Mission Statement:

Our mission at Ebenezer Lutheran Brethren Church is to worship together, serve together, and grow together all for the purpose of sharing Jesus Christ with the community and the world around us!

What We Believe:

Doctrinal Statement of Faith

A) The Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments as originally given, is verbally and plenarily inspired and free from error in the whole and in the part, and is therefore the final and authoritative guide for faith and conduct.

B) There is one God eternally existent in three distinct persons in one divine essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

C) God the Father has revealed Himself to us as the Creator of the world and its Preserver, to whom the entire creation and all creatures are subject.

D) Man was originally created in the image and after the likeness of God to live in His fellowship. He fell into sin through the temptation of Satan and thereby lost fellowship with God, became totally depraved, and is under the wrath of God.

E) Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, is the image of the invisible God. To accomplish our redemption, He took upon Himself the form of man, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. By His perfect obedience and substitutionary death on the cross, He has purchased our redemption. He arose from the dead "for our justification" in the body in which He was crucified. He ascended into heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father, as our interceding High Priest. He will come a second time personally, bodily, and visibly to gather the believers unto Himself and to establish His millennial kingdom. Finally, He will judge the living and the dead and make an eternal separation between believers and unbelievers.

F) The Holy Spirit is a divine person eternally one with the Father and with the Son. His ministry is to call, to regenerate repentant sinners, to sanctify believers, and to preserve them in the one true faith. He guides and comforts the children of God, directs and empowers the Church in fulfillment of the great commission, and "convicts the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment."

G) The knowledge and benefit of Christ's redemption from sin is brought to man through the means of grace, namely the Word and the Sacraments. Through the Word, both the law and the gospel, God convicts of sin and bestows His grace in Christ unto the forgiveness of sin to all who repent and believe. We believe that all who have reached the age of accountability must have a personal experience of this saving grace in Jesus Christ.

In the Sacrament of Baptism, God offers the benefits of Christ's redemption to all men and graciously bestows the washing of regeneration and the newness of life to every believer. Because of the total depravity of human nature, and because the promise of God also includes little children, infants are to be baptized.

In the Sacrament of Holy Communion, Christ gives to His believers His body and His blood, reassures them the forgiveness of their sins, and strengthens their faith.

H) The Church universal consists of all those who truly believe on Jesus Christ as their Savior. The local congregation is the communion of saints or true believers "in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered." Therefore it follows that the membership of the local congregation shall comprise only those who by life and testimony show that they are living in fellowship with Jesus Christ.

I) We adhere to the Lutheran Confessions, a summary of Bible doctrines, comprising The Apostolic, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds; Augsburg Confession; and Luther's Small Catechism.

History:

The present congregation of Ebenezer Lutheran Brethren Church has its roots it two separate Lutheran churches, both founded in 1889: Westlands Church, north of Rolette, and North Ox Creek Church, south of Rolette. Both churches were members of the Hauge Lutheran Synod. In 1897, the two churches joined together by calling a single pastor, Lars Langehaug, who served both churches until 1903. In 1905, the two churches called K.T. Strand as their new pastor to replace Langehaug. In 1917, several Lutheran bodies, including the Hauge Synod, merged to form the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Some of the members of both the Westlands church and the North Ox Creek church rejected the merger and made plans to form a new independent Lutheran congregation. In 1922, this new congregation was formally founded as Ebenezer Lutheran Mission Society, with Strand remaining as pastor until his death in 1929.

Ebenezer joined the Church of the Lutheran Brethren as a member congregation in 1953. The current parsonage was built and dedicated in 1971. In the late 1970s, the church acquired land at the northwest corner of Rolette and the congregation decided to relocate and build a new worship space on this property. The groundbreaking for the current church building took place in 1976, and the completed building was dedicated in 1977.

Ebenezer Lutheran Brethren Church, as well as its predecessor mission society, has been served by the following pastors:

• K. T. Strand: 1922-1929
• Ole Vettrus: 1929-1930 (lay student pastor)
• J. O. Brekke: 1930-1931
• E. L. Reisem: 1931-1940
• Olav Monson: 1940-1944
• J. O. Brekke: 1944-1949
• Knut Heggestad: 1949 (interim pastor)
• Gaylord Jacobsen: 1949-1957
• John Solberg: 1957-1963
• James Johnson: 1963-1992
• Gunnar Salmonson: 1992-1998
• Alvin "Rocky" Bronson II: 2000-2004
• Joel Davis: 2005-2011
• Gregory Solberg: 2012-2014

About the Church of the Lutheran Brethren

The Church of the Lutheran Brethren (CLB) is a family of over 100 Lutheran congregations throughout the United States and Canada, with an additional 1,500 congregations in Cameroon, Chad, Japan, and Taiwan.

The CLB Distinctive Set of Core Values:

1. Scripture is Inerrant and Inspired: The CLB believes that Scripture is inspired, inerrant and authoritative. God's Word is foundational to everything we believe, and it influences everything we do.
2. Lutheran and Evangelical: The CLB is both Lutheran and Evangelical, which is reflected in our emphasis on Law and Gospel as well as our resting in God's grace yet knowing the urgency of proclaiming this Good News.
3. Reaching the Unreached: The CLB is called to bring the Light of Christ to the darkest place, internationally, in Chad, Taiwan and Japan, as well as locally, here in North America.

A Lutheran Brethren Church is a gathering of believers in a given locality in which:

A) The Word of God is preached

B) The sacraments are administered in accordance with the Lord's institution

C) Those believers are seeking to edify one another in worship, teaching, and fellowship, through fulfilling the Lord's great commission.

Learn morea bout the CLB at their website: www.clba.org