Our Beliefs

We believe, teach, and accept the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the sole authoritative source and norm of our proclamation, faith, and life. Inspired by God’s Spirit, the Bible reveals God’s truth, centers on Jesus Christ, and guides Christian faith and practice.

We believe, teach, and confess the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is one true living God existing as the Trinity. God has revealed Himself to be the living and true God, perfect in love and righteous in all His ways, one in essence, and eternally existing in three Persons. Each Person of the Trinity is fully divine, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the direction of human history according to His purposes. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

God the Son is Jesus Christ. He is fully human and fully divine, the Creator, One Mediator, the prophesied Jewish Messiah, and the King of Kings. There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission by fully establishing His Kingdom.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who inspired the writing of the Scriptures. He convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment, exalts and glorifies Christ, and calls people to the Savior. At the moment of regeneration, He indwells every believer and believers need to be continually filled with the Spirit. He is the believer’s Counselor and Comforter, cultivates Christian character, guides believers, gives them spiritual gifts for service and mission, and seals believers as a guarantee of our salvation and future inheritance.

We believe, teach, and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and the gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe in Him. Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made, and through whose life, death, and resurrection God fashions a new creation.

All have sinned and rebelled against God. In the beginning, people were innocent of sin and endowed by God with freedom of choice. However, starting with Adam and Eve, people have defied God by sinfully going their own way and rebelling against Him. All people have sinned, are inwardly depraved, and justly deserve condemnation and eternal separation from God. People are helpless and powerless to change their sin condition and end their separation from God, apart from His grace.

The Good News is the story of Jesus, His provision for salvation, and inclusion in the Kingdom of God. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, God in the flesh as the promised Jewish Messiah, to save people from their sins and to begin His Kingdom. Through Jesus’ perfect, sinless life and by His death in our place, He upheld God’s justice and demonstrated His perfect love. Through His death on the Cross, He satisfied the righteous anger of God and bore the punishment for our sins. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death, to prove His identity as the Son of God and King of Kings, and to assure that all who turn from sin and trust in Him will have their sins removed and be reconciled to God forever as part of His eternal Kingdom.

People are saved by grace through faith, becoming new people through the Holy Spirit. This good news of salvation for sinners comes only through God’s saving grace — not human effort — and must be received personally by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as a free gift from God and part of His good purpose. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is accepting Christ as Savior and trusting Him enough to follow Him as the new and superior leader of one’s life. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of God’s grace as part of regeneration, or the new birth, where sinners become new creations in Christ Jesus. Regeneration is a change of heart caused by the Holy Spirit through the conviction of sin and the revelation of Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer at the time of salvation. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal of all sinners who repent and trust in Christ that gives the believer the righteousness of Christ and a relationship of peace and favor with God. Those who are born again have new affections for God and a new ambition to live for Him. This begins the process of sanctification by which the believer is progressively changed into Christ-likeness. Believers cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this process of growth and transformation through various spiritual disciplines or habits. The believer is enabled by the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit to walk in a growing relationship with the living God, to cultivate Christian character, and to serve Christ and His Church through spiritual gifts. All true believers persevere to the end of the age, being kept by the power of God through faith.

We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one biological man and one biological woman in a single, exclusive, and intimate union, as delineated in Scripture. It is also God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His Church.

Baptism is entirely God’s work, not dependent on our belief or decision. Martin Luther emphasized that faith and salvation come from God’s grace, not human effort. In our practice, we baptize infants, reflecting their complete dependence on God’s grace, just as they rely on their parents. Parents promise to raise their child in the faith, teaching them God’s Word and sacraments. When children are old enough, they affirm these promises in a ceremony called confirmation. Adult baptism is also practiced, often preceded by instruction, and signifies a new believer’s commitment to Christ and His Church.