Our mission at St Luke is “making and maturing disciples for ministry and mission.” We accomplish that by living out three biblical, actionable words we see modeled in Jesus’ life: Gather, Grow, and Go.
What We Believe
St Luke is a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, a denomination focused on the love of Jesus Christ for all people as taught in the Bible. Read more about the LCMS.
We believe in the God of the Bible who has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. While beyond our understanding, by faith we believe that our God is one, but is made of three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is God and acts as God in the world, but each person also has their own distinct role and function. We confess the three historic creeds (Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian) that the church has said for thousands of years describing the differences among the members of the Trinity.
Jesus Christ is the Word of God who became a human being and the Bible is the written word of God that has been given to us by God for our benefit so that we would know of His great love for us and all people. It contains a single story that begins at creation and ends at the return of His Son, Jesus. While the books contained in the Bible were written by imperfect people, by faith, we believe that God’s word to us does not contain errors or mistakes. Instead, it contains all that God has chosen for us to know about Him. This centers on the story of Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and return which is the main thread throughout the entire Bible. We believe the Bible is not just an ordinary book, but that the words come from and hold the power and authority of the Almighty God. For this reason, the Bible is our ultimate source of authority and guides all that we do, say, and believe.
Salvation or eternal life, comes to us a free gift from God on account of what His Son, Jesus the Christ, accomplished in his death and resurrection. There is nothing that we could ever do to earn our salvation. While it cost Jesus his life, it costs us nothing. Even though Jesus tells us and calls us to follow him, we cannot do this unless He first comes to give us the faith and ability to do so. It is only by God’s work in our lives that we can believe in Him, trust His promises, or receive His wonderful gifts.
We believe that our God continues to be at work among us through the ways that God promises in the Bible. Whenever God takes a common and ordinary thing, like water and bread and wine, and puts them together with his Word and Promise, we receive a wonderful gift for our journey of following Jesus. When God combines his Word with water, in Holy Baptism, we receive the forgiveness of our sins, the promise of God, the Holy Spirit, and the gift of faith. In the Lord’s Supper (Communion or the Eucharist), where God takes ordinary bread and wine and combines them with his Word and promise, we receive the true body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, strengthening of our faith, and unity with Jesus. These sacraments are part of God’s desire to continue to show us his love, faithfulness, and goodness as we live out our days. They are not only for the sake of remembrance or ritual, but accomplish and achieve what God has said they will do. The Bible warns of receiving these good gifts in an unworthy or an unprepared manner. Everyone is encouraged to come forward during communion, but please speak to an elder or pastor before receiving communion.
We want to gather as God’s people in worship to foster our relationship with Him and receive the gifts He wants us to have – His word and Sacraments.
Gather:
We want to grow in His love and grace by spending time in prayer, devotion, and Bible Study learning how to become more like Him each day.
Grow:
We want to go with the Gospel
or good news who Jesus is and what He has done for us by serving our neighbor and sharing the message of God’s love for us in Jesus.
Go:
Gather, Grow, Go
Our logo reflects each of these three vision vocabulary words by showing the building where we gather, the cross of Jesus at the center of all we’re trying to grow into, and the rays of light going out from the cross to the world.
Our Vision
As followers of Jesus at St Luke, we want to live and look like Jesus does. As we look at Jesus’ life and ministry in the Bible, we see that Jesus balanced three relationships at the same time: a relationship with God the Father, with His disciples and followers, and with those who didn’t know or believe in Him yet. Often, Jesus would ‘go away to a quiet place’ in prayer to God, he would ‘take His disciples aside’ to teach them, and then would ‘minister to the crowds’ that came to hear or be healed by Him. We believe that all people live in these same three relationships in today’s world too: a relationship with God, with fellow Christians, and with those who may not believe in Jesus.
Following Jesus’ example, then, we want to find balance in these three relationships as we live our everyday lives as well. Our vision for ministry at St Luke gives us language for what that looks like using the biblical, actionable words: Gather, Grow, and Go.
