We are ministry partners with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Our Mission
Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we live to enrich the lives of all within our reach by sharing with them the Good News and healing power of God in Jesus Christ.
Our Vision
That all may know Jesus Christ, respond to His grace, and grow in lifelong faithfulness and service to His Word.
Our Value Statement
As members of the Body of Christ, we are passionately committed to affirming and upholding the God-given worth of each and every individual we encounter. We believe that the church’s call is to welcome and help people discover their God-given potential through a relationship with Jesus Christ. We, therefore, are committed to treating all people with dignity and respect.
Who is Jesus Christ?
Jesus is God's son, sent by God to become human like us. In his life and being he broke through the prison of sinfulness and thus restored the relationship of love and trust that God intended to exist between himself and his children. Though he is eternal, with God at the beginning of time, he was born on earth of a virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was at once truly God and truly human. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, lived and died in Palestine during the governorship of the Roman administrator Pontius Pilate; we believe him to be the Messiah chosen by God to show his love for the world. He is God, yet with all the limitations of being human. His relationship to God, however, was not one of sin but rather of perfect obedience to the Father's will. For the sake of a sinful world, Jesus was condemned to death on the cross. But death could not contain him. On the third day after his execution, the day Christians observe as Easter, Jesus appeared among his followers as the risen, living Lord. By this great victory God has declared the Good News of reconciliation. The gap between all that separates us from our Creator has been bridged. Thus, Christ lives today wherever there are people who faithfully believe in him and wherever the Good News of reconciliation is preached and the Sacraments administered.
What do we believe?
We are saved by the grace of God alone — not by anything we do. Our salvation is through faith alone — we only need to believe that our sins are forgiven for Jesus Christ’s sake, who died to redeem us. Jesus is the clearest, most complete word of God to us. The Bible is “the manger in which the Word of God is laid.”
Justified
All are invited—the weak, the oppressed, the depressed, the sinners, the alienated and the outcasts. God calls infants, children, adults and elderly of all races, nations, tribes and classes. No one is excluded. This is God’s righteousness, His justice. This is JUSTIFICATION!
By Grace
The church lives as the family which has received the gift of a new age—forgiveness, reconciliation, liberation—and has been sent to proclaim the new age in word and deed.. We, the church, do not deserve this. Our inclusion is a gift of God. This is GRACE!
Through Faith
Faith is the trusting, obedient YES of the heart which enables us to enter and live in the family of God in which we receive and share the gifts of the kingdom. We stand in awe and wonder realizing that even our trusting in God is entirely the work of the Holy spirit. Therefore, even our FAITH is a gift!
How do we see the Bible?
To borrow a phrase from Martin Luther, the Bible is "the manger in which the Word of God is laid." While we recognize differences in the way the Bible should be studied and interpreted, it is accepted as the primary and authoritative witness to the church's faith. Written and transcribed by many authors over a period of many centuries, the Bible bears remarkable testimony to the mighty acts of God in the lives of people and nations. In the Old Testament is found the vivid account of God's covenant relationship to Israel. In the New Testament is found the story of God's new covenant with all of creation in Jesus. The New Testament is the first-hand proclamation of those who lived through the events of Jesus' life, death, and Resurrection. As such, it is the authority for Christian faith and practice. The Bible is thus not a definitive record of history or science. Rather, it is the record of the drama of God's saving care for creation throughout the course of history.
What we believe about creation?
We believe that God is Creator of the universe. Its dimensions of space and time are not something God made once and then left alone. God is, rather, continually creating, calling into being each moment of each day. Human beings have a unique position in the order of creation. As males and females created in God's image, we are given the capacity and freedom to know and respond to our creator. Freedom implies that we can choose to respond to God either positively or negatively.
Where do we stand on the question of sin?
We believe that all people live in a condition which is the result of misused freedom. "Sin" describes not so much individual acts of wrongdoing as fractured relationships between the people of creation and God. Our every attempt to please God falls short of the mark. By the standard of the Law, of which the Ten Commandments are a classic summary, God expresses his just and loving expectations for creation, and our failure to live up to those expectations reveals only our need for God's mercy and forgiveness.
Do we believe in life After death?
While there is much we do not and cannot know about life beyond the grave, we do believe that life with God persists even after death. Judgment is both a present and future reality, and history moves steadily towards God's ultimate fulfillment. This of course is a great mystery, and no description of what life may be like in any dimension beyond history is possible. Anxiety for the future is not a mark of faith. Christians should go about their daily tasks, trusting in God's grace and living a life of service in his name.
