A Place for You on Woodcreek Drive
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church sits on Woodcreek Drive in the southern part of College Station, Texas, just off Highway 6 and a short drive from the campus of Texas A&M University. Members describe the congregation as a small church with big hearts, and the motto A Place for You shows up across everything from the welcome page to the capital campaign. The congregation belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is part of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, which gives the community a Lutheran framework that puts grace and action side by side.
Worship here runs on a steady rhythm that has held for decades: two Sunday services, an education hour in between, midweek small groups, and a wide slate of outreach partnerships stretching from College Station to Tanzania. A building program is in motion to add a dedicated sanctuary, and the phrase A Place for You is the thread that runs through the church's identity.
Sunday Morning Worship
Worship is held on Sundays at 8:00 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. The 10:45 a.m. service is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube for those at home or out of town. The late service is also the one most likely to feel full, with choir and bell choir, and it is the service most newcomers are pointed toward.
The style is described as a traditional church for today's world. The music moves from classic hymns to popular praise and worship songs, and video screens carry the liturgy and announcements. Traditional elements of Lutheran worship remain at the center, including communion most Sundays. Children are always welcome in the pews. After the children's sermon, kids preschool through second grade are invited to Kingdom Time, a fellowship and learning hour tailored to their age, and they return to the service before communion.
A staffed nursery is provided during all services as well as choir and bell rehearsals.
Godly Play and the Education Hour
At 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings during the school year, the whole congregation gathers for the education hour. The children's classrooms follow the Godly Play curriculum, a spiritual practice approach that tells a Bible story each week and invites children to wonder about it. The church describes Godly Play as exploring the mystery of God's presence in their lives, and the curriculum is used across age groups. Children are not seen as the future of the church but as essential to it right now, in the words of the pastor.
Adults have two Sunday school classes that meet during the same hour to study the word. Bible studies also run throughout the week, and small groups meet in homes and on campus to go deeper.
Treehouse: A Lutheran Home at Texas A&M
Our Saviour's helps host Treehouse, the ELCA campus ministry at Texas A&M University and Blinn College. Treehouse gathers every Tuesday night for a shared dinner, faith formation, and worship, and small groups meet in between. The community is intentionally broad: students who are new to faith and students who have grown up in the church, undergraduates and graduate students, international students and Texans, people who are confident in their beliefs and people who are still figuring things out.
Treehouse welcomes everyone regardless of background, orientation, or politics, and makes a point of saying so directly. It is one of the clearest expressions of the congregation's A Place for You motto, and it links the church to the university community that has shaped College Station since the 1930s.
Serving the Brazos Valley and Beyond
The ministry of service is at the heart of Our Saviour's. Members and the congregation support a regular set of partners, including:
- Brazos Church Pantry, a local food pantry serving families in the area.
- Habitat for Humanity of Brazos County.
- Lutheran World Relief, the ELCA's international relief and development ministry.
- Family Promise, supporting families experiencing homelessness.
- The BEE Community, The Prenatal Clinic, and Tiny Hope Village.
Members also gather regularly to make graduation throws for young adults heading into a new chapter. The international ministry keeps a particular partnership with Kibeta English Medium Primary School (KEMPS) in Bukoba, Tanzania, supporting students and teachers through gifts and ongoing visits. An international minister on staff helps coordinate that work.
Fellowship Around the Table
Fellowship is treated as a core ministry of its own, not an afterthought. The fellowship team plans events throughout the year, and food tends to be at the center of them: a Mardi Gras celebration, a Fall Festival, a Good Friday Fish Fry, a luncheon after the children's Christmas program, and a meal after the God's Work, Our Hands Sunday of service. These gatherings grew out of a conviction that came into focus after the pandemic, when the congregation recognized how much people need to simply be around one another.
A Legacy from 1939
Our Saviour's has been rooted in faith since before its formal organization as a congregation in December 1939. The first worshiping community met at the YMCA building on the main campus of Texas A&M. In the 1950s, the congregation built its own facility at the corner of Cross and Tauber Streets, in the heart of College Station. In 1977, Our Saviour's sponsored a new mission church, Peace Lutheran, which remains a vital ministry in the Bryan-College Station community.
By the early 2000s, the congregation had outgrown its mid-century home. In 2005, Phase One of the current facility was completed on Woodcreek Drive, just off Highway 6. A Building Committee has since been working toward Phase Two, a roughly 10,000-square-foot expansion that will add a dedicated sanctuary, additional seating, dedicated music areas, a technology center, and a parlor, while turning the existing worship space into a fellowship hall. The Arkitex Studio, the firm that drew the original Phase One plans, is on contract for the new design.
The People Who Lead
Pastor Elaine Gomulka has been an ordained Lutheran pastor for more than thirty years. She leads the congregation and is known for championing the inclusion of children in every part of church life.
Greg Tivis serves as Minister of Music, directing the choral and instrumental music of worship.
Alison Richard is the Youth and Family Minister, working with young people and families across the congregation.
Frank Karoli serves as International Minister, tending the relationship with partners in Tanzania and elsewhere.
Don Hannemann leads the Tech and Production Ministry, handling the livestream and the audio and visual systems that support worship.
What to Expect When You Visit
Parking is available all along the front of the building, with a covered drive on the side for drop-off. There is a place reserved for first-time visitors on the front row. There is no dress code; the church asks only that attire be in good taste, and welcomes everything from shorts to suits. Communion is offered at the late service most Sundays, and all are welcome at the table. A staffed nursery is open during both services for infants and toddlers. The building is on Woodcreek Drive, just off Highway 6 in south College Station, a few minutes from the Texas A&M campus.
For those who cannot attend in person, the 10:45 a.m. service is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, with recordings available afterward. Giving is available online through the church's giving portal.
The Mission at the Center
The congregation frames everything around two phrases: To Know Christ and To Make Christ Known. To Know Christ, in the congregation's words, involves a full and intimate relationship, where the heart is strangely warmed, the mind critically engages, the soul bows before mystery, and the body responds with hope. To Make Christ Known is the work of growing God's kingdom through what the church can do for people.
Those two commitments sit behind the four pillars that organize life at Our Saviour's: Education, Worship, Service, and Fellowship. They also sit behind the building program, the campus ministry, and the steady partnerships that stretch from College Station to Bukoba.
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church is, in its own words, a small church with big hearts, and a place for you.