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Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

January 28, 2023

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod,[3] is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members,[4] it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LCMS was organized in 1847 at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois, as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (German: Die Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Synode von Missouri, Ohio und andern Staaten), a name which partially reflected the geographic locations of the founding congregations.

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
The LCMS logo (2020)
AbbreviationLCMS
ClassificationProtestant
OrientationConfessional Lutheran
PolitySynodical / Modified congregational
StructureNational synod, 35 middle level districts, and local congregations
PresidentMatthew C. Harrison
AssociationsMember of the International Lutheran Council
In altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Association of Lutheran Churches
Former member of Synodical Conference and Lutheran Council—USA.
RegionUnited States, especially in the Upper Midwest.
HeadquartersKirkwood, Missouri
FounderC. F. W. Walther
OriginApril 26, 1847
Chicago, Illinois
Separated fromGerman Landeskirchen
AbsorbedEvangelical Lutheran Synod of Illinois and Other States (1880)
Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Synod of Pennsylvania and Other States (1886)
English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States (1911)
Synodical Conference Negro Mission (1961)
National Evangelical Lutheran Church (1964)
Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (1971)
SeparationsOrthodox Lutheran Conference (1951)
Lutheran Churches of the Reformation (1964)
Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (1976),
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (1980)
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina (1986)
Lutheran Church–Canada (1988)
Congregations5,914
Members1,807,408 baptized
1,433,378 confirmed[1]
Primary schools822[2]
Secondary schools99[2]
Tax statusIRS 501(c)(3) organization
Tertiary institutions2 seminaries, 7 colleges and universities
Other name(s)German: Die Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Synode von Missouri, Ohio und andern Staaten
German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States
PublicationsThe Lutheran Witness
Reporter
Official websitewww.lcms.org

The LCMS has congregations in all 50 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, but over half of its members are located in the Midwest. It is a member of the International Lutheran Council and is in altar and pulpit fellowship with most of that group's members.[5] The LCMS is headquartered in Kirkwood, Missouri, and is divided into 35 districts—33 of which are geographic and two (the English and the SELC) non-geographic. The current president is Matthew C. Harrison, who took office on September 1, 2010.

History

Origins

The Missouri Synod emerged from several communities of German Lutheran immigrants during the 1830s and 1840s. In Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, isolated Germans in the dense forests of the American frontier were brought together and ministered to by missionary F. C. D. Wyneken. A communal emigration from Saxony under Bishop Martin Stephan created a community in Perry County, Missouri, and St. Louis, Missouri. In Michigan and Ohio, missionaries sent by Wilhelm Löhe ministered to scattered congregations and founded German Lutheran communities in Frankenmuth, Michigan, and the Saginaw Valley of Michigan.[6]

Saxon immigration

Main article: Saxon Lutheran immigration of 1838–39

In the 19th-century German Kingdom of Saxony, Lutheran pastor Martin Stephan and many of his followers found themselves increasingly at odds with Rationalism, Christian ecumenism, and the prospect of a forced unionism of the Lutheran church with the Reformed church. In the neighboring Kingdom of Prussia, the Prussian Union of 1817 put in place what they considered non-Lutheran communion and baptismal doctrine and practice.[7] In order to freely practice their Christian faith in accordance with the Lutheran confessions outlined in the Book of Concord, Stephan and between 600 and 700 other Saxon Lutherans left for the United States in November 1838.[8]

Their ships arrived between December 31, 1838, and January 20, 1839, in New Orleans, with one ship lost at sea.[9] Most of the remaining immigrants left almost immediately, with the first group arriving in St. Louis on January 19, 1839.[10] The final group, led by Stephan, remained in New Orleans for ten days, possibly to wait for the passengers of the lost ship Amalia.[11] The immigrants ultimately settled in Perry County, Missouri, and in and around St. Louis. Stephan was initially the bishop of the new settlement, but he soon became embroiled in charges of corruption and sexual misconduct with members of the congregation and was expelled from the settlement, leaving C. F. W. Walther as the leader of the colony.[12]

During this period, there was considerable debate within the settlement over the proper status of the church in the New World: whether it was a new church or whether it remained within the Lutheran hierarchy in Germany. Walther's view that they could consider themselves a new church prevailed.[13]

Löhe missionaries

Further information: Frankenmuth, Michigan § History

Beginning in 1841, the parish pastor in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria—Wilhelm Löhe—inspired by appeals for aid to the German immigrants in North America, began to solicit funds for missionary work among them. He also began training men to become pastors and teachers, sending his first two students—Adam Ernst and Georg Burger—to America on August 5, 1842.[14] Löhe ultimately sent over 80 pastors and students of theology to America; these pastors founded and served congregations throughout Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.[15]

Löhe also led an early and largely abortive effort to send missionaries to convert the Native Americans. In 1844 and 1845, he solicited colonists to form a German Lutheran settlement in Michigan, with the thought that this settlement would also serve as the base for missionary activity among the Native Americans. The colonists left Germany on April 20, 1845, under the leadership of Pastor August Crämer, and arrived in Saginaw County, Michigan, in August of that year. They founded several villages—Frankenmuth, Frankenlust, Frankentrost, and Frankenhilf (now known as Richville)—and worked to convert the Native Americans. They had limited success, however, and the villages became nearly exclusively German settlements within a few years.[16][17]

In addition to sending pastors, theological students, and colonists to America, Löhe also played an instrumental role in the formation of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, raising funds for the new institution and sending eleven theological students and a professor from Germany to help found it. The seminary's first president, Wilhelm Sihler, had also been sent by Löhe to America several years before.

It was due to Löhe's great zeal and indefatigable labors that the LCMS' first president, C. F. W. Walther, once said of him, "Next to God, it is Pastor Loehe to whom our Synod is indebted for its happy beginning and rapid growth in which it rejoices; it may well honor him as its spiritual father. It would fill the pages of an entire book to recount even briefly what for many years this man, with tireless zeal in the noblest unselfish spirit, has done for our Lutheran Church and our Synod in particular."[18]

Founding and early years

 
St. Paul's in Chicago, where the first meeting of the Missouri Synod was held.[19]
 
Old Lutheran free church leader Friedrich August Brünn sent about 235 men to serve as pastors in the Missouri Synod.[20]

In 1844 and 1845, the three groups listed above (the Saxons, the Löhe men, and Wyneken and one of his assistants) began to discuss the possibility of forming a new, confessional Lutheran church body. As a result of these discussions, the Löhe missionaries and Wyneken and his assistant (F. W. Husmann) decided to leave the synods they currently belonged to. Two planning meetings were held in St. Louis, Missouri, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, in May and July 1846.[21] Then, on April 26, 1847, twelve pastors representing fourteen German Lutheran congregations met in Chicago, Illinois, and officially founded the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States. Walther became the fledgling denomination's first president.[22]

