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We Believe

We are Christian

  • We believe, teach and confess Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the salvation of all people. It is only by virtue of Jesus’ life, suffering and death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven that we have full forgiveness for all our sins. With that forgiveness the Lord of Life promises us eternal life with Himself in heaven.
  • We believe that the One eternal God is Three Persons: the Father, Who created and sustains all things; the Son, Who though He is true God lived as a human being, born of the Virgin Mary, so that He might work for us forgiveness of sins and salvation; and the Holy Spirit, Who works to bring us to Christ and sustain us in that saving faith unto life everlasting.
  • We believe that the Bible is God’s own Word, which He has spoken through human writers, and in all its parts speaks absolute truth.
  • We believe that all people are born with a sinful nature (original sin), on account of which we constantly rebel against God and His holy will. This sinfulness in us prompts us to do all sorts of bad things (actual sins) to one another and separates us from God.
  • We believe that there really is heaven and hell, and after death all people will exist in one or the other forever. Those who reject Jesus Christ in this life will live in the torments of hell, forever separated from the love of God; those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross for our salvation will live eternally with God in heaven.
  • God has a plan to end the world, at which time He will judge everyone (both the living and the dead).

We are Evangelical

Evangelical comes to us from the Greek and means ‘good news’. The Lutheran Church is evangelical because we believe, teach and confess the good news that we have salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, as taught in the Holy Bible. This Gospel message (gospel also means ‘good news’) is the central teaching of the Lutheran Church.

We are Universal

The Lutheran Church is part of the one holy, Christian and apostolic Church confessed in the Apostles’ Creed and taught in Holy Scripture. [See Ephesians 4:4-6: There is one body and one Spirit, . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all Who is over all and through all and in all.] As Christians we are part of the one holy, universal Church that includes Christian believers of all times and places. There are 9 million Lutherans in the United States alone (61 million world wide, found on every continent).

Our worship style is ‘traditional’ and ‘liturgical’, which means that we follow the worship forms that have been handed down through the centuries from the early Christians. This liturgy is based upon God’s own Word and the early Christian expressions of that Biblical truth. In fact, many of the very words of our worship services can be traced to the early forms of worship in the first few centuries after our Lord’s ascension. We continue to use the ancient Creeds (confessions of faith) as correct interpretations of Scripture and to guard against false belief and teaching.

Why the name St. John?

St. John was one of the original Twelve Apostles. He was also one of the four Evangelists that God used to record the life of Jesus Christ

St. John refers to himself in the fourth Gospel as ‘the apostle whom Jesus loved.’ And in his Epistles (letters) John emphasizes that God is love. It is because of this love of God shown also to us in the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are a congregation.

Moreover, it is through the Word of God as recorded by St. John and the other Apostles that we are brought to faith and sustained in that faith by the work of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul says in Ephesians 2:20 that our Christian faith has been built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone.

Why Lutheran?

The Lutheran Church started in the early 1500s when Martin Luther began writing and teaching against certain errors that existed in the established church of his time.

Through his study of the Bible, Luther helped the Christian Church rediscover the truth that God is loving and that He offers forgiveness and life everlasting as a free gift because of Jesus Christ and what He did.

On the basis of what God says in His Word, Luther taught that people – no matter how hard they try – cannot earn God’s forgiveness or a place in heaven. It is a gift that people receive through faith in Jesus Christ. [Eph. 2:8-9]

Those who believed and followed these teachings from Scripture were called Lutherans by the established church, and the name stuck.

We Trust & Teach the Bible

Lutherans often refer to the three ‘solas’ (Latin for ‘alone’) as a summary of the faith that gives certain hope:

  • Grace alone — God loved the world, though we do not deserve His love. He sent His Son to love the unlovely and save the ungodly. [John 3:16]
  • Faith alone — Jesus has provided for our forgiveness and life; those who hear this promise and believe it, have what it offers. People don’t ‘get’ faith; God gives it as He gives us His promises. [Acts 16:31; Gal. 3:22]
  • Scripture alone — The Bible is the only source that shows God’s will and the only basis for faith.

To these three we also add a fourth ‘sola’ – Christ alone. For the entire Christian life, from beginning to end, is tied up in the Person and saving work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who gave Himself for all of us so that we might have life in Him.

We Esteem the Word & the Sacraments

God has given the Church His Holy Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the means through which He Himself continually comes to us with His grace and forgiveness to create and sustain saving faith in us. We preach and teach God’s Word in its purity and administer the Sacraments according to Christ’s command. Our practice of Closed Communion * is born out of faithfulness to Scripture and out of Christian love and concern for all who commune.

* Closed Communion is the practice of giving the Lord’s Supper only to those who have been baptized, instructed in Holy Scripture, and are one with us in their public confession of belief.

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of His Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father,
by Whom all things were made;
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary
and was made Man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried.
And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures
and ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead,
Whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord and giver of life,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified,
Who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church,
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,
and I look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life + of the world to come. Amen

The following PDF resources are available for personal and/or congregational devotional use: