Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church

Our Saviour’s—a Place of Renewal

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Box Elder, Montana, is located on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, which is home to the Chippewa-Cree tribe. It is currently the only majority Native American congregation on a reservation in Montana and is among eighteen ELCA American Indian and Alaska Native congregations across the country.

Starting as a mission congregation almost 80 years ago, the congregation met in a log chapel which is still used for worship.

Our Saviour’s has become a place for cross-cultural learning for the wider church.  It hosts servant groups, retreats, and cultural immersion events. Volunteers, together with the congregation and reservation residents, work on construction, repairs, and educational ventures.  

The visitors—including a recent ELCA Mission Builders group—mention the warm, friendly  people, the hospitality, and the beautiful surroundings. (One reported feeling spiritually renewed after escaping “the rat race” for 10 days.)  In turn, visitors learn about the history and culture of the Chippewa-Cree tribe.

Pastor Linda Webster notes that this ministry “is always seeking ways to be relevant in the lives of the people—whether through the layette ministry, the college scholarship ministry, Bible study, worship, or distributing quilts to community elders. . . . we seek to grow into the fullness of Christ as we serve the Chippewa-Cree people and the wider church.” 

Our Saviour’s also sponsors an ELCA missionary to Japan—Eric Anspach-Hanson.  Anspach-Hanson previously volunteered at Rocky Boy’s and was in the same seminary discipleship group as Webster.

Pastor Webster extends an invitation to all, “Please consider coming to visit us on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana.”

To partner with Our Saviour’s, see the TeePee Smoke newsletter at www.oslcrb.org