The synod was quickly noted for its conservatism and self-professed orthodoxy. The synod's constitution required all members (both pastors and congregations) to pledge fealty to the entire Book of Concord, to reject unionism and syncretism of every kind, to use only doctrinally pure books in both church and school, and to provide for the Christian education of their children.[23] Among other things, these requirements meant that altar and pulpit fellowship was usually restricted to those Lutheran congregations and synods who were in complete doctrinal agreement with the Missouri Synod.[24]

The LCMS' conservatism soon drew it into conflict with other Lutheran synods, the majority of which were then experimenting with so-called "American Lutheranism". In addition, the LCMS also quickly became embroiled in a dispute with the Buffalo Synod and its leader, Johannes Andreas August Grabau, over the proper understanding of the church and the ministry. Within a few years, this conflict led to a separation between the Missouri Synod and Löhe, as Löhe's views were close to those of Grabau.[25]

Despite these conflicts, the Missouri Synod experienced fairly rapid growth in its early years, leading to the subdivision of the synod into four district synods (Central, Eastern, Northern, and Western) in 1854. This growth was due largely to the synod's efforts, under the leadership of its second president, F. C. D. Wyneken, to care for German immigrants, help them find a home among other Germans, build churches and parochial schools, and train pastors and teachers. The synod continued these outreach efforts throughout the 19th century, becoming the largest Lutheran church body in the United States by 1888.[26] By the synod's fiftieth anniversary in 1897, it had grown to 687,000 members.[27]

Synodical Conference

Main article: Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America

Between 1856 and 1859, the Missouri Synod hosted a series of four free conferences in order to explore the possibility of entering into fellowship agreements with other conservative Lutheran synods.[28] As a result of these conferences, the LCMS entered into fellowship with the Norwegian Synod in 1857. In 1872, these two synods joined the Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and Illinois Synods, other conservative Lutheran bodies, in forming the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America.[29]

In 1876, the constituent synods of the Synodical Conference considered a plan to reorganize into a single unified church body with a single seminary. Some preliminary moves were made in this direction (including the 1880 absorption of the Illinois Synod into the LCMS' Illinois District), but opposition from some synods postponed the complete implementation of this plan, and the Predestinarian Controversy of the 1880s scuttled the plan entirely. As a result of the controversy, several pastors and congregations withdrew from the Ohio Synod to form the Concordia Synod; this synod merged with the LCMS in 1886.[30]

Efforts were made in the 1920s to establish fellowship with the Ohio, Iowa, and Buffalo synods. Representatives from the synods formulated the Chicago Theses as a for agreement, but the 1929 LCMS synodical convention did not accept them and instead created a committee that, in 1932, produced the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod. After the Ohio, Iowa, and Buffalo synods merged in 1930 to form the first American Lutheran Church (ALC), representatives from the ALC and the LCMS came to agreement on the Brief Statement and the ALC's Declaration in 1938, but again no further action was taken.[31]

English transition

Further information: English District of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

For the first thirty years of its existence, the Missouri Synod focused almost exclusively on meeting the spiritual needs of German-speaking Lutherans, leaving work among English-speaking Lutherans to other synods, particularly the Tennessee and Ohio synods. In 1872, members of the Tennessee Synod invited representatives from the Missouri, Holston, and Norwegian synods to discuss the promotion of English work among the more "Americanized" Lutherans, resulting in the organization of the "English Evangelical Lutheran Conference of Missouri." This conference was reorganized in 1888 as an independent church body, the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States, which subsequently merged into the LCMS as the English District in 1911.[32][33] In its first twenty years, the English Synod founded two colleges, organized dozens of congregations and parochial schools, took over the publication of The Lutheran Witness (an English-language newspaper published by LCMS pastors in Cleveland, Ohio), and published several hymnals and other books.

English work became more widespread in the LCMS during the first two decades of the twentieth century, with older members of the synod continuing to speak primarily German and younger members increasingly switching to English. As one scholar has explained, "The overwhelming evidence from internal documents of these [Missouri Synod] churches, and particularly their schools ... indicates that the German-American school was a bilingual one much (perhaps a whole generation or more) earlier than 1917, and that the majority of the pupils may have been English-dominant bilinguals from the early 1880s on."[34] The anti-German sentiment during the wars hastened the "Americanization" of the church and caused many churches to add English services and in some cases, drop German services entirely. During the years of language transition, the synod's membership continued to grow, until by 1947, the synod had grown to over 1.5 million members.[35]

 
Franz Pieper, June 27, 1852 – June 3, 1931

During this time, the LCMS expanded its missionary efforts through the creation of its own radio station—KFUO (AM) (1923)—and its own international radio program—The Lutheran Hour (1930). Several years later, the synod began broadcasting its own TV drama—This Is the Life (1952).

Post-WWII

In 1945, a group of 44 leaders and theologians in the synod issued a statement criticizing the synod's approach toward other Lutheran bodies. The document, known as 'A Statement of the Forty-four",. was signed by Theodore Graebner and four other professors at Concordia Seminary and by H. B. Hemmeter, who had recently retired as president of Concordia Theological Seminary, among others. The statement provoked immediate response from others in the synod.[36]

In 1947, its centennial year, the church body shortened its name from "The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States" to its present one, "The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod".

The 1947 convention also directed the Committee on Doctrinal Unity to meet with the Fellowship Commission of the ALC to develop a set of doctrinal theses. The first meeting was on May 17, 1948, and, after additional meetings, the Common Confession, Part I, was approved by the two committees on December 5–6, 1949. Both the ALC and the LCMS accepted the document in 1950. The two committees continued meeting to develop Part II of the Common Confession covering additional topics. The ALC accepted Part II in 1954. The 1956 convention of the LCMS recognized the Common Confession as one document in two parts that is a statement "in harmony with the Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions"; however, it also declared that the document should not be "regarded or employed as a functioning basic document toward the establishment of altar and pulpit fellowship with other church bodies".[37]

The renewed interest in the ALC led a number of parties to fear that the synod was losing its doctrinal basis. In 1951, a small group of pastors and congregations left the synod to form the Orthodox Lutheran Conference, but the main impetus for the move was not church fellowship, but the question of whether breaking an engagement (in the modern sense) is the same as the breaking of a betrothal (historically) and therefore a sin, as those leaving the synod contended.[38]

Concerns about the LCMS becoming more open to less conservative Lutheran bodies cause problems in the Synodical Conference. In 1955, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) broke fellowship with the LCMS, and in 1957, the WELS publicly admonished the LCMS, and, in 1961, it finally broke fellowship with the LCMS. Both the ELS and the WELS withdrew from the Synodical Conference in 1963, leaving only the LCMS and the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (SELC), an historically Slovak-American church, as members.[39] In 1971, the SELC merged with the LCMS, forming the SELC District.[40] The National Evangelical Lutheran Church, an historically Finnish-American Lutheran church, had already merged with the LCMS on January 1, 1964.[41]

