I’m thinking 100% of our CTK family will fill our sanctuary as we show our Lord, our community and ourselves that we are so very thankful for both our Lutheran Christian heritage and our Gospel inspired future! It is going to be a great worship service with special music, a great children’s message, a talk about why in heaven’s name we still refer to ourselves as “Lutheran”, and of course the Sacrament of Holy Communion to strengthen your faith in Jesus who loves you so very much! We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!
8:30 or 11:00am October 30th this Reformation Sunday! I’m not suggesting that you just “attend”, I’m asking you do your part to make our special Reformation worship a great honor to our Lord by your being a vital part of it! When you come to sing, pray, grow, and leave renewed, you bless both our Lord and everyone else who is there with you! So I plan to see all faithful CTK family members this Sunday morning ready to bless and be blessed by giving thanks for your church’s history and future!!! ---Pastor Chuck Neugebauer
God’s great gift to mankind is His Holy Word. Throughout its history the Christian Church has had to struggle to proclaim and teach the truth of that Word over against many falsehoods. Toward the end of the Middle Ages (in the 15th and 16th centuries) serious false teachings and abuses had developed in the church. God in his grace chose Martin Luther to be his servant for a most important work: the reformation of the church. Luther rediscovered for himself, and proclaimed simply and clearly three great truths that had been lost: 1. Salvation is God’s gift to us in Jesus. 2. We are saved by grace for Christ’s sake through faith. 3. We can be sure of this because God’s Word - and God’s Word alone- can guide us truly in all matters of life and faith.
On October 31, 1517 Dr. Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg Germany seeking debate not to leave but to reform the church. This day is celebrated as the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation, to which every Protestant denomination owes their beginnings. The heart of Lutheran beliefs is the doctrine of justification, the teaching of how we are forgiven and declared righteous in God’s sight, and for centuries since Luther the Lutheran Church has used watchwords to articulate this doctrine: A sinner is justified by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone, which is a truth revealed to us in Scripture alone.
The Reformation is an ongoing never ending process of confessing the Word as the world continues to change and confuse the Gospel. So happy 499th anniversary to the Church of the Reformation and to all who love to celebrate the comfort and joy of hearing that our warfare with God is over and that we are at peace with God through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord!