St. Luke’s belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and these are our beliefs.
This church confesses the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This church confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.
- Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made and through whose life, death, and resurrection God fashions a new creation.
- The proclamation of God’s message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy through word and deed, beginning with the Word in creation, continuing in the history of Israel, and centering in all its fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
- The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. Inspired by God’s Spirit speaking through their authors, they record and announce God’s revelation centering in Jesus Christ. Through them God’s Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world.
This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life.
This church accepts the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds as true declarations of the faith of this church.
This church accepts the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as a true witness to the Gospel, acknowledging as one with it in faith and doctrine all churches that likewise accept the teachings of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.
This church accepts the other confessional writings in the Book of Concord, namely, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, and the Formula of Concord, as further valid interpretations of the faith of the Church.
This church confesses the Gospel, recorded in the Holy Scriptures and confessed in the ecumenical creeds and Lutheran confessional writings, as the power of God to create and sustain the Church for God’s mission in the world.
Our church celebrates two sacraments, two rituals commanded by Jesus Christ that directly convey God’s love to us through physical elements.
The Sacrament of Holy Communion
Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us to eat and to drink. Whoever receives this gift from God receives Christ himself and all his treasure: forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation. Any person who trusts in Jesus’ words, “given for you” and “shed for you…for the forgiveness of sin,” may receive Holy Communion.
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism
In baptism in, with, and under the water, God forgives your sins, redeems you from death and the devil, and gives you eternal salvation. We baptize all ages, following the command of Christ, to lift up the merciful work of God in bringing salvation without our earning or meriting it.
He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to he hope of eternal life. This saying is sure.— Titus 3:5-8