When the 1959 synodical convention did not take any action against the liberal movement, a number of pastors and laymen met in a State of the Church Conference at Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, Missouri, in which that church's pastor, Herman Otten, presented a book of documentation of the various controversies that had arisen in the LCMS since 1950 and before. Several additional conferences were held, with the one in Milwaukee on May 15–16, 1961, attracting over 400 people. Plans were made at that conference for actions they wanted the 1962 synodical convention to take. The failure of the convention to do so led a dozen or so congregations and pastors to form the Lutheran Churches of the Reformation on April 28–29, 1964, at Emmaus Lutheran Church in Chicago. However, many of those opposed to the direction of the LCMS decided to remain in the synod, hoping to influence its direction.[38]

In 1967, the LCMS agreed with the second American Lutheran Church (the successor to the first ALC) and the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) to form the Lutheran Council in the United States of America (LCUSA), but only on the assurance that a program of theological discussion would be implemented.[42]

With the election of J. A. O. Preus II as its president over the incumbent, Oliver Harms, in 1969, the LCMS began a sharp turn towards a more conservative direction. A dispute over the use of the historical-critical method for Biblical interpretation led to the suspension of John Tietjen as president of Concordia Seminary. In response, many of the faculty and students left the seminary and formed Seminex (Concordia Seminary in Exile), which took up residence at the nearby Eden Theological Seminary in suburban St. Louis.

The same convention that elected Preus as president also established altar and pulpit fellowship with the ALC. This was seen by many as a gesture toward Harms, who had supported the declaration of fellowship. Eight years later, the 1977 convention declared a state of "fellowship in protest" as the ALC exhibited closer ties to the more liberal LCA. The 1981 convention terminated the fellowship agreement.[43]

A number of pastors and others did not think that Preus's method of dealing with false doctrine would be successful. On November 1–2, 1971, members of he Conference for Authentic Lutheranism in California and the Free Association for Authentic Lutheranism in the Midwest met in Libertyville, Illinois, to form a new church body, the Federation for Authentic Lutheranism (FAL). They expected 50 to 60 congregations to join, but in the end, only six did as the conservative wing continued to gain strength in the LCMS. FAL declared fellowship with the WELS in 1973, but did not survive very long thereafter.[38]

In 1976, about 250 of the congregations supporting Seminex left the LCMS to form the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). The LCMS restricted its participation with LCUSA shortly after the AELC schism and announced that it would not participate in any merger discussions. In 1988, the AELC, ALC, and LCA merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and LCUSA was dissolved.

Foreign missions

In 1900, the LCMS began sending missionaries to Brazil to minister to German-speaking immigrants in that country, and in 1904 created the Brazil District for the administration of the resulting congregations. Work was begun in Argentina in 1905 as part of the Brazil District. A separate Argentina District was established in 1926/1927. Both districts became independent church bodies that retain close relationships with the LCMS: the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil in 1980, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina in 1988.[44]

The LCMS oversaw an extensive roster of congregations in Canada until 1988, when the Canadian component became a separate and autonomous organization, Lutheran Church-Canada. However, this was an administrative and not theological division and the two groups still share close ties. A small number of Ontario and Quebec churches remain within the LCMS.

Beliefs

Doctrinal sources

One of the signature teachings of the Lutheran Reformation is Sola scriptura—"Scripture alone." The LCMS believes that the Bible is the only standard by which church teachings can be judged, and holds that Scripture is best explained and interpreted by the Book of Concord—a series of confessions of faith adopted by Lutherans in the 16th century. LCMS pastors and congregations agree to teach in harmony with the Book of Concord because they believe that it teaches and faithfully explains the Word of God, not based on its own authority alone. Since the LCMS is a confessional church body, its ordained and commissioned ministers of religion are sworn by their oaths of ordination or installation, or both, to interpret the Sacred Scriptures according to the Book of Concord.[45] Its ordained and commissioned ministers of religion are asked to honor and uphold other official teachings of the synod, meaning "to abide by, act, and teach in accordance with," but are not sworn to believe, confess and teach them as correct interpretations of the Sacred Scriptures.[46] The Missouri Synod also teaches biblical inerrancy,[47] the teaching that the Bible is inspired by God and is without error. For this reason, they reject much—if not all—of modern liberal scholarship. The Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod, written by Franz August Otto Pieper, was adopted by the synodical convention in 1932 as a summary of the major beliefs of the LCMS.[48]

Salvation

The LCMS believes that justification comes from God "by divine grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone." It teaches that Jesus is the focus of the entire Bible and that faith in him alone is the way to eternal salvation. The synod rejects any attempt to attribute salvation to anything other than Christ's death and resurrection.

Means of grace

The synod teaches that the Word of God, both written and preached, and the Sacraments are means of grace through which the Holy Spirit gives the gift of God's grace, creates faith in the hearts of individuals, forgives sins for the sake of Christ's death on the cross, and grants eternal life and salvation. Many Missouri Synod Lutherans define a sacrament as an action instituted by Jesus that combines a promise in God's Word with a physical element, although the synod holds no official definition for sacrament. This means that some may disagree on the number of sacraments. All agree that Baptism and Communion are sacraments.[49] Confession and absolution is called a sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and so is also considered by many Lutherans to be a sacrament, because it was instituted by Christ and has His promise of grace, even though it is not tied to a physical element.

Unlike Calvinists, Lutherans agree that the means of grace are resistible; this belief is based on numerous biblical references as discussed in the Book of Concord.

Sacramental Union and the Eucharist

Regarding the Eucharist, the LCMS rejects both the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the Reformed teaching that the true body and blood of Christ are not consumed with the consecrated bread and wine in the Eucharist. Rather, it believes in the doctrine of the sacramental union, Real Presence, that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present "in, with, and under" the elements of bread and wine. Or, as the Smalcald Articles express this mystery: "Of the Sacrament of the Altar, we hold that the bread and wine in the Supper are Christ's true body and blood."[50] It is occasionally reported that the LCMS and other Lutherans teach the doctrine of consubstantiation. Consubstantiation is generally rejected by Lutherans and is explicitly rejected by the LCMS as an attempt to define the holy mystery of Christ's presence.[51]

Eschatology

The Missouri Synod flatly rejects millennialism[52] and considers itself amillennialist.[53] This means that it believes there will be no literal 1000-year visible earthly kingdom of Jesus, a view termed as "realized millennialism" in which the "thousand years" of Rev 20:1–10 is taken figuratively as a reference to the time of Christ's reign as king from the day of his ascension. Hence, the millennium is a present reality (Christ's heavenly reign), not a future hope for a rule of Christ on earth after his return (the parousia)[54] (cf. Mt 13:41–42; Mt 28:18; Eph 2:6; Col 3:1–3).

Law and Gospel

The LCMS believes that the Holy Scriptures contain two crucial teachings—Law and Gospel. The Law is all those demands in the Bible which must be obeyed in order to gain salvation. However, because all people are sinners, it is impossible for people to completely obey the Law. Therefore, the Law implies an inevitable consequence of God's wrath, judgment, and damnation. The Gospel, on the other hand, is the promise of free salvation from God to sinners. The Law condemns; the Gospel saves. Both the Law and the Gospel are gifts from God; both are necessary. The function of the law is to show people their sinful nature and drive them to the Gospel, in which the forgiveness of sin is promised for the sake of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.[clarification needed][55][56]

The LCMS holds that the Old Testament and the New Testament both contain both Law and Gospel. The Old Testament, therefore, is valuable to Christians. Its teachings point forward in time to the Cross of Christ in the same way that the New Testament points backward in time to the Cross. This Lutheran doctrine was summarized by C. F. W. Walther in The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel.

