What We Believe
Emmanuel Lutheran Church is a member church of the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod (lcms.org). At the center of all our doctrines is a firm and uncompromising belief in Jesus Christ, who is both fully God and fully Man. He came into this world to save sinners, and this He accomplished perfectly by His life, death and resurrection.
The saving love and mercy of Jesus Christ is extended to all sinners of all times and places through the power of the proclaimed Word of Christ- the Gospel, and the administration of the sacraments of Holy Baptism, Absolution and the Sacrament of the Altar, which is also referred to as Holy Communion. Through these sacred means (the Gospel and the Sacraments of the Church) sinners encounter the saving mystery of Jesus Christ so that they may have faith in the salvation He achieved for all by paying a ransom with His own life. As followers of Jesus Christ, our focus is always on Him, our praises are always directed toward Him, and our chief desire is to love and serve Him more and more, and for the duration of our entire lives. We daily pine to be with Jesus at the close of our earthly lives when we will be fully drawn into His resplendent and glorious presence in heaven forever.
By believing in Jesus and having faith in His saving name, we render the Father acceptable worship and are perpetually drawn into the light of God’s glory through the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we worship and adore the three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity- the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who together make-up the divine substance which is the One Eternal God.
Even though in this earthly life we are still profoundly afflicted with sin and must constantly acknowledge our guilt and practice repentance, we nonetheless are confident that our salvation is secure because it comes, not from a righteousness that is our own, but from the righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ, who obeyed His Father perfectly and on behalf of all. Christ’s innocence is therefore generously imputed to all who have faith in Him. When we stand before God at the Last Judgement, we will be judged according to the innocence of Christ given to us through faith and not according to our sins, which are many.
Our practice is to baptize any children born into this faith so that they are immediately drawn into the new and everlasting covenant in Christ’s blood. When children or adults are properly knowledgeable of the benefits of Holy Communion, they may be confirmed in this faith and receive Holy Communion, which is the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. We further believe that Christ entrusted His own ministry of the forgiveness of sins to His Church and therefore confidently receive the promise of Absolution (the absolving of our sins) through the unique authority of the called and ordained pastor who stands in the stead of Christ for this august purpose.
As a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Emmanuel Lutheran adheres to the ancient liturgical practices and customs of the Apostolic Tradition. We therefore subscribe to anciently established liturgical norms that provide structure to our divine services. At Emmanuel, we offer Holy Communion at all our Sunday services each week.
Emmanuel Lutheran exists for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ and the salvation He is eager to offer sinners who are repentant. Everything we do as a church is geared toward that one sacred purpose. Not only do we cherish every opportunity to receive Christ’s holy promises through the ministry of our church, but we hope that others will share with us this saving faith and thereby grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and experience with us increased measures of trust in His life-giving friendship.