MEET OUR PASTOR – REV. JASON BREDESON
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus!
I am grateful to be a child of God in the waters of Holy Baptism. Blessed beyond all comprehension to be the husband of my beautiful wife, Miranda. Overjoyed to be the doting father of Ellie and Lucas. And I am thankful for the gift of the vocation as Pastor to the loving and caring people of Trinity Lutheran Church, Sacramento CA. I recently retired from service as a Chaplain in the Air Force Reserve, having been honored to serve my country and our Lord at local Air Force bases, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and most recently as the Individual Mobilization Augmentee to the Wing Chaplain of the 75th ABW, Hill AFB, Utah.
I have served as Trinity’s Pastor Since January of 2008. Prior to that I served as Associate Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Pensacola, Florida. It is a blessing and a joy to Pastor the people of Trinity. If you would like to know more about me and our congregation (and more importantly … Jesus!) please come by and spend some time with us!
WHO ARE WE?
A great question! The simplest answer is found in the two greatest commandments as it was asked of Jesus. In his reply from the Gospel of Matthew we find our identity “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind … and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We at Trinity are broken people who are loved by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His grace and mercy is most clearly given to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus who comes to us in the Word of God, to include Holy Baptism and Holy Communion … the Word in tangible form!
God gives us this love as we are gathered in worship to receive his gifts grace and mercy and to respond with our praise and thanks. Having been filled with God’s love we respond to this by loving and serving our neighbors through the various service-oriented projects we are a part of as a congregation, as well as in our lives of daily service which God has called each of us to in our families, our jobs, and our neighborhoods.
But … we are more than words on a web page! We are real people, who rejoice in the real forgiveness of a very real God! With this in mind, we invite you to come and join us in worship and service. Come and be loved by our heavenly Father and help us to understand how we might love you and join with us in loving our neighbors.
WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?
The Bible – We believe the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
The Creeds – We accept the three Ecumenical Creeds, namely, the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, as faithful testimonies to the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and reject all the errors which they condemn.
The Confessions – We believe that the Unaltered Augsburg Confession is a true exposition of the Word of God and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
God – We believe that God is “… the Lord of heaven and earth … who has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” We believe in a triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Man – We believe that man was created in the beginning an intelligent and moral being, with body and soul. We believe that man of his own free choice fell into sin, thus separating himself from God.
Sin – We believe that sin is every transgression of the divine Law, and that man is subject to death and eternal damnation by reason of the guilt that attaches to sin.
Redemption – We believe that God, out of pure mercy, redeemed mankind from sin through the life and death of Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for the guilt of the world.
With the universal Christian Church, The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod teaches and responds to the love of the Triune God: the Father, creator of all that exists; Jesus Christ, the Son, who became human to suffer and die for the sins of all human beings and to rise to life again in the ultimate victory over death and Satan; and the Holy Spirit, who creates faith through God’s Word and Sacraments. The three persons of the Trinity are coequal and coeternal, one God.
Being “Lutheran,” our congregations accept and teach Bible-based teachings of Martin Luther that inspired the reformation of the Christian Church in the 16th century. The teaching of Luther and the reformers can be summarized in three short phrases: Grace alone, Scripture alone, Faith alone.
Grace alone – God loves the people of the world, even though they are sinful, rebel against Him and do not deserve His love. He sent Jesus, His Son, to love the unlovable and save the ungodly.
Scripture alone – The Bible is God’s inerrant and infallible Word, in which He reveals His Law and His Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. It is the sole rule and norm for Christian doctrine.
Faith alone – By His suffering and death as the substitute for all people of all time, Jesus purchased and won forgiveness and eternal life for them. Those who hear this Good News and believe it have the eternal life that it offers. God creates faith in Christ and gives people forgiveness through Him.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9