“We are church, we are Lutheran, we are church together, and we are church for the sake of the world.”

–Presiding Churchwide Bishop of the ELCA, Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

 

At St Michael Lutheran Church we celebrate and believe in one God, who is revealed to us through the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. We come to the Gospel in several distinct ways. We study the Word of God as the inspired word that was written by human hands to a human community in a particular time and place, which through the Holy Spirit, still speaks to us here and now in this place. Holy Scripture is therefore the basis for how we come to know and worship God, through Jesus Christ. We also value the doctrines and confessions of the early Church and those who followed the early Church’s leaders. As Christians, we acknowledge that we are entering into a conversation about faith that has gone on for 2,000 years and we are eager to share in conversation with those voices who have helped to further our understanding of God’s revelation to us. We embrace the liturgical practices of the early Church by following an order of worship that links us to the rich heritage of the ancient Church. Most importantly, we celebrate the sacraments of the Church that bind us to the Church and our Savior, Jesus Christ through the meal, the Word, and the water.

So, here at St Michael, we aspire to follow Jesus Christ by being a;

1. Biblical Church – Holy Scripture

2. Historical/Theological Church – Doctrines and Confessions of the Church

3. Liturgical Church –Liturgical practices of the early Church

4. Sacramental Church –Communion and Holy Baptism

 

Lastly, we believe that we are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the central tenet of who we are as a community of faith. We strive to bear witness to the Hope we find here at St Michael with you and God’s world. The Gospel of Christ is a message that we find to be as relevant today as it ever was!

 

This is an image that is important to us as Lutherans. It is Luther’s rose. The cross in the center is black and represents the cross of Christ, which is the means by which Christ reconciled the world to God. The heart in the middle represents the, still flawed, nature of humanity (not yet fully redeemed and still human). The white petals represent the works and sanctification that God can do through us because of the grace we receive in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The blue represents the hope we have in being fully reconciled to God as we look heavenward. The gold ring circling the image represents the hope of eternal life shared with our Lord and Savior in spite of our earthly deaths.