The North American Lutheran Church

How it came to be. Why it was necessary.

What it is. Where it is going.

Adapted from the writings of Robert Benne*

Lutherans arrived in North America as early as 1619; although many of the Danish explorers had died, their pastor conducted the first Lutheran services on the North American continent. Other surviving settlers arrived in New Amsterdam (modern day New York) in the 1640s and established churches throughout the northeast, particularly in Pennsylvania. The 18th century saw a large German immigration to the colonies, with Virginia Lutherans arriving as indentured servants in 1717. The churches initially organized into Ministeriums, and later into Synods, which were regional. In the latter part of the 19th century, large numbers of Germans of various denominations migrated from Pennsylvania down the Shenandoah Valley. These colonial Lutherans sent missionaries west to pastor to the congregations of later immigrants; they founded colleges, seminaries, hospitals and orphanages. In 1918, Eastern, Southern and newly-founded Midwestern Lutheran Synods were assembled as the United Lutheran Church, and used a common hymnal, The Common Service Book.

A massive immigration of Lutherans from Northern Europe arrived in the late 19th century, and most settled in the Midwest. These Lutheran ethnic groups, composed of Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Finns and even some Icelanders, founded their own churches, along with their own seminaries and colleges. The mid-twentieth century featured the gradual coming together of these ethnic churches to form two major churches: the American Lutheran Church (1960) was a merger of the American Lutheran Church of the Germans, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and Lutheran Free Church of the Norwegians, and a branch of the Danes, while the Lutheran Church in America (1962) was a merger of the older and larger United Lutheran Church, the Augustana Synod of the Swedes, the Suomi Synod of the Finns and another of the Danes’ churches. One group who did not merge was the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, founded in 1847 by German Lutherans who were very strict in their doctrinal commitments.

The Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and an offshoot from the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod continued the trend toward Lutheran unity by organizing a plan in the 1980s to form a new Lutheran church that would gather the majority of Lutherans into one church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The planners could not have foreseen that the move toward more unity within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) would ultimately result in extreme division. As immigrant Lutherans slowly began to overcome their ethnic differences, the vision of a grand quest for Lutheran unity turned into just the opposite during the late 1980s.

To understand why, we need to recall the revolutionary changes wrought by the 1960s, and more specifically, the years from 1965-1975. It took some years for the revolutionary impulses of the 1960s to affect mainline Protestant denominations in their “long march through the institutions,” to quote German student activist, Rudi Dutschke. But the liberationist themes borne by radical feminism, gay liberation, multiculturalism and anti-imperialism did indeed reshape mainline Protestantism. Those who thought that traditional confessional Lutheranism would prevail in the establishment and governance of the new Evangelical Lutheran Church in America were soon to become sorely disappointed. The older leaders of the merging churches were taken unaware by a band of radicals who injected a destructive virus into the midst of the new church, which was a quota system based upon group identities. That fateful move occurred in the establishment of the Committee for Lutheran Unity in the early 80s. The composition of that crucial group was based on a quota system, the instrument employed for “inclusion of the marginalized,” including women, people of color and those whose primary language was not English. It was argued that such stringent (and distasteful) methods were needed for the church to be truly committed to inclusion, diversity and justice. Quotas ensured that those selected to plan the new Lutheran church would have a significant contingent of activists shaped by the afore-mentioned liberationist themes. That turned out to be the case, and the new church was planned by the Committee for a New Lutheran Church (CNLC), composed of a quota-generated membership. The church that emerged was one where multiple interest groups held sway. Feminists and multiculturalists were given powerful offices in the newly-created bureaucracy. Theologians and Bishops, mostly white men at that time, were generally viewed with distrust. They were given no official role in decision-making, leaving resolutions to a central bureaucracy to be shaped by activists. Experienced leaders were cast aside in order to make the church appear as “really new.”

What emerged was disheartening. For example, in one planning meeting of the CNLC, the vote to retain the name of the Holy Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was nearly even at 33-30! Feminists argued that the classic name was sexist and oppressive.

After the foundation of the ELCA in 1988, such shenanigans led to huge gatherings of concerned clergy and laypeople at St. Olaf College in the early 1990s. These gatherings were titled Called to Faithfulness conferences and were intended to rein in the radical progressive track taking place within the new church; however, those impressive protests did not impede the revisionist juggernaut for long. A social statement on sexual ethics emanating from the Chicago ELCA headquarters was so radical that it was withdrawn after a withering backlash from congregations and clergy within the ELCA. Not to be denied, another attempt was begun that, in the end, would lead to victory for those who sought to revise Christian sexual ethics.

The ELCA transformed its ministries into heavily partisan “advocacy” offices. Initiatives to legitimize homosexual conduct were begun and were advanced through many offices of the church bureaucracy. Organizations such as Lutherans Concerned emerged to agitate relentlessly for the gay agenda in congregations, synods, convocations and assemblies of the church. Images of God and the language of worship and prayer were purged of masculine pronouns to conform to feminist convictions that such language was oppressive and exclusionary. The ELCA adopted policies that were more and more critical of Israel. In short, the ELCA was conforming to the trajectory of liberal Protestant denominations, only a few steps behind the Episcopalians and the United Church of Christ. All of this was alarming to many traditional Lutherans, but organized resistance was slow in coming. As contributions decreased and fiscal problems began to escalate within the ELCA, their membership began to decline sharply. Meanwhile, organized opposition to the new church had to wait for several dramatic changes legislated around the turn of the century.

