There is a place for you here at First Lutheran Church.
All people are created in God's image to be different, beautiful, unique, and a beloved child of God. You are accepted and affirmed just as you are -- with all your differences and all your gifts.
Jesus calls us to love God and one another, to practice radical hospitality, to serve all without stipulations and to seek reconciliation and wholeness in our life together and in outreach to the world. We invite you to join us, no matter your race, culture, ethnicity, age, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, who you love, physical and mental abilities, socioeconomic position, family status, background, political leanings, or where you are in your faith journey.
We commit ourselves to embracing the work of anti-racism, social and economic justice, and environmental care.
Our prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit moves you to join us, at through Christ, we joyfully and inclusivley love and serve God's world through our community.
We are a church that walks by faith, trusting God's promise in the gospel and knowing that we exist by and for the proclamation of this gospel word. We proclaim Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead for the life of the world. As the apostle Paul wrote (Romans 1:16-17), and we echo in our Constitution (2.02), we are not ashamed of this gospel ministry because it is God’s power for saving all people who trust the God who makes these promises. “We are to fear and love God, so, that we do not despise preaching or God’s word, but instead keep that word holy and gladly hear it and learn it” (Small Catechism). God’s word, specifically God’s promise in Jesus Christ, creates this liberated, confident and generous faith. God gives the Holy Spirit who uses gospel proclamation – in preaching and sacraments, in forgiveness and in healing conversations – to create and sustain this faith. As a Lutheran church, we give central place to this gospel message in our ministry.
We understand to be Lutheran is to be ecumenical – committed to the oneness to which God calls the world in the saving gift of Jesus Christ, recognizing the brokenness of the church in history and the call of God to heal this disunity.
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with more than 3 million members in about 9,000 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther. Learn more at ELCA.org.