About Us

A community built on God's word.

Serving Oconomowoc families for more than 100 years.

Since our founding in 1922, St. Matthew's has served both our members and the Oconomowoc community by sharing the truth of God’s Word. As a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), we remain committed to upholding the teachings of Scripture.

Christian education has always been at the heart of St. Matthew’s ministry. For nearly a century, we have operated a Lutheran elementary school that now provides a Christ-centered education for students from 3K through 8th grade. What began as a one-room schoolhouse with a single teacher has grown into a fully accredited institution, part of the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, and accredited by WELSSA.

In 2018, St. Matthew’s expanded its educational outreach with the opening of First Steps Child Care Center. First Steps offers nurturing care for children from six weeks to 5 years old, along with before and after school care and summer care for students in 5K through 6th grade.

What We Believe

The foundations of our faith.

The best way to learn more about what we believe is to join one of our Bible Information Classes, where we explore the basic teachings of the Bible. A good place to begin your journey, however, would be to take a closer look at the individual words that make up the name of our congregation: St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Biblical

Matthew is the author of the first book of the New Testament, and our church bears his name because we are a Biblical church.

The Bible is God’s inspired, infallible Word, and it is completely trustworthy and true.

Evangelical

The word “evangelical” is from the Greek word for gospel, which means “good news.” The good news we treasure is that Jesus is our Savior from sin, death, and the devil. We proclaim that good news in everything we do because it is the only message God uses to create and strengthen faith in human hearts.

Christian

We are a Christian church. This means that no amount of human effort can earn God’s favor or lead to eternal life. It was God’s love alone that caused him to send his Son Jesus to live and die for us. God offers forgiveness and salvation to the whole world as a free gift. Everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior will be saved.

Wherever the gospel is preached and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are administered, the holy Christian church is present. It is through these means (called the means of grace) that true faith is produced and preserved.

Lutheran

St. Matthew’s is a Lutheran church, not because we worship Martin Luther, but because of the saving truths of God's Word Luther reclaimed for the church at the time of the Reformation. These foundational truths of our faith are often summarized with three Latin expressions: sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. Lutherans believe that our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of Scripture alone.

The teachings Lutherans confess on the basis of God’s Word are summarized in the Book of Concord of 1580. This collection of nine documents is a confession of what we believe because they are a correct exposition of the teachings of the Bible.

St. Matthew’s belongs to a larger church body known as the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). For more information about the WELS, click here.