What Kind of a Church is St. Peter?

A Gospel-Centered Church

That good news is the Gospel, or good news, of God to human beings. It is the heart of the Holy Scriptures. And it is the heart of everything we believe, teach, and do at St. Peter.

Most religions in the world teach that we come to God by striving to do His will. Even most Christian churches focus on living a life that pleases God. But the radical teaching of the Bible, God’s Word, is that human beings are unable to make themselves right with God. Instead, God has given us salvation from sin, death, and hell as a free gift, by giving us His Son to fulfill His commands in our place!

A Christ-Centered Church

But God did not just shrug His shoulders and say, “Nobody’s perfect.”

Instead, God the Father sent His only Son to rescue us. God the Son became man, born of a virgin. He perfectly fulfilled the will of God in our place.

Then, God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, suffered and died on the cross, paying the full debt of our sins, receiving God’s judgment on our guilt in our place. On the third day, He rose again from the dead, having taken away sin forever.

The good news of the Gospel declares to us that because of Jesus’ work alone, our sins have been paid for, blotted out, and forgiven.

St. Peter is a Christ-Centered Church. The focus of our preaching and teaching is Jesus and His work for us, not the works that we do for God. Jesus and His work assure us that God is pleased with us.

A Confessional Lutheran Church

St. Peter is a Confessional Lutheran congregation. This means that our congregation believes and teaches that:

• The Bible is the verbally inspired and inerrant Word of God, and is the norm for all of our teaching and practice in the Church.
• The Nicene, Apostles’, and Athanasian Creeds are correct summaries of the teaching of the Bible.
• The Book of Concord of 1580, a book of documents written by the Lutheran reformers, is a correct explanation of the teachings of Scripture and guide our teaching and living.