WHAT WE BELIEVE

 
 
Immanuel Lutheran Church is a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
 

We believe in the inerrant Word of God

We believe that the Bible is the true Word of God, is God-breathed, and is the official authority over all that we do as a church and as Christians. We believe that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, and should be the ultimate resource in how we live our lives.
 

We believe in the Holy Trinity

We believe that God is trinitarian in nature, being made wholly of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit; not three separate Gods, but one God in unity. This is explained in the Athanasian Creed (the longest one ever!). It does a good job of trying to explain the nature of God.
Simply, our beliefs can briefly be stated with the Apostle’s Creed.
 

We believe in one Baptism

We believe in one baptism for the remission of sins. We understand through Scripture (the Bible), that everyone is, by nature, sinful and cannot by their own works or actions free themselves from this state. To cleanse us from this, God offers us Baptism as a washing away of sin, marking us as His own, and enabling the Holy Spirit to work in us. We believe that baptism can occur at any age. Once a person has been baptized, they become a child of God. Because we understand baptism to be God’s work through the water and His Word, we take comfort in the salvation that we have through faith in Him. As Baptized people of God, we should daily live according to His purpose.
 
Luther’s Small Catechism explains it this way:
 

What does such baptizing with water signify?

It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, again, a new man daily come forth and arise; who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Where is this written?

St. Paul says in Romans, chapter 6We are buried with Christ by Baptism into deaththat, as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Fathereven so we also should walk in newness of life.
 

We preach and teach Christ and Him crucified

We believe, teach and confess that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord, and that through faith in Him we receive forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation. We believe this is true because of His life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead as stated in Scripture.
 
Learn more about this here.
 

 We practice close communion

What does this mean?
 
The LCMS believes that Scripture teaches that the Lord’s Supper is a precious gift of God in which Christ gives us His true body and blood (in a miraculous way), together with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. Because the Bible teaches that this Sacrament may also be spiritually harmful if misused, and that participation in the Lord’s Supper is an act of confession of faith, the LCMS ordinarily communes only those who have been instructed in the teachings of our church and who have confessed their faith in these teachings.
 
The official position of the Synod is that members of other Lutheran churches with whom we are in altar and pulpit fellowship are invited to commune with us.
 
Learn more about our Holy Communion beliefs here.
 
If you have any questions or wish to discuss any of these topics further, feel free to contact our pastor.
For more information on what we believe, please feel free to visit this website.