The concerning liberal trajectory of the ELCA since the formation of the new church began to show up as a loss of financial support and as a serious decline in membership. The movement to revise basic Christian teachings on ordination, evangelism and marriage was relentlessly pressed forward by interest groups and the ELCA bureaucracy throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Though there were other distressing changes regarding worship language and the church’s stance toward Israel, it was the triumph of three disturbing revisions that finally became the last straw for many ELCA Lutherans. They were serious enough to provoke the establishment of two new Lutheran bodies: one was an association of congregations known as Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ and the other, a more traditional church known as the North American Lutheran Church.

The first of the “last straw” revisions emerged when the ELCA forged a 1999 agreement with the Episcopal Church entitled “Called to Common Mission” (CCM), which required three bishops in historic succession to consecrate a new Lutheran bishop, and that a bishop must always ordain Lutheran pastors. This went against Lutheran teaching; such a requirement was not necessary for an authentic consecration or ordination. The passage of CCM stimulated the formation of Word Alone Network, an organization that resisted the agreement, even to the extent that the ELCA had to backtrack and allow limited exceptions to the rule that bishops always ordain pastors. But the damage was done. Word Alone, not knowing the ELCA would allow exceptions, formed Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) in 2001.

Initially, ELCA congregations joined the association with dual membership so that they could call and ordain Lutheran seminarians who resisted the requirement to be ordained by a bishop. Within a few years, LCMC congregations began leaving the ELCA and attracted other congregations who were also leaving; by 2009, more than 300 congregations had joined the LCMC.

Masked by the other disturbances within the ELCA was an even graver revision of Christian teaching, having to do with the Great Commission itself. Convinced that all missionary activity was corrupted by Western colonialism, the ELCA decided soon after its formation to forgo pioneer missionary efforts, such as bringing the Gospel to peoples who had never heard it before. Instead, it opted for “accompaniment,” or helping already-established, younger churches in whatever way they deemed fit. While accompaniment itself is a noble enterprise, the refusal to carry the Gospel to those who had never heard it was a direct repudiation of the Great Commission to “go and baptize all nations.” The number of Gospel missionaries plummeted, while the number of more social service helpers rose. Pioneer missionary societies went unsupported and were basically orphaned, as connection to the ELCA was severed.

The third “last straw” occurred in the ELCA Churchwide Assembly of 2009, when classic Christian teachings on marriage and sexual ethics were repudiated. From the founding of the ELCA, there had been constant agitation by the Lutherans Concerned organization and several divisions of the ELCA bureaucracy to attempt to legitimize homosexuality in a manner radical enough to elicit resistance in the form of an organization called Solid Rock in 2003, which became Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Reform) in November 2005. Solid Rock was successful in defeating the effort to revise Christian sexual ethics in the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, as was CORE at the 2007 Churchwide Assembly. But in 2009, CORE and those who believed in orthodox teachings on sexuality lost on all three counts. The 2009 ELCA Assembly approved the blessing of gay unions, which soon morphed into an acceptance of gay marriage, the ordination of married gays and a social statement that was ambivalent about marriage itself, gay marriage and cohabitation.

In September 2009, CORE sponsored a large meeting in Fishers, Indiana. It was not CORE’s intention at that time to form a new Lutheran Church, but meeting feedback and in the weeks to follow overwhelmingly called for a new church. In response, CORE announced in November 2009 that it would form a new church. At its next gathering in Columbus, Ohio in August 2010, the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) was created. That church, which pledged to maintain orthodox Lutheran teachings on contested items, began with several dozen congregations and appointed as presiding bishop the Rev. Paull Spring, a former ELCA synodical bishop. A more traditional church structure as compared to the LCMC was adopted. Since then, the NALC has grown to more than 144,000 members in over 420 congregations in the United States and Canada.

The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) defines itself as committed to the “theological center of Lutheran belief and practice” and is devoted to four key values: Christ Centered, Mission Driven, Traditionally Grounded and Congregationally Focused. It has also committed itself to the Great Commission, accepting as partners in mission those orphaned missionary societies that bring the Gospel to peoples who have never heard it and sending missionaries abroad into difficult situations, with about 40 start-up missions in North America. Its leadership provides oversight and pastoral care for its many congregations and pastors. Further, it has committed itself to helping each congregation make disciples. The NALC has a very lean structure with these key full-time officials: Bishop, General Secretary, Assistant to the Bishop for Ministry and Ecumenism and Assistant to the Bishop for Missions, as well as a small number of office administrators and secretaries. The North American Lutheran Seminary (NALS) is run in conjunction with Trinity School for Ministry, a seminary of the Anglican Church in North America. Both seminaries are committed to training students in evangelism. The NALS has about ten seminarians in residence and quite a few more in online programs. More than 30 other NALC candidates for ordained ministry are studying at other orthodox, evangelical seminaries in North America. The NALC pursues relationships with other orthodox churches, including the Anglican Church in North America and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. It partners with both to guard nascent life and to preserve religious liberties. Internationally, the NALC has relationships with very large Lutheran churches in Ethiopia and Tanzania. The NALC has several councils, commissions and auxiliaries, including an Executive Council, a Commission on Theology and Doctrine and a Court of Adjudication. It has produced a number of letters of counsel on important issues such as the sanctity of life, religious freedom, care of the poor, marriage and physician-assisted suicide. The NALC Bishop acts on a national level with ecumenical partners on behalf of the sanctity of life, traditional marriage and religious freedom. The North American Lutheran Church is organized into 28 Mission Districts, covering most of North America, including Canada and the Caribbean. Each district has a Dean, who is an NALC pastor who provides pastoral care for its pastors and congregations and encourages the formation of new mission churches.

* Dr. Robert Benne received his Ph.D.in Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1970 and is a permanent faculty member in the graduate school of ILT – Institute of Lutheran Theology. He is also Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion Emeritus and Founding Director of the Robert D. Benne Center for Religion and Society at Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia.