About Lutherans

Alvin Lutheran Church is a parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As part of the ELCA, we are united with Lutherans throughout the world. We derive our teachings from the Holy Scriptures and confess the three ecumenical creeds of the Christian church: the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds. We hold to orthodox catholic theology as enunciated in the ecumenical councils of the first five centuries of Christianity. We trace our roots as a confessing movement to the reformation of the western catholic church initiated by Dr. Martin Luther, a German priest and professor of theology, in Germany in the 1500s. From Germany, the Lutheran reform movement spread to Scandinavia and the Baltic states, as well as to other areas in central and eastern Europe. Technically speaking, Lutheranism is a reform movement, more than it is a separate church. We work for the reform of the Church throughout the world as we hold forth the Good News that we are justified (made right with God) by God’s grace, by God’s choosing. That belief in our justification is central to everything that Lutherans preach and teach.

Today, Lutherans are to be found around the world. Lutherans have been present in the United States since the 1600’s. The majority of Lutherans are to be found on the East and Northwest Coasts, and the Midwest. Texas, however, has its fair share of Lutherans because of heavy German immigration in the 19^th Century.

Lutherans are bound together by a common faith and confession. We are a confessional church. That means that our beliefs are stated in a written form, and our clergy make promises to uphold those beliefs. We are united in our assent to the Scriptures, the Creeds, and the Lutheran Confessional writings, especially the Unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530 and Luther’s Catechisms.

The Lutheran Church is a liturgical church. That is, our worship follows a set pattern. Worship in the Lutheran Church follows a reformed version of the Western Mass. A typical Sunday will include prayers of confession and absolution, three readings from Scripture, a sermon or homily, and the celebration of Holy Communion. We use many and various means to communicate our theology in worship.  Music, vestments, paraments, incense, elements of bread, wine, oil and water... these simple things communicate something much greater and engage all of our senses in worshiping and glorifying God.  For our visitors this may seem strange, but soon it should become quite familiar and comfortable.  Anyone coming from a Roman Catholic, Episcopal, or United Methodist background would feel quite at home with the worship in our congregation.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in addition to being in full communion with the entire Lutheran World Federation, is also in full communion (we can exchange pastors/priests/ministers with, and share Communion with) the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and the Moravian Church. We also have significant dialogues with our United Methodist and Roman Catholic sisters and brothers.

After all the serious stuff, one has to remember that Lutherans are really fun people! When we consider that we are saved by God’s grace alone, and not by any works of ours, we are free to live in the joy of salvation. We are freed by Christ to serve and to share the Good News. And that makes life worth living!