Welcome to St. Olaf Lutheran Church!

St. Olaf is a church focused on service and caring in the heart of Orange County, California. We are centered on welcoming, serving, and supporting our members and our community. Come and discover the richness of a supportive and caring community.

Our Mission

We are a Christian Community forgiven by God’s Grace, enlightened by God’s Word, chosen in Baptism, nourished at the Lord’s Table, fulfilled by God’s promise; and being a loving community of God’s people, we worship, learn, witness, and serve together.




“What does it mean to be the church and be a part of God’s flock?” This is the question that I will be asking and preaching about on Confirmation or Pentecost Sunday. This month we will celebrate the Affirmation of Baptism for seven of our young people. I will preach a strong sermon about what it means to be strong in faith and a part of God’s flock.

These young people are part of what is called the “invisible” generation who look at belonging to God’s church in a different way than past generations. Many feel that worship attendance is not as important to one’s faith as living ones faith privately. I have heard from some of our younger people that worship does not feed them Spiritually and that they feel they step back in time when they worship. Many younger people can not relate to current traditions of the church. Yes, these feelings may be true, but this frame of mind is very troublesome and can even be a threat to the Christian church. It is a gross misunderstanding of reasons for worship.

The sermon I will be preaching is from Jude (verses 18-25):

But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life… Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of His glory with rejoicing, to be the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jude was concerned with the problem of faith survival. He saw the Christian church community at that time being threatened by all kinds of dangers that could very easily destroy the church and wipe them out. They were being attacked from within by false prophets and gods who were distorting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So Jude wrote this letter to point out to these Christians the dangers that threatened them and he encouraged them to grow in their faith.

We too should be concerned about our faith survival. We are surrounded by all kinds of dangers that can keep us from our Lord and Savior. And for that very reason, because the dangers are so great and have been a problem for centuries, the church developed the tradition of basic Sunday school, confirmation instruction, and adult education where the church tries to provide us with some of the equipment that is necessary for faith survival. Yes, maybe we do need to listen to the younger generation to learn what they need from their church to be fed, but that does not mean worship is any less important. Everything in our faith life should rotate around worshipping and praising the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are the church and we come together as the one body in Christ to worship. In worship, we not only come to praise God, we come and are fed the Word through preaching and through the distribution of the sacraments. We come to be spiritually fed. My point is that the church is necessary for our very survival in this world. And we wonder why there are so many people in our world on a Spiritual quest….people are hungry for words of hope and peace.

Please join us on May 31th and hear how you too can take what you are learning regarding your faith and put it into everyday practice…including Sunday worship.

Peace!
Anton “Tony” Scheer

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