Our Beliefs
St. Paul Lutheran Church is a congregation of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.
God
We believe in the Triune God: the Father and Creator of all that exists; Jesus Christ, His Son, who died for the sins of all people and rose from the dead on the third day; and the Holy Spirit, who creates and sustains faith in all Christians through God’s Word and Sacraments.
The Bible
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, truthful in everything that it says and profitable for us to read and study. The Holy Spirit spoke the words to the writers of the Bible, in which we come to understand God’s Law and Gospel. The Law tells us that we are sinners, condemned by our own actions; the Gospel tells us that we are saints, forgiven and made holy by the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. The Bible is the source of everything that we believe.
Grace
We receive God’s grace (“God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense”) purely as a free gift from God. We do nothing to deserve it. God gives it to us because He loves us. God’s grace comes to use in several different ways (the “Means of Grace”): God’s Spoken and Written Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
Baptism
God claims us as His own in Baptism, when He washes away our sins and gives us the holiness that Christ has won for us. This is God’s action in us, not something that we do for Him. Purely by God’s grace.
Lord's Supper
God feeds us the true body and blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. We cannot understand how the bread and wine are Jesus’ body and blood; we simply accept it by faith.
If you want to learn more about what we believe as Lutheran Christians, I encourage you to take the Lutheranism 101 class.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”