Other doctrine

Antichrists

The LCMS holds that all "false teachers who teach contrary to Christ's Word are opponents of Christ" and, insofar as they do so, are anti-Christ.[57] The LCMS does not teach, nor has it ever taught, that any individual pope as a person is to be identified with the Antichrist.[57] However, to the extent that the papacy continues to claim as official dogma the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent, the LCMS position is that the office of the papacy is the Antichrist.[57]

Creationism

The LCMS officially supports literal creationism but does not have an official position on the precise age of the earth.[58] An official publication of the synod, the Brief Statement of 1932, states under the heading "Of Creation": "We teach that God has created heaven and earth, and that in the manner and in the space of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures, especially Gen. 1 and 2, namely, by His almighty creative word, and in six days."[59] According to the recent 2004 LCMS synodical resolution 2-08A "To commend preaching and teaching Creation", all LCMS churches and educational institutions—including preschool through 12th grade, universities, and seminaries—are "to teach creation from the Biblical perspective." The LCMS website states that an individual's personal views regarding creation do not disqualify a person from being a member of the LCMS.[60]

Freemasonry

The LCMS believes that the teachings of Freemasonry are in direct conflict with the Gospel and instructs its pastors and laypeople to avoid membership or participation in it.[61]

Baptism and other doctrine

The LCMS practices infant baptism, based on Acts 2:38–39[62] and other passages of Scripture. It also subscribes to the statement of faith found in the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer to be applicable to daily life. These doctrines are emphasized in Luther's Small Catechism.

Practices

Worship and music

The original constitution of the LCMS stated that one of its purposes is to strive toward uniformity in practice, while more recent changes to those documents also encourage responsible and doctrinally sound diversity. The synod requires that hymns, songs, liturgies, and practices be in harmony with the Bible and Book of Concord. Worship in LCMS congregations is generally thought of as orthodox and liturgical, utilizing a printed order of service and hymnal, and is typically accompanied by a pipe organ or piano. The contents of LCMS hymnals from the past, such as The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Worship, and those of its newest hymnal, Lutheran Service Book, highlight the synod's unwavering stance towards more traditional styles of hymnody and liturgy. More traditional LCMS Lutherans point to the Lutheran Confessions in their defense of liturgical worship.[63]

Towards the later parts of the twentieth century and up until present day, many congregations have adopted a more progressive style of worship, employing different styles such as contemporary Christian music with guitars and praise bands and often project song lyrics onto screens instead of using hymnals. While this shift in style challenges the traditionalism of hymnody that the LCMS holds strongly, the LCMS has released a statement on worship stating that, "The best of musical traditions, both ancient and modern, are embraced by the Lutheran church in its worship, with an emphasis on congregational singing, reinforced by the choir."[64]

Reception of communion

The LCMS endorses the doctrine of close or closed communion[65][66]—the policy of sharing the Eucharist ordinarily only with those who are baptized and confirmed members of one of the congregations of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod or of a congregation of one of its sister churches with which it has formally declared altar and pulpit fellowship (i.e., agreement in all articles of doctrine). Missouri Synod congregations implement closed communion in various ways, requiring conformity to official doctrine in various degrees. Usually, visitors are asked to speak with the pastor before coming to that congregation's altar for the first time. Most congregations invite those uneducated on the subject of the Eucharist to join in the fellowship and receive a blessing instead of the body and blood of Christ.

Ordination

Ordination is seen as a public ceremony of recognition that a man has received and accepted a divine call, and hence is considered to be in the office of the public ministry. The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope agrees that "ordination was nothing else than such a ratification" of local elections by the people.[67] The LCMS does not believe ordination is divinely instituted[68] or an extension of an episcopal form of apostolic succession but sees the office grounded in the Word and Sacrament ministry of the Gospel, arguing that Scripture makes no distinction between a presbyter (priest) and a bishop (see Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraphs 63,64, citing St. Jerome). The Augsburg Confession (Article XIV) holds that no one is to preach, teach, or administer the sacraments without a regular call.

LCMS pastors are generally required to have a four-year bachelor's degree (in any discipline), as well as a four-year Master of Divinity degree, which is usually obtained from one of these institutions: Concordia Seminary in St. Louis or the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana or at the two seminaries run by the Lutheran Church–Canada. Candidates may earn their Master of Divinity degree at other seminaries but may then be required to take colloquy classes at either St. Louis or Ft. Wayne. Seminary training includes classwork in historical theology, Biblical languages (Biblical Greek and Hebrew), practical application (education, preaching, and mission), and doctrine (the basic teachings and beliefs of the synod).

Role of women in the church

The Missouri Synod teaches that the ordination of women as clergy is contrary to scripture. The issue of women's roles in the church body has continued to be a subject of debate within the synod. During the Cooperative Clergy Study Project in 2000, 10% out of 652 LCMS pastors surveyed stated that all clergy positions should be open to women, while 82% disagreed.[69] Congregations were permitted to enact female suffrage within Missouri Synod congregations in 1969, and it was affirmed at the synod's 2004 convention that women may also "serve in humanly established offices" as long as those offices do not include any of the "distinctive functions of the pastoral office". Thus in many congregations of the LCMS, women now serve as congregation president or chairperson, etc. This is the cause of contention within the LCMS, with some congregations utilizing women in public worship to read lessons and assist in the distribution of holy communion. Other traditional Lutherans reject such practices as unbiblical, with a minority of congregations continuing the historic practice of male suffrage, similar to the Wisconsin Synod.

Interfaith services

The LCMS bars its clergy from worshiping with other faiths, holding "that church fellowship or merger between church bodies in doctrinal disagreement with one another is not in keeping with what the Bible teaches about church fellowship."[70] In practice of this, a Connecticut LCMS pastor was asked to apologize by the president of the denomination, and did so, for participating in an interfaith prayer vigil for the 26 children and adults killed at a Newtown elementary school, and an LCMS pastor in New York was suspended for praying at an interfaith vigil in 2001, 12 days after the September 11 attacks.[71]

LCMS National Youth Gathering

The National Youth Gathering is held every three years. The most recent gathering took place from July 9-13, 2022, in Houston, Texas with a theme of "In All Things." The 2019 gathering was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a theme of "Real. Present. God." The theme for the 2016 gathering in New Orleans, Louisiana was "In Christ Alone." The previous gathering took place in 2013 in San Antonio, Texas from July 1–5, 2013. It was based on the theme, "Live Love(d)." The 2010 gathering in New Orleans was based on the theme "We Believe". In both 2007 and 2004, The LCMS National Youth Gatherings were held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The gathering's theme in 2007 was "Chosen." The gathering in 2007 was originally planned to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, but due to Hurricane Katrina, the location was changed to Orlando, Florida. Around 25,000 youth attend each gathering. Many Christian bands and artists perform at gatherings.[72]

Church structure

 
Official seal of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

The LCMS has a modified form of congregational polity. This is different from some other Lutheran bodies which have maintained episcopal polity; however, this is not considered to be a point of doctrine, as the synod is in fellowship with some Lutheran church bodies in Europe that have an episcopal structure.

