Church Statements

Last modified: Dec 13, 2020 Target Area: County

Statement of Purpose Lutheran Identity Affirmation of Welcome

Statement of Purpose

God's purpose for Living Waters is for us to be a renewed and renewing Christian community reflecting God's love, grace, mercy, justice and peace in all the world.

Guiding Principles:

Empowered by the Spirit we have faith in God's saving love through Jesus.
This faith grows through core communal activities: prayer, Baptism, Eucharist, worship and learning.
We live as a welcomed and welcoming community.
As God's good news comes to us we remain receptive to being sent in new directions.
We generously share God's gifts for the good of all.
With God's help we live this active faith in this time and place and for all the world.

Adopted at the Annual Congregational Meeting, December 6, 2009

Statement of Lutheran Identity

As a Lutheran congregation, we participate in the mission and ministry of the wider Church through our membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the New Jersey Synod of that body.

As Lutherans, we confess faith in the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We accept and acknowledge theology and teachings that include the belief that our faith is rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through grace God brings us to faith, and by that faith alone we are saved. That faith is then expressed in our daily lives as we demonstrate our love of God through active love for others.

Lutheran worship centers around the Word of God, read and proclaimed, and the Sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion. Our weekly worship includes a collective prayer of confession and absolution, reading and preaching of God’s Word, public profession of our faith using the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed, prayer and the Lord’s Supper. An emphasis on liturgy and music invites active participation of all who gather.

The Lutheran tradition includes an emphasis on lifelong learning for all as they grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

At Living Waters Lutheran Church, we welcome all who seek to know the saving love of God in the crucified and risen Christ.

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Affirmation of Welcome

Living Waters Lutheran Church is committed to being a radically loving and welcoming community of faith. We recognize that the world can be an unloving place of alienation and brokenness, and we believe Christ calls us to serve as ministers of reconciliation and wholeness in it. We are comforted by the Gospel, challenged and transformed by its radical life-changing love, and empowered to be agents of healing within society and the church.

We affirm with the apostle Paul that in Christ “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28). We acknowledge that the spirit of this affirmation extends to anyone who is living with the realities of discrimination, treated as less-than or otherwise marginalized. Christ has made us one.

We believe all people are created in God’s image. We therefore celebrate the dignity and diversity of the human community, and are committed to work for justice inside and outside this congregation. We welcome, include, and affirm people of every race, color, culture, age, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, faith story, economic situation, physical and mental ability, educational level, work history, political affiliation, citizenship status, criminal record, or any other such human invention. All are welcome within the worship life of this congregation, including access to the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, and all are welcome and encouraged to join in our congregational life, community, and ministry.

Be it resolved therefore, this 13th day of December, 2020, that the Congregation of Living Waters Lutheran Church, Ringoes, NJ, in prayerful assembly, adopts this updated Affirmation of Welcome by affixing hereto the signature of its Pastor and each member of its Council, and the Seal of the Church.

The above Statement of Lutheran Identity was revised and then adopted by the congregation on June 27, 2004.

Note: Mission Statement replaced by the Statement of Purpose on December 6, 2009.

Note: Original Affirmation of Welcome 2001 replaced with Statement of Welcoming, May 5, 2020. Revised statement adopted December 13, 2020.

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