What We Believe

What We Believe...

• We believe and confess the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• We confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.
• We believe that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made and through whose life, death, and resurrection God fashions a new creation.
• We believe that the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired and infallible Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of our proclamation, faith, and life.
• We believe that the proclamation of God's Word to us is both Law (revealing our sinfulness and our need for redemption) and Gospel (the Good News of the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus' suffering and death on our behalf).
• We believe that the Scriptures record and announce God's revelation centering in Jesus Christ.  Through them God's Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain faith in Christ and fellowship for the proclamation of the Gospel and service in the world.
• We accept the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds as true declarations of the faith we hold.
• We accept the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as a true witness to the Gospel, acknowledging as one with it in faith and doctrine all churches that likewise accept the teachings of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.
• As further valid interpretations of the faith, we accept the other confessional writings in the Book of Concord, i.e., The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise, the Small Catechism, and the Formula of Concord.
• We believe that the Gospel, recorded in the Scriptures and confessed in the catholic creeds and Lutheran confessional writings, is the power of God to create and sustain the Church for God's mission in the world.
• The Church is the people of God in Christ, enpowered by the Holy Spirit, called and sent to bear witness to God's creative, redeeming, and sanctifying activity in the world.  We participate in this witness by
  • worshiping God in the proclamation of His Word and the administration of the Sacraments, as well as through lives of prayer, praise, thanksgiving, witness, and service;
  • proclaiming God's saving Gospel of justification by grace for Christ's sake through faith alone, according to the apostolic witness in the Holy Scripture, preserving and transmitting the Gospel faithfully to future generations;
  • carrying out Christ's Great Commission by reaching out to all people to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ;
  • serving in response to God's love in Christ to meet human needs, caring for the sick and the aged, advocating dignity and justice for all people, working for peace and reconciliation among the nations, and standing with the poor and powerless;
  • nurturing ourselves in the Word of God so as to grow in faith, hope, and love, to see daily life as the primary setting for the exercise of our Christian calling, and to use the gifts of the Spirit  for our life together and our calling in the world;
  • seeking to maintain the unity given to the people of God by living together in love of Christ in prayer and action to express and preserve the unity which the Spirit gives.
• We believe that the salvation procured for the world by the life and death of Jesus Christ is transmitted to the faithful through the use of the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments.
  • We believe that in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism God forgives sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what He has promised.  The only valid Baptism is that which is done according to Christ's word and command: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Because Baptism is God's action and not our own, therefore, the very young (newborns and infants) as well as the very old receive the Sacament.  As the baptized children of God, Baptism means that daily our sinful selves, with all their evil deeds and desires, are to be drowned through repentance and that new selves should rise to live with God in righteousness and purity for ever.
  • We believe that in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, Christ gives His very Body and Blood with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation, and that the only thing necessary to receive these benefits is faith in His word, "given and shed for you for the remission of sins."  We, therefore, welcome to the Lord's Table all who have been baptized (admission to the Family of God), repent of their sins (sorrow for sin and a Godly desire to ammend their sinful lives), and believe Christ's own word which assures us that in this Sacrament we are receive His very Body and Blood.
• We believe that without faith in Jesus Christ no one can be saved.
• We believe that Jesus Christ who lived, died, and rose in the flesh, will return in the same way at the Last Day to judge the living and the dead and consummate the Kingdom of God.  It is for this which we wait, witness, work, and hope.  Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!