LEARN GOD'S WORD. LIVE WITH CHRIST.
LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS.
We believe...
...that God is the Creator of the universe and that He sustains His creation with His almighty power. He also created our first parents, Adam and Eve, in His own image that they might live in fellowship with Him and be His instruments to care for His creation. This creating event took place in six, twenty-four hour days by the power of God’s Word.
...that Adam and Eve, whom God created, doubted and rebelled against Him. They sinned and their natures were corrupted. Now, every human being is born sinful; that is naturally dead in trespasses, blind to His way, and enemies of God. Attempts to change human nature or to please God with our own good works are doomed to failure. People need forgiveness of their sins and to be given new life, sight, and reconciliation. God provides all of this by His grace through the gift of faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
...that God, out of pure love, gives mankind forgiveness of sins and thus reconciles them to Himself. He is a just God who punishes sin. His own Son, Jesus Christ, took the punishment that man deserved upon Himself when He died on the cross on Mt. Calvary. God raised Him from the dead on Easter, demonstrating to the world that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God has been accepted. Man’s sin is paid for.
...that people receive forgiveness through faith. Faith is a pure gift of God given by Word and Sacrament. Faith is created by the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the Gospel, the message of God’s love through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Holy Baptism is the washing of regeneration in which a person is given the Holy Spirit and receives faith in Christ. Baptism is not just for adults, since it is pure gift, Holy Baptism is the work of God for all Christendom. It is the means by which all people are made children of God and heirs of Christ's kingdom. It doesn't matter if the person being baptized is a newborn or 100 years old. God gives faith through His Sacrament.
...that the church is the fellowship of all who have been given faith in the Triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A faithful member of the Christian church has been led by the Holy Spirit to call on Jesus Christ, who is one with the Father, as their Savior and their Lord. To call Jesus Lord is: to renounce the evils of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature; to desire, through the Holy Spirit, to do the good works that God has laid before us to do; and cling to our crucified and living Savior as our only source of salvation. The Lutheran Church gets its name from Martin Luther who reformed the church with the basic principles of faith alone, grace alone, and Scripture alone. Lutherans do not have faith in Luther, but they cling to the faith that Luther clung to; Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
...that the church is the bride of Christ. God gave the gift of His church to nurture the faith of His children through the Word and the Sacraments (Baptism and Holy Communion). The church is to share God's love with all of its words and deeds so that the whole world might come to faith in Jesus Christ. The church is also given the gift of the Holy Ministry. God raises up male members of His church to become representatives of Christ in different parts of the world. These men are called to be pastors of Christ's church in their local congregations. They are to be faithful and publicly administer Word and Sacrament ministry as representatives of the Heavenly Bridegroom to His bride, the church. The church places only select men who are fit for the office of Holy Ministry, as prescribed by St. Paul in 1 Timothy and Titus. A pastor and the church he is called to are to faithfully serve as an image of Christ and His church in this world.
...that Holy Baptism is a Sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ Himself. Baptism is God's Word combined with water. What the Word of God says must be true. Therefore Holy Baptism is a washing of regeneration for the forgiveness of sins. It is the means by which mankind is given the Holy Spirit and faith; is united to Christ's life, death, and resurrection; made a child and heir to God's eternal kingdom; and is given a new life and the ability to walk in His ways. No one can enter God's eternal kingdom unless they are born from above. Just as a person is only born of the flesh once, so also a person is only born from above once. There is only one baptism for the remission of sins, into the one Triune God. Baptism is completely God's work, not a declaration of man's faith. We only receive it's benefits and God calls us to repentance through the remembrance of our Baptism. Baptism is the entrance into God's eternal family.
...that the Lord's Supper truly IS the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, sacramentally present in, with, and under the bread and wine. When a person partakes in the Holy Communion of our Lord, they are truly eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus. We don't try to explain how this is possible. We just know that on the night that He was betrayed and handed over to be crucified, Jesus told His disciples that the bread and the wine IS His body and blood. This was given as the new covenant for the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation. Since the body and blood of Christ is truly present in the Lord's Supper, it is present whether a person believes it to be so or not. The Word of God is true whether a person believes it to be so or not. The sacramental presence of Christ is pure gift and comfort for those who believe and are baptized. It gives forgiveness of sins, life, salvation, unity with Christ, unity with fellow believers, and the communion of saints who have gone before us. It is the partaking in God's eternal feast that a Christian receives a foretaste of here on earth. But, for the unbeliever and those who do not believe that Christ is truly present in the bread and wine, the sacramental presence of Christ brings judgment (1 Cor 11:27-29). No one can stand before God and live. That is unless they approach Him in the way that God has provided for His children to come to Him. For these reasons, and the fact that we truly love our neighbors, we practice closed communion. This is the practice that a person must be a member of this church, or a visitor that is a member of the LCMS, or one of its sister congregations. This is not to say that if you belong to another denomination that you are not a Christian. Nobody is doubting your faith in Jesus as the source of salvation from your sins. It does say that the church that you belong to does not publicly confess the same thing about the Lord's Supper and other key teachings of the Christian church as us. Therefore we do not hold all the apostolic teachings in common. We believe that partaking in Holy Communion together is a confession of our unity in doctrine. We would love to continue this discussion so that the church can be truly united around the truth of Holy Scripture. If you do believe and confess this same truth about Christ and His Word and Sacraments, talk to us about becoming a member. We long for the day where Christ's church on earth has no divisions.
...that Jesus will return in judgment on the Final Day. All things were accomplished on the cross when our Lord declared, "It is finished." He will return like a thief in the night, the time of which no one knows the day or the hour. We have been living in the end times awaiting Christ's return ever since He ascended into heaven. He sustains His children here on earth while we wait by sending us His Holy Spirit through the reading of Holy Scripture, His preached word, and the faithful administration of His Sacraments. Just as God preserved a faithful remnant of Israel who patiently waited on the Christ, so too will He preserve a faithful remnant of Christians here on earth. When Jesus does finally return, all of the dead will be raised and the entire world will be judged in an instant. All of those who refused to believe the gospel of Christ and have done evil in the eyes of the Lord will be eternally condemned to hell. All of those who have clung to faith in Christ's redemption and done good through His Spirit will be given eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus has prepared a mansion for His faithful in His eternal Jerusalem the golden. This is the unending splendor of being in the marriage feast of the Lamb which has no end. This is the promise to God's chosen children who's robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.