The corporate LCMS is formally constituted of two types of members: self-governing[73] local congregations that qualify for membership by mutual agreement to adhere to stated principles, and clergymen who qualify by similar means. Congregations hold legal title to their church buildings and other property, and call (hire) and dismiss their own clergy. Much of the practical work of the LCMS structure is as a free employment brokerage to bring the two together; it also allows the congregations to work together on projects too large for even a local consortium of congregations to accomplish, such as foreign mission work.

Synod

The LCMS as a whole is led by an ordained synodical president, currently Reverend Matthew C. Harrison. The president is chosen at a synodical convention, a gathering of the two membership groups (professional clergymen and lay representatives from the member congregations). The convention is held every three years; discussions of doctrine and policy take place at these events, and elections are held to fill various synod positions. The next LCMS convention is currently scheduled to take place in 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[74][75] Local conventions within each circuit and district are held in the intervening years.

Presidents

 
Matthew C. Harrison is the current president of the Missouri Synod.

Districts

Main article: Districts of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

The entire synod is divided into 35 districts. Of these, 33 have jurisdiction over specific geographic areas. The other two, the English and the SELC, are non-geographic and were formed when the English Missouri Synod and the Slovak Synod, respectively, merged with the formerly German-speaking Missouri Synod. Each district is led by an elected district president, who must be an ordained clergyman. Most district presidencies are full-time positions, but there are a few exceptions in which the district president also serves as a parish pastor. The districts are subdivided into circuits, each of which is led by a circuit visitor, who is an ordained pastor from one of the member congregations. Districts are roughly analogous to dioceses in other Christian communities.

Congregations

Most congregations are served by full-time professional clergy. Some congregations, usually in rural areas, are served by ordained bi-vocational ministers (worker-priests) who maintain secular employment for sustenance and receive a small stipend or none at all. The LCMS is quasi-congregationalist with regard to polity.

Organizations

Educational institutions

In addition to its two seminaries, the LCMS operates seven universities, known as the Concordia University System.

Auxiliary organizations

Among the LCMS's other auxiliary organizations are the Lutheran Laymen's League (now known as Lutheran Hour Ministries), which conducts outreach ministries including The Lutheran Hour radio program; and the Lutheran Women's Missionary League. The synod also operates Concordia Publishing House, through which it publishes its official magazine, The Lutheran Witness,[76] and newspaper, Reporter.[77]

Relationship with other Lutheran bodies

Maintaining its position as a confessional church body emphasizing the importance of full agreement in the teachings of the Bible, the LCMS is not associated with ecumenical organizations such as the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Council of Churches or the Lutheran World Federation. It is, however, a member of the International Lutheran Council, made up of over 50 Lutheran churches worldwide that support the confessional doctrines of the Bible and the Book of Concord. At the 2007 convention, the delegates voted to establish altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Association of Lutheran Churches (AALC).

Although its strongly conservative views on theology and ethics might seem to make the LCMS politically compatible with Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists in the U.S., the LCMS largely eschews political activity, partly out of concerns to keep the denomination untainted with potential heresies and also because of its strict understanding of the Lutheran distinction between the Two Kingdoms (see above), which repudiates the primarily Calvinist presuppositions about the totalizing rule of God that informs much, if not most, of U.S. evangelical understanding of politics and Christianity.[citation needed] However, both LCMS and Evangelicals share the common belief that life begins and should be protected by law since conception.[78]

The LCMS is distinguished from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) by three main theological beliefs:

  1. The biblical understanding of fellowship: the LCMS believes in a distinction between the altar, pulpit fellowship, and other manifestations of Christian fellowship (in other words, a prayer fellowship). The WELS does not.
  2. The doctrine of the ministry: the LCMS believes that the Pastoral office is divinely established, but all other offices are human institutions and hence are not divinely established. The WELS believes that the Ministry of the Word is divinely established and that congregations and the synod may choose the forms of public ministry they wish to use.
  3. The role of women in the church: Although both the LCMS and WELS agree that Scripture reserves the pastoral office for men, the WELS also believes that Scripture forbids women's suffrage in the congregation.

Respondents to the Pew Research Center's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 2008 included members of LCMS and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)[79]

Membership and demographics

Membership growth was substantial in the first half of the 20th century. According to the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches,[80] the LCMS had 628,695 members in 1925. By 1950 the number of members had grown to over 1.6 million. Membership peaked in 1970 at just under 2.8 million. In 2020,the LCMS reported 1,861,129 members and 5,976 churches, with 5,938 active clergy.[81] LCMS membership continues to be concentrated in the Upper Midwest. The five states with the highest rates of adherence are Nebraska, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa.[82]

