OUR MISSION STATEMENT:
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WHERE IS IT WRITTEN? HOW IS IT DONE?
Profoundly changed by the Father’s unconditional love, by Christ’s free forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit’s power, we use God’s pure word together as we worship the Lord, outreach to our community and to the world, and nurture each other.
“Profoundly changed”
No one knows better how that feels than St. Paul. With only a few sentences God got his attention. By baptism God washed his sins away. The old “Saul” who persecuted Jesus Christ had been profoundly changed into the apostle to the Gentiles. Same talents, same gifts, same drive and determination, but now he worked for God.
Like the Apostle Paul, the people at St. Paul’s have been “profoundly changed,” and St. Paul teaches us how that happens:
“By the Father’s unconditional love,”
We know the words, “God so loved the world…” but one look at the world tells us that it is not all that lovable. Yet the words are clear. Without strings attached, no “ifs, ands, or buts”—God the Father loves you.
“By Christ’s free forgiveness,”
Jesus willingly suffers and dies in my place. He takes my debt. He pays for my sins. He removes my guilt forever. It’s free. It’s grace.
“And by the Holy Spirit’s power,”
“No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). He causes a spiritual resurrection to take place. This first resurrection enables the Christian to understand and believe God’s pure word, to love and serve God cheerfully and faithfully, and to enjoy “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
“We use God’s pure word together as we . . .”
Sin separates man from God and man from man. Sin says, “No!” when God says, “Yes!” So we see an immediate change in the behavior of God’s people. God unites us. God brings us together in a family of believers. This family understands that when God talks, we listen. What God says to us guides and directs the mission and ministry of our congregation.
“Worship the Lord,”
We worship God when we eagerly listen to his words and promises, when we enjoy his forgiveness in the gospel, in Baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper. This kind of worship is a whole-life response of eager hearing and faithful living.
“Outreach to our community and the world,”
God has reached across time and across oceans to bring us the gospel in America. It is our privilege to take the words that have changed our lives, and share those words with every single person in the entire world.
“And nurture each other.”
“Nurture” is what a mother does. It means to feed, but in the word we can feel the soft, loving and gentle way that the feeding and caring is done. God has nurtured and fed us. We look around at our family of believers and at our world filled with hurting people, and we have an excellent opportunity to “nurture others.”
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.
