What We Believe
We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. We take the Bible seriously, but not literally. The ELCA ascribes to three ancient creeds of faith: the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

When we confess those creeds we may not be able to believe every single word of every single creed all the time. Faith, by its nature, has moments of questioning and doubting. When we say these creeds in worship we do not say them by ourselves. We say them together so that we can support each other in our beliefs. When one of us doubts, the rest of the community holds the belief on their behalf. We are church together. 

Here are some of the things we mean when we confess the creed and read the Bible: 

The Triune God

  • We believe in the Triune God:
    • God, the Creator, who keeps creating, making all things new. 
    • God, embodied in Jesus, who taught, loved, and healed when he lived on earth. 
    • God, the Holy Spirit, who animates and sustains our lives. 
  • We believe Jesus' life, death and resurrection are saving acts that free us from sin and joining us to Christ raises us to new life. 
  • We believe in God's grace (the unconditional, unmerited love of God) given as gift in love and for love. 

The Bible

  • We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God.
    It reveals to us the Living Word of God still speaking into our lives today. 

The Church

  • We believe the church is not a building. Gathered by the Spirit we are church together.  
  • We are church shaped and empowered by God's Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion through worship to be sent out into the world to live in faith through our daily lives. 
  • We believe church is a group of forgiven sinners. We will make mistakes, occassionally hurting and disappointing one another. 

The Life of Faith - following the way of Jesus

  • We believe the world is complicated and can be difficult. It is better to make our way through it together and learn through our differences of opinions and life experience. 
  • We believe God is already with you before you even come through the door.
  • We believe that faith isn't finding or arriving at the right answers. A life of faith includes questioning, doubting, trusting, struggling, seeking, and wondering. 
  • We believe the good news of Jesus, that we are free, forgiven, and loved, calls us to share and spread this messagey by loving expansively, welcoming widely, and serving humbly.  

 

What is a Lutheran?