About the ELCA
Who We Are
Beliefs
Theology

Lutheran Theology

A Living, Daring Confidence in God’s Grace

Our church’s teaching centers on God’s unreserved mercy in Christ: sinners are justified by grace through faith, not works. Faith is living and active, born of Scripture’s promise. This church dares to proclaim God’s mercy and God’s desire for well-being for the church and the world.

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At the Center: Worship That Sustains and Nurtures Faith

Worship is praise and thanksgiving to God. It unites the church, nurtures faith, and strengthens us to love neighbor and strive for justice and peace in the world.

Worship Guides
Daily Bible Reading

Daily Bible readings are selected from materials prepared by the Consultation on Common Texts.

Scripture Quotations
ELCA Social Teachings

Theology is shared conversation serving the Gospel. Communal moral deliberation, guided by the Scriptures, the Lutheran confessions, and the Holy Spirit, empowers us to speak on complex issues affection God's world today.

Evangel: Jesus’ Good News
Journal of Lutheran Ethics: Free, Monthly and Online

JLE bridges academic theology and church life — a meeting place for thoughtful and faithful conversation.

Faith & Scholarship Today

Scriptures, Creeds and Confessions

view from above of a dark brown book with HOLY BIBLE embossed in yellow on the front sitting atop a table covered with a stitched table runner with black, red, and yellow strips of fabric.
Like a baby’s cradle and blankets, the words of the Scriptures—the books of both Old and New Testaments—hold and present the living Christ. The Holy Spirit uses them to reveal Jesus Christ, our source and focus of faith and life and the lens through which we read Scripture (John 20:31). Though diverse and ancient, at the Scriptures’ heart remains God’s steadfast love and mercy in Jesus Christ.
Scriptures

Story of God’s Steadfast Love and Mercy

red worship book open to a page of the liturgy focused on communion sitting in front of an out-of-focus brass base holding a white candle.
The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed, which affirm Jesus as fully God and fully human, express the beliefs of Christians from the church’s early centuries to the present. These creeds are affirmed by the ELCA and still used in worship today.
Creeds

Early Debates on Christ’s Divinity

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The Book of Concord gathers the ecumenical creeds and Lutheran confessions, including the Augsburg Confession and Small and Large Catechisms. The ELCA affirms these teachings in its constitution and draws on these witnesses alongside Scripture as we discern God’s revelation in relation to the complex problems of our world today.
Confessions

Focused on Christ in Teaching

Secure in Love, We Become Love for the World

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Faith & Society Resources

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World Hunger

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Ministries

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Global Mission