"Gloria Christi" means "Glory of Christ" in Latin. This name of our Lutheran congregation expresses the Christ-centered message and worship life of the church in this place and the acknowledgment of His holy presence with us by means of His Word and Sacraments.


Gloria Christi Lutheran Church is:

biblical - We teach the Scriptures as the inspired, inerrant, powerful, and authoritative written Word of God (2 Peter 1:16-21; 2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 119). We teach that God made the creation in six days by His powerful Word. We hold to the Scriptural moral and ethical teachings as they have been biblically and historically known among traditional Christians. We acknowledge in the order of creation a natural law revealed to the human conscience and in the design of the universe.

evangelical - We teach justification by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ, the crucified and risen Lord. We teach that Christ died for all people of all time(Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 10:17; Galatians 3:10-14; Titus 3:4-7; Romans 1:16).

apostolic - We understand that we, as the Body of Christ, are sent to faithfully teach the faith as it was received and passed on by the holy apostles of Christ (Acts 2:42; Matthew 28:16-20). We teach that the Church is to make disciples of all nations, skin colors, languages, ages, male and female, by means of baptizing and teaching all things Christ has given. We do not accept racism or racial (ethnic) segregation, but teach the Church is unified in Christ as a new people and nation (I Peter 2). The Church is a culture all her own as she is gathered out of the world.

catholic - We teach and confess what has been taught by the faithful church through the ages without addition or subtraction. We do not understand the Lutheran Church to be a new church (Jude 3). We affirm the continuity of the church through the ages from biblical times, through the early church fathers and the Lutheran Reformation to this day. We seek to teach the biblical faith "according to the whole."

creedal and confessional - We hold to the Lutheran Confessions, as contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, without reservation, because they are a faithful summary and exposition of Scriptural teaching and practice (quia subscription, as it is called). Besides the Reformation era confessions we also confess the three "ecumenical" or ancient Creeds - the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian (Matthew 16).

orthodox - We teach and practice the historically-received sacramental and liturgical practice that the church has known and handed on. We do not presume to worship in a way in which it has never been done before by apostolic Christians (Acts 2:42; I Corinthians 11:17-32; Hebrews 12:18-29). We understand that the Word of God, Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord's Supper are means of God's grace and are truly the works of God and not of man. We therefore understand them to be the instruments of the Holy Spirit. We do not understand "right doctrine" to be merely something written paper or on a shelf nor merely the purity of an ideology. Where the Gospel is purely preached and the sacraments are rightly administered, there one can find the truly "Spirit-filled" church regardless of mood.

CLICK to listen to an audio version of Portals of Prayer daily devotion.

CLICK HERE to visit "The Wittenberg Trail" - a web page for those seeking historic Christianity with substance while confessing justification by grace alone

Even we Lutherans, though we are sometimes hesitant to talk much about Martin Luther, we perhaps could consider this quotation of George (1484-1543), Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach , a German Lutheran territorial prince, and a contemporary of Luther in the reformation, who put life and limb and much status on the line for this confession of the faith:

I am not baptized in the name of Luther; he is not my God and Savior; I do not trust in him and not saved by him. Therefore, in such a sense I am not a Lutheran. But when I am asked if with heart and mouth I profess the doctrine which God has restored to me through His blessed instrument, Dr. Luther, then I entertain no scruples about calling myself a Lutheran, nor do I fear to do so; and in that sense I am and will remain a Lutheran all my life.