What to expect when you visit Emmaus

Welcome to Emmaus. In the Bible, the account of two men walking on a road to a town called Emmaus on Easter Sunday (Luke 24: 13-35) is the setting upon which we get the name of our church. In this story, the men are sad and hopeless as the one they believed to be the Messiah had died. Then Jesus appears to them. Only after Jesus opens the Scriptures to them, teaches them, sits down and breaks bread with them in a fellowship meal, do these men recognize Jesus. Their lives were changed.

When you come to Emmaus Lutheran Church, School and Preschool, we proclaim that Jesus Christ died for your sins and He has truly risen from the dead. The same message taught to those men that changed them is still taught and changes lives today. Just as they were sad and hopeless, but left joyful and hopeful, may you go from Emmaus knowing that Jesus still comes to you through His Word transforming lives by the power of the Gospel, and gives His meal to not only remember Him by, but for the assurance of forgiveness and new life. Come, take the road to Emmaus where Jesus will meet you and His fulfilled promises will change your life... forever.

We invite you to come worship with us. We do not have a fancy building, as we worship in a gymnasium affectionately known to some as "The Sanctnasium.. Each Saturday, congregation members work together to set up the space for worship and together we put it all away after service and Bible Study to ready for the next school day. We also do not have guitars, drums or fancy lights. We are a simple church that does not seek to entertain you, but you will have opportunity to sing and take part in the worship as has always been our practice. Worship at Emmaus Lutheran is active and not passive. What we have is the message of Christ crucified and risen boldly proclaimed in word and song for people who are broken and in need of God's love for them. Then in response we are ready to share that love at worship and in our daily lives.

Emmaus Lutheran Church is a church that worships using the historical liturgies of the church throughout the centuries. Liturgy is just a fancy word for an order of worship. Every church has a certain order that they follow. Our Lutheran worship is one that benefits God's people in many ways:

- The Word of God is given witness and priority throughout the entire church service. We sing the Word of God. We listen to the Word of God. We pray for the needs of people throughout the world. We preach on a set of readings from the Word of God, both Old Testament and New Testament, highlighting one of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, focusing on the promises of God through His Son Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection for you!

- We confess our faith in the One, True God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The people of God, gathered together often recite the Lord's Prayer and the Creeds of the church as statements of what we believe. It is more than essential in this day and age to know what you believe and be able to express that faith in the One True God. There is an educational aspect to this as well, as from an early age on one can tell others what one believes especially as one generation passes these Scriptural Truths to the next.

- Jesus Christ is at the center. We speak or sing the words often "Lord have mercy," and "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World." By speaking, singing, and praying the Word of God, we are reminded of our place as created and God the creator. Jesus is our Savior. He is the Lord and everything has been placed underneath his power. His crucifixion and resurrection stand for all time as the apex of all history either before or after as confirmation of His love for you. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and this is reflected in our liturgy. We preach Christ crucified. (1 Cor. 1:22-24)

- God comes and serves us. Yes, you read that correctly. Our worship is even called, "Divine Service," where we recognize God comes to His people just as God came down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Each and every worship service, he gives us good things: Pronouncement of the forgiveness won by Christ, His Word which is Life, assurance of faith and forgiveness through Holy Communion and reassurance that He hears all of our prayers. Yes, we do serve God in our worship by praising Him, listening to His Word and applying it to our lives. But we believe first and foremost that when we come to worship, He comes to us bringing His grace and mercy. The one True God is a God of relationships. He sent His Son to serve and not to be served, to give His life as a ransom for many. (Matt. 20:28).

- Using a set liturgy (order of service) keeps us grounded. How easy it is to get on a "hobby horse" and ride it. Often worship can be consumed by an individual or a congregation's own wants, desires or passions instead of being shaped and formed by the powerful Word of God which is living, active and sharper than any double edged sword (Heb 4:12).

- There is a very distinct emphasis on education in our liturgy. By hearing the Word of God on a consistent basis either spoken or sung, it begins to take root in our memory and thus becomes a part of us by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is an old phrase, "Repetition is the mother of learning." Even modern brain research testifies to the value of repetition in regards to learning. The wisdom of God far exceeds that of man, so we constantly set before us the Word of God that we would read, learn and inwardly grasp how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ (Eph 3:17,18).

