Good Soil is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA’s values are grounded in faith, rooted in scripture and Lutheran theology, and expressed through love of God and neighbor.
When Lutherans talk about faith, we are talking about the relationship God’s Holy Spirit creates with us. It’s a relationship where God’s promise of steadfast love and mercy in Jesus opens us to a life of bold trust in God and joyful, generous service to everyone we know and meet in daily life.
Martin Luther was exuberant when he described the freedom of “a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that believers would stake their lives on it a thousand times.” He once wrote, “Oh, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good things unceasingly.”
At the same time faith does not close our minds to the world and our hearts to others. We continue to listen to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We listen to the witness of others and we watch for the ways God is active in the world around us. Faith opens a place for engaging others in conversation, for seeking the truth, for asking questions and speaking love in word and deed.
Faith is a full life, liberated for a living, daring confidence in God’s grace.
Statement of Faith from the ELCA Website
Learn more about the Mission and Vision of the ELCA
Learn more about the “Future Church” goals of the ELCA