Our Beliefs and Purpose

We believe in the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior and the Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.

Our Statement of Purpose reads:

1. The hearers of the Gospel are a people, called and sent by God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be a community of faith, hope and love, who witness to Christ and His coming Kingdom before all the world.

2. To participate in God's mission, this congregation as a part of the Church shall:

• Give honor and glory to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, worshipping Him in proclamation of the Word and administration of the sacraments and through lives of prayer, praise, thanksgiving, witness, obedience and service.
• Carry out Christ's Great Commission by proclaiming to all the world the Gospel of justification by grace through faith alone, according to the apostolic witness in Holy Scripture and in accordance with the Lutheran Confessions,
• Preserve and transmit the Gospel faithfully to future generations.
• Foster Christian fellowship and love, and extend a helping hand to humans in need.
• Manifest the unity of our faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior, and join with other  Christians in prayer and action.
• Nurture its members in the Word of God so as to grow in faith and hope and love, and to develop a sense of Christian vocation in daily life.

3.  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, "according to which all doctrines should and must  be judged." (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Part I)

4.  The Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds as true declarations of the faith of the Church.
 

5.  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.
 

6.  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 ofthe faith of the Church.
 

7.  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.

(Source: Bethel Constitution)