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GRACE LUTHERAN BRETHREN MISSION STATEMENT
Anticipating the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ, we place ourselves under His authority and direction. The mission of Grace Lutheran Brethren Church is to GLORIFY GOD by living in submission to the written Word of God, WORSHIP GOD by giving ourselves to family, church, and community, and SERVE GOD by reaching out to the lost and discipling new believers into Jesus Christ. The result will be a positive influence with the Gospel in our world.
ABOUT THE CHURCH OF THE LUTHERAN BRETHREN
The Church of the
Lutheran Brethren of America (CLBA) is a family of 123 congregations in the
United States and Canada, with 1,500 daughter congregations in Cameroon,
Chad, Japan and Taiwan now organized into four national churches. The CLBA
congregations are Lutheran in theological tradition and evangelical in
practice.
The CLBA, as a denomination, exists to serve congregations in their
obedience to the Great Commission, locally, nationally and internationally.
This commission calls us to proclaim Christ, causing people to trust and
follow Him.
For the first 50 years of CLBA history over 50% of denominational funds were
spent on overseas missions, living out the vision that was in the founders'
hearts. Today the people of the CLBA are experiencing a growing desire to
reach out to our communities and to plant more congregations in North
America. Our vision is to found congregations that are aligned to the
Scriptures as authoritative, and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as central.
We believe this is God’s primary way of bringing truth and meaning to a
broken world. Congregations with living ministries of worship, nurture,
evangelism, caring and loving fellowship that are well led are the hope for
light and life in our communities and in our world. The prayer of our
congregations is that the Lord will use us who have received grace through
faith, to be centers for spiritual life.
-- Pastor Joel R. Egge
President
WHAT WE BELIEVE
THE BIBLE: The Bible, including both Old and New Testaments as originally given, is the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God and is free fromerror in the whole and in the part, and is therefore the final authoritative guide for faith and conduct.
THE TRINITY: There is one God eternally existent in three distinct persons in one divine essence, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
GOD THE FATHER: God the Father has revealed Himself as the Creator and preserver of the universe , to Whom the entire creation and all creatures are subject.
THE HUMAN RACE: God created Adam and Eve in His image to live in fellowship with Him. They fell into sin through the temptation of Satan and thereby lost fellowship with God. Through their disobedience the entire human race became totally depraved, that is, self-centered sinners who oppose God, and who by nature are unable to trust, fear or love Him. They are subject to the devil, and are condemned to death under the eternal wrath of God.
GOD THE SON: Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, is the image of the invisible God. To accomplish our redemption, He became fully human, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man, by His perfect obedience and substitutionary death on the cross, has purchased our redemption. He arose from the dead for our justification in the body in which He was crucified. He ascended into heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father, as our interceding High Priest. He will come a second time personally, bodily, and visibly to gather the believers unto Himself and to establish His millennial kingdom. He will judge the living and the dead and make an eternal separation between believers and unbelievers. His kingdom shall have no end.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT: The Holy Spirit is a divine person eternally one with the Father and with the Son. Through the Word of God He convicts people of sin, persuades them to confess their sinfulness to God and calls them to faith through the Gospel. He regenerates, sanctifies, and preserves believers in the one true faith. He comforts, guides, equips, directs, and empowers the church to fulfill the great commission.
MEANS OF GRACE: The knowledge and benefit of Christ’s redemption from sin is brought to the human race through the means of grace, namely the Word and the sacraments.
Law and Gospel
. . .
Through the Word of the Law God brings sinners to know their lost
condition and to repent. Through the Word of the Gospel He brings
sinners to believe in Jesus Christ, to be justified, to enter the
process of sanctification, and to have eternal life. This occurs as the
Holy Spirit awakens them to see their sin, convicts them of their guilt
of sin, and calls them to repent and believe, inviting and enabling them
to accept God’s grace in Christ. Each one who thus believes is instantly
forgiven and credited with Christ’s righteousness. The Word then teaches
and guides the believer to lead a godly life.
Baptism . . .
In the Sacrament of Baptism, God offers the benefits of Christ’s
redemption to all people and graciously bestows the washing of
regeneration and newness of life to all who believe. God calls the
baptized person to live in daily repentance, that is, in sorrow for sin,
in turning from sin, and in personal faith in the forgiveness of sin
obtained by Christ. By grace we are daily given the power to overcome
sinful desires and live a new life in Christ. Those who do not continue
to live in God’s grace need to be brought again to repentance and faith
through the Law and Gospel.
Because the sinfulness of human nature passes on from generation to
generation and the promise of God’s grace includes little children, we
baptize infants, who become members of Christ’s believing church through
baptism. These children need to come to know that they are sinners with
a sinful nature that opposes God. Through the work of the Holy Spirit,
they need to confess their sinfulness and yield to God; and possess for
themselves forgiveness of their sin through Jesus Christ, as they are
led from the faith received in infant baptism into a clear conscious
personal faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior and being assured of
salvation, rely solely on the finished work of Christ, and the power of
the Gospel to live as children of God.
Communion . . .
In the Sacrament of Holy Communion, Christ gives to the communicants His
body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine. He declares the
forgiveness of sin to all believers, and strengthens their faith.
SALVATION: Eternal salvation is available to every living human being on earth by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This salvation consists of an instantaneous aspect and an ongoing, continual aspect.
Justification . . .
Justification is God’s gracious act by which He, for Christ’s sake,
instantaneously acquits repentant and believing sinners and credits them
with Christ’s righteousness. At that moment, God gives each one who
believes a new and godly nature and the Holy Spirit begins the process
of sanctification. There is no place for human effort in justification.
Sanctification . . .
Sanctification is God’s gracious, continual work of spiritual renewal
and growth in the life of every justified person. Through the means of
grace, the Holy Spirit works to reproduce the character of Christ within
the lives of all believers, instructing and urging them to live out
their new nature. The Holy Spirit enables believers more and more to
resist the devil, to overcome the world, and to count themselves dead to
sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit produces spiritual
fruit in and bestows spiritual gifts upon all believers. He calls,
empowers and equips them to serve God in the home, in the community, and
as part of the Church Universal. The process of sanctification will be
complete only when the believer reaches glory.
THE CHURCH: The Church Universal consists of all those who truly believe on Jesus Christ as Savior. The local congregation is an assembly of believers in a certain locality among whom the Gospel is purely taught and the sacraments are rightly administered. The confessing membership of the local congregation shall include only those who have been baptized into "the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," confess personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, maintain a good reputation in the community and accept the constitution of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren. It cannot, however, be avoided that hypocrites might be mixed in the congregation; that is, those whose unbelief is not evident to the congregation.
CHURCH GOVERNANCE: The Church of the Lutheran Brethren practices the congregational form of church government and the autonomy of the local congregations. The office of pastor and elder is to be filled by men only. The synodical administration has an advisory function as it relates to the congregation, and an administrative function as it relates to the cooperative efforts of the congregations.
LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS: The Lutheran confessions are a summary of Bible doctrines. We adhere to the following confessional writings: The Apostles’ Creed, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, unaltered Augsburg Confession, and Luther’s Small Catechism.
Commentary on the CLB Statement of Faith
other AVAILABLE DOCUMENTS
