We believe that God speaks to us. His Words have the power to create, nurture, and sustain faith in Jesus Christ. The Word of God comes to us in three ways: the Word written (the Bible), the Word proclaimed (when the Gospel is preached or shared) and the Word made flesh in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We believe that the 66 books of the Bible (which comprise the Old and New Testaments) are inspired and authoritative for Christian belief and life.

We believe that the Church is not a building. The church is God’s family, bound together by a saving faith in Jesus Christ and a common confession. We are born into this family through Baptism and empowered to live as members of this family by the Holy Spirit. 

We join together in worship of God, in the name of Jesus, to hear his Word and receive his gifts. We seek to share our lives together, gathering to grow in our faith, encourage each other, and to use our gifts to bless our neighbors. 

We believe that wherever you hear God’s Word being preached and see his gifts of Lord’s Supper and Baptism being celebrated, you can be sure that his church, his people, are present.

Faith is a relationship of dependence upon the person and promises of Jesus Christ, established by God through his Word. 

In the same way a parent creates a faith relationship with their child by taking the child in their arms, speaking to them, and caring for them, God establishes the gift of faith in his people. He reaches out to us through the Word of his son, Jesus, and makes us dependent upon him. 

Later this saving faith will produce certain fruit such as understanding and articulation of this faith, and obedience to the truths of God’s Word. But the two should not be confused, faith and fruit are connected yet distinct.

Lutherans believe that mankind is saved by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This saving faith is created and strengthened not by looking inside of one’s self (to one’s own actions, intellect, or emotions) but by looking outside of one’s self (to God’s Word and promises in Christ). 

Assurance of one’s salvation is to be sought by looking to God’s Word and promises in Christ, not by worrying about the strength or weakness of one’s own faith. 

In fact, anxiety regarding doubts, strength of faith and certainty of salvation are signs of faith (however weak it may be), not signs of unbelief, since an unbeliever has no concern or anxiety about doubts, faith or salvation.

At St. Paul's Blossom, we baptize all ages (from infants to elderly). All of us, regardless of age, are in need of a relationship with God and are unable to establish one on our own. Baptism is the means, commanded by Jesus (Matt. 28:19-20), by which God mysteriously and officially connects us to forgiveness and marks us a member of his family. Your journey with Jesus, young or old, begins in your Baptism. 

Baptism is one of the “means of grace,” through which God creates and/or strengthens the gift of faith in a person’s heart (see Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21; Gal. 3:26-27; Rom. 6:1-4; Col. 2:11-12; 1 Cor. 12.13). 

Along with the historic, Christian church we baptize all ages. We do this because the Bible says that even infants can believe (Matt. 18:6) and that new birth (regeneration) happens in Baptism (John 3:5-7; Titus 3:5-6). The infant’s faith cannot yet, of course, be verbally expressed or articulated by the child, yet it is real and present all the same (see e.g., Acts 2:38-39; Luke 1:15; 2 Tim. 3:15). The faith of the infant, like the faith of adults, also needs to be fed and nurtured by God’s Word (Matt. 28:18-20), or it will die. 

Faith can also be created in a person’s heart apart from Baptism, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through God’s (written or proclaimed) Word. Baptism should then soon follow conversion (cf. Acts 8:26-40) for the purpose of confirming and strengthening faith in accordance with God’s command and promise. 

We do not believe that Baptism is ABSOLUTELY necessary for salvation. People in the Old Testament era were saved without Baptism. Mark 16:16 implies that it is not the absence of Baptism that condemns a person but the absence of faith, and there are clearly other ways of coming to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Still, Baptism should not be despised or willfully neglected, since it is explicitly commanded by God and has his precious promises attached to it. It is not a mere “ritual” or “symbol,” but a powerful means of grace by which God grants faith and the forgiveness of sins.

We believe that the body and blood of Jesus are mysteriously yet truly present in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, in, with, and under the bread and wine. The same Jesus who died on the cross and rose on the third day and who sits at the right hand of the Father is also with us in this meal to strengthen our faith, cover us in forgiveness, and make us certain of our salvation. 

The Lord’s Supper (also known as Holy Communion or the Eucharist) is a family meal, meant to be celebrated and received by those who are baptized into the Christian faith and who, as Paul commends in the New Testament, have an understanding of Jesus’ presence in the meal. (1 Cor. 11:28-29)

We believe that all people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Among several things, this means that humanity reflects the divine in a way that is unique from all other creatures. 

As such, we believe that every single human life is worthy of dignity and respect and that human life and wellbeing should be protected at every stage. This leads people of faith to care and advocate for the weak, vulnerable, and overlooked in our society. 

Likewise, we believe that each human should aim to discern and live in accordance with God’s good design for our lives believing it will lead to our individual and collective flourishing. This includes but is not limited to God’s biological, theological, and sociological design for human sexuality.