At Holy Cross Nazareth, we accept people and revere God’s Word.

We Are All Fabulous but Flawed People

Lutheran Christians, believe that all people are flawed, so we have to accept people where they are. We also need to heed the call of God in Christ through Scripture to be transformed… God is recreating us in Christ.

We Believe:

Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, the fullest revelation of God’s own self, and the only way for fallen human beings to be restored to communion with God. While other spiritual paths may produce positive experiences and even contain aspects of the truth, only Jesus can restore true connection with the Person of God and so is (as Jesus Himself said) “the way, the truth, and the life”
The Bible is the inspired and authoritative revelation of God about Jesus, His saving acts in history, and His exalted purposes for humanity.
Many faithful people have read the Bible before us and striven to live faithfully, according to its teachings. Therefore, while we may rightly criticize the sins of Christians who came before us, we should spend more time listening to their insights than criticizing them.
An encounter with the living Christ should and will produce changes in a person not to be found in any other way. This makes, not perfect people, but people who attend to the work of God in their lives and seek to align their behaviors more and more with His will.

We Believe Christians Are:

Simultaneously Sinner and Saint

We believe that humanity was made in God’s image and for communion with Him, but because we sin (or “miss the mark”), we have fallen out of communion with the perfect God and become subject to death and the devil, who hates God. We are sinners. Christ did not come to improve people who are basically good but fall a little short; God sent Jesus to rescue the spiritually dead and raise us to new life!

Because we are claimed by Jesus and have responded in faith, we have the beginnings of that new eternal life NOW and are therefore saints, not on the basis of our merit, but on the basis of Christ’s. This doesn’t mean we don’t sin any more, it just means we are claimed by Jesus Christ to be His holy people. To grow into this, our new destiny, is the journey of a lifetime that Christians have usually referred to as “sanctification,” “growth in holiness,” or “theosis.” Such growth is a struggle, but one worth engaging in because it gives us real life, not a facsimile!

We Believe the Church Should Be:

Evangelical

Much used and abused, the word evangelical simply means “focused on the good news (or evangel).” Martin Luther did not want the church he helped form to be known by his name. He wanted it to be known as the evangelical church, for it placed at the center of its worship, proclamation, and life the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. As you can see from the above statements, the focus is totally on Jesus and what He does for us, not our own paltry efforts; this is what it means to be evangelical.

Catholic

Also much abused, this word really means “universal.” Lutheran Christians have no desire to innovate on the Apostles’ teaching about Jesus, recorded most fully for us in the Bible. As Vincent of Lerins said in 434 A.D., “Now in the Church catholic itself we take the greatest care to hold that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all.” Lutherans see the reforms that have been engaged in throughout church history (including those begun in the 1500’s) as attempts to return the Christian church to its evangelical, that is to say, truly catholic roots. To say it another way, what is most evangelical is most truly catholic.

Orthodox

Also much abused, this word originally meant “right praise,” but since the only way to praise God rightly is to name, describe, and attribute only true things to Him, it has also come to mean “right teaching.” Although we are flexible in our approach to worship, incorporating new music and technologies while remaining rooted in the Western worship tradition, we try to never innovate in our practice of “the faith given once for all to the saints.” (Jude 1:3) God has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, and we cannot change Him; we must change ourselves to match Him. Christianity can only be truly evangelical when it is orthodox.

Can a Church be…

Be orthodox and ecumenical?
Be robustly confessional and tolerant?
Be evangelical and catholic?
Preach the fullness of God’s grace in Jesus and the convicting Law of God?
Accept everyone without endorsing anyone’s sin?