- Helps to unite us as the body of Christ called to a place, but it also connects us to those who have gone before us. By singing songs that the church has used for literally centuries, we are reminded of the church throughout the ages, those that have gone before us and those that come after. The hymns we sing could be 500 years old or they could be written just recently.

- Jesus calls us to worship in spirit and in truth. People often believe set liturgies to be "spiritless," but that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Holy Spirit gives life and where the Word of God is there His spirit is. God's Truth is also conveyed and held in high regard in our worship as evidenced by our fervent use of God's Word. There is a place for emotion in worship as we are humans created with emotions and feelings, as the Bible says to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep(Rom 12:15). Our emotions are present, but they do not govern how we worship. We seek to worship in spirit and in truth.

- All ages are welcome. Our worship does not cater to any age group. It is multi-generational as we encourage the family to gather together whether 5 months old or 85 years old to receive God's good gifts. Some churches separate children, youth, adults etc., but we believe that we live in a world where families are too separated as it is. We welcome the little child as Jesus did and are not bothered by the occasional cry of child... or parent.

- For the newcomer, it can seem strange. Yes, we recognize this and we take steps to be hospitable to those experiencing worship in this manner for the first or even second time. Might it be easier for you if we eliminated all of this? Possibly, but we feel we would lose more than we would gain. The liturgy is so filled with the use of God's Word and wonderful Good News that to change it would be to receive less and Christ desires to give us more of Himself. We do love our neighbor, but we feel that first and foremost, we are called to remain faithful to God and His Word. To that end we do however, we recognize there are people new to this type of worship experience. It might be new to you, but new is not always a bad thing.

For more information see the LCMS website. If you have questions, feel free to email the pastor at revolsen@emmausfortwayne.org

Mission Statement

Empowered by God’s gift of never-ending love in Word and Sacrament and responding to the forgiveness won for us by Jesus Christ on the cross, the mission of the family of Emmaus Lutheran is to courageously confess Jesus Christ through worship, life together, teaching and service.”

Mission Priorities Priorities

WORSHIP: 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. (Psa 95:6-7 ESV) This helps us to understand our posture when we worship, one of reverence and humility recognizing that He is our God, and by His grace we are His people. Worship is where we come to receive His gifts through Word and Sacraments and where His people gather to respond in praise and adoration. All four outer ring aspects of confess, teach, serve and life together make their home in Worship.

TEACH: 4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. (Psa 25:4-5 ESV) Before we can begin to teach our children, grandchildren and households, we need to first sit at Jesus feet and have Him teach us from His Word. A sincere request is that we desire to know His truth and to lead us in His paths, and then we in turn teach others of His great deeds so that the generations may know.

SERVE: ...whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mat 20:26-28 ESV) The greatest example in all history of serving came from Jesus Christ as He served us and gave His life.

We have many ways to serve Him in response: through giving our time to Him, using our talents, returning a tithe and serving

one another in our families. One example is as husbands serve their wives, giving their life for their spouse; children learn

what serving is by seeing it practiced daily.

LIFE TOGETHER: 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our

Lord. (1Co 1:9 ESV) We have been called by God as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is God's complete work that binds

us together. But Scripture does call us to be eager to maintain the unity that we do have. Being a child of God is about

being in a family. Christianity is a team sport, not a solo venture, one could say. We delight in the fellowship we have

with one another and we rejoice in this through many and various ways.

CONFESS: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9 ESV)Last, but not least is confess. God gives us opportunity to confess our Savior Jesus Christ, as we confess our sins, recognizing that we sin in thought, word and deed, by things done and left undone. We have opportunity to confess Christ with our words, to share the love of God in Christ Jesus and also to confess Christ in our actions through acts of kindness and compassion. The need to confess our sins is daily, and the joy to confess Christ is eternal.

Each of these five areas is vital to the life of this congregation and each person has opportunity to partake in all these responses of thanksgiving. The outpouring of the love of God in Christ Jesus is limitless and truly unfathomable in our weak minds and flesh. However, our weaknesses do not give us excuse from returning to Him a portion of that which has been given to us in abundance: love for Him and for one another.

