babies and young children. During God's Work, Our Hands Sunday in September 2025, the congregation assembled more than 500 care kits for families in need through Lutheran World Relief. Handmade quilts and blankets are paired with newborn essentials and distributed through Lutheran World Relief, extending the community's care and compassion around the world. Baby Care Workshops meet on the fourth Tuesday and second Thursday of each month from January through August at the Celebration Campus. An Annual Assembly in September prepares kits for distribution, and the Sew-a-Thon brings together crafters at the Our Saviour's Campus for a special day of creating blankets and quilts.
Local partnerships extend that spirit of generosity across DuPage County and the Chicago region. Loaves & Fishes provides food and essential items for neighbors facing food insecurity. Bridge Communities supports families working toward permanent housing. Holy Family Ministries supports education, mentoring, and opportunities for children and families in Chicago. Lutheran Social Services of Illinois provides compassionate care through foster care, mental health services, senior programs, housing, and disability services across the state. A Little Free Pantry outside Door #3 at the Our Saviour's Campus is restocked by congregation members with peanut butter, almond butter, jam, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and other essentials. The Good Samaritan Fund provides emergency financial assistance for individuals and families facing unexpected hardship.
Walking With Partners in Slovakia and Mozambique
Global mission is woven into the life of the congregation through long-standing partnerships with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mozambique and the Center for Christian Education in Martin, Slovakia. Following the fall of communism, Our Saviour's began partnering with the Center for Christian Education (CCE) in Martin, Slovakia. For more than 25 years, the two congregations have encouraged one another through prayer, hospitality, shared ministry, and cultural exchange. Each summer, high school students, mentors, and Pastor Brian and his family travel to Slovakia to worship, serve, and spend time with longtime friends. Our Saviour's then welcomes five Slovak students for a month-long cultural exchange, during which they live with host families, help with Vacation Bible School, serve during the MEGA Garage Sale, participate in worship and youth ministry, and become part of everyday life at the church.
The Mozambique Mission Team has partnered with Vida Humana, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mozambique, and ELCA Global Mission since 2009. Rather than bringing solutions from the outside, the partnership is rooted in walking alongside faithful leaders who know their communities best. Three initiatives flow out of the partnership. The Healthcare Initiative now includes more than 25 volunteer healthcare advocates who provide in-home care for individuals experiencing illnesses such as malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, and HIV/AIDS, delivering medication and offering emotional and spiritual encouragement. The Hunger Initiative, begun in 2012, provides e'Pap, a nutrient-rich porridge that helps children and adults receive the nourishment needed to stay healthy and benefit from medical treatment. Aka Power School was established in 2011 to serve children whose refugee families from Zimbabwe faced language barriers, and today provides bilingual education in English and Portuguese to hundreds of students.
Other global partnerships include Haiti Scholars, which supports education, nutrition, and care for children in Haiti through scholarships and partnerships with Centre D'Etudes Lumiere; Bright Stars of Bethlehem, which supports educational opportunities, hope, and economic opportunity for students in Palestine through its partnership with Dar al-Kalima University and other ministries of the Christian Lutheran Church in Bethlehem; Educating Africa's Children, which supports educational opportunities through Dusek Child Care and Primary School in Uganda; Feed My Starving Children, which provides life-saving meals through hands-on meal packing; and ELCA World Hunger, AMMPARO, Global Refuge, and Lutheran World Relief, which respond to hunger, accompany migrants, resettle refugees, and support communities around the world through locally led solutions.
Caring for Creation and Wellness
Caring for Creation (C4C) invites people of all ages to care for God's creation through learning, advocacy, hands-on projects, and everyday stewardship. Together, the group seeks to find concrete ways to love our neighbors by caring for the world we share. C4C meetings take place on the second Tuesday of each month at the OSLC campus from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. C4C has signed up to participate in The Urban Canopy, a Chicago-area organization working to create a more sustainable and equitable local food system. Members of the congregation can sign up for home food waste pick-up, receiving a $50 credit themselves and another $50 credit for the church. C4C also helps collect recycling through SCARCE, taking in crayons, Christmas lights, glasses, bread tags, keys, and inkjet cartridges. The church has hosted Faith in Place's Environment and Spirituality Summit, bringing keynote speakers such as Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, into the building for a conversation about faith, climate, and justice.
