New to Peace

History

On October 28, 2007, Our Savior Lutheran of Mt. Lebanon, PA and Hope Lutheran of Upper St. Clair, PA voted to merge into one congregation with the mission, “Excited about Christ, we are an evangelizing congregation!”

The merger was completed on May 15, 2008.

The name Peace Lutheran Church was selected out of approximately sixty suggestions. The acronym for PEACE is: People Excited About Christ Eternally.

Since the successful completion of the merger, priority has been given to the study of God’s Word, to reaching out, sharing the Good News of Jesus and for opportunities for service to others.

Mission Statement

Excited about Christ, we are an evangelizing congregation, with the power and help of the Holy Spirit.

Biblical and Confessional Standards

This congregation acknowledges and accepts all canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as the revealed inerrant Word of God, verbally inspired, and acknowledges and accepts all the Confessional writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, contained in the Book of Concord of the year 1580, to be the true and genuine expression of the doctrines of the Bible. These Confessional writings are the three Ecumenical Creeds (Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian), the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, Luther’s Large and Small Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord.

Purpose

Worship

Members of the body of Christ who are physically capable of gathering together do so in order to express their praise and thanksgiving to God. They bring to Him their prayers, and they are nourished and strengthened by the reading and preaching of God’s Word and by the administration of His Sacraments. Thus, they uphold one another as members of His body, the Church, of which this congregation is a microcosm. By their faithfully regular worship they demonstrate to the word their allegiance to Christ and witness to His Lordship over every other area of life, in obedience to the Third Commandment, not in the keeping of a day, but in holding sacred preaching and His Word.

Repent, learn and grow

Through all of life, Christians, as Luther says, “should daily drown the Old Adam by contrition and repentance and thus resist and overcome evil desires.” Further, they are to grow in grace and knowledge of their Lord. God has established the ministry to be a means of teaching his people for their sanctification, in the narrow sense, and for equipping them for the extension of His Church. God also uses members of the body of Christ to strengthen themselves by private study of His Word, and one another by teaching and mutual sharing.

Commune

The Lord’s Supper affords Christians the opportunity to commune regularly with their Lord and with one another as they participate in the blessings of redemption He won for them through His death and resurrection. This participation in the Communion of Saints continues beyond the Sacrament in gatherings for various purposes within the congregation.

Witness

Through baptism the Holy Spirit makes us both God’s children and His witnesses. Each member of the congregation is therefore sent to carry Christ’s mission to the world. This is done through daily witness, in word and deed, which are most effective if applied in concert. Moreover, that individual witness to the redemption won by Christ is multiplied by the collective effort of the congregation and multiplied yet again by the proclamation of Law and Gospel by the Lutheran Church and the entire Holy Christian Church throughout the world. Within that large scope, this congregation and each of its members is committed to the prayerful, physical and financial support of the extension of Christ’s Kingdom by the means they deem most effective.

Serve

Recognizing that all life is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, a Christian does God’s work through his or her vocation, in the home, the church and the state. The Christian seeks to reflect the mercy of Christ and by such demonstration of Christian love adds power to the proclamation of the Gospel.

These five elements of congregational purpose are presented in arbitrary order with no ascription of priority; however, the latter two are prominent in evangelism, and are so noted in respect to the maxim of the congregation, namely, “Excited by the love of Christ, this congregation is an evangelizing congregation.”

Affiliations

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

Our congregation is affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

The English District

Our congregation is affiliated with the English District of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.