What We Believe

THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD

We believe the Holy Scriptures are God’s Word. We receive the Old and New Testaments as “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16) and as the authoritative norm for our faith and life.

The Bible isn’t just a collection of ancient documents. It is God’s living Word, through which he speaks to us today.

We read the Scriptures with Jesus Christ at the center, trusting the Holy Spirit to speak through them and to create and sustain faith and guide our lives. We listen both for God’s Law, which reveals God’s will for us and shows us our sin and our need for a Savior, and for the Gospel, which is pure gift and promise, revealing the forgiveness and new life God has given us through Jesus Christ.

WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH

We believe that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We cannot earn God’s forgiveness or make ourselves right with God. Salvation is God’s gift, given to us because of Jesus Christ. We receive this gift through faith—not because of our good works, religious accomplishments, political affiliations, or moral goodness.

As Lutherans, we often summarize this teaching with three simple statements: grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone.

Because God has already given us his grace in Christ, good works are not a way of earning salvation. They are the grateful response of people who have already received God’s grace. Faith in Christ naturally expresses itself in loving service to others and a new life guided by the Holy Spirit.

GOD GIVES HIS GRACE THROUGH WORD AND SACRAMENT

God does not leave us wondering whether his promises are meant for us. He gives his grace to us through his Word and through the Sacraments.

HOLY BAPTISM

In Baptism, God claims us as his own, forgives our sins, gives us the Holy Spirit, and joins us to Christ’s death and resurrection.

Because Baptism is God’s gift and promise to us rather than something we do for God, we baptize both infants and adults. Baptism is both a one-time event and something we return to daily as it becomes the pattern of the Christian life of dying to sin and rising to newness of life in Christ

HOLY COMMUNION

In Holy Communion, Jesus Christ truly comes to us with his body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We receive this sacrament trusting Christ’s promise that his body and blood are given for us.

At the Lord’s Table, Christ meets us with forgiveness, strengthens our faith, and gathers us together as his people.

All baptized Christians are welcome to receive Holy Communion at Oak Harbor Lutheran Church.

HOLY ABSOLUTION

Christ also gives his Church the gift of Holy Absolution. In confession and forgiveness, the Gospel is spoken over us in no uncertain terms: our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake.

Through the ministry of the Church, we hear again the promise that God does not hold our sins against us because of what Christ has done for us.

WE CONFESS THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH

We are Lutheran Christians, but we are part of something much older than the Lutheran Reformation.

We confess the historic Christian faith expressed in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. As Lutherans, we also confess the Augsburg Confession and the other writings collected in the Book of Concord. We believe these Lutheran Confessions are faithful witnesses to the Gospel and faithful interpretations of Holy Scripture.

Being Lutheran does not mean we worship Martin Luther or that Lutherans invented a new kind of Christianity. It means that we are Christians who believe the Lutheran Confessions faithfully articulate the good news of Jesus Christ found in Holy Scripture, the ecumenical creeds, and the ancient writings of the Church Fathers.

A PLACE FOR YOU

At Oak Harbor Lutheran Church, we seek to be a congregation where Christ is at the center, God’s Word is taken seriously, the Gospel is proclaimed clearly, and God’s grace is freely given.

You don’t have to have everything figured out before you walk through our doors.

Christians have always wrestled with difficult questions, doubts, disagreements, suffering, and uncertainty. At Oak Harbor Lutheran Church, we are united by our shared need for the grace of Jesus Christ.

And so we are a Christ-centered congregation with a place for you.