About Us
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are doing.
Since 1905, God has been serving His people in and around Oakes, North Dakota through the Word and Sacrament ministry of St. John's Lutheran Church, connecting people with His Church, His Word, and His Son.
St. John's Lutheran Church is a member congregation of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and a member of the North Dakota District of the LC-MS.
If you’re looking for a church home, please come and visit us for our Sunday morning service or for any of our study opportunities. Feel free to contact us with any questions or special concerns. If you would like to know more about the congregation and about what we believe and teach, you will find those answers here at this site. God has some things He would like you to hear and know, and it would be our pleasure to proclaim His Word to you.
God bless the time you spend looking over our website, and then come and join us, to worship our Lord and receive the gifts of eternal life and salvation that He desires to bestow on His people.
What We Believe
THE BIBLE:
We believe that the Bible is the true Word of God, without error or contradiction and, therefore, is the only guide for determining what we believe and how to live our lives. We subscribe to historic Lutheran statements of faith (i.e., The Book of Concord), because they accurately reflect what the Bible teaches.
GOD:
We believe that GOD is Triune, One God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
HUMANITY:
We believe that God created and sustains us and the world. All humanity lost its original holiness when Adam disobeyed God.
SIN:
We believe that every thought, word, and deed contrary to God’s Law is sin; that every human being inherits sin; and that all sin calls for God’s wrath.
GOD’S LAW:
We believe God has revealed His holy will for us in the Ten Commandments. God’s Law condemns all who violate these commandments and leads us to the knowledge of our sin.
THE SAVIOR:
We believe that because of God’s great love for us, He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world from sin. We believe that He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; that He kept God’s Law perfectly, suffered, and died, in order to pay our debt of sin to God. We believe that Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven where He rules all things for the sake of His Church. We believe that He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
HOLY SPIRIT:
We believe that the Holy Spirit calls us to faith and gathers us together around the Word and Sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to receive God’s continual gifts of forgiveness, strength and peace.
BAPTISM:
We believe that baptism is a washing of rebirth that offers forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe, even infants and children.
THE LORD’S SUPPER:
We believe that in the sacrament, Christ gives us his own body and blood in and under the bread and wine, so that we might receive forgiveness and eternal life.