New Life Lutheran Church in Dripping Springs, Texas, uses the great outdoors as its worship space. “A lot of the unchurched people here who might be looking for a community talk about finding God in nature, so we’ve been talking about how they can have that here with a Christian community for support in their faith and life journey,” said Carmen Retzlaff, pastor and mission developer of New Life.
pastor I had zero experience in nontraditional ministries and zero expectations I would start one,” he said. “But we were looking for the Spirit to lead the way and change the church. It’s about where you are, knowing who lives among you and learning how you can be in relationship with those people. Opportunities are right next to you.”
Faith in nature New Life Lutheran Church in Dripping Springs, Texas, might fall into the category of a nontraditional church, but Carmen Retzlaff, pastor, would make the point that this outdoor worshiping community is actually a return to ancient times when everyone worshiped outside. In 2010, the ELCA Mission Investment Fund
purchased land and was holding it for this budding congregation until members had enough money to erect a building on the site. But after a few years of using a rental property, the congregation decided that it had fallen in love with the land but no longer had the dream of having a church building. On Maundy Thursday two years ago, they com-
mitted to using the great outdoors as their church. “I can only credit the Holy Spirit that they were
so willing to know that our mission was to reach out to people with the good news of God’s love and not to build ourselves a church like the one we came from,” Retzlaff said. Being in central Texas, the climate lends itself
for outdoor worship year-round, but New Life also has a large event tent and outdoor heaters to use when it’s cold or raining. The main worship area consists of three giant,
century-old oak trees and a horse trough as an altar. There is a labyrinth on the 12-acre property
18 DECEMBER 2016
that is open for anyone, and its walking paths are scriptural stations of the cross. A bird blind is available for observing wildlife, and its roof is structured to collect rainwater. New Life has Bible study and worship every
Sunday. Emphasizing their priority of caring for creation, they use a chalkboard to list song numbers so they can limit their use of paper and their sound system is solar powered. They also leverage social media, which allows them to share updates without mailings.
“ I think this idea of church in different spaces and different ways is a return to diversity of the original church.”
Most of the people who attend New Life are
young retirees and professionals with families. The congregation is active in the community, serving coffee and fruit to day laborers weekly, hosting a Godly Play Montessori-based children’s program and donating food from their community garden to a pantry. New Life also has community service Sundays,
which has found the congregation in the middle of cleaning up a portion of a highway and pausing for communion at the site to make their work part of the liturgy. Jenni Peterson and her husband moved to Texas
nine years ago and have always attended a Lutheran church. When they moved, they planned to attend church and keep a low profile to give themselves a break after having been very active in their past congregation.
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