
We believe in the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We
acknowledge one God in these three persons.
We believe that God created the universe. Fathering and mothering, God loves, shows compassion, expects justice and deeply desires to live in relationship with us.
We believe that, because of God’s desire to live in a relationship with us, God became a human being. Jesus Christ, born to Mary, is fully God and fully man. Through His death on a cross and resurrection, Jesus removed all barriers to living in relationship with God.
We believe in the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit, God loves us, calls us, empowers us and lives in us. The Spirit gives a variety of gifts to all people and encourages their use.
We believe the cross is the place where God meets us. The cross is also God’s victory; God conquers all forms of death and frees us to be whom God created us to be.
We believe in the Sacrament of Baptism, we…
- Are called to be children of God and disciples of Jesus;
- Are forgiven and freed to be human, make mistakes, love and live without excuses;
- Are marked with the cross of Christ forever;
- Are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to love and serve God in the world!
We believe in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we encounter and receive…
- The Christ of memory. We remember that it was by a body broken and a blood poured that God
used to redeem the world; - The Christ of the present. Jesus Chris is Immanuel – God with us. He feeds us with Himself so
we may be His body in the world; - The Christ of the future. In the meal we are given a foretaste of the feast to come, the great
banquet in the coming Kingdom of God. We affirm the presence of all ages at this sacramental
meal.
We believe that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, holds the living Christ who, as the Scriptures are read and proclaimed, lives as God’s word to us.
We believe the confessions of the Lutheran Church reiterate God’s word to us: “I made you. I sustain you. I give you forgiveness, wholeness and eternal life. The gift is unconditional. You need not be something or do anything to deserve the gift. It’s free! Only receive the gift by faith.”
We believe that disciples of Jesus continually seek to enhance their relationship with Him in the following ways:
- Regular participation in worship
- Daily devotions and personal prayer
- Personal growth through bible study and group learning opportunities
- Stewardship, i.e. thoughtful and wise management, of God’s blessings through the generous sharing of our time, talents and treasures …our God-given gifts
- Sharing God’s love through our ministries in church, the world and our daily lives
We believe that, as disciples, Jesus calls us to reject:
- Religion that provides a way we can bargain for, work for, or earn our status as children of God;
- Religion that offers personal salvation without living, serving, growing, struggling and celebrating with one another;
- Religion that validates itself by financial or material successes;
- Religion that teaches “going to Heaven when I die” as the main reason to believe in God;
- Religion that creates a group of insiders and a group of outsiders; as well as
- Religion that avoids the pervasive Biblical themes of sharing food with the hungry, welcoming the outcast, caring about the poor and oppressed, living as good stewards of God’s gifts.
We acknowledge the meaningful works and ideas of Daniel Erlander in his book Baptized, We Live.