Our Beliefs

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What does that mean?

It means that we gladly give answer to Jesus’ crucial question: “Who do you say that I am?”

And like the first disciples, we, too, know that some people say one thing about Jesus, and some say another.  How does one make sense of it all?  Here’s how: The answer we give—our confession—comes not from the myriad of our own opinions, but is first given to us from the Father, through His Son, by the Holy Spirit.  We echo what we have heard from God, and this places our confession on solid ground because it is from God, not from us.

Our confession is Trinitarian, centered on Jesus Christ.  That means it is a mystery which we make our own more and more, speaking back to God as we are spoken to in His Word, as we bend our knees in humble adoration of God.  Corporate worship is at the heart of our life together at St. John’s.  And at the heart of corporate worship are the mysteries of God: Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, Holy Absolution, Holy Scripture—for all these proclaim the mystery of God, namely, Jesus Christ.

God has spoken to us in these last days by His Son, and the words of the Prophets and Apostles who were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write what they saw and heard give witness to what Jesus has said and done for us and for our salvation.

The three Ecumenical Creeds also comprise our confession, as we readily acknowledge that we are not the first Christians to have been asked to give an answer to the question of who Jesus is.

Finally, we also gladly subscribe to the Book of Concord (1580), the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  We make the writings found in this book our own because they are in agreement with the Scriptures.  They give a thorough answer to Jesus’ question, as they help us say back to Jesus what He has first taught us in His Word.  The chief document we all learn to confess here at St. John’s is the Small Catechism.