What We Believe, Teach, and Confess

Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone, God’s Word Alone!

We are Christian. There is a lot of negative baggage with that word these days. Followers of Jesus are known more for what we are against than what we are for, we are known more for what we hate than for loving people. St. Paul's Lutheran would like to change that.

We believe that men, women, and children are rescued from the effects of sin only by the underserved mercy of God; and that through faith—a relationship of dependence upon Jesus that God Himself gives us—forgiveness and new life becomes ours. We believe God's Word stands over us as ultimate. In it He gives us the rule and norm for all belief and through it makes us aware of sin, fills us with faith in Jesus, and guides us in faith-filled living.

What We Confess

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

The words of the Apostles' Creed, along with the Nicene and Athanasian Creed, have served as a summary of Spirit-filled and scriptural belief since the earliest days of Christianity. They summarize what Christians have always confessed when gathered around God's Word in the name of God's Son—and they are the truths that we believe, teach, and confess at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church.

We are members with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).  To be Lutheran simply means that we accept the scriptural truths that inspired the reformation of the Christian Church in the 16th century and led to a renewed focus on the Gospel. 

As a result we uphold an extravagant and mysterious view of God's love: that man is saved purely by God's grace through faith alone, apart from works. We believe that God is so loving and powerful that He is actively working through His Word as well as saving and sustaining sinful men, women and children through His mysterious gifts of baptism and the Lord's Supper.