What We Believe

We call ourselves Lutheran because we believe the Lutheran Confessions (also called the Book of Concord) are a true summary and exposition of Holy Scripture, and we believe the Bible is perfectly true and divinely powerful. We are a member congregation of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (www.lcms.org.). An online, searchable edition of our Confessions can be found here. Below is a summary of what we believe, teach, and confess.

• We believe the mystery of the Trinity, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons yet are the one true God (Matthew 28:19; Athanasian Creed).
• We believe that the sin of Adam has led to separation between God and Man such that Man would be lost in sin and death forever without the salvation provided by God (Romans 5; Psalm 51; 1 John 1).
• We believe that the Son of God was truly conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1) and became man (John 1) to live a perfect life, suffer, die, and rise again to atone for the sin of the World and reveal the grace of God so that all who believe in Him would be counted as righteous for His sake and inherit eternal life (Hebrews 10).
• We believe that we cannot by our own reason or strength come to Christ, but the Holy Spirit works through the living Word of God, granting and sustaining the gift of faith (Romans 8:1–11; 10:5–17).
• We believe that Baptism is a life-giving washing in water with the Word that offers forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe (Mark 16:16; Titus 3:3–8).
• We believe the incarnate Body and Blood of Christ is joined to the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation (Matthew 26:26–29; 1 Corinthians 11).
• We believe that the good works of loving our neighbor (both caring for them in body and sharing with them the Good News of Jesus’ salvation) flow forth from the justification and sanctification accomplished for us by Christ in His death and resurrection and in us by the Holy Spirit through the Word. These good works are the fruit of the Spirit and do not cause our salvation, but necessarily flow from it. (Galatians 5:22–26; John 13–14; John 20:19–23; Romans 6)

We believe Closed Communion is a practice of pastoral care and invite guests and visitors to speak with Pastor Moerbe before coming to the Lord’s Table. Here is an article for more information on such a perspective.