About Us (click to jump to section)
Worship in our Community
We are a congregation of people from a variety of Christian traditions and backgrounds. Together, we grow in faith, while also expressing honest questions and doubt.
Our worship style combines historical Christian liturgy and music with contemporary. All the words and music are shown on screens, making it easy for everyone, new or old, to join in. Dress is casual, and we enjoy a time of fellowship together after our worship service.
How to Get Here
Our Staff
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The Christian Reformed Church
Church of the Savior belongs to the denomination of Christian Reformed Churches, which is in the Reformed tradition. From its beginning with a few congregations in west Michigan, the CRC has grown to nearly 300,000 members in over a thousand congregations across the United States and Canada. The bulk of our beliefs we hold in common with the Christian church throughout space and time.
As Christians in the Reformed tradition, we have a deep appreciation for the Bible and the story that unfolds within it. It is the story of a God who does not give up on the world God made, but restores it and renews it through Jesus Christ. In Christ, God took on sin and shame, violence and injustice, and triumphed over them. Christ’s resurrection opens up the creation to eternal life, and as God’s people we share in that life even now. Our holistic vision of faith leaves no area of life untouched by the claims of Christ, and we anticipate the day when his Kingdom will be established over all the earth.
Along with the worldwide Christian church, we affirm three ecumenical creeds: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Our doctrine is formed by three confessional documents stemming from the Protestant Reformation: The Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort. Contemporary expressions of our faith can be found in Our World Belongs to God and the Belhar Confession. To learn more about the CRC, visit crcna.org.
One way we fulfill the mission of the church is to support specific missionary families around the world. Every month on the first Sunday, we collect offerings to support these missionaries in the same service that we celebrate communion, emphasizing the way that communion unites all Christians together in Christ. You can read a short biography of the missionary families we currently support below.
Ukraine
George and Sarah are missionaries with Resonate Global Mission and started working in Ukraine in 1998...
Healing the Wounds of Trauma
Ann Kapteyn
Ann and her husband, Ray, started their ministry work with Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International in 1998...
Lithuania
Steve and Chris have been working at LCC International University and bringing the gospel to students there since 2015...
Each Sunday we not only collect offerings for the work and ministry of our church, but also for a local ministry organization. Often these are organizations that we have a connection to either through joint projects or because members of the church work or volunteer at the organization. You can read a brief description below.
The Church of the Savior Benevolence Fund is used to help members of the church and the community with short-term urgent needs.
Hannah’s House is a faith-based agency offering a continuum of stable housing, home life, staff support, and programming. It empowers disadvantaged pregnant women to begin a process of life transformation.
Hope Ministries engages people in intensive and long-term relationships to build a community in which hurting people find healing. Without healing, their thinking and the choices they make will not change. And unless their thinking and choices are transformed, they will never be able to thrive in life.
World Renew embraces a family-centered approach to ending global poverty with food security, peace and justice, economic livelihood and health. We join families in more than 30 developing countries to change global hunger, poverty, and illness.
Covenant is a Christian school for students pre-school through eighth grade. The school’s mission is to partner with Christian parents to equip their children to serve God in God's world by providing a Christ-centered, academically excellent education.
Help with Love equips and supports the local church in a shared mission to minister to neighbors in need. It empowers church members by connecting service teams with neighbors in need, and it connects people in need with community and church resources.
Neighbor to Neighbor works to create mutual relationships among South Bend’s immigrant and non-immigrant population, through meaningful friendships and community networking.
Young Life invites young people to experience life as God designed it to be lived. Knowing that all kids are searching for hope, meaning, and belonging, Young Life joins them in life, accepts them as they are and gives them a chance to live life to the fullest.
The Food Bank of Northern Indiana addresses local problems of hunger and malnutrition by providing quality food. In addition to private donations and food drives, the food bank actively partners with local and national manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, food growers, packers and brokers to procure food.
For over 30 years, Heroes Camp has been helping young men embrace fathering and their Heavenly Father. Heroes Camp has been one of the largest ministries for youth in the area. Their facility and ministries have expanded to now include three basketball courts, a kitchen and dining room, locker rooms, a sound studio, and even a barbershop. Heroes Camp helps young men embrace fathering and their Heavenly Father through sports.
The United Religious Community (URC) Advocacy Center provides limited financial assistance to St. Joseph County residents with specific needs. URC's missions is to encourage religious cooperation and understanding, effect constructive social change, and to advocate for those seeking to meet life’s basic needs.