what we believe

We are all beloved children of God. Each one of us is marvelously made in the image of God, just as we are now. No exceptions!

 

God – We believe in a triune God, that is a God who comes to us a God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the Sustainer. We believe that God’s grace, love, and mercy are poured out abundantly for all people, because of who you are, not in spite of it. We believe that God continues to make God’s presence known in all the world, here and now, and that we also realize this through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Scripture – We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God. Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament comprise God’s message to God’s people through the writings of other humans. At its core, the Bible chronicles God’s love which is contained in the books of scripture.

 

Being Lutheran – Martin Luther was a German theologian and Bible scholar in the 1500’s who set out to change or reform the church. However, when he was cast out by the powers-at-be, he ended up forming his own church based on these reformed or changed ideas. These ideas were recorded in the Book of Concord, another guiding document, and codified into a denomination, or “flavor” of Protestant Christianity.

 

Grace belongs to a larger expression of Lutheranism, known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA - https://www.elca.org), which is the largest Lutheran denomination in the country. Our smaller, more regional expression of this the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA - https://ministrylink.org ) which comprises the Pennsylvania five county metro area of Philadelphia. Beyond our local community impact in Broomall, these groups help us to have an even broader impact of loving our neighbor around the country (ELCA) and right here in the Delaware Valley (SEPA).

 

What is grace? Besides our namesake, grace is God’s way of continually and constantly coming to us. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s love; it is a gift freely and abundantly given. The greatest expression of God’s grace was through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through this grace, we too are invited into an everlasting grace of resurrection.