Who We Are
Peace Lutheran Church is a faith community bearing witness to God’s life giving love in Jesus. Together, we experience God’s grace, welcome all people, and practice living out Christ’s love in the world. Peace is a Reconciled in Christ community (RIC) and a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) located in Waunakee, WI (just north of Madison).
Our Mission
Peace Lutheran Church is an inclusive community boldly living and telling the story of Jesus.
Our Vision
Our vision is for all people to experience the life giving love of God given in Jesus Christ.
Our Strategic Mission
Jesus welcomed everyone. Jesus engaged the woman at the well, the woman whose daughter was ill, the blind beggar, the man on the mat, the rich lawyer, the poor widow, and the disciple who betrayed him to name just a few. One by one he offered each of them healing and wholeness that went beyond common culture and expectation. It is this gift of love and life that we strive to share through worship, education, kinship, service and sustainability practices.
Worship: The community of Peace will share in authentic holistic worship rooted in Lutheran theology and tradition that seeks to include, engage and nourish all people in ways that inspire transformational growth.
Education: The community of Peace will create innovative experiences that nurture life long relationships with God, empower the ongoing development of spiritual gifts and foster their collaborative use as we share in community.
Kinship: The community of Peace will kindle an inclusive place of welcome where connections are fostered, hospitality is offered, and people care for one another with compassion and grace.
Service: Called to live out God’s love in the world, the community of Peace will engage in programs of advocacy and service, partner with other ecumenical and community organizations, and work collaboratively for justice and peace for all of humanity and the whole of creation.
Sustainability Practices: Called by God to walk humbly, do justice and love mercy, the community of Peace will engage in practices to wisely steward all resources.
Our Values
As a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Liberated by our faith, we embrace every individual as a whole person–questions, complexities and all. We do God’s work in Christ’s name for the life of the world.
The ELCA confesses the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In our preaching and teaching the ELCA trusts the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.
We are a church whose unity is in Jesus Christ, who gathers us around word and water, wine and bread. We believe that people meet God in Scripture, where God’s relationship to — and intention for — humankind is revealed.
The ELCA’s official Confession of Faith identifies the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (commonly called the Bible); the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds; and the Lutheran confessional writings in the Book of Concord as the basis for our teaching.
We believe this is Christ’s church and that Christ’s church is for all people. God calls each of us by name, and it is not our job to sort, divide, categorize or exclude.
We are called to be a church that embraces each person and confronts racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, age, gender, familial, sexual orientation, physical, personal and class barriers that often manifest themselves in unjust treatment, inequalities, exclusion and violence.
There is no aspect of life in which God is not active, no place where God is not present. And this is exactly where we are called to participate in God’s work, in the thick of life, embracing individuals, families and communities that are hungry for hope and healing, justice and peace, advocates and partners.
We are a church that does God’s work in the world, the work of restoring and reconciling communities. We pursue justice and seek peace no matter how long the journey or wide the chasm. Because we are grounded in God’s love and forgiveness, we are well equipped to live and serve here and now, in the world, with all its complexities, tensions and ambiguities.
As a congregation of the ELCA, Peace Lutheran church reaches out to all people, serves all people and helps people negotiate the complexities and questions of life with confidence in God’s grace and love. As part of a much larger church, we work together with congregations in our synod and throughout the country to achieve things on a scale and scope that we could never do otherwise.
Through our faith and our call to boldly serve and love our neighbors, we are drawn into every corner of life, society and its institutions to bring the good news of Jesus Christ and to work for lasting, positive change that upholds human dignity.