What We Believe

With the whole Christian Church on earth we believe, teach, and celebrate the love of the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is the creator of all that exists; Jesus Christ is God's Son, who became human to suffer and die for the sins of all human beings and to rise to life again in the ultimate victory over death and Satan; and the Holy Spirit creates faith through God's Word and the Sacraments and guides Christian living. The three persons of the Trinity are coequal and coeternal, one God.

The faith we believe is summarized in three short phrases: Grace Alone, Scripture Alone, Faith Alone.

Grace Alone

God loves the people of the world, even though they are sinful and rebel against Him and, therefore, do not deserve His love. He sent Jesus, His Son, to love the unlovable and save the ungodly. We do not and cannot earn God's blessings and favor; they are His gifts given in love, by His grace.

Faith Alone

By His suffering and death as the substitute for all people of all time, Jesus purchased and won forgiveness and eternal life for them. Those who hear and believe this Good News have the eternal life that it offers. God creates faith in Christ and gives people forgiveness through Him.

Scripture Alone

The Bible is the inspired, written Word of God, true and without error, in which He reveals His will and commands and His Gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ died to save sinners. It is the sole rule and standard for Christian doctrine and guide for Christian living.

We believe that God works in a person's heart and life through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper as well as through His dynamic Word, the Bible.

Baptism

We practice infant baptism. Through water used with the Word of God, God brings the baptized into a faith relationship with God and washes away sins. Through baptism, a person is born into God's family; it is a new birth, new beginning, and renewal by God the Holy Spirit.

The Lord's Supper

We believe that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, Jesus Christ miraculously gives His true body and blood together with the bread and wine, used with God's Word, to forgive the sins and strengthen the faith of believers who receive the sacrament.

Good Shepherd is one of more than 6,000 congregations of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. These congregations hold to a shared confession of Jesus Christ as taught in Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions and walk together in sharing and proclaiming the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Adapted from A Week in the Life of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, copyright 1996, Concordia Publishing House.