The Pew Research Center's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey in 2014 found that the LCMS was the third-least racially diverse major religious group in the country. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was second and the National Baptist Convention was the least diverse.[83] The 2008 figures were::[84]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "LCMS Inc. Annual Report - 2021". Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "LCMS Inc. Annual Report- 2021". Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  3. ^ "The Official Stylebook of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod". The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. February 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
  4. ^ "LCMS Inc. Annual Report- 2021". Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  5. ^ Kieschnick, Jerry (November 2007). "Worldwide Partners in the Gospel". The Lutheran Witness. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  6. ^ Lueker, Erwin L. (1965). "Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod". In Bodensieck, Julius (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church. Vol. 2. Augsburg Publishing House. pp. 1408–1409.
  7. ^ Baepler, Walter A., A Century of Grace: A History of the Missouri Synod, 1847–1947 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1947), 9-12.
  8. ^ Forster, Walter O., Zion on the Mississippi (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953), 199f.
  9. ^ Baepler, 28; Forster, 202-217.
  10. ^ Forster, 203.
  11. ^ Forster, 218.
  12. ^ Lueker, 1408
  13. ^ Baepler, 46ff.
  14. ^ Graebner, Theodore, "The Loehe Foundations" in H. W. T. Dau, ed., Ebenezer: Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1922), 78–81.
  15. ^ Pless, John T., "Wilhelm Loehe and the Missouri Synod: Forgotten Paternity or Living Legacy?" (paper presented to the International Loehe Society assembled at Wartburg Theological Seminary, July 12. 2005), 6.
  16. ^ Graebner, 87–93.
  17. ^ "Michigan's Little Bavaria". Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  18. ^ Erich H. Heintzen, Love Leaves Home: Wilhelm Loehe and the Missouri Synod (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1973), 73.
  19. ^ Mezger, George. Denkstein zum fünfundsiebzigjährigen Jubiläum der Missourisynode, 1847–1922. Concordia Publishing House. St. Louis: 1922.
  20. ^ "Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod - Christian Cyclopedia". Brunn, Friedrich August.
  21. ^ W. G. Polack, Fathers and Founders (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1938), 66–68.
  22. ^ Baepler, 98f.
  23. ^ Polack, 72f.
  24. ^ Baepler, 100.
  25. ^ D. H. Steffens, "The Doctrine of the Church and the Ministry" in H. W. T. Dau, ed., Ebenezer: Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1922), 150ff.
  26. ^ Matthias Sheeleigh, ed., The Lutheran Almanac and Year-Book for the Year of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 1889 (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1889), 20–21. Note that this is the first year the LCMS was larger than all of the constituent synods of the General Council combined. If comparing the LCMS to individual synods within the General Synod or General Council, it had been the largest American Lutheran synod since around the year 1870.
  27. ^ Baepler, 217.
  28. ^ Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Free Lutheran Conferences". Christian Cyclopedia. Concordia Publishing House.
  29. ^ Baepler, 160.
  30. ^ Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Synodical Conference". Christian Cyclopedia. Concordia Publishing House.
  31. ^ Lueker, Erwin E. (1965). "Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod". In Bodensieck, Julius (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church. Vol. II. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House. p. 1410. LCCN 64-21500.
  32. ^ Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Missouri and Other States, The English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of". Christian Cyclopedia. Concordia Publishing House.
  33. ^ "Our History". The English District of the LCMS.
  34. ^ Schiffman, Harold (1987). "Language loyalty in the German-American Church: the Case of an Over-confident Minority".
  35. ^ Baepler, 355.
  36. ^ MacKenzie, Cameron A. (April 2021). "Concordia Springfield as the "Conservative" Alternative to St. Louis" (PDF). Concordia Theological Quarterly. Concordia Theological Seminary. 85 (2): 129–130. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  37. ^ Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Common Confession". Christian Cyclopedia (Online ed.). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  38. ^ a b c Peperkorn, Todd A. (April 2021). "The Splintering of Missouri: How Our American Context Gave Rise to Micro-Synods as a Solution to Theological Conflict" (PDF). Concordia Theological Quarterly. Concordia Theological Seminary. 85 (2): 158–165. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
  39. ^ Fredrich, Edward C. (1992). "Trumpet with a Certain Sound: The Synodical Conferences Confessional Commitment" (PDF). Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Essay File. pp. 10–12. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  40. ^ "About Us". SELC District of the LCMS. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  41. ^ Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Finnish Lutherans in America". Christian Cyclopedia. Concordia Publishing House.
  42. ^ "Lutheran Council in the United States of America". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  43. ^ Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, The". Christian Cyclopedia (Online ed.). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. VIII. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  44. ^ Lueker, Erwin L.; Poellot, Luther; Jackson, Paul, eds. (2000). "Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Districts of The". Christian Cyclopedia (Online ed.). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  45. ^ Constitution of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 2010 edition, Article II Confession, p. 13, and Article V Membership, p. 14.
  46. ^ The Bylaws of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 2010 edition, Doctrinal Resolutions and Statements, 1.6.2. (7), p. 39.
  47. ^ Of the Holy Scriptures September 20, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, Missouri Synod
  48. ^ "Brief Statement of LCMS Doctrinal Position - The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod". www.lcms.org. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  49. ^ Of the means of grace August 28, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod
  50. ^ Smalcald Articles, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 305.
  51. ^ Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953), 3:326–27 and John Theodore Mueller, Christian Dogmatics (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934), 519–20, 528.
  52. ^ Of the Millennium August 30, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
  53. ^ End Times – The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
  54. ^ "Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod - Christian Cyclopedia". Parousia.
  55. ^ Nafzger, Samuel H. (2009). "An Introduction to the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod" (PDF). Concordia Publishing House. p. 12. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  56. ^ Harrison, Matthew (May 2014). "Back to Basics: Law and Gospel". The Lutheran Witness. Concordia Publishing House. 133 (5): 1. ISSN 0024-757X. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  57. ^ a b c LCMS Frequently Asked Questions
  58. ^ Creation and Evolution, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, by Dr. A. L. Barry.
  59. ^ Of Creation, A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod, Adopted 1932.
  60. ^ "LCMS Frequently Asked Questions".
  61. ^ "LCMS Views - Frequently Asked Questions - The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod". www.lcms.org.
  62. ^ Acts 2:38–39
  63. ^ "Since, therefore, the Mass among us is supported by the example of the church as seen from the Scriptures and the Fathers, we are confident that it cannot be disapproved, especially since the customary public ceremonies are for the most part retained." (Augsburg Confession XXIV:40) Also, "We on our part also retain many ceremonies and traditions (such as the liturgy of the Mass and various canticles, festivals, and the like) which serve to preserve order in the church." (Augburg Confession Article XXVI:40) And, "We gladly keep the old traditions set up in the church because they are useful and promote tranquility...Our enemies falsely accuse us of abolishing good ordinances and church discipline...the public liturgy is more decent than in theirs." (Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Article XV:38–39) And, "...we do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend it." (Apology to the Augsburg Confession Article XXIV:1)And, "We on our part also retain many ceremonies and traditions (such as the liturgy of the Mass and various canticles, festivals, and the like) which serve to preserve order in the church." (Augburg Confession, Article XXVI:40)
  64. ^ "What About...Lutheran Worship" (PDF). LCMS.org. Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  65. ^ Christian Cyclopedia s.v. "Close Communion." (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House; Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, 2000, 2006).
  66. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2009., LCMS
  67. ^ "Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope - Book of Concord". paragraph 70.
  68. ^ Adopted at Synod Convention, 1849 1, 97 Ordination, though an accepted, praiseworthy ceremony, has no command of God. Official Missouri Synod Doctrinal Statements 2009-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
  69. ^ "Summary - The Cooperative Clergy Study Project - Data Archive - The Association of Religion Data Archives".
  70. ^ "Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod". Concordia Publishing House. 1932. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  71. ^ "Pastor apologizes for role in prayer vigil after Connecticut massacre". Reuters. 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  72. ^ "Home". 2019 LCMS Youth Gathering. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  73. ^ Constitution of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, Article VII.1
  74. ^ "FAQ On the Proposal to Add an Extra Year to the 2019–2022 Triennium". Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. December 2020.
  75. ^ Magness, Cheryl (December 8, 2020). "Council of Presidents encourages Harrison to invite congregational vote on convention delay". Reporter. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  76. ^ "Lutheran Witness 1 Year Print + Online Subscription". Concordia Publishing House. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  77. ^ "Subscribe to Reporter". Reporter. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  78. ^ (PDF). LCMS.org. Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  79. ^ "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Beliefs and Practices, Diverse and Politically Relevant" (PDF). Washington D.C.: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. June 2008. Retrieved September 27, 2009. For 2014: "U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious" (PDF). Washington D.C.: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. November 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  80. ^ "Historic Archive CD and Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches". The National Council of Churches. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
  81. ^ "LCMS Inc. Annual Report- 2020". Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  82. ^ "2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Study". Glenmary Research Center. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
  83. ^ Lipka, Michael (July 27, 2015). "The most and least racially diverse U.S. religious groups". Pew Research Center. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  84. ^ "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Beliefs and Practices, Diverse and Politically Relevant: Detailed Data Tables". Washington D.C.: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. June 2008. For 2014 demographics, see the updated survey.
  85. ^ Baepler, p. 113
  86. ^ Baepler, p. 167
  87. ^ Baepler, p. 217
  88. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo "Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS)". American Denomination Profiles. Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  89. ^ LCMS, The (October 12, 2012). "More LCMS congregations return statistics report". Reporter. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  90. ^ Isenhower, Joe (October 11, 2013). "LCMS congregations report statistics for 2012". The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod News and Information. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  91. ^ a b Isenhower, Joe (October 27, 2015). "LCMS congregations report statistics for 2014". The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod News and Information. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  92. ^ "(Commentary) Annual statistical reporting: beyond the numbers". The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod News and Information. November 28, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  93. ^ "LCMS statistics for 2016: membership down, contributions up". The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod News and Information. November 2, 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  94. ^ "The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod - Rosters and Statistics (updated November 2018)". The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  95. ^ "LCMS Inc. Annual Report - 2020". Retrieved July 19, 2021.

