The twenty-first century of the Christian era is an interesting time to be a follower of Jesus. We have information of all types available to us at the click of a button; this site is yet another of the thousands of church websites across the internet. God's Word is readily available to us in many languages; the Canadian Bible Society store nearest here, in Winnipeg, regularly has 50-60 different languages in stock. In English alone there are dozens of translations being marketed and sold.
In all of this information and all of this detail, a person may rightly wonder why we have chosen to also make our presence known, what we have to offer which is unique to the communities of Morden and Winkler. Indeed, for some of the reasons why we exist, I would like to direct you to the individual pages of our two congregations or the page covering Lutheran Teachings in general.
But most important of the various reasons we are here, that we are Christian congregations, is because we believe that Jesus Christ, true God yet true Man, is our Saviour, our Redeemer, the one who forgives our sins, and that He wants us to have life to the fullest. This forgiveness and new life is what we call the Gospel. As sinners, we confess our sins to God, and as saints, we strive to live in our communities in ways which lets the world know that Jesus is our Lord. We use the traditional liturgies of the church to show that we understand ourselves to be part of the world-wide church of all times, the church of the apostles,the church of Jesus Christ himself. Likewise, we take seriously God's promises throughout the Scripture: His promise to forgive our sins through absolution; His promise to make us a new creation by the water and the Word in Holy Baptism; His promise to give us His Son's body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord's Supper; His promise to be present where two or three are gathered in His name; His promise that Jesus is returning soon. The heart and core of our congregations' purpose as Christian churches is the good news that Jesus came to redeem sinners, that our God is a gracious and merciful God toward us because of Christ. This was at the heart of St. Paul's teaching, of St. Augustine's teaching, and of Martin Luther's teaching, and it is for this reason we are proud to call ourselves Lutheran and willingly profess the Book of Concord to be a true and thorough exposition of the Holy Scriptures.
It is true that we are not perfect congregations--but Jesus never picked the perfect people to be His followers. Rather, He called "Follow Me!" to a rag-tag assortment of fishermen, a tax collector, a revolutionary, and other commoners. As sinner-saints we too strive to follow our Saviour, and we eagerly look forward to His return. Please come and join us along this road!
Pastor Alex Klages, Trinity/Zion