Start here
The questions people ask first, answered plainly. You do not need a background, a church, or a settled opinion.
New to all of this?
You don’t need to believe anything to start here.
New to faith: six questions
Who Jesus is, why anyone believes, and how a person starts. No pressure.
Start with question oneHonest questions
Is there a God? Why does God allow suffering? Is the Bible reliable? Plain answers.
See the questionsWhat Jesus said about…
Doubt, fear, money, grief: what Jesus said, read the way Lutherans read it.
Pick a topicSee it acted out
Scenes from The Chosen, each beside the Gospel passage it shows: the woman at the well, walking on water, Lazarus.
Read and watchTry praying
Four minutes, any hour. You don’t need to feel anything, or be sure anyone is listening.
Pray it nowThe short version
The centre of what Christians believe, in one sentence. If the words are new to you, question 3 of New to faith explains them.
You are saved by grace, through faith, on account of Christ. Not by being good enough. Not by believing hard enough. It is a gift, and it was given before you asked.
Everything else is commentary. The commentary matters, which is why the rest of this page exists.
Getting ready for Sunday
What happens, and what the parts of the service mean.
What to expect on Sunday
The four parts of a service, when to stand and sit, and how communion works.
Know before you goCommunion
The meal Jesus gave, what Lutherans believe about it, what happens at the front, and how to ask for communion at home.
ReadBaptism
What baptism is, why Lutherans baptize babies, and why nobody baptized in another church is baptized again.
ReadThe unwritten rules, written down
What people will say to you at the door, at the peace and at coffee hour, and words you can say back.
Read the rulesWhat Lutherans believe
The basics, in Luther’s words and in plain ones.
The Small Catechism, piece by piece
Luther’s short book of the basics, 26 pieces, each in plain words with where Jesus says it.
Read a pieceLearn it by playing
Short games and puzzles: church words, Luther’s questions, the seasons, the parts of a service.
Pick a gameComparing churches
When you want to know how Lutherans differ from other Christians.
What is the ELCA?
What the initials mean, and how it differs from the LCMS and WELS.
ReadLutheran and Catholic
Where they agree, and the five differences that still separate them.
CompareLutheran and Baptist
Baptism, communion and church government side by side, with the verses each side reads.
CompareWords and people
For the names and terms that come up without explanation.
The Bible’s stories, one scene at a time
267 stories, psalms and letters, and 37 parables of Jesus, explained in plain words with the verse beside every paragraph.
Open Free Scripture ↗The vocabulary, defined plainly
Grace, liturgy, lectionary, vocation, and the rest of the words Lutherans use without explaining. Read it straight through or look up one word.
Look up a wordWho’s who in the Bible
Plain, literal biographies of the people who come up in the readings and the library, for anyone who arrived here without already knowing the story.
Look someone upThe whole story on one page
From creation to today in twelve numbered steps, then what the Bible is made of: 66 books in eight kinds.
See the whole storyChurch sayings, in plain words
“Born again”, “washed in the blood”, “God laid it on my heart”: what Christians mean, literally.
Look one upLuther and the Reformation
The history behind the tradition, in Luther’s own words. He is the teacher Lutherans are named after; the one they follow is Jesus.
Luther’s life, place by place
Eisleben to Wittenberg, Worms and the Wartburg: eleven stops on Luther’s Trail, each with the story and a puzzle.
Open Luther’s World ↗Confirmation lessons
Short lessons on the Creed, the Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism and communion, for confirmation and beyond.
Open Luther’s World ↗The Ninety-Five Theses
The document everyone has heard of and few have read. Complete and free. Notice what is not in it: the word faith never appears once.
Read the thesesLuther on prayer
He wrote A Simple Way to Pray in 1535 for his barber, who had asked him how. It is a method rather than a theory, and you can use it tonight.
Read Luther on prayerMore of Luther, in short passages
Three more works have one passage here, checked against a dated edition, with a link to the complete text, including The Freedom of a Christian.
Browse the passages2 works are hosted here in full, free to read. Start with The Ninety-Five Theses. →
How we handle the difficult texts
Luther wrote things that are indefensible, and his late writings against the Jews were used centuries later to justify atrocity. We catalogue those works rather than hide them, we do not host them, and every such record carries scholarly context alongside the church’s own repudiation, including the ELCA’s 1994 Declaration to the Jewish Community. Honesty about our founder is part of confessing that the church is at once holy and sinful.