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320.963.3592
7809 County Road 35 W
Middleville Township
Annandale, Minnesota
AS CONFESSIONAL LUTHERANS
WE BELIEVE, TEACH, AND CONFESS:
On God
We believe in one God who has revealed Himself to us in
three Divine Persons—God the Father and God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit.
Gen 1: 26-27 ; Num 6: 24-26 ; Deut 6: 4 ; Ps 2: 7 ; Is 48: 16 ; Matt 3: 16-17 ; Matt 28: 19
On God's Word
We believe that this Triune God has caused His Word to be recorded in the Old and New Testaments by inspiration of the Holy Spirit; therefore, the Bible has no mistakes or errors of any kind (inerrant) and can be trusted absolutely (infallible).
John 5: 39 ; John 10: 35 ; Rom 3: 2 ; 1 Cor 14: 37 ; 1 Thess 2: 13 ; 2 Tim 3: 16 ; 1 Peter 1 :25 ; 2 Peter 1:19-21
On Creation
We believe that by His almighty Word God created a perfect world in six days.
Gen 1-2 ; Exodus 20: 8-11 ; Ps 33: 6 ; John 1: 1-3 ; Col 1:15-16 ; Heb 11: 3
On the Fall - Original Sin
We believe that this perfect world was ruined by Adam and Eve's rebellion against their Creator. Their sin has corrupted all humanity so that all people are now conceived and born dead in sin and are under God's wrath.
Gen 3 ; Ps 51: 5 ; Rom 3: 23 ; Rom 5:12-19 ; Rom 6: 23 ; Rom 7: 18 ; Rom 8: 7-8 ; 1 Cor 2: 14 ; Eph 2: 1-3
On Jesus Christ
We believe that out of pure, undeserved love God sent His eternal Son into our sinful world to take on our flesh and to satisfy God's anger against our sins by His perfect life and His innocent suffering and death on the cross.
Matt 17: 5 ; John 1: 1 ; John 3: 16-18 ; Rom 5:10 ; 2 Cor 5: 19 ; 1 Tim 3: 16 ; 1 John 1: 7
On the Resurrection
We believe that this same Son of God, Jesus Christ, not only died for the sins of humanity but that He rose bodily from the dead after three days.
Matt 28 ; Mark 16 ; Luke 24 ; John 20 ; Rom 1:4 ; Rom 4: 25 ; Rom 8: 34 ; 1 Cor 15: 14-18
On Salvation
We believe that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight.
Rom 3: 21-26 ; Rom 4: 5 ; 2 Cor 5: 19-20 ; Eph 2: 8-9
On the Gospel and Evangelism
We believe that for Jesus' sake God has graciously pardoned the sins of the entire world and it is this good news or “Gospel” which Jesus wants His Church to proclaim to all people.
Matt 28: 19-20 ; Mark 16: 15-16 ; Luke 24: 46-47 ; Rom 5: 10 ; 2 Cor 5: 18-19 ; Eph 2: 16 ; Col 1: 20
On the Means of Grace
We believe that God distributes His forgiveness and is present today among His people through the "means of grace" (the Word and Sacraments).
John 5: 39 ; 1 Cor 1: 21 ; 1 Cor 15: 1-2 ; Eph 1: 7-9 ; Col 1: 28 ; 2 Tim 3: 15-17
On the Gospel and Evangelism
We believe that God's Church is found wherever these means of grace are found (the pure preaching of the Word and the right administration of the Sacraments).
Is 55: 10-11 ; Mark 16: 15-16 ; Acts 2:42
On Baptism
We believe that Baptism is a "means of grace" through which God, by water and His mighty Word, calls people (including infants and little children) into His Kingdom, giving them the new birth of faith, and forgiving them all their sins.
Matt 28: 19-20 ; Mark 16:16 ; John 3: 3-6 ;
Rom 6: 3-4 ; Eph 5: 26 ; Titus 3: 5
On the Lord's Supper
We believe that the Lord's Supper is a "means of grace;"
in which our risen Savior gives all communicants His true body
to eat and His true blood to drink hidden in, with, and under the
outward forms of bread and wine for the forgiveness of all their sins.
Matt 26: 26-28 ; Mark 14:22-24 ; Luke 22: 19-20 ; 1 Cor 10:16 ; 1 Cor 11: 23-29
On Modern Revelation
We believe that the Holy Spirit no longer speaks directly to people as He did to the prophets and apostles in the Bible but works in us today through the Ministry of Word and Sacrament alone.
Matt 7: 21-23 ; Matt 24: 24 ; Eph 4: 11
On the Ministry
We believe that, through congregations such as ours, God calls qualified men into the public “Ministry of Word and Sacrament” to represent Him, to speak His Word in His place, and to administer the Sacraments according to His institution.
Matt 28: 19-20 ; Acts 20: 28 ; Rom 10: 15 ; 2 Cor 5: 18 ; Eph 4: 11 ; 1 TIm 3: 1-7 ; 2 Tim 4: 3-5
On the Last Day
We believe that our risen Savior, Jesus, will return visibly to this world on the Last Day, as He has promised, to assign all unbelievers to eternal punishment in hell but to give all believers eternal life with Him in the Resurrection unto life everlasting.
Matt 25: 31-46 ; Luke 21: 27 ; Luke 21: 36 ; 1 Thess 4: 14 ; 1 Thess 4: 17
On the Church's Confession
We believe that all the teachings of the Lutheran Church, as we have learned to know them from Luther's Small Catechism and as they are more thoroughly explained in the other Lutheran Confessions, are true and correct statements of the teachings of the Bible and reflect our own personal faith today.
Matt 10: 32 ; John 8: 31-32 ; 1 TIm 4: 11 ; 1 Tim 6: 3-4 ; Titus 2: 1
On Worship
We believe that harmony and uniformity among God’s people should be encouraged as St. Paul teaches Romans 15:5 so that we might all “with one heart and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 15:6; hence we use historic liturgies and Lutheran hymnody in all Divine Services. Diversity and innovation in worship should be weighed thoughtfully, in an orderly and appropriate way, without giving offense, to the benefit of the Church’s overall Christian discipline and instruction in the Faith.
Rom 15: 5-6 ; 1 Cor 8: 9-12 ; 1 Cor 14: 26-40
On Marriage
We believe that marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive, lifelong union as described in Scripture (Gen. 2: 18-25; Matt. 19: 4-6). Marriage, as created and instituted by God, serves a sacred purpose as a picture of the marriage between Christ and His bride the Church (Eph. 5:32). It has been and remains the policy of this congregation that our pastors will not officiate over any marriages inconsistent with those beliefs, and our church property may not be used for any marriage ceremony, reception or other activity that would be inconsistent with our beliefs and this policy. We also recognize and support our pastors’ right of refusal to perform a wedding ceremony that goes against his conscience or conflicts with our congregation’s other stated beliefs. In such circumstances, we also do not permit the use of our facilities.
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