What we Believe, Teach, and Confess

God
We believe in God as revealed to us in Holy Scriptures as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is One God in three persons. He created, redeemed and sanctified us.

Father
We believe that God the Father, in love, created the universe and all there is, from nothing. In love He sustains His creation and desires an intimate relationship with all people.

Son
We believe that because of His love for us, God became a human being, Jesus Christ. Being fully divine and fully human, He lived the perfect life of a servant, and in His death on the cross Jesus suffered the punishment we deserve for our sin. In His death and because of His bodily resurrection, Jesus won for us victory over death and the power of the devil. Only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can we experience forgiveness of sins, be made acceptable to God and gain eternal life in heaven.

Holy Spirit
We believe that God the Holy Spirit works in the lives of people and brings them to faith in Jesus Christ. He desires to be so fully active in believers that they are filled with His presence and are empowered with His gifts to witness to Jesus Christ and do the work of the Church.

Bible
We believe that the Bible is the living Word of God, divinely inspired by God, without error, and therefore the only source of true teaching and final standard for evaluating all teaching and doctrine. In the pages of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament God reveals His character and will, our own sinful nature, and His offer of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Sin
We believe that sin separates us from God. Sin is our rebellion against God and is what we do in thought, work and deed, that is contrary to His will. We are born sinful, are naturally self-centered, and in daily need of forgiveness.

Grace
We believe that we enter into a relationship with God, not by anything we do, but solely by what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Knowing that we are sinners, we trust completely on God's grace, which is His unearned merit and favor, to save us from condemnation and to give us eternal life and a home with Him.

Faith
We believe that our primary call from God is to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin and as the Lord of our life and, thus, be saved eternally. Faith is knowing and accepting as true what the Bible says of God and relying in Him and trusting on Him with firm confidence.

Good Works
We engage in actions of love and mercy as a demonstration of God's love within us. We do this, not to win God's approval or salvation, but because we are thankful for the gift of eternal life, which we have already received as a free gift in Jesus Christ.

Baptism
We believe and have experience that through The Sacrament of Holy Baptism, which is commanded by Jesus, God adopts us as His children. We affirm the practice of baptizing infants, as well as adults, because all human beings are born with a sinful nature.

Communion
We believe that in The Sacrament of Holy Communion God offers us His grace and His love. As He promised, Jesus is truly and really present in, with and under the bread and wine of the Sacrament to give us forgiveness for our sins and strength for our faith.

Prayer
We believe that because Jesus Christ died for our sins, we have the privilege of praying directly to God as part of a growing and continuing relationship with Him. Prayer is our opportunity to thank and praise God, to seek His help in time of trouble and need, and to determine His way and will for our lives. Since prayer is a two-way communication in which we listen to God, as well as speak to Him, regular reading of the Bible is an integral part of daily prayer.

Church
We believe that those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are the Church, the Body of Christ in the world. God empowers those in the Church with differing gifts for the purpose of serving Him and others.

Jesus' Return
We believe that Jesus Christ, as He promised, is coming back to earth at a time known only to God the Father. He is coming to judge the living and the dead and to fulfill His promise to give all believers eternal life.

Heaven
We believe that at the time of death the soul of the believer is at once received into the presence of Christ and that, at the Last Day, the believer will live with Christ, in body and soul, in eternal joy and glory.