FAITH
trusts the promises of God. Like an open hand, it merely receives what God gives. Faith is entirely passive, it can’t even believe in God or come to Him. Rather, the Holy Spirit creates faith in us by the Word of God.
EVANGELICAL
means we believe that the central message of Scripture is the “Good News” (Greek: evangelion) that our sins are freely and fully forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ.
LUTHERAN
is our name, after Martin Luther, the 16th Century monk who rediscovered the Gospel by affirming the authority of Scripture. Because of this, we don’t follow the teachings of Luther, but rather, the teachings of Scripture. We don’t place tradition or reason above Scripture, but we’ve found the “middle ground” where Scripture informs all our beliefs and practices.
CHURCH
is what we are together. We gather as a congregation to receive God’s gifts in our Divine Service on Sundays. We don’t come together to make God happy. We come to be served by God so we can go out and serve other people in our daily vocations.
