We teach, believe, and confess the historic Christian faith, and we invite you to believe with us, because that is what Jesus teaches us to do.

It would take a lot of words to print a complete explanation of everything we believe. There is a book that exhaustively explains it all, The Book of Concord. You can read all about it!

We'd like to share a few of the most basic highlights of our faith.

God has always had a design for a perfect world, and we humans play a crucial role. We've messed that up quite a bit, as we can all plainly see.

But even the worst darkness of mankind cannot overcome God's perfect design, because Jesus was sent as Savior for all people.

God offers forgiveness in Jesus to every race and culture of people across time. The good news of the bible is that God has fully accomplished all that is needed for the salvation of the world. It's a gift that has already been given. That's why it's such Good News.

Below is a video from BibleProject which explains this Good News in a beautiful way.

In the bible, the word "church" means, "people who have been called out by God".

You could read it, "people belonging to God because God has claimed them".

So a "church" is a gathering of people who have all received the Good News and are ready to respond.

Churches gather to worship God, to increase faith in what God teaches, and to be sent into our communities as witnesses to the Good News. That's why we love our communities through our thoughts, our words, and our deeds.

To understand a little bit about how the the bible teaches this, watch the video below from BibleProject.

As impossible as it may seem to describe God using the limits of human language, God has described himself by inspiring the words of the bible. In this way, while we can't claim to know everything about God, we can at least know what has been revealed.

So yes, God is a mystery. But the mystery has been revealed in sufficient detail that we can talk about God in some very specific ways.

For instance, God is "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit". This is not three gods, but one God in three persons. It's a mystery - revealed.

Much of our talk about God ends up being focused on Jesus (the "Son") because among all of God's mysteries, Jesus is the fullest and most beautiful revelation.

Here are a few things God has revealed about himself in Jesus:

We know Jesus is a real human being. We know Jesus is also God. We know Jesus suffered, died, and rose again. Suffering and dying is no big deal for a human, while a resurrection from the dead is no big deal for God, and there they all are in Jesus.

There is a lot to know about God, and the more you learn, the more exciting it is to learn more.

"Who is God" is a huge subject. Here is one small part of that subject, told in an interesting way by BibleProject.

Like we've said, there's a lot that can be printed on a "What we believe" page. In other words, there's plenty of really good stuff we've left off this page, and we invite a conversation with anyone who's interested in discussing more.

But we want you to know a few important things about us if you're looking for a church home.

1. We are a Christian church, and are therefore not affiliated with any political party.
2. We are a member congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, which provides structure and accountability for our pastor and congregation.
3. Our doors are open to all.
4. We support a variety of local, national, and global charities whose work we trust and who have proven to be good stewards of our support.

Email Pastor Sparling at daniel.sparling@gmail.com

Email our Head Elder at scott.ordahl@gmail.com

Email our Council President at fuge.douglas@gmail.com

Email our Office Secretary at gslcsecretary@gmail.com