Further reading

History

  • Baepler, Walter A. A Century of Grace: A History of the Missouri Synod, 1847–1947. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1947.
  • Bodensieck, Julius, ed. The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church (3 vol 1965) vol 1 and 3 online free
  • Cimino, Richard. Lutherans Today: American Lutheran Identity in the Twenty-First Century. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2003. ISBN 0-8028-1365-8
  • Dau, W. H. T., ed. Ebenezer: Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1922.
  • Forster, Walter O. Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839–1841. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953.
  • Galchutt, Kathryn M. The Career of Andrew Schulze, 1924–1968: Lutherans and Race in the Civil Rights Era. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005.
  • Graebner, August Lawrence. Half a Century of Sound Lutheranism in America: A Brief Sketch of the History of the Missouri Synod St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1893.
  • Granquist, Mark. Lutherans In America: A new History. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4514-7228-8
  • Meyer, Carl S. Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964. LOC 63-21161
  • Nelson, E. Clifford et al. The Lutherans in North America. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8006-0409-1
  • Polack, W. G. The Building of a Great Church: A Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941.
  • Rudnick, Milton L. Fundamentalism and the Missouri Synod: A historical study of their interaction and mutual influence. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1966. LOC 66-28229
  • Schieferdecker, G.A. History of the First German Lutheran Settlement in Altenburg, Perry County, Missouri with Special Emphasis on its Ecclesiastic Movements. Clayton, Iowa: Wartburg Seminary, 1865.
  • Schiffman, Harold. "Language loyalty in the German-American Church: the Case of an Over-confident Minority" (1987) online
  • Schmidtz, F. The Destinies and Adventures of the Stephanists who emigrated from Saxony to America Dresden: C. Heinrich, 1839.
  • Settje, David E. Lutherans and the Longest War: Adrift on a Sea of Doubt about the Cold and Vietnam Wars, 1964–1975. Lanham, Lexington Books, 2007.
  • Suelflow, August R. Heritage in Motion: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod 1962–1995. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1998. ISBN 0-570-04266-6
  • Todd, Mary. Authority Vested: A Story of Identity and Change in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2000. ISBN 0-8028-4457-X

Seminex

  • Adams, James E. Preus of Missouri and the Great Lutheran Civil War. New York: Harper and Row, 1977.
  • Board of Control, Concordia Seminary. Exodus From Concordia: A Report on the 1974 Walkout. St. Louis: Concordia Seminary, 1977.
  • Burkee, James C. Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod: A Conflict That Changed American Christianity (2011) excerpt and text search
  • Danker, Frederick W. No Room in the Brotherhood: The Preus-Otten Purge of Missouri. St. Louis: Clayton Publishing House, 1977. ISBN 0-915644-10-X
  • Marquart, Kurt E. Anatomy of an Explosion: Missouri in Lutheran Perspective. Fort Wayne, IN: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 1977.
  • Tietjen, John. Memoirs in Exile: Confessional Hope and Institutional Conflict. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1990.
  • Zimmerman, Paul. A Seminary in Crisis. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

Missions

  • Gieseler, Carl A. The Wide-Open Island City: Home Mission Work in a Big City. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927.
  • Kretzmann, Paul E. Glimpses of the Lives of Great Missionary Women. Men and Missions IX. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1930.
  • Krueger, Ottomar. "Unto the Uttermost Part of the Earth": The Life of Pastor Louis Harms. Men and Missions VIII. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1930.
  • Our China Mission. Men and Missions IV. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1926.

Doctrine

  • Koehler, Edward W. A. A Summary of Christian Doctrine: A Popular Presentation of the Teachings of the Bible, 2nd rev. ed. Edited by Alfred W. Koehler. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1952.
  • Mueller, John Theodore. Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. (A summary of Pieper's Dogmatics.)
  • Pieper, Francis. Christian Dogmatics. 4 vols. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950–1957.
  • Walther, C. F. W. Law & Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible. Translated by Christian C. Tiews. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2010.

Primary sources

  • Synodal-Handbuch der deutschen ev.-luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio u. a. St.. St. Louis: Lutherischer Concordia-Verlag, 1879.
  • Synodal-Handbuch der deutschen ev.-luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio u. a. St.. St. Louis: Luth. Concordia-Verlag, 1888.
  • Kirchen-gesangbuch für Evang-lutherische Gemeinden ungeänderter augsburgischer Confession. St. Louis: Verlag der ev.-luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio u.a. Staaten, 1868.
  • Strommen, Merton P., Milo L. Brekke, Ralph C. Underwager, and Arthur L. Johnson. A Study of Generations: Report of a Two-Year Study of 5,000 Lutherans Between the Ages of 15–65: Their Beliefs, Values, Attitudes, Behavior. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972. ISBN 0-8066-1207-X
  • Vehse, Carl Eduard. Die Stephan'sche Auswanderung nach Amerika. Dresden: Verlagsexpedition des Dresdner Wochenblattes, 1840.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Official LCMS websites

  • Official website
  • Lutheran Heritage Foundation
  • Lutherans For Life

Additional resource websites

  • Documents of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
  • Lutheran Resources for Christian Faith in the World
  • LCMS Pastors' Resources
  • The Book of Concord—The Lutheran Confessions
  • Synodical Conference Breakup; A collection of synodical documents from the 1950s to the 1960s.
  • Profile of the LCMS on the Association of Religion Data Archives website

