Our Mission

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church is a congregation of the North American Lutheran Church meeting on the Westmont College campus. POP strives to serve the Kingdom of God with and through students and other members of the Westmont community, along with families and individuals from the greater Santa Barbara area. POP offers a rich liturgical worship experience, a vibrant learning community, and a heart for evangelical witness and service to the world.

OUR CONFESSION

We join the wider North American Lutheran Church in bearing witness to the following core elements of the Christian faith:

  • The Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

  • Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. (1) Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made and through whose life, death, and resurrection God fashions a new creation. (2) The proclamation of God’s message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy through word and deed, beginning with the Word in creation, continuing in the history of Israel, and centering in all its fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ. (3) The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. Inspired by the Holy Spirit speaking through their authors, they record and announce God’s revelation centering in Jesus Christ. Through them the Holy Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world.

  • The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith and life, “according to which all doctrines should and must be judged” (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Part 1).

  • The Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds as true declarations of the faith of the Church.

  • The unaltered Augsburg Confession as a true witness to the Gospel, acknowledging as one with it in faith and doctrine all churches that likewise accept the teachings of the unaltered Augsburg Confession.

  • The other confessional writings in the Book of Concord, namely, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, and the Formula of Concord, as further valid interpretations of the faith of the Church.

  • The Gospel, recorded in the Holy Scriptures and confessed in the ecumenical creeds and Lutheran confessional writings, as the power of God to create and sustain the Church for God’s mission in the world.

Our History

What started as an outreach of two professors, Dr. Michael Shasberger and Dr. Maurice Lee, to introduce historic evangelical worship to the Westmont community has evolved into a new congregation of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). Epiphany Project was the name for six weeks of services, starting on Epiphany Sunday, January 6 of 2013, and ending with Ash Wednesday of that year. Dr. Lee and Dr. Shasberger took turns starting the time together with 10-15 minutes of instruction on the service: how to find our way through the liturgy, where the service, the psalms, and the hymns were, and why the liturgy flows in a certain rhythm. Dr. Shasberger invited choir members to come early to learn the anthem (or two) of the day. After the service students walked over to the dining commons for lunch, and pretty soon the professor's families did as well. Since that time the ministry has flowered into a mission congregation that offers a lively traditional worship experience year-round and is particularly vibrant when the Westmont academic community is in full swing. Prince of Peace bacame an official congregation of the NALC in the summer of 2013. Dr. Lee was installed as our Parish Minister in July of 2014 and we continue to enjoy the support of Pastor Marv Combs, the Dean of the Southwest Mission District of the NALC on a frequent basis. St. John's Lutheran Church in Arroyo Grande has been a wonderful mission partner, sharing prayerful support as well as material support in the form of our hymnals and financial assistance. 

Church Council

Dr. Michael Shasberger, president; Elizabeth Shasberger, treasurer; Ravinia Lee, acolyte; Dr. Maurice Lee, pastor; Beth Lee, secretary