What We Believe
We believe that faith is what guides us and gets us through life. Faith leads us through both the ups and the downs of life. Our faith is based in Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and Savior. Our purpose as people is to praise God and to live out love for our neighbors.
We don’t want to pretend like we have all the answers. We have found that the right questions are often more important to a vibrant faith than the right answers. Come, join the discussion, and ask questions with us. Feel free to use the comments section to add your own questions and answers about matters of faith. Better yet, come visit us during one of our many worship and/or educational opportunities.
- God
- “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth.” – The Apostles’ Creed
- God is the Creator, Parent, and Proper Owner of all creation, in other words everything. God is a great almighty being. We recognize our relationship to God in our baptism, where we who are baptized are given the new name, “Child of God.”
- “Because you are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and if you are his child, then you are also an heir through God.” – Galatians 4:6-7
- Jesus Christ
- “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.” – The Apostles’ Creed
- Jesus in our savior, our all. We believe that God was present in Jesus of Nazareth in a unique way, and that Jesus was a transparent window into God. We believe Jesus was most transparent on the cross, where God was most exposed, where he died to save us.
- “Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” – Mark 15:37-39
- The Holy Spirit
- “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” – The Apostles Creed
- The Holy Spirit is our guide and counselor. She moved over the waters at Creation. She inspired the prophets. She guided the Church in its infancy and throughout history. She has the ability to move through us always. She is our life force and that intangible quality of God in which we “live, move, and have our being.” She is the agent of God’s gifts and grace.
- “Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves?” – 1 Corinthians 6:19
- The Gospel
- The Gospel promises that in the midst of life, where God seems most absent, there God is. This promise was made available to all through the life and death of Jesus Christ, and cannot be purchased, hoarded. or lost. It assures renewal from decay, hope from despair, and life from death.
- “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” – John 3:16
- The Gospel promises that in the midst of life, where God seems most absent, there God is. This promise was made available to all through the life and death of Jesus Christ, and cannot be purchased, hoarded. or lost. It assures renewal from decay, hope from despair, and life from death.
- Faith
- Faith is the evidence of things unseen and the hope for things to come. Faith is the compass in life that provides us with a true orientation towards God. But faith is more than just getting pointed in the right direction, it’s moving towards God and being directed by God too. But faith is not just belief; it is not just some mental assent to a specific world view. Rather faith is born of trust and trust is born of love. What’s important are not the abstract theological questions about the nature of God (which ask almost nothing of us except argument), but rather a faith which directs our entire life’s work and actions..
- “We live by faith and not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7
- Faith is the evidence of things unseen and the hope for things to come. Faith is the compass in life that provides us with a true orientation towards God. But faith is more than just getting pointed in the right direction, it’s moving towards God and being directed by God too. But faith is not just belief; it is not just some mental assent to a specific world view. Rather faith is born of trust and trust is born of love. What’s important are not the abstract theological questions about the nature of God (which ask almost nothing of us except argument), but rather a faith which directs our entire life’s work and actions..
- Being Lutheran
- Grace! Grace! Grace! We believe that Lutherans truly understand the idea of grace. Being Lutheran is about more than glorified rice, jell-o salads, and weak coffee. It’s about acknowledging the ever present and persistent sinfulness of humanity but putting our trust in the even more powerful love and grace of God.
- We are congregations of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)