August 31, 2009 by Doug Davis 2 comments

Over the past few weeks as I meet new people, two questions are almost always asked.  First, "what brought you to Prattville, the military?"  Now for those of you who are not familiar with the area, there are two millitary bases located in the area and being the time of the year when most new military families come to the base, it is a obvious question to ask.  When I tell them I am a Lutheran pastor and have come to start a new church, the response is interesting.  First there is a nod of approval  for what I am doing and then followed with a general statement of "what do Lutheran's believe?"  One might think that a strange question, but given that most of the church's in the area are Baptist or Pentacostal, it is not that strange to ask.  Now the trained theologian in me wants to launch into a series of catechism lessons and the history of the Reformation, but just to make it short and sweet, this is my response.  "We believe that it is by the grace of God, through faith in His Son Jesus we are saved and the Bible is the Word of God to us."  Now that seems to open up the conversation and seems to put them at ease to who we are. 

Just as there are different "flavors" of Baptist, there are also different Lutheran denominations.  Where do we stand in the mix.  I would say we are the conservative middle, but that is only my opinion.  We are conservative in the fact we stand with what the Bible says to be true.  We see the world around us change, but we remain the same in our understanding of what the Bible (the Word of God) says regarding social issues of today. We are varied in our styles of worship from traditional hymns and liturgy to contemporary praise and worship music.

Have further quesiton?  Respond back and I will address any question you may have.

God bless your day!

In His Grip!

Pastor Doug

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