Lord of Love is a Christian church. This means that our foundation is Jesus Christ. At the base of all we believe and teach is the good news that God loves this world so much that he sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (cf. John 3:16).

Lord of Love is a confessional Lutheran church. The word Lutheran connects us to Martin Luther, the Reformer of the 16th century. Martin Luther emphasized that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and this good news is revealed to us in Scripture (the Bible) alone.

A high-level list of what we believe would include:

1. We believe that the one, true God is the Triune God who has revealed himself to us in the Bible. Triune means that there are three persons to the Godhead: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, yet there is only one divine essence.
2. We believe the one, true Triune God has revealed himself to us in the Bible. The Bible is the result of the Holy Spirit breathing into the human writers the very words they wrote (verbal inspiration). Because of this miraculous process, we believe the Bible to be without any errors and incapable of leading us astray.
3. We believe God created the universe and all that is in it in six 24-hour days. This creation from nothing happened approximately 6,000 years ago, and not millions or billions of years ago.
4. We believe that the first two human beings, Adam and Eve, sinned when they were tempted by the devil. Their sin plunged this world into sin. Sin has now become a condition into which all people are born (original sin, nature sin). This sinful condition leads to many actual sins in our lives (lying, stealing, impure thoughts, violence, etc.). Sin causes estrangement from God, death, and finally, eternal separation from God in hell.
5. We believe God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue us from sin. The Son of God took on flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He was born and lived a perfect (holy) life. Jesus then gave his life when he was crucified on a cross. On the cross, Jesus was acting as the substitute for every man, woman, and child who would ever live. His death paid for our sin, and made peace between humanity and God. On the third day after he died, Jesus rose bodily from the dead. His rising is the proof that he is the Son of God, and that he has won the victory over sin, death, and hell. All this Jesus did that we might have eternal life with God.
6. We believe that the benefit of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is personally received through faith in Jesus Christ, that is, by trusting in him and what he has done.
7. We believe that faith in Jesus is not a decision or a choice we make, but it is a gift from God, worked in us by the Holy Spirit.
8. We believe that the Holy Spirit uses means to create and preserve faith in Jesus. The means the Holy Spirit uses is the good news about what Jesus Christ has done. This good news is sometimes referred to as the gospel. The gospel is therefore sometimes called the means of grace (the means by which God the Holy Spirit delivers God’s grace to us).
9. We believe the means of grace includes the gospel in the Word (written, read, spoken, heard, proclaimed) and the Sacraments. Sacraments are sacred acts Jesus Christ told his followers to perform in which the grace of the gospel is connected to the use of material elements. The two sacred acts like this are Baptism and Holy Communion (also called the Lord’s Supper, the Sacrament of the Altar, Eucharist).
10. We believe that Baptism as Jesus instituted (cf. Matthew 28:19-20) is a means of grace in which God offers, gives, and seals the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. We believe Jesus’ command to baptize, and the blessings of the gospel in baptism, include people of all ages, even babies.
11. We believe that Holy Communion as Jesus instituted is a “means of grace” in which God offers, gives, and seals the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We believe, based on Jesus’ clear words of institution, that in Holy Communion Jesus’ body and blood are really present in, with, and under the bread and wine.
12. We believe that Jesus Christ ascended to heaven 40 days after he rose from the dead. And we believe that Jesus Christ is now living and ruling over all.
13. We believe that when a believer in Jesus dies, their soul goes immediately to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. In death, the soul of an unbeliever goes to hell.
14. We believe that Jesus Christ will one day return to this earth. His return will be visible and glorious. At his return, all the dead will be raised. Resurrected unbelievers will rise to spend eternity in hell with the devil and demons; resurrected believers will rise to live with God forever.
15. We believe that on the Last Day, God will burn up this present world. He will then make a “new heaven and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:13). There believers will live with God in joy and glory forever.

As a member congregation of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), see here for a more detailed statement of what we believe.