As a member congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Peace looks to the Scriptures first then to historic Creeds and Lutheran Confessions for what we believe, teach and confess...
A Confessional Church
"Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17)
In order that the Gospel of Christ continues to be clear and unadulterated, Lutheran churches have subscribed to the confessional statements of the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small and Large Catechisms as well as other writings in the Book of Concord and the ecumenical creeds (Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian). These writings are not an addition to the Bible, but only the declaration of what Lutherans believe the Bible is teaching.
Triune God
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
Together with other Christians, Lutherans subscribe to the ecumenical creeds which arose out of the early Christian centuries. The Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds declare the elemental truths of Christianity. God is one, and yet He has revealed Himself in three Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so that we refer to God as the Triune God.
Christ the Center
"Salvation is found in no one else." (Acts 4:12)
Christ is the heart and center of our faith. In Christ we are able to know God, not only according to His almighty power, but according to His love. The Holy Spirit leads us to Christ that we may find the grace of forgiveness and the promise of everlasting life. In Christ, God offers us the grace whereby we are included as God's own people. We are enabled to live in the assurance of His accompanying presence and with the hope of a blessed future.
The "Sola's" of the Reformation
Sola Gratia. Sola Fide. Sola Scrirptura.
The Lutheran banner has flown with such slogans as: grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone. We are just and right in God's eyes not by works which we have done, whether civil or religious, but solely by the grace that God gives for the sake of Jesus and His atoning work on the cross. Since grace comes to us as a gift, it can only be received by faith. The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments provide the only basis for the church's teaching and practice. Traditions and statements of the church can only be servant to the revealed Word of the Scriptures.
Law & Gospel
"The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (II Cor. 3:6)
For the sake of the Gospel's clarity, Lutherans are careful to distinguish between Law and Gospel. The Law includes those teachings of Scripture which tell us what to do and not to do. The Gospel truth tells us what God has done and still does for our salvation. The Law brings us guilt and condemnation, while the Gospel is the Word that brings us grace and promise. The Gospel renews our spirits and creates in us a desire to do what God's Law prescribes. Lutherans do not simply teach moralisms as if the Scriptures chiefly provided us examples to follow. Through the Gospel, God works a new heart in believers so that they will do what God desires.
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Sacraments
"Do this in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19)
Lutherans also see the Gospel in the sacraments which Christ gave to the church. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are administered as sacred acts authorized by Christ as means of grace. Because God's word of promise is given with these visible acts, Lutherans believe God is giving exactly what He says through these means. The sacraments are neither merely outward acts of the church on our behalf
nor outward acts on the part of believers. By these means God is acting and calling forth the life of faith. Since people do not have the power of life and faith within themselves, the Holy Spirit works through God's Word to create and sustain faith. Because they are accompanied by God's Word, the sacraments are also means by which the Holy Spirit is at work.
