Beauty
At Dove of Peace Lutheran Church, we invite you to come and experience the beauty that surrounds us. From the art on our walls to the music that fills our space, we aim to create an atmosphere that uplifts and inspires. We believe that beauty has the power to touch hearts and connect us to something greater than ourselves.
At Dove of Peace, we really believe that Martin Luther had it right when he wrote that “Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise.” It’s the reason that music has such an important place in our choices, our budgetary and above-budgetary priorities. We believe that our special calling at Dove of Peace is to make our outreach to the community in terms of the graces that music and art provide. Though art and music happen because humans work to create them, we think that God uses beauty to touch hearts, and to move us toward spiritual maturity, and even into contact with the divine.
At Dove of Peace, we understand beauty to be more than mere decoration. We believe that it is our particular mission to be a place where God’s grace touches our world through the miracles of human creativity. Though art and music happen because humans work to create them, we think that God uses beauty to touch hearts, and to move us toward spiritual maturity, and even into contact with the divine.
The wonder of this lies in the very human areas of time, and practice, and money, as well as in the very material elements of pipes, keyboards, sheet music, color, and wind. Music making needs people, and at Dove this means that we encourage participation in choir, in bell choir, in hymn singing, in attentive listening.
“I know that music does something for me that nothing else matches. Does that have anything to do with God?”
“What is it that makes some spaces seem so special?”
But music is not the only way we know beauty, of course, or experience its deep joy. Our sanctuary was artfully designed by award-winning architect Kirby Lockard to emphasize both sacred space and literal community. Looking across at each other during worship, we are blessed by presence—the presence of those in the room, and the presence of the artists whose work surrounds us. In painting, carving, needle and metal work, grace comes into the real world in real form.
In our beautiful space, designed to lift the spirits and engage us with each other, music naturally proclaims God’s rich goodness. Bells, organ, piano, guitar, brass choir— even marimba or Dixieland band—can carry the message of God’s delight in people, in you particularly.
Come and sit in this holy space with us. Relish the paintings on the eastern wall by artist Bill Behm that color the words of the Twenty-third Psalm. Join a choir. Sing the ancient chants and the old songs of the church’s history. Make some joyous sounds with new music. Delight in the talents of the professional musicians who perform in our free concert series. You will be changed by your participation.
That’s a promise.
