Our Mission:
It is our mission to lead people into the life-changing love of Jesus Christ.
Our Vision:
It is our vision to create disciples with a Confident, Capable and Compelling faith.
The Father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, liked to say that the essence of the Christian faith could be found in a single verse of Scripture ... so let's start there:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
This verse sums up what we believe and teach here at Trinity Lutheran Church. Through God's gift to us of his son, Jesus Christ, we are promised salvation and eternal life. God is the giver and we are the receivers. How we receive this gift is explained in another passage from the Bible:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
We receive the gift of salvation by grace (God's under served and freely given love in Jesus) through faith (by trusting that God can and will fulfill his promise to save us). As Ephesians says, the power to trust is itself a gift from God and isn't the result of our own effort. In other words, God gets all the credit! We are powerless to earn our own salvation. In Christ, God has done all that's necessary to get us to heaven. But what about living a good life? Isn't that important? Yes it is! A verse from John explains why:
My prayer is not for (my disciples) alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. John 3:20
Right before his arrest and execution, Jesus prayed for his disciples and for those who would come to follow him through their work on his behalf. When we live a life of thankful obedience to God for his gift of salvation, our lives become a way for God to spread his message to others.
Here at Trinity, one of the main ways we tell people about God is to demonstrate his love through practical acts of service. We feed the hungry, provide safe places for kids in the neighborhood to come after school and fix up the homes of our neighbors – all to let people know how much God loves them. That's how living the way God wants makes a difference. It won't earn you a place in heaven (that's already yours!). But it can help somebody else get to know Jesus and his gift of salvation...and that's really important.