Redeemer Lutheran Church
The Divine Service
"May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."
2 Corinthians 13:14
Worship services are traditional liturgical Divine Services. The Divine Service is God coming to us with His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. The action is always from God to us. He speaks, and we listen. The rhythm of our worship is from God to us, and then from us back to God. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise. In the Divine Service, when we respond by saying back to God what He has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. At the same time we build one another up as we speak to one another in “psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.” (Colossians 3:16).
The liturgy provides the form and shape of the worship service. The liturgy has been developed over centuries from every time and place. The text comes directly from the Bible and from the church's age-long treasury of prayers and poetry which are based on Biblical teachings.
On the basis of 1 Corinthians 11:27-30, we believe that each Christian should be thoroughly instructed in the Christian faith and the meaning of the Lord's Supper, and publicly confess what we believe and teach before partaking in the Holy Sacrament. We therefore honor our Synod's practice of 'close communion' and ask that only confirmed members of our fellowship partake. You may make arrangements with the pastor to establish Communion fellowship. If you are interested in becoming a member contact us today!
We believe that the Bible teaches that a person is saved by God’s grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The Bible tells us that such “faith comes by hearing”. Jesus Himself commands Baptism and tells us that Baptism is water used together with the Word of God. Because of this, we believe that Baptism is one of the miraculous means of grace (the other two are the Lord's supper and God's Word), through which God creates and/or strengthens the gift of faith in a person’s heart. Baptism is from God and works forgiveness and cleanses a person no matter their age. Although we do not claim to understand fully how this happens, we believe that when an infant is baptized God creates faith in the heart of that infant. We believe this because the Bible says that infants can believe and that new birth (regeneration) happens in Baptism. 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. The faith of the infant, like adults, also needs to be fed and nurtured by God’s Word.
The LCMS does not believe that Baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation. 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 (reading or hearing the Word of God). Still, Baptism dare 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.
Hymns from the Lutheran Service Book are supported by the organ and, from time to time, other instruments. Hymns are doctrine put into a poetic form and then set to music. The hymnal is not the work of one person, one denomination, one culture, or one generation. Our hymns not only reflect the great Lutheran tradition, but they also come from ancient Hebrew, Greek, Latin, European, African, North American and African-American sources.
Bring them! Children attend the Divine Service and participate with their parents. Following the service we also have Sunday School.