Churches have existed for many centuries. They are built of wood and stone. Some are awe inspiring structures, others are humble places where God’s people gather to worship. Yet, the Church is not a building. God desires to take up residence in the hearts of his children. To that end, he has revealed the Gospel message to bring people into fellowship with him through his Son Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Jesus Christ and lives in us so that we are his temple and together we make up the Church, the body of Christ. We are united with true believers everywhere who call on the name of the Lord.
So it is God who unites us into his family by his Word. God’s Word, therefore has the central place in everything we are, teach, believe and do. For just as God has brought us together by his Word, we are also confident that God will keep us in the faith as we hold on to his Word.
God wants everyone to become a part of this fellowship and therefore Jesus has given us the Great Commission in Matthew 28:
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And behold, I will be with you always, to the very end of the age."
St. Paul’s
St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was founded on August 27th 1899 when a group of Lutherans in Berlin wanted to have a church near their homes. From the beginning it had this twofold purpose and continues to carry it out: to strengthen believers with God’s Word and to reach out to those who do not yet know Christ.
The W.E.L.S.
St. Paul’s is a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Churches (WELS). It is called the
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod because its founders were German immigrants who first settled in Wisconsin in 1850. The headquarters of the WELS is currently located in Milwaukee. It is called the Wisconsin...
Evangelical Lutheran Synod because it is a mission minded church body seeking to spread the Gospel to all nations. The WELS has missions in the United States, Canada and abroad. It is...
Lutheran because its members subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions as a correct explanation of the Word of God as recorded in the Old and New Testaments. It is a...
Synod because it’s members are joined together in a common faith. Synod means "walk together." There are currently over 1200 member congregations in the WELS with approximately 500,000 believers worldwide.
Doctrinal Beliefs
We subscribe to the historic Christian faith as confessed in the Apostles, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and the Book of Concord written at the time of the Reformation. It contains the three Creeds listed above, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession (1530), the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531), the Smalcald Articles (1537), Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms (1529), and the Formula of Concord (1577).
In short, we believe the following, namely, that God’s Word declares that
1) There is one God who has revealed himself in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2) God created all things by his powerful word in 6 days.
3) Adam and Eve fell into sin and, because of this, all people are by nature sinful and incapable of saving themselves.
4) God promised to send his Son who would accomplish our salvation. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit God proclaimed and preserved this promise through the writings of the Prophets and Apostles.
5) The Holy Scriptures are entirely God’s Word and as such, are without error and completely true and reliable in every way.
6) Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, 100% God and 100% man, fulfilled God’s promise through his life, death, and resurrection.
7) All God’s righteous requirements were met in Christ and all sin was fully atoned for by Jesus.
8) God wants us to be absolutely certain of our relationship with him because of Jesus Christ.
9) God enables us to live holy lives through the strength given in his Word until he takes us by his grace to our heavenly home.
10) God preserves his Church and causes it to grow through the Gospel in Word and Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper).
