The best way to communicate what we as Lutheran Christians believe and teach is to ask you to read the Small Catechism. This little booklet summarizes God's word about his will for us, about how to pray, and about how He comes to us and gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation in word, water, wine and wafer.
Small Catechism -- Click Here
Another way to say what we believe and teach as Lutheran Christians is:
- God is God…and you are not. In a culture that often wants you to believe that you are the center of the universe and that “it’s all about you,” we believe and teach that life is all about Jesus.
- The Holy Bible is God speaking to humanity and when we read (and hear) the Bible we hear God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit speaking to us. God's word is truth and is the source and standard for us; it needs no correction, adjustment, cultural conditioning, or amending.
- God’s word speaks to us as both judgment AND mercy, judgment on our sin and mercy for sinners in Jesus Christ. The unique shorthand Lutherans use for this is to say that God’s word speak to us as Law and Gospel. The Law shows us our sin and the Gospel shows us Jesus our Savior.
- God’s word reveals the truth that we are 100% sinners and saints at the same time. Here is how God's word says it: Romans 7.21-25
- We are put in a right relationship with God only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ…and we are called to live this out. It’s all right there in Ephesians 2.8-10. The church words for this truth are justification (to be put in right relationship with God) and vocation (our calling to live that relationship out among our neighbors).
- We believe in the priesthood of all believers. We don’t need a bridge, an intermediary between us and God, we already have this in Jesus Christ. Further, every believer is a bridge from God to people.
- It’s about relationship not “religion”. We believe the church is the congregation in living relationship with God and with people. Focusing on institutional religion often brings out the sinner in us (see “sinners & saints” above) and gets us off of our mission of making disciples.
Some people ask us what we believe about sexuality and marriage. The answer is first what God says about sexuality and marriage - this is what we believe and teach. To summarize what God says, please see this helpful statement: Regarding Sexuality