What We Believe
New Spirit Lutheran Church is a Christian congregation in the Lutheran tradition, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We follow Jesus Christ and are rooted in the good news of God’s grace. Whether you are exploring Christianity, returning to faith, looking for a church home, or simply curious about what Lutherans believe, this page offers a glimpse of the faith that shapes our life together—a faith centered on Jesus, grounded in Scripture, nourished by Baptism and Holy Communion, and lived out in love of God and neighbor. This is how Lutheran beliefs in Tucson take shape in the life and ministry of New Spirit.
To learn about our Core Values → EXPLORE OUR CORE VALUES
Faith for real life.
We are a Lutheran Christian community rooted in the good news of Jesus Christ.
We believe faith is not about pretending to have everything figured out. It is about trusting that God meets us with grace, calls us into relationship, and continues to shape us throughout our lives.
At New Spirit, questions are welcome. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Nobody has to become a different person before they are worthy of God’s love.
GRACE COMES FIRST
God’s love is a gift, not something we earn.
At the heart of Lutheran faith is grace: God comes to us before we have cleaned ourselves up, proven ourselves worthy, or gotten everything right.
We do not earn God’s love through good behavior, perfect belief, church attendance, or religious achievement.
God loves because God is love.
That grace frees us to live differently — not because we are trying to earn God’s approval, but because we already have it.
JESUS SHOWS US WHO GOD IS
We look to Jesus to understand the heart of God.
In Jesus Christ, we see God entering fully into human life — healing, forgiving, challenging injustice, welcoming outsiders, eating with people others rejected, suffering, dying, and rising again.
The cross tells us that God does not remain distant from human pain.
The resurrection tells us that suffering, violence, and death do not get the final word.
Jesus continually draws us toward lives shaped by mercy, courage, reconciliation, and love.
SCRIPTURE MATTERS
The Bible is a living witness to God’s work among God’s people.
We take Scripture seriously without pretending that every passage is simple.
The Bible contains poetry, history, letters, stories, law, wisdom, prophecy, and testimony written across generations and cultures.
We read Scripture together, trusting the Holy Spirit to speak through it while also paying attention to context, history, language, and the world in which we live.
Questions are part of faithful reading.
GOD MEETS US IN ORDINARY THINGS
Water. Bread. Wine. A promise.
Lutherans speak of Baptism and Holy Communion as sacraments — ordinary physical things through which God gives extraordinary promises.
In Baptism, God claims us as beloved children.
At the Communion table, Christ meets us again with forgiveness, grace, and nourishment for the journey.
These gifts are not rewards for having perfect faith. They are signs of God’s grace for people who need it.
FAITH CHANGES US
Grace does not leave us where it finds us.
God loves us as we are, and God continues working in us.
Faith shapes the way we treat our neighbors, use our resources, respond to injustice, forgive, serve, speak, listen, and live together.
We will never do faith or life perfectly.
Christian life is an ongoing rhythm of receiving grace, being changed by grace, and extending grace to others.
WE ARE CALLED INTO THE WORLD
Church does not end when worship ends.
Lutherans use the word vocation to describe the many ways God works through ordinary people and ordinary lives.
That includes our families, friendships, jobs, schools, neighborhoods, communities, and acts of service.
Following Jesus means paying attention to where love, mercy, justice, reconciliation, and courage are needed — and showing up.
Faith belongs in real life.
EVERY PERSON BEARS GOD’S IMAGE
No one is outside the reach of God’s grace.
We believe human beings are created in the image of God and worthy of dignity, care, and belonging.
The church has not always lived that truth faithfully.
We seek to become a community where people who have been excluded, wounded, questioned, or pushed aside can experience genuine welcome and belonging.
That welcome includes people across differences of age, race, culture, ability, economic circumstance, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, family structure, religious background, and life experience.
WE DO NOT HAVE EVERYTHING FIGURED OUT
Faith is something we live together.
Faith is a journey were we are still learning.
Sometimes we disagree.
We ask difficult questions.
We all make mistakes.
God continues meeting us where we are.
We believe Christian community is not built by everyone pretending to be certain. It is built by people gathering around Jesus, receiving grace, listening to one another, and continuing to take the next faithful step.
We are Lutheran.
New Spirit is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
That connects us to a wider Lutheran tradition centered on God’s grace, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Word and Sacrament, and God’s call to love and serve our neighbors.
As a congregation of the ELCA, we also take seriously the social statements, social messages, and other teaching documents adopted by the wider church. These resources help us bring Lutheran theology into conversation with the complicated realities of life together—including questions of justice, human dignity, economic life, creation, racism, sexuality, health, education, peace, and public life.
They do not replace Scripture or our Lutheran confessions. They help us discern together what faithful Christian witness can look like in the world we actually inhabit.
Our faith is personal, but it is never only private.
EXPLORE ELCA SOCIAL TEACHING → ELCA SOCIAL TEACHINGS
WE ARE A RECONCILING IN CHRIST (RIC) CONGREGATION
New Spirit is a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) congregation.
For us, that means more than saying everyone is welcome. We publicly commit to the welcome, inclusion, celebration, and advocacy of people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. We also commit ourselves to racial equity and anti-racism, and to creating a community in which LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC people can participate fully in the life and leadership of the church.
Our RIC commitment also means that LGBTQIA+ couples are welcome to celebrate marriages and blessings in our community, and that we continue learning, examining our practices, and working to make our welcome visible and real.
For us, RIC is not simply a designation. It is one way we live out our conviction that Belonging Matters, that every person bears the image of God, and that the church is called not only to welcome people, but to stand with them.
LEARN MORE ABOUT RECONCILING IN CHRIST → EXPLORE RECONCILING WORKS
