What Does Trinity Mean When It Says It Is A Confessional Church?

A Confessional Lutheran church is one which teaches God's Word. Confessional Lutherans further believe and teach the doctrine according to the agreements made in The Book of Concord because they believe these doctrines are in agreement with the Bible.

I. The Scripture is the source of our teaching, but not everyone really means it when they say that. . .
     The source of all teaching at Trinity and for Confessional Lutherans is the Holy Bible. The Word of God says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). We believe this is true. But unfortunately, the history of the world teaches that not everyone who claims to believe and teach the Bible really does.
     In fact, during one of the temptations Jesus underwent, Satan tempted Him by misusing Scripture. The devil misapplied Psalm 91 in an attempt to get Jesus to kill Himself in the in the temple (see Matthew 4:5-6). If he tried it with Jesus he will certainly not be afraid to misuse Scripture with us. Just because someone quotes the Bible, does not mean they are doing it correctly.
     The Bible warns us that there will be many false teachers and many who are led astray by them (e.g., 2 Peter 2). This was a problem in Old Testament times, it was a problem in Jesus' day, and it was a problem for the Apostles and all of those who followed. Within Lutheran history, we have had the long sad experience that someone is always trying to corrupt what God's Word says because they like the power and the influence that comes with running the church according to their word and not God's Word.
 
II. The Early Church's Solution to the problem was to write Creeds.
     When the early church was faced with this problem, their solution was to write Creeds. A creed is merely a statement of belief. It comes from the Latin word, credo, that means, "I believe". Three creeds came from the early church, The Apostles' Creed (c.AD 150), The Nicene Creed (c. AD 325) and the Athanasian Creed (c. AD 500). The creeds or Confessions were not quotes of Scripture, but summaries of important Scriptural teachings. Teachers of the early church were required to subscribe (that is, agree to or sign) these Creeds and teach them in their churches. If they would not, that meant that they were also not really teaching what the Bible said, even if they claimed they were. We Lutherans still confess these Creeds today and these Creeds are part of the Lutheran Confessions. What we intend by this practice is to demonstrate that we believe and teach the same Scriptural truths that the church has always taught.
 
III. When it became popular to be Lutheran, they needed to define what it means to be Lutheran.
     In the sixteenth century a major church controversy led to the formation of the Lutheran church. For sixteen hundred years, there had really only been one Christian church in western Europe. Many people decided that they were going to choose sides in the debate, some false teachers saw the controversy as an opportunity to form their own church. Some saw the controversy as a way to advance their political agenda. But the Lutherans wanted to be sure that the basis of the being a Lutheran remained that we teach the Bible's truth.
     The way to do this was to write down what Lutherans believe the Bible says about all of the matters that churches were fighting about. In AD 1580, these writings were collected into a book called the Book of Concord.
     For over 500 years, the Lutheran Church has maintained the position that these writings are not infallible, but they do faithfully teach what the Bible teaches. Pastors and teachers at Trinity and in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (of which Trinity is a member congregation) promise that their teaching will adhere to these Biblical standards.