what we believe
mission
INVITE all to encounter Jesus Christ.
EQUIP disciples to share the story.
GO SERVE joyfully in the world.
Vision
Worship is central to who we are. We are identified as a Community of Faith. Sustained focus on Stewardship as a servant minded community. Encourage one another in ministry day to day. Leadership and education is grounded in Biblical and confessional theology and life issues education. Individual and corporate spiritual growth, especially with creative youth education. Ensure sufficient resources to achieve our goals.
Live Christ.
Finding your Fit
We are all wonderfully made and gifted with unique spiritual gifts. Trinity is a place of grace where, together, we can connect, serve, and worship. We invite you to explore your spiritual gifts and find your fit, to open yourself up and allow God to live, work, and speak through your hands, voice, and heart!
Our beliefs and values
Grace and Faith and Scripture
Grace is God’s unconditional love freely given to us no matter what through Jesus.
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Faith is a gift from God given by the Holy Spirit enabling us to trust in God’s loving purpose for us and all of creation.
Scripture reveals to us who God is and the heart of God. We see God revealed most clearly in two places, in the manger and on the cross. Jesus shows us what God is like. We do not worship the Bible; the Bible is not God; the Bible points us to the heart of God. We worship the trinitarian God who is revealed in the Bible. The Bible tells a narrative arch of God’s Big Story from creation to new creation, and the Word encourages us in our own roles in God’s Big Story.
Saint and Sinner and Sacraments
Saint AND Sinner – We live within this tension of being simultaneously fully saint and sinner at the same time.
Sin is when we miss the mark of how God intended for us to live. Here we boldly claim we are sinners. But we trust in the Gospel more boldly still!
“For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God, in God’s gracious kindness, declares us not guilty. God has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.” Romans 3:23
We are saints because Jesus continually makes us right with God. Because of what Jesus has done, does, and continues to do for us, we are justified, made right with God, by grace through faith.
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2
A Sacrament is a concrete sign of God’s grace. We celebrate 2 Sacraments, Baptism and Communion. In both we receive God’s love and forgiveness.
Trinity: God and Jesus and Holy Spirit
The Trinity is the way we understand God the creator, Jesus the redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the sustainer.
God is our loving divine parent, creator of all things seen and unseen.
Jesus is a part of God’s very being, God “in the flesh” in human form. God is revealed in Jesus. Through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection, God has proclaimed love and forgiveness for all of creation and sets us free from sin and death. The resurrection is God’s “yes” and final word, proclaiming that life and love win over sin and death for all creation.
The Holy Spirit is the sustaining, recreating, active presence of God moving throughout us and all of creation.
Grace, love, and faith are gifts of God. They are not given because we pray, worship, think, act, or live a certain way, but because they are given we can live in response to these gifts of God free to pray, worship, think, act, and live out love toward our neighbor. These are expressions of our faith acknowledging that God is the source of our faith, grace, and redemption.
Reformation and Always Being Made New and God’s Work, Our Hands
Reformation: In 1517 a German monk named Martin Luther wrote 95 Thesis and nailed them to the church door in Wittenburg to promote discussion on his views on how the church should be reformed, sparking what is historically known as the Reformation.
Lutherans today follow in the spirit of the re-formation in our lives, our church, and our world recognizing that through the guidance of the Holy Spirit we are Always Being Made New!
God’s Work, Our Hands is a way for us to live in response to God’s grace & love and serve & love our “neighbor.” Service activities, doing God’s Work with Our Hands, offer an opportunity for us to explore that all of life in Jesus Christ – every act of service, in every daily calling, in every corner of life – flows freely from a living, daring confidence in God’s grace.
History and Liturgy and Mystery
History: In 1949 Pastor Richard Smith established Trinity Lutheran Church in Tullahoma, Tennessee and the church was officially chartered March 21st, 1954.
Liturgy literally means the work of the people; it is the framework in which we contribute to worship. In worship, the church community participates in singing, praying, the reading of scripture, and collaborates to petition and praise the Sacred Three. We follow the Common Lectionary and Church Seasons.
We recognize that God is a Mystery and that we don’t have all the answers. We use our limited understanding and faith practices to connect with and explore this Mystery.
