On Roller Coaster Road
On the near-northwest side of Tucson, just west of Oracle Road and a few minutes north of the River Road intersection, Dove of Peace Lutheran Church sits in the desert light at 665 West Roller Coaster Road. From the outside it reads as a quiet mid-century Tucson church, but inside the sanctuary was artfully designed by award-winning architect Kirby Lockard to emphasize both sacred space and literal community. Worshipers sit looking across at one another rather than at the back of someone's head, and the flood of Arizona sunshine that bathes the altar has become part of how the congregation talks about God: present, warm, not far away.
Dove of Peace belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), within the Grand Canyon Synod. Its public face has been shaped for two decades by three figures whose stories keep surfacing in the building's identity. Pastor Stephen (Steve) Springer has led the congregation since late 2005. Eric Holtan has directed music and liturgical arts since 2002. Jeffri Sanders has been at the organ long enough to be part of the architecture of the place. Members sometimes refer to their congregation as DOP, and their mission is stated plainly: "Grounded in grace of Jesus Christ, our mission is to encourage, empower, and equip our community to nurture passionate inclusivity, live out radical hospitality, work for justice and mercy, and cultivate faith-filled relationships."
Sunday worship is held at 10 a.m., both in person and livestreamed online. The address is 665 W Roller Coaster Road, Tucson, AZ 85704, and the phone is 520-887-5127.
A Sanctuary Built for Beauty
"Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise," Martin Luther wrote, and Dove of Peace takes him at his word. Beauty is one of the congregation's five stated pillars, and the whole sanctuary has been laid out to support it.
Kirby Lockard's design deliberately faces the seats across the nave toward one another, so that worship becomes a shared act rather than a performance. The eastern wall carries a series of paintings by artist Bill Behm that color the words of the Twenty-third Psalm. Paintings, carvings, needlework, and metalwork surround the room, and the room itself is acoustically live, which is why string quartets sound like string quartets there, and why congregational singing can fill the space without strain.
Members understand beauty at Dove of Peace to be more than decoration. In their own words, "We think that God uses beauty to touch hearts, and to move us toward spiritual maturity, and even into contact with the divine." Visitors are invited to sit in this holy space, relish the Behm paintings, sing the ancient chants and the old songs of the church's history, and join a choir. Make some joyous sounds with new music. Delight in the talents of the professional musicians who perform in the free concert series. You will be changed by your participation. That, the congregation says, is a promise.
Music as a Way of Knowing God
Music is the centerpiece of what happens inside the building. Eric Holtan serves as Director of Music and Liturgical Arts and has led the Chancel Choir and Alleluia Bell Choir since 2002. He is also the founding music director of True Concord Voices & Orchestra, southern Arizona's Grammy-nominated professional chamber choir and orchestra, and has brought True Concord's musicians into collaboration with the Dove of Peace choirs at least twice a year for larger works. Under his direction True Concord made its New York debut at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and has earned Grammy nominations and a Grammy Award for its recording of choral music by Stephen Paulus.
The organ is a Muller instrument that was recently expanded by Grahame Davis and Pipe Organ Artisans of Arizona in a renovation the congregation describes as a forty-year tune-up. The work added pipes to accommodate the church's growing musical needs, and the result has been called one of the largest pipe organs in Tucson. Jeffri Sanders is the staff organist. A graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory and Westminster Choir College, Sanders has performed on organ, harpsichord, French horn, voice, and piano in Tucson for more than thirty years and has served at St. Philip's In The Hills and St. Andrew's Episcopal Churches here.
The Chancel Choir sings three or four Sundays a month from Labor Day through Memorial Day, rehearsing on Thursday evenings at 6:30 p.m. It is looking for an octet of new volunteer singers with strong, clear voices and good music-reading skills. The Bell Choir plays roughly one Sunday a month and rehearses on Thursday evenings; the director patiently helps beginners, and ringers of all levels are welcome. Sometimes the service includes drums, maracas, vibraphone, piano, or even a Dixieland band for Mardi Gras Sunday. The congregation treasures the organ as a time-tested leader of group singing, sings every chance it gets, and often all five or six stanzas of a hymn. As one member puts it, "Our hymnal shows us that we're part of a long history of the church: we're the Now of today's church, and probably we're the Yesterday of tomorrow's church. Music shows us our place in the parade."
Sunday Worship: Two Styles, One Ancient Pattern
Worship at Dove of Peace is an activity, not a performance. "We're all in it together, and everybody participates." Ushers hand out a service folder at the door so visitors can follow along.