The Wellness Ministry brings the church's welcome statement to life through care, education, and advocacy, honoring the whole person and supporting individuals, families, and communities across all eight dimensions of wellness. The Wellness Ministry is led by Congregational Wellness Manager Alexandra Colaianni, a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of Modern Balance Integrative Therapy in Naperville. Monthly themes focus on different dimensions of wellness, with practical tools and encouragement available at displays at both campuses. Wonderfully Wired Families is a monthly peer support community for parents raising children with ADHD, autism, sensory differences, anxiety, or related needs. Thrive offers gentle stretching, a short devotional, mindfulness, and fellowship for adults of all abilities on the last three Mondays of each month.
Prayer and Care When Life Gets Heavy
Prayer and Care Ministries are tangible reminders of God's presence in all circumstances, and outward signs of God's love for all. The Tender Moments invitation offers a quiet place to share grief, illness, loneliness, life transitions, or meaningful anniversaries; pastoral staff and care and wellness teams gently hold each tender moment in prayer and follow up as needed. A Prayer Wall at both campuses offers a place to write down prayers that are collected and burned on occasion during or after worship, with the prayers rising up like incense before God. The Prayer Chain emails a weekly list of names to those who sign up. Prayer Ministers serve as intercessors during Holy Communion, praying for those seeking prayer for comfort, healing, or a moment of deeper connection with God. The Prayer Shawl Ministry gathers crafters on the third Thursday of each month to knit and crochet shawls that wrap people in the prayers of the community. Hospital and home visitation, a meal train for families navigating significant events, and a Friends Visiting Friends ministry round out the care that walks with members through every stage of life.
The Pastoral Care Line at 331-305-4381 is available for pastoral care emergencies. For non-emergency needs, the church office at 630-355-2522 connects members to Volunteer and Care Coordinator Debbie Montrose and the rest of the pastoral and care team.
A Library, a Preschool, and a Columbarium That Hold the Story
Our Saviour's Library has been a treasured resource for the congregation since 1960. Originally located in the Sunday School Office, the library was reorganized and moved to its present location in November 1973 and was refurbished and dedicated on January 30, 1977, in honor of Louis Frank, with a $5,000 donation from the Lois Frank Memorial Fund. In the summer of 2003, a carpeted children's corner bench, new carpet, paint, and canned lights freshened the library; this renovation included ADA shelving, a check-out desk, a book drop, a computer desk, and a small storage cabinet. In 2010 the library purchased and installed Resource Mate, the catalog system still in use today, and in 2020 the WebOPAC brought remote access to the collection. The library's collection has grown to more than 3,200 items, including books, DVDs, and periodicals, classified using the Dewey Decimal System, with a hand-restored bench in the children's corner that has become an inviting place to pause.
Celebration Children's Center is the church's on-site preschool at the Celebration Campus, where the best learning happens when children feel loved, encouraged, and free to explore. Through purposeful play, faith-filled experiences, and hands-on discovery, the program helps children build the skills and confidence they will carry for years to come. The center is led by Director Kelly Gilligan.
Memorial ministry cares for the Columbarium at the Our Saviour's Campus and the Memorial Garden at the Celebration Campus, and the Memorial Ministry helps families honor and remember loved ones through meaningful gifts. A new Prayer Labyrinth was dedicated at the Celebration Campus patio. Weddings, funerals, baptisms, and affirmations of baptism are all part of the rhythm of pastoral life at Our Saviour's, with Pastor Brian, Pastor Elisabeth, and Pastor Anna walking alongside families at every milestone.
Serving the Wider Church and the Wider World
Our Saviour's supports a wide circle of organizations beyond the congregation. Giving options include the General Fund, Hospitality, Music Ministry, Sanctuary Flowers, Cantata, the Endowment Fund (a long-term investment currently at $300,000 that disburses earnings each year for ministry, seminary students, capital projects, and stewardship training), the Good Samaritan Fund, and a long list of local and global mission partners. Gifts of stock and securities, IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions, Thrivent Choice Dollars, memorial gifts, and honorarium gifts all help sustain the work. The Volunteer Hub organizes the many hands that keep the church running: greeting, ushering, setting up chairs at the Celebration Campus, coordinating coffee and treats, serving on the Altar Guild, helping with sound and slides in the Tech Booth, praying with people during communion, and showing up for the holidays and celebrations that knit the community together.
What holds all of this together is the conviction that God works through the gifts we bring, whether a Sunday morning smile at the door, a homemade quilt for a baby in Bethlehem, a meal packed for a child overseas, a week spent walking alongside a friend in Slovakia, a morning spent teaching a third-grader about Jesus, or a quiet prayer whispered at the Prayer Wall. Our Saviour's Lutheran Church is a place where two campuses, three worship styles, and dozens of ministries all point to the same thing: knowing Jesus and making Jesus known.