Mission Statement

FROM YOUR PASTOR...

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God." Ephesians 2:8

For over 90 years the Grace of God has come to the people of St. John Lutheran Church in Libby through His Word and the Holy Sacraments, our Lord's Means of Grace. We celebrate this joyous news every Sunday in and through Diving Worship. We strongly believe that our Lord is present among us in the Liturgy of the Church (which is God's Word set to music and responses) and His Sacraments: Baptism where our Lord's Word and Promise of salvation are joined to water; and in the Lord's Supper where He gives us His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Our liturgical worship is centered on Jesus Christ as He gives His gifts to us. In worship our Lord gives and we receive His gifts then we respond. Baptism, the Supper and His Word are His work for us and He freely gives them to us.

At St. John Lutheran we confess the faith that has been handed down to us though God's Word. We believe, teach and confess that God's Word is inerrant and inspired. We also believe, teach and confess that the Book of Concord (The Lutheran Confessions) is a correct exposition of God's Word. We hold to a Reformation hermeneutic which dictates that God's Word is the ultimate authority for the Church and that His inspired Word in the original languages is to be taken as it is given. That is, we take the one intended literal meaning of the text and understand that God's Word will interpret itself as it sets our Lord's teachings.

It is these teachings that we gladly believe, teach and confess because they all point to the Lord as the Giver of Life, Forgiveness and Salvation. His Gospel is the very Means that sets us free. In this, we give thanks and rejoice.

Pastor Christiansen
March 2006