The congregation has historically offered two Sunday services: an early one with a more formal approach, lots of organ music, a choir anthem, and more action, and a later one with more upbeat music, a song leader, and a more personal feel. The Contact section currently lists Sunday worship at 10 a.m., in person and live online, and the calendar shows a single Sunday Worship Service at 10 a.m.
Both styles follow the same five-stage pattern established by the ancient church and modified through the centuries. In the first stage, opening words and singing gather the room and switch gears from ordinary life to a time believed to be special. In the second stage, readings from the Bible remind worshipers of their history as people of God: a text, a psalm, another text, this time from the Gospels, followed by the sermon. After the sermon comes a hymn that connects thematically with the texts. In the third stage the congregation prays as a group and as individuals, then gives offerings. The fourth stage is Holy Communion, also called the meal or the eucharist, in which all baptized Christians are welcome at the table. The fifth stage is a final blessing and a commission: "Go and use what you have learned and experienced here to make a difference."
Communion is open to all and is treated as a normal part of each Sunday service. Visitors who are not baptized are welcome at the table; the congregation extends the same hospitality to strangers that it has itself received, and the only instruction is to receive a piece of bread or a wafer and dip it into the wine.
Festival services follow the seasons of the church year. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost each have their own color in the adornments of the altar and the robes of participants, blue for Advent, white for Christmas and Epiphany, purple for Lent, white for Easter, red for Pentecost, and green for Ordinary Time. Each season brings its own music. On Pentecost Sunday worshipers may show up in red shirts or red dresses, on Reformation Sunday in red ties, and on Mardi Gras Sunday with a jazz band in the center aisle, jambalaya in the fellowship hall, and the occasional release of doves.
The Pastor and the People
Pastor Steve Springer is an ordained minister in the ELCA, a graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School (M.Div. 1994), and has led Dove of Peace since late 2005. His professional interests are liturgical worship, New Testament theology, ecumenical and interfaith dialog, church history, and advocacy. He grew up in the South and has fond ties there ("Southerners know how to tell stories and how to cook"), and the cooking he does at home "inspired" the food served at Dove's annual Mardi Gras. He studied Spanish and the history and culture of Mexico in San Antonio and has an ongoing interest in Latino culture and the heritage of the Southwest. He fell in love with the Sonoran desert when he first visited Arizona in his early twenties and moved to Tucson in 2005. His favorite book of the Bible is Isaiah.
In his sermons the congregation is addressed as fellow learners, "as people who desire things to think about, not easy answers and instructions." That stance is part of why Dove of Peace calls itself a church of Thought as well as Beauty: questions are encouraged, and the language and concepts of the past are used in order to remember and use their wisdom, while still being tested against the present world. The Biblical figures the congregation honors are the ones who journey from one way of being to another: Abraham and Sarah taking off for the unknown, Mary agreeing to an unbelievable task, Paul starting out as an opponent and ending up as the greatest exponent of the message that God loves people.
What Lutherans Believe at Dove of Peace
Dove of Peace is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran body in North America, formed in 1988 from the union of three earlier Lutheran church bodies. Lutherans are Christians who accept the teachings of Martin Luther (1483 to 1546), the German theologian whose 95 Theses of 1517 sparked the Reformation.
The congregation holds to the classic Lutheran principles: we are saved by the grace of God alone, not by anything we do; salvation is through faith alone, a confident trust in God who in Christ promises forgiveness, life, and salvation; and the Bible is the norm for faith and life, the true standard by which teachings and doctrines are to be judged. The ELCA treats the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed as true expressions of the faith of the church, and members confess them in worship.
The congregation also takes seriously its place in a wider Christian movement. The ELCA is in full communion with the Moravian Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church, and is in ongoing dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1999 the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, marking a historic consensus on a key issue of faith.
The Dove of Peace identity statements, drawn directly from the congregation's values, put these convictions into five lines: Forgiveness and Reconciliation, rooted in God's forgiving mercy; Dignity, Compassion and Justice, because each person is created in God's image; Inclusion and Diversity, with a stated welcome to women, people of color, minority ethnic groups, people with disabilities, people who are marginalized or living in poverty, and the LGBTQ community; Courage and Openness to Change, grounded in a living, daring confidence in God's grace; and Faithful Stewardship of God's Creation and Gifts, holding to God's purpose with accountability to God, to each other, and to those served.
Five Pillars of the Congregation
Around its mission the congregation organizes its life into five pillars, and each has its own section of their materials.
