What We Believe

We believe that the corpus of Scripture can be summed up in four words: GOD GIVES - WE RECEIVE

While this may be a simple way of saying it, the Word of God consistently displays a God who is the first cause of life and salvation. Indeed, we like to say that God does the “verbs”. When God chooses to act first, we always receive the benefits and promises that come in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus.

Therefore, we believe that the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created everything in the universe at the beginning of time.

The earth God made was good, but the first human beings, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and set in motion a deadly chain of sin and death in the world.

God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world, where He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Fully God and fully Man, Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience to God and took the punishment we deserved for sin when He died on the cross.

With a new and glorified body still bearing the scars of His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead.  Jesus has set us free from the awful sting and fear of death.  Alive forever, Jesus gives new life to every person who trusts in Him, and this trust or faith in Jesus is a gift from the Holy Spirit.

God is still speaking to us today through the Bible, which is His Word.  Every page in Scripture points to Jesus and the wonderful things He, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are able to do for us.

We gather together regularly, in congregational worship and small group Bible study, to listen to God speak through His Word, to sing of God’s wonderful deeds, and to speak to God in prayer.  We receive God’s forgiveness in Jesus through the Sacraments, as it states in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession - Article XIII (3-5) “Therefore, the sacraments are actually baptism, the Lord supper, and absolution (the sacrament of repentance). In the Sacrament of Holy Absolution, penitent sinners confess their sins before God and to one another and receive absolution of their sins by the spoken proclamation of the Called and Ordained pastor, who in the stead and by the command of our Lord, forgives sins.  In the washing and regeneration of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, we are born again as God cleanses babies and adults alike of all sin, fills us with His Spirit, and adopts us into His family.  In the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we gather around Christ’s Table, where He, because Christ is present “in, with and under the bread and wine”, is both Host and Food.  He gives us supernatural food, His Body and Blood with the bread and wine, assuring us again that we are God’s beloved children, filling us with new power and love to live as His people, and strengthening us in the sure and certain hope of an eternal place in the Father’s house, in heaven.

God gives us purpose in life right now by giving us many opportunities to serve our neighbor and glorify Him. In saving us by grace through faith, God calls us in many vocations throughout life to do good works for the sake of our neighbors - who are everyone. He gives us families, schools, workplaces, and churches so that each of us might use his or her unique God-given talents and abilities, within our vocations, to help others and to demonstrate to the world what true love, joy, and peace are all about. As a group of believers, we want to help you find your niche in life, as well as the strength in Christ to fill it.

Without knowing Jesus, no one can come to know the heart of God, for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. If someone keeps shutting God out of his life, God will eventually give that person what he or she wants:  eternal separation from God in a real place called hell. But God’s foremost desire is that every person be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God’s desire is for you to be part of something bigger than yourself.  Because we want God’s best for you, we invite you to come and join this fellowship with God, with us, and with all fellow Christians.  There is no greater joy in this world than making new friends, and with those new friends, getting to know more and more of God’s loving plan in Jesus Christ.