Here at St. Paul’s, we are active in helping people within our church and community, and in many other ways. We seek to carry out our ministries in order to touch others with the “love we ourselves, have received from God”. We don’t do these things because we “have to” or to gain God’s love, we carry out these works as expressions of God’s love freely given to us.
Worship Services
We offer two types of worship in order to help people experience the love and power of God each week. In worship we offer God our praise and thanks, hear His word, receive His word of forgiveness, and offer our prayers to Him in faith.
Our Sunday morning early service follows the Lutheran order of service, using the “green” hymnal (LBW). This service is led by our pastor, Tom Krepps. Communion is provided every week and all are welcome to attend.
The later Sunday morning service is a blended contemporary service, led by pastor Tom Krepps and our band: Whatever. This service is filled with music and lessons, and it coincides with our Sunday school.
Sacraments
The Lutheran Church has two Sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion. We practice infant baptism, believing that through water and the word, God washes away our sin and begins the life of faith within us. Each week we receive the true body and blood of Jesus “in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine,” believing that God offers us this gift in faith, and invites us to come and receive this gift which helps us both stay strong and grow in our faith.
The Lutheran church believes and teaches that we are saved by “grace alone, through faith alone” and this teaching is found in God’s Word to us as revealed in the Bible alone.
Core Beliefs
By Grace Alone
We believe that all human beings are born sinful (that is unable to have a right relationship with our God), that sin shows itself in our behaviors and actions throughout our lives. The only way to be set free from the power of sin is through God’s grace (His love for all people, a love that cannot be earned, but is freely given.) God’s love is revealed fully and completely through His only Son Jesus Christ. Jesus came into this world as true God and true man. Through His death on the cross of Calvary Jesus took the full punishment for our sin, to bring us back into a new relationship with God our Father/Creator. Jesus resurrection from the dead is God’s affirmation that we are forgiven through “faith alone”. The church is not made up of perfect people, but of people who understand and are seeking God’s love and power for their lives.
By Faith Alone
Luther described faith as the “hand which reaches out and takes hold of all the promises of God in Jesus.” We are saved from the power of sin simply by trusting in what God tells us: we can never do enough on our own, we can never be “good enough” to earn His love, He gives it freely through faith. Through faith, we then take hold of the power God gives us through His Holy Spirit to live new lives. We are never “perfect” as we live our lives, but living in faith we try to lead God pleasing lives, trusting in His forgiveness when we fail. All of this is revealed to us through God’s Word find in the Bible.
By Scripture Alone
The Bible is the foundation and source for all our beliefs, through His Word, God has revealed everything we need in order to come to faith, find forgiveness and live a new life. Throughout our lives we seek to grow in our knowledge of God’s Word and experience its power as we live out our faith.