Peace Lutheran’s members vote 206-26 for a $17.8 million new sanctuary on its Saginaw Township school campus, leaving its 1962 church

SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Peace Lutheran Ministries will bring its church and school together on one Saginaw Township campus by 2029, building a new sanctuary next to its school after members approved a $17.8 million capital campaign, church leaders said.

Members voted 206-26 at an Oct. 18 congregational meeting, MLive reported, nearly two years after the congregation first voted to centralize on one campus. The plan, called “One Family – One Vision – One Campus,” moves worship services from Peace Lutheran Church, 3427 Adams Ave. in Saginaw, to the Peace Lutheran School property at 3161 Lawndale Road in Saginaw Township.

Why the congregation is moving. Leaders said the school and church have outgrown their buildings. School enrollment rose 25% and church membership 20% over the past four years, according to MLive. The church counts 2,500 members, and the school has 192 students in kindergarten through eighth grade; counting child care, about 350 children spend time at the Lawndale site.

“We are busting at the seams again and are at the point where we are having to turn away families,” a Peace Lutheran spokesperson told MLive. “Sometimes we have room for one child but not that child’s siblings.” Planners did weigh keeping the Adams Avenue church, the spokesperson said, but repair and renovation estimates rivaled the cost of the expansion and would not have fixed the space problem.

What would be built. The addition would cover 33,909 square feet on three levels, with a 19,955-square-foot first floor holding the new sanctuary, plus offices, meeting rooms and a building for maintenance equipment, according to the plans from Saginaw-based TSSF Architects, as described by MLive. The congregation had already set aside room for it: when Peace planned a solar array for the Lawndale campus, the church said it placed the panels in a stormwater basin partly to save the southeast corner of the property for a future sanctuary.

How it will be paid for. The ministries have $8.6 million in pledges, plan to raise at least another $5.7 million from members and could borrow up to $3.5 million if needed, the spokesperson told MLive. “When you tell people you’re going to do a $17.8 million project, they look at you like you’re crazy, but we truly believe this is God’s vision for us,” she said. “The funding is coming from people who believe in a project they themselves may not get to even see come to fruition.”

The hardest goodbyes. The Adams Avenue site is where the ministries opened a Lutheran school in 1941, and its sanctuary was dedicated in 1962. Members find two things especially hard to leave behind: the pipe organ and the stained-glass windows. The new sanctuary will get a new organ because moving the old one would cost too much, though members could later raise money separately to bring it over. Leaders are looking at printed vinyl that resembles stained glass and may store the original windows.

What it means for families. For parents on Peace’s waiting lists, the payoff is more classroom and child-care space on one site, though not soon: the target finish is 2029. Peace Lutheran is a member of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod’s Michigan District. More from the area is on our Saginaw page.

Sources:
MLive, “A new sanctuary, a difficult goodbye: Peace Lutheran plans $17.8M expansion in Saginaw Township,” Oct. 21, 2026 (vote, enrollment and membership, plans, funding, Gower quotes), https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2026/10/a-new-sanctuary-a-difficult-goodbye-peace-lutheran-plans-178m-expansion-in-saginaw-township.html
Peace Lutheran Ministries, “Peace Lutheran School is Going Solar” (Lawndale campus site plan, future sanctuary location), https://peacesaginaw.org/solar/
Photo: Dwight Burdette, “Interior of St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church, 10001 West Ellsworth Road, Freedom Township, Michigan - panoramio.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_St._Thomas_Evangelical_Lutheran_Church,_10001_West_Ellsworth_Road,_Freedom_Township,_Michigan_-_panoramio.jpg

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Tags: Saginaw · Saginaw Township · Faith · Churches · Lutheran Schools · Peace Lutheran