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AUGUSTANA MISSION STATEMENT:
We are a community of people created by God in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and called to give witness to God's creative, redeeming, and sanctifying activity in the world. ABOUT LAKES AREA MINISTRY PARTNERS: MISSION STATEMENT: We seek to nurture, enhance, and coordinate ministries in our congregations to shine the light of Christ in our homes, communities and the world. PURPOSE: Called by Christ and shaped by His Word, we are given four main purposes. OUR FOUR PURPOSES: WORSHIP “Love God with all your heart” … to celebrate God’s presence among us. MINISTRY ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” … to demonstrate God’s love for all people. EVANGELISM “Go..make disciples..baptize” … to invite others into our fellowship and show the hospitality of God’s people. DISCIPLESHIP “Teach them to observe” … to educate and train all people in God’s Word. |
ELCA Teaching
The ELCA confesses the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In our preaching and teaching the ELCA trusts the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. ELCA teaching or theology serves the proclamation and ministry of this faith. It does not have an answer for all questions, not even all religious questions. Teaching or theology prepares members to be witnesses in speech and in action of God’s rich mercy in Jesus Christ. Scriptures, Creeds and Confessions The ELCA’s official Confession of Faith identifies the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (commonly called the Bible); the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds; and the Lutheran confessional writings in the Book of Concord as the basis for our teaching. ELCA congregations make the same affirmation in their governing documents, and ELCA pastors promise to preach and teach in accordance with these teaching sources. This Confession of Faith is more than just words in an official document. Every Sunday in worship ELCA congregations hear God’s word from the Scriptures, pray as Jesus taught and come to the Lord’s Table expecting to receive the mercies that the Triune God promises. Throughout the week ELCA members continue to live by faith, serving others freely and generously in all that they do because they trust God’s promise in the Gospel. In small groups and at sick beds, in private devotions and in daily work, this faith saturates all of life. Teaching for a life of faith This connection to all of life is the clearest demonstration of the authority that the canonical Scriptures, the ecumenical Creeds and the Lutheran Confessions have in the ELCA. The Holy Spirit uses these witnesses to create, strengthen and sustain faith in Jesus Christ and the life we have in him. That life-giving work continues every day, as Martin Luther explained in the Small Catechism: the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.” - See more at: http://www.elca.org/Faith/ELCA-Teaching |