We believe in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, we believe the creator of the cosmos became human in the specific person of Jesus of Nazareth and is present with us today by the Holy Spirit. We believe this Jesus is the fulfillment of promises God made to Adam and Eve, Sarah and Abraham, David and all the prophets and the hope envisioned in Revelation. This one God, known in Jesus, has and desires deep relationship with humanity and all creation and is, in God’s own self, a relationship of mutual love.

So, we speak our faith also in the ancient creeds of the church. In them, a growing, thinking, praying church named the Trinity, hammering out the fundamentals of  Jesus’ identity and relationship to even-more-ancient scriptures. These creeds are signs of the unity in Jesus we share with Christians across time and space and culture.

We confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. Jesus is more than a teacher, an interesting historical character, or a worthy moral example. Jesus is Redeemer of all that is, seen and unseen. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus freed all people from sin and death. Jesus’ living presence fills the scriptures, a simple meal of bread and wine called communion, a simple water bath called baptism, and the community that gathers around them.

This stuff is the means of grace, the enacting of the Gospel, and through them Jesus creates faith and leads us in obedience, living it in lives of grateful worship, simple holiness, and active compassion.

In our life, as a congregation and as individuals, Scripture is our source and norm. We believe the Holy Spirit inspires us as we read today, as surely as it inspired its writers. Both Old and New Testaments are, like the manger, a cradle for Christ. We look for Jesus, God’s living Word, and his liberating Gospel no matter what book of scripture we read.

As faithful witnesses to God’s Word, we accept the Augsburg Confession and other Lutheran confessional writings. Celebrating the Lutheran tradition, we also give thanks for the diversity of the whole Christian tradition. The Lutheran confessional writings help us discern the heart of the heart of the faith, so we may, on the one hand, cling to what is essential and from God and, on the other, stop worrying and fighting about what is from people and not essential.

The Gospel is the heart of the heart, and we trust the Gospel as the power of God to create and sustain the Church for God’s mission in the world. In other words, we believe it involves us but it’s not up to us and it’s not about us. With or without us, God will prevail.

If you’re still curious about who we are and what we believe, visit the website of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, one of our partners in the Gospel. Or watch this video, in which the ELCA’s presiding bishop, Mark Hanson, responds to the question, “Why Lutheran?”