Beauty is the conviction that art and music, painting and sound, are not adornments but carriers of grace. The sanctuary, the organ, the Chancel Choir, the free concert series, and the Behm paintings on the eastern wall all flow from this pillar.
Connection is the parish as family. "We are a collection of people who have differing viewpoints, but are warm and friendly with each other, members of an authentic community." Visitors are welcomed as they are: flipflops, a coat and tie, tattoos, matching earrings, handbag, all of it. After worship there is coffee and conversation in the courtyard, once a month a fellowship lunch, and shared sorrows and joys at Mardi Gras and Jazz Under the Stars. The atmosphere is one of thoughtful compassion rather than polite performance.
Shelter is the church's name for itself as a haven. A significant number of members came to Dove of Peace after leaving other faith communities that had hurt them: someone who felt unwelcome after a divorce, a gay man whose congregation withdrew its support when he planned to marry his partner, a couple exhausted from being leaned on too heavily. On this pillar the congregation writes, "Our experience has shown us that churches may give mixed messages to the LGBTQ+ community. We want to be unequivocal: your presence with us is a welcome addition. You bring everything you are, and we believe that we are all better off because of it."
Purpose is the conviction that meaningful life comes from service to others. When a homeless person rings the buzzer on the church's door, they receive a bag of food suitable for someone living rough, no qualifying questions. Each month a different group from the church cooks and serves a hot dinner for 100 men at Primavera Men's Shelter. Several hundred pounds of food a month go to Interfaith Community Services. The church keeps a contingency fund and a working relationship with the school nurse at Lulu Walker Elementary, just down Roller Coaster Road.
Thought is the conviction that intellect is part of faith. In worship the congregation practices old rituals to illuminate new situations. Questions are encouraged. The pastor is described as a credentialled scholar whose mind is as keen as his heart is warm for service. Members are encouraged to engage with traditions as they apply, or do not apply, to the present world.
God's Work, Our Hands
The phrase "God's Work, Our Hands" comes from the ELCA itself. "Evangelical," in the church's name, comes from the Greek word for good news. "So the label 'Evangelical' means that as a church, and as individuals, we are to be about getting the good news into the world." Getting that evangel out there is, in practice, hands-on work for the neighbor within reach. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran teacher, is quoted: "The transcendent is not the infinite, unattainable tasks, but the neighbor within reach in any given situation."
The Feeding the Hungry ministry works with Interfaith Community Services Food Bank, which posts a monthly "food item of the month," and Dove of Peace members contribute about 400 pounds of food a month. Once a month a different church group (the Council, the choir, the property committee, others) gathers in the church kitchen to cook meat loaf or chili or mac and cheese, then delivers the meal, with salad, rolls, lemonade, and dessert, to the residents of Primavera Men's Shelter.
Lulu Walker Elementary is the neighborhood school at the other end of Roller Coaster Road. More than 60 percent of the children qualify for the free lunch program, and the church's Social Ministry team treats the school as its own. Members collect bins of backpacks and school supplies at the start of the year. A liaison works with the school nurse to keep a cupboard at the school stocked with underwear, sweaters, shoes, and socks, so that shortfalls and accidents don't keep a child from being well dressed for the school day. A contingency fund exists for special requests from the nurse. The church's posture toward the school is simple: "We're not preaching to them; we see our help as simply being the love of God in their lives."
Party Animals is the congregation's fellowship-and-fundraising committee, responsible for the Mardi Gras celebration each spring (jazz, jambalaya, and king cake, with a free-will offering going entirely to a chosen cause; one year it paid for music lessons for children in the community) and Jazz Under the Stars on a warm June evening on the east patio, with wine and cheese and music by local professionals, with the offering going to a community project.
Partners and Advocacy is the congregation's work with three organizations. Interfaith Community Services runs a large food-assistance program along with job training, a ride service, and Meals on Wheels. Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest provides comprehensive help for refugees with clothing, furniture, job training, and counseling. The Pima County Interfaith Council represents a variety of faith communities in advocating for public policy that supports the concerns of the neediest citizens, which often means showing up at hearings before the City Council or the County Board of Supervisors. The church's budget includes line items that support advocacy through each of these groups.
Concerts That Fund the Work
Between January and May, Dove of Peace sponsors four classical programs of chamber music performed by professional musicians. String quartets, piano sonatas, and guitar solos sound unusually resonant in the sanctuary's live acoustic. Admission is free, because the church pays the musicians directly. At each concert a free-will offering is collected and given in full to a local organization: TIHAN, Emerge!, Youth on Their Own, Gospel Rescue Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith Community Services. These offerings usually amount to $1,500 to $2,000 per concert. The congregation fills the space to capacity. Beauty and benevolence together, as one writer puts it, a perfect duet.