January 28, 2023
lutheran, church, missouri, synod, lutheran, church, missouri, synod, lcms, also, known, missouri, synod, traditional, confessional, lutheran, denomination, united, states, with, million, members, second, largest, lutheran, body, united, states, lcms, organize. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod LCMS also known as the Missouri Synod 3 is a traditional confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States With 1 8 million members 4 it is the second largest Lutheran body in the United States The LCMS was organized in 1847 at a meeting in Chicago Illinois as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri Ohio and Other States German Die Deutsche Evangelisch Lutherische Synode von Missouri Ohio und andern Staaten a name which partially reflected the geographic locations of the founding congregations The Lutheran Church Missouri SynodThe LCMS logo 2020 AbbreviationLCMSClassificationProtestantOrientationConfessional LutheranPolitySynodical Modified congregationalStructureNational synod 35 middle level districts and local congregationsPresidentMatthew C HarrisonAssociationsMember of the International Lutheran CouncilIn altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Association of Lutheran ChurchesFormer member of Synodical Conference and Lutheran Council USA RegionUnited States especially in the Upper Midwest HeadquartersKirkwood MissouriFounderC F W WaltherOriginApril 26 1847 Chicago IllinoisSeparated fromGerman LandeskirchenAbsorbedEvangelical Lutheran Synod of Illinois and Other States 1880 Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Synod of Pennsylvania and Other States 1886 English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States 1911 Synodical Conference Negro Mission 1961 National Evangelical Lutheran Church 1964 Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches 1971 SeparationsOrthodox Lutheran Conference 1951 Lutheran Churches of the Reformation 1964 Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches 1976 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil 1980 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina 1986 Lutheran Church Canada 1988 Congregations5 914Members1 807 408 baptized 1 433 378 confirmed 1 Primary schools822 2 Secondary schools99 2 Tax statusIRS 501 c 3 organizationTertiary institutions2 seminaries 7 colleges and universitiesOther name s German Die Deutsche Evangelisch Lutherische Synode von Missouri Ohio und andern StaatenGerman Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri Ohio and Other StatesPublicationsThe Lutheran WitnessReporterOfficial websitewww wbr lcms wbr orgThe LCMS has congregations in all 50 U S states and two Canadian provinces but over half of its members are located in the Midwest It is a member of the International Lutheran Council and is in altar and pulpit fellowship with most of that group s members 5 The LCMS is headquartered in Kirkwood Missouri and is divided into 35 districts 33 of which are geographic and two the English and the SELC non geographic The current president is Matthew C Harrison who took office on September 1 2010 Contents 1 History 1 1 Origins 1 1 1 Saxon immigration 1 1 2 Lohe missionaries 1 2 Founding and early years 1 3 Synodical Conference 1 4 English transition 1 5 Post WWII 2 Foreign missions 3 Beliefs 3 1 Doctrinal sources 3 1 1 Salvation 3 1 2 Means of grace 3 1 3 Sacramental Union and the Eucharist 3 1 4 Eschatology 3 1 5 Law and Gospel 3 2 Other doctrine 3 2 1 Antichrists 3 2 2 Creationism 3 2 3 Freemasonry 3 3 Baptism and other doctrine 4 Practices 4 1 Worship and music 4 2 Reception of communion 4 3 Ordination 4 4 Role of women in the church 4 5 Interfaith services 4 6 LCMS National Youth Gathering 5 Church structure 5 1 Synod 5 1 1 Presidents 5 2 Districts 5 3 Congregations 6 Organizations 6 1 Educational institutions 6 2 Auxiliary organizations 7 Relationship with other Lutheran bodies 8 Membership and demographics 9 See also 10 Notes 11 Further reading 11 1 History 11 2 Seminex 11 3 Missions 11 4 Doctrine 11 5 Primary sources 12 External links 12 1 Official LCMS websites 12 2 Additional resource websitesHistory EditOrigins Edit The Missouri Synod emerged from several communities of German Lutheran immigrants during the 1830s and 1840s In Indiana Ohio and Michigan isolated Germans in the dense forests of the American frontier were brought together and ministered to by missionary F C D Wyneken A communal emigration from Saxony under Bishop Martin Stephan created a community in Perry County Missouri and St Louis Missouri In Michigan and Ohio missionaries sent by Wilhelm Lohe ministered to scattered congregations and founded German Lutheran communities in Frankenmuth Michigan and the Saginaw Valley of Michigan 6 Saxon immigration Edit Main article Saxon Lutheran immigration of 1838 39 In the 19th century German Kingdom of Saxony Lutheran pastor Martin Stephan and many of his followers found themselves increasingly at odds with Rationalism Christian ecumenism and the prospect of a forced unionism of the Lutheran church with the Reformed church In the neighboring Kingdom of Prussia the Prussian Union of 1817 put in place what they considered non Lutheran communion and baptismal doctrine and practice 7 In order to freely practice their Christian faith in accordance with the Lutheran confessions outlined in the Book of Concord Stephan and between 600 and 700 other Saxon Lutherans left for the United States in November 1838 8 Their ships arrived between December 31 1838 and January 20 1839 in New Orleans with one ship lost at sea 9 Most of the remaining immigrants left almost immediately with the first group arriving in St Louis on January 19 1839 10 The final group led by Stephan remained in New Orleans for ten days possibly to wait for the passengers of the lost ship Amalia 11 The immigrants ultimately settled in Perry County Missouri and in and around St Louis Stephan was initially the bishop of the new settlement but he soon became embroiled in charges of corruption and sexual misconduct with members of the congregation and was expelled from the settlement leaving C F W Walther as the leader of the colony 12 During this period there was considerable debate within the settlement over the proper status of the church in the New World whether it was a new church or whether it remained within the Lutheran hierarchy in Germany Walther s view that they could consider themselves a new church prevailed 13 Lohe missionaries Edit Further information Frankenmuth Michigan History Beginning in 1841 the parish pastor in Neuendettelsau Bavaria Wilhelm Lohe inspired by appeals for aid to the German immigrants in North America began to solicit funds for missionary work among them He also began training men to become pastors and teachers sending his first two students Adam Ernst and Georg Burger to America on August 5 1842 14 Lohe ultimately sent over 80 pastors and students of theology to America these pastors founded and served congregations throughout Ohio Michigan and Indiana 15 Lohe also led an early and largely abortive effort to send missionaries to convert the Native Americans In 1844 and 1845 he solicited colonists to form a German Lutheran settlement in Michigan with the thought that this settlement would also serve as the base for missionary activity among the Native Americans The colonists left Germany on April 20 1845 under the leadership of Pastor August Cramer and arrived in Saginaw County Michigan in August of that year They founded several villages Frankenmuth Frankenlust Frankentrost and Frankenhilf now known as Richville and worked to convert the Native Americans They had limited success however and the villages became nearly exclusively German settlements within a few years 16 17 In addition to sending pastors theological students and colonists to America Lohe also played an instrumental role in the formation of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne Indiana raising funds for the new institution and sending eleven theological students and a professor from Germany to help found it The seminary s first president Wilhelm Sihler had also been sent by Lohe to America several years before It was due to Lohe s great zeal and indefatigable labors that the LCMS first president C F W Walther once said of him Next to God it is Pastor Loehe to whom our Synod is indebted for its happy beginning and rapid growth in which it rejoices it may well