What We Believe

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a bit curious.  Perhaps you have a Christian background and want some details about who we are.  Perhaps you really don’t know much about Christianity and wonder what Christians believe.  Read on….

 
 
We believe that there is a God. 

We understand that some would say the universe just ‘happened’.  We believe in a God who created the universe, and that he existed before there was a universe.

 
 
We believe that God created men and women and gave them free choices. 

He didn’t create robots.  He set boundaries of good and evil and unfortunately, our long ago parents chose evil over good.  We thus believe in good and evil.  We use the term sin to describe doing things that are evil.  We believe that we inherit a tendency to do wrong (just watch an 18 month old discover their will).  We believe that this explains much of the problems in the world.

 

We believe that God sent his son Jesus Christ

...to save us from the sin problem that we have.  He was born in a unique way 2000 years ago (yes, that is celebrated as Christmas), and was put to death by the people he came to help.  End of story?  Not quite.  He was raised from the dead 3 days after he was put to death (the anniversary is called Easter Sunday), and that event just shy of 2000 years ago changed the world.  There are over a billion Christians today, and the death and resurrection of Jesus is something we still marvel at.

 

We believe in a God who acts

God the Holy Spirit is a counselor, comforter and helper.

 

We believe in Baptism

Baptism is an entry into the Christian life.  It is a short ceremony with water and prayers, but we believe that the effect of that short ceremony is life changing.  We become children of a heavenly father and our sins are forgiven. 

 

We believe in the Lord’s Supper  

The Lord's Supper is a ceremony with bread and wine that Jesus started.  It is a way that we both recall and experience Jesus offering of his life for us. 

 

We are Lutheran Christians. 

  • Martin Luther was a church reformer in the 1500s who worked to renew and reform some practices that had crept in to the church of his time.  
     
  • Lutherans emphasize the grace of God – we believe along with other Christians that we’re forgiven freely for our sins.  But we emphasize that free gift in a way that others may not do as strongly. 
     
  • We also emphasize the Bible as truly God’s word to us.  Most Christians today would take a similar approach (in other words, Luther’s reforms worked!). 
     
  • We are a part of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.  We believe it is important to join with other like-minded Christians throughout the US. We also have fellowship with other Lutheran churches in the world.

 

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