Pastor Alex Oakes

Alex was born in Rockport and raised in Spruce Head. He grew up on the water and in boatyards. A Maine Maritime Academy graduate, he has sailed the North Pacific, the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and Mediterranean oceans, but he loves Maine above any place else on earth. He was assistant pastor to William Johnson for eight years at First Baptist Church, Pittsfield from 2015-2022. Pastor Alex has six children with his wife Karen. They believe the Church grows through evangelism and the discipleship of the family. Alex plays lead guitar for the indigenous Maine band Dear Norumbega. He believes that the Church in Maine will bear a renewed testimony to Christ when she demonstrates the unity Christ died to achieve (John 17).

Alex loves good food shared in good company and conversation that flows long into the evening, “I am astounded by God’s vision for fellowship and joy within his family. We have told the world too long that being a Christian is about what you give up. Jesus’ story about the wayward son-come-home confronts stodgy religious people with a God who throws a roaster of a party. I imagine that house; filled with neighbors, lit by warm oil lamp, dancing figures throwing lively shadows on the walls, the smell of roasted meat, the best wine flowing, children laughing… That party signifies the pleasure God feels when a rebellious child returns to him. It’s a party the rebelliously religious and rebelliously irreligious are both welcome to join.”

Pastor Alex loves the writings of Flannery O’Connor, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, the music of the great Lutheran composer J.S. Bach, and the poetry of George Herbert. Secretly, he also loves a great alien-contact movie and the guitar work of Stevie Ray Vaughan.