As our Mission Statement affirms, Pilgrim Lutheran Church is organized for church growth around the great commission.
As forgiven people we gather with Word and Sacrament
in gratitude to worship and praise the Triune God
and go forth to serve Him and others
in the love of Jesus Christ
throughout the community.
We care... We Share... We Dare!
Pilgrim Lutheran exists to share the love of Jesus with all people and the promise of eternal life.
As Christian we believe in the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures which is the norm for us in all matters of faith and life. Briefly stated, we believe:
God is the Creator of the universe with all of its grandeur and beauty, and He sustains it with His almighty powers. He also created our first parents, Adam and Eve, in His own image that they might live in fellowship with Him and be His instruments to care for His creation.
Adam and Eve, whom God created, doubted and rebelled against Him. They sinned and their natures became evil. Since then, every human being is born with a self-centered nature and a tendency for evil that violates God's will and desire. As a result, all attempts to change human nature or to please God with our own good works are doomed to failure. People need forgiveness and new life, and God provides it through His grace, that is, His undeserved love and favor without any merit on the part of man.
God, out of pure love, gives people forgiveness of sins and thus reconciles them to Himself. He does this, even though He is a just God Who punishes sin, because His own Son, Jesus Christ, took the punishment for all sins for all people upon Himself when He died on the cross at Calvary. God raised Him from the dead and thus demonstrated to the world that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God has been accepted as full payment for the sins of all people.
People receive forgiveness through faith. Faith is the hand which accepts God's free gift. Faith is created by the Holy Spirit through the means of the Gospel message which tells of God's love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. Infant baptism is the means by which a child is given new life and received into God's kingdom.
The Bible, which was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and is completely true and without error, is the source of all knowledge about God and His forgiveness. It is also the way in which He speaks to us today. It is sufficient in all matters of faith and life for the Christian.
The Church is the fellowship of all those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. The Lutheran Church gets its name from Martin Luther who "reformed" the church with the basic principles of Faith Alone, Grace Alone, Scripture Alone. The purpose of the church is to nurture faith through the Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion and to share the love of God through word and deed with the whole world in order to make other people disciples of Jesus Christ.
God has given two Sacraments to build His Church: Baptism to create faith and Holy Communion (also called the Lord's Supper or Eucharist) to nurture faith. In Communion, Jesus Christ gives the communicant His Body and Blood "in, with, and under" the bread and wine for forgiveness of sins, for the strengthening of faith and for the power to live the Christian life.
The fellowship which God established with His believers on earth will continue after this life as believers live with Him in heaven for all eternity. This the Bible clearly affirms in 1 John 5:11-13: "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God, does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."