What we believe

We believe in a living, daring confidence in God’s grace.

When Lutherans talk about faith, we are talking about the relationship God’s Holy Spirit creates with us. It’s a relationship where God’s promise of steadfast love and mercy in Jesus opens us to a life of bold trust in God and joyful, generous service to everyone we know and meet in daily life.

Faith convictions expressed as statements of belief flow from this confident trust in God. ELCA Lutherans share in the faith expressed in the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, in the Lutheran confessional writings (collected as the Book of Concord), and in the ELCA Confession of Faith.

At the same time faith does not close our minds to the world and our hearts to others. We continue to listen to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We listen to the witness of others and we watch for the ways God is active in the world around us. Faith opens a place for engaging others in conversation, for seeking the truth, for asking questions and speaking love in word and deed.

Faith is a full life, liberated for a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. And we welcome any and all who are seeking God’s love and grace. We welcome all because God welcomes all.  We celebrate together our unity as God’s people, and we see St. John’s as a place for each person to shine in their own unique gifts.

Everything about St. John’s centers around the same hospitality that Jesus practiced– one of  inclusion and extravagantly expressed love.  It’s who and whose we are and we don’t know any other way to be. For many of us, our core beliefs are also expressed via the eight points of progressive Christianity.  However, we are proudly a theologically diverse congregation that also includes more traditional and centrist beliefs.  We take the bible seriously but not literally.  As sacred text it guides and informs our lives. These, combined with our confession of a triune God (Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit), make us uniquely Lutheran and uniquely St. John’s.

Founded 200 years ago by German immigrants, we are also an inter-generational church. We believe strongly that regardless of age, we enjoy learning from each other.

If you’re looking for a place to belong, we invite you to come and check out the fit.