What To Expect
We are very happy that you are considering visiting our church and hope that if you do, you find the divine worship service refreshing and that it renews your spirit and encourages your faith in Jesus Christ.
Our congregation is multi-generational and seeks to minister to all age groups. The attire typically worn by our parishioners is casual, but modest to semi-formal. Jesus wants you to come as you are; we do too! Our church is filled with sinner-saints; none of us are perfect, yet we all have been saved by Christ. We hope you too desire His salvation. Churches are meant to be hospitals for the sick and injured; a sanctuary for healing from God Himself.
We want you to know Jesus Christ’s saving work in your life, so please join us this Sunday afternoon at 5:00pm! If you are interested in learning more about us, please visit and read the following pages on our site:
In 2006, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod published a new hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book. Redeemer Lutheran Church has members, some who travel a great distance, who want to be able to worship where the historic liturgy of the Christian church is still respected and utilized. The 2006 Lutheran Service Book (LSB) combines the best of the 1941 hymnal, The Lutheran Hymnal, with liturgies and hymns from the 1982 hymnal, Lutheran Worship. In addition to five rich settings for the Divine Service, the LSB also incorporates numerous other service settings for morning and evening worship, devotional and instructional materials, and a wide variety of hymns, both historic and modern. This is all while maintaining continuity with the historic Christian Church by use of Holy Scripture throughout the divine worship service, all to the glory of God.
The heritage of the Lutheran Church is reflected in our beautiful and symbolic liturgy. Most people are touched by the warm familiarity of this traditional liturgy. Others recognize the beauty and passion with which this liturgy was originally developed to the glory of God. Whatever the case, one can see that the Word of God is fresh, vibrant, and alive at Redeemer, where members actively seek a growing relationship with Jesus Christ in today’s ever-changing modern world.
Finally, the liturgy frames and sets our theology of God coming to us in Christ Jesus who is revealed in His purely preached Word of God and in the rightly administered Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which are visible means of His Word. We derive great comfort and peace in God coming to us and serving us with His forgiveness, to be received by us through our faith in Him.
When we believe in the Holy Spirit, we confess that He calls us by His Gospel message of Jesus Christ, enlightens us with His gifts, and thereby sanctifies and keeps us in the true faith. The Gospel, by which the Holy Spirit calls us, in one sense is all of Holy Scripture, which tells us the Good News about what God has done for us in His great love for us in Jesus Christ. Our loving God not only provides the written and spoken Word, but He also attaches that Word to things and people that we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. When the Word is attached to concrete things by God in order for His Church to give the forgiveness of sins, we call them “Sacraments.” (The written and spoken Word of the Gospel and the Sacraments are sometimes together called “the Means of Grace”.)
God verbally inspired holy authors to record His Word in the Bible, which makes the Bible inerrant and perfect for clearly proclaiming all that we need for our salvation. In another sense, however, God’s Word is not limited to the Word of the Bible. Pastors who faithfully preach from the Bible, provide a living voice of Jesus for His people still today. Through such reading of His Word and faithful preaching, God creates faith when and where He chooses in those who hear the Gospel and believe. (Romans 10 traces out well the sending of preachers for the end result of us hearing, believing, and being saved.) Thus, every divine worship service at Redeemer features the reading of Holy Scripture and a sermon based upon it.
Holy Baptism is regarded as the entrance Sacrament, as it replaced Old Testament circumcision as the entrance rite into the Kingdom of God (Colossians 2:11-12). Through Holy Baptism, God brings about the salvation of the person baptized, who, regardless of age, by faith receives the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation. Baptism connects us to Christ, alive with Him, and makes us God’s children. (Titus 3:5). Newborn babies of Redeemer families, as well as any other persons desiring Holy Baptism, may seek it out at our church. We believe that once you are baptized in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, you do not need to be baptized again, no matter what Christian church you were baptized in. If you are not baptized and desire to be by our church, please contact us and we would be happy to discuss and plan it with you.
The ongoing and repeated Sacrament that Lutherans practice is the Lord’s Supper, also called “the Sacrament of the Altar”. This is the true body and blood of Jesus Christ and is physically present in, with, and under the bread and wine in this holy meal. The body and blood are so given in the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. (Jesus’s own words are clear, as in Matthew 26:27-28.) So important is this gift, that Redeemer offers the Lord’s Supper at every divine service possible to those who have been instructed, examined, and absolved.
Holy Communion is a visible means by which our Lord Jesus Christ forgives us of our sins and strengthens our faith through our reception of His true body and blood in mystical union with the bread and wine. Participation in Holy Communion is a public confession that you share our beliefs that Jesus Christ is the only way that you can be saved from your sins and receive eternal life, that forgiveness of sins is received in the Sacrament of the Altar, and that our Lord’s body and blood are truly and physically present in, with, and under the bread and wine. When we commune together at Christ’s Altar, we all renounce any contrary teachings or practices regarding the nature and benefits of Holy Communion.
Baptized and confirmed members of any Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod congregations – and any denominations with whom we share altar fellowship – who have publicly confessed these beliefs, may partake in Holy Communion with us. Out of love and concern for your spiritual welfare, and not a desire to be exclusionary, we ask that those who do not yet share the above understanding and confession of the Sacrament of the Altar with us, please refrain from communing until they have been instructed in our beliefs regarding this Holy Sacrament, and they are brought into true fellowship with us all.
If a worshipper should not yet commune with us, but wishes to receive a blessing, he or she is invited to come forward and kneel at the rail, with their arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. In keeping with the historic practices of the Christian Church and the Lutheran Confessions, Holy Communion is celebrated every Sunday as possible, as well as on significant feasts and commemorations of the Christian Church’s liturgical calendar.
People often ask why God’s Word and Holy Sacraments are so important if Jesus Christ has already won forgiveness and salvation for all of us on the cross and freely gives us those gifts by grace through faith in Him. The answer is simple: the preaching of His Word, Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper are all the ways that God distributes His gifts, in order to bless those who are willing to receive them in the true faith. Since we cannot go to the literal cross 2,000 years ago, we can come here and now to find Christ where He promises to be – in His Word and Sacraments in church.
