Our Church

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church is a proud member church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with about 4 million members in nearly 10,000 congregations across the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  We were the merger of three Lutheran denominations with deep roots with the German and Scandinavian immigrates of the 19th century.  We are now a multicultural and ecumenical church that works with our partner churches across the world in the Lutheran World Fellowship to bring the Gospel to all people.

Lutheranism is one of the major branches of the Protestant Reformation.  In 1517, Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a monk who felt that the Roman Catholic Church of his time needed to reform from corrupt practices.  On October 31st, he wrote his thoughts down in a document called the 95 Theses and nailed them to the door of Wittenburg Castle in Germany.  His ideas and protest spread across Europe with the help of the printing press and the Protestant Reformation was born.  Therefore, Lutherans are in many ways the first Protestant Christians.  While our roots go back to the Protestant Reformation, in the tradition of our founder, we continue to confront the major issues in the world through faith and to express God’s love for all people.

“Evangelical” has two meanings in American Christianity.  The older term comes from the Lutheran context.  Lutherans call themselves “Evangelical” because in Germany, the Lutherans are called “Evangelical.”  Martin Luther preferred to call the new church the Evangelical Church because it meant the new church would be based on the Bible (euangelion is the Greek root word Luther used to name the church).  Therefore, “Evangelical” has deep roots in Lutheranism as a name we call ourselves.

The second type of “Evangelical” is from the 18th century revival movements in America.  They stressed the literal reading of the Bible over all other matters and stressed preaching as central to their worship.  Often in the American media, if you heard “Evangelical” being used, it is this type of American Christianity they are speaking of connected to conservative social viewpoints.  Evangelicals come from many Protestant backgrounds, but predominantly in more congregational based churches like Baptist or non-denominational.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, as a member of the ELCA, embraces the term “Evangelical” from our Lutheran heritage.  Some of our members might embrace both ways of using “Evangelical” and other members of the congregation might never call themselves “Evangelical.”  At Trinity, we have enough room at the table for all that want to learn more about how to live their lives more Christ like.