Hosted Recovery Groups
The buildings on Roller Coaster Road serve as a meeting place for several recovery fellowships, all open to the wider community and listed on the church calendar as Community Support Groups (hosted).
Alcoholics Anonymous meets on Friday evenings at 6:30 p.m. in the Sunday School Common Room; it is a closed meeting, for A.A. members or those who have a drinking problem and a desire to stop drinking. Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families (ACA) meets on Saturday mornings at 11:00 a.m., also in the Sunday School Common Room, with the Arizona Intergroup's Red Book reading and discussion, and the first Saturday of each month set aside for a Step reading and discussion. Overeaters Anonymous meets on Tuesday mornings at 10:45 a.m. in the Sunday School Common Room, welcoming everyone who feels they have a problem with food. Codependents Anonymous meets on Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in the All Saints parish hall; the only requirement for membership is a desire for healthy and loving relationships. Visitors enter in the back of the building for all of these meetings. They are not church programs, but the congregation is glad to make the space available.
Life Events
The congregation walks with members through the major passages of life.
Holy Baptism is the entrance into the Christian life. Anyone who desires it may obtain it at Dove of Peace, including infants and young children with the consent and presence of their adult family members. Baptism normally takes place in the context of public worship, performed by the pastor. A baptism in another Christian community (Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian, or any other) is affirmed at Dove of Peace rather than redone, since the congregation teaches that baptism makes a person a Christian rather than a Lutheran. Confirmation, or affirmation of baptism, is a voluntary ritual for youth or adults who wish to affirm the value of their baptism for a new stage of life, and preparation is tailored to the needs of the individual and the family.
Marriage is treated by Lutherans as a gift of God rather than an exclusively Christian institution. The congregation council allows the pastor to perform weddings at his discretion, including same-sex weddings, in the church or elsewhere.
At the time of a death the church gathers to remember and to pray. A service that includes interment is commonly called a funeral; one without is a memorial service. Cremation is increasingly common, and Dove of Peace has a Memorial Garden and columbarium on site where members and their families can scatter ashes or place them in a stone wall; modest fees are charged for the use of these facilities. The pastor normally officiates at services for members of the congregation, and in special circumstances may officiate at the funeral or burial of a non-member.
Blessings mark the other passages of life. The pastor or members of the congregation can join in blessing a home or apartment, a graduation from high school or college, a retirement, a litigation or imprisonment, the blessing of pets, an entry into a long-term care facility, or a birthday. Twice a year the pastor and other clergy participate in the ecumenical blessing of the vineyards and the harvest at Sonoita Vineyards, a vineyard with which the congregation has historical ties.
Illness and wellness are cared for as well, with prayer, presence, and a concern for both the soul and the body's access to health care. The congregation also worries about the health of the food supply and the preservation of creation. A prayer for healing is offered on the Illness and Wellness section: "Almighty and merciful God, you are the only source of health and healing; you alone can bring calmness and peace. Grant to us, your children, an awareness of your presence and a strong confidence in you."
Coming for the First Time
Visitors who want to know what to expect get clear answers in the church's own FAQ. The dress code is "come as you are. All are welcome." There is handicap access. Children are welcomed at services; if a child needs a break, parents are free to take them out and come back in when ready. Communion is open to all. Ushers hand out a service folder as worshipers enter so they can follow along. People sit anywhere they feel comfortable. Latecomers often use the side doors.
From the south (Tucson), drive north on Oracle Road (AZ-77), past River Road, which is the last stoplight before the turn. Less than a mile after River Road, turn west (left) onto Roller Coaster Road. The church is on the left, about 500 feet from Oracle Road. From the north (Oro Valley), drive south on Oracle Road, past Rudasill (the last stoplight before the turn), and about 0.4 miles past Rudasill turn west (right) onto Roller Coaster Road. The church is on the left, again about 500 feet from Oracle Road.
Those who cannot make it in person can watch the service live online on Sunday at 10 a.m., and an archive of previous services, including sermons, is available any time. A prayer chain and a daily note are also available to those who sign up. Giving is done through the Vanco online contribution system, where one-time and recurring gifts can be made by check, credit, or debit card.
For all that, the simplest thing the congregation says to a newcomer is also the most direct: "Whether you come or not, our prayers are that you will know and believe that God loves you. Believing that will change your life."