​Trinity subscribes to The Book of Concord, which is a collection of documents that Christians from the 4th to the 16th century and since then have used to explain what they believed and taught on the basis of the Holy Scriptures.

 

The Book of Concord begins with the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed; the inclusion of the three ancient creeds indicates that Lutherans are not a sect but that they embrace and confess the ancient and orthodox faith.  The Book also contains the distinctive Lutheran Reformation writings known as the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms, and the Formula of Concord, with its Epitome.

 

Lutherans subscribe to this book not as a rule, judge, and norm for our life on the par with the Scriptures, but because the confessions in the book are correct expositions of what the Old and New Testaments teach. The Book of Concord is a necessary collection of confessions because there are so many different interpretations of the Bible we hold in common, and so we must confess what we believe.

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Trinity maintains her confession of The Book of Concord because it helps to preserve unity in doctrine and practice. Pastors and congregations subscribe to the Confessions quia ("because") they are a correct exposition of Scripture, rather than quatenus ("insofar as") they agree with Scripture.  Why does that difference matter?  The "because" subscription gives members confidence that what is preached today at Trinity is the same apostolic Gospel confessed throughout the Church's history.