Values

Unity

Eager to maintain the precious gift given to us through the work of the Holy Spirit of being one in Christ, (Eph. 4:3) we will be diligent as we walk together in love (Eph 5:2) and speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15-16) in all that we say and do as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Family

God's unchanging gift of family and marriage as dictated in Holy Scripture is foundational for home and society.We believe one of the great areas of outreach/missions is right in the home. Strengthening the home through the Christ centered biblical values of marriage, parenting and nurturing the faith; we will seek to pass the faith onto the next generation (Deut. 6:4-9, Prov. 22:6) so they would know the great works and mercies of the one true God (Judges 2:10,11; Ps. 51:1, Eph. 2:4,5).

Faithful

Responding to a faithful God by whom we were called (1 Cor. 1:9), acknowledging the One who "is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9), as the children of God through the work of the Holy Spirit, we will endeavor to be faithful to God unto death (Rev. 2:10).

Education

As our Lord diligently taught and sought to disciple (Matt. 11:1, Mk 6:34) and as Christ sent the Holy Spirit to teach all things (John 14:26), we will by Means of the Word of God continue to place education at a high priority in order to catechize and instruct (2 Tim. 3:14-16, Titus 2:1) throughout all ages and stages of life both God's Law and His Gospel.

Confessional

In the New Testament,

Confess means to "speak the same thing." In a world that is constantly in flux, we need something to hold onto that is firm: God and His perfect Word that transcends time and shifting cultures. Not being ashamed of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16), we boldly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (John 3:16, Phil 2:9-11), that the truth of the Word of God is perfect and eternal (2 Tim 3:16), and we also boldly confess the teachings of Martin Luther and those with Him who confirmed in unity that which is written in the Book of Concord as a true exposition of the Holy Scriptures.

Our Beliefs

With the universal Christian Church, Emmaus Lutheran Church, as a member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod teaches and responds to the love of the Triune God: the Father, creator and sustainer of all that exists; Jesus Christ, the Son, who became human to suffer and die for the sins of all human beings and to rise to life again in the ultimate victory over death and Satan; and the Holy Spirit, who creates faith through God's Word and Sacraments. The three persons of the Trinity are coequal and coeternal, one God.

Being Lutheran, our congregation accepts and teaches Bible-based teachings of Martin Luther that inspired the reformation of the Christian Church in the 16th century. The teaching of Luther and the reformers can be summarized in three short phrases: Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone.

Grace Alone

God loves the people of the world, even though they are sinful, rebel against Him and do not deserve His love. He sent Jesus, His Son, to love the unlovable and save the ungodly.

Faith Alone

By His suffering and death as the substitute for all people of all time, Jesus purchased and won forgiveness and eternal life for them. Those who hear this Good News and believe it have the eternal life that it offers. God creates faith in Christ and gives people forgiveness through Him.

Scripture Alone

The Bible is God's inerrant and infallible Word, in which He reveals His Law and His Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. It is the sole rule and norm for Christian doctrine. To learn more specifically what we teach and preach, our doctrine, we invite you to view the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod's website, which explains in detail what we believe.

We also believe, teach and confess:

  • On the basis of the Holy Scriptures we believe the article of the Holy Trinity; that is, we believe that the one true god is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—One God in Three Persons.

  • Jesus the Messiah (Christ) God’s only Son, took on human flesh and was the only one to live without sin, perfectly keeping all the demands and commands of God the Father. He willingly suffered and died on the Cross to pay the penalty for the sins of all people. His sacrifice on our behalf unites all believers to God the Father. Jesus physically, bodily rose from the dead after three days on Easter.

  • According to the Holy Scriptures, God is perfect and holy. God the Father gave human beings His law - The Ten Commandments - by which we live. The penalty for sin - disobeying the Law - is death.

  • Christ now rules in heaven as King of Kings. On the Last Day, He will return to earth, raise the dead, and bring true believers into eternal life in heaven. All unbelievers will be cast into eternal death in hell.

  • God the Holy Spirit works through the Word of God (the Bible) and through Sacraments of Holy Baptism (to bring new life in faith by grace) and the Lord’s Supper (to offer forgiveness, life and salvation in the true Body and Blood of Christ to all who share this faith, fellowship and life as disciples of the Savior, Jesus Christ) to create and sustain saving faith in us.

  • As a conservative, family-oriented Church, we believe all human life (from conception to nature death) is always sacred, precious, and to be protected. According to the Scriptures, the basis of the family is the life-long marriage of a man and a woman, therefore sex outside of marriage and homosexuality are against God’s will.

  • Christians are called to live their faith through deeds of love toward others and to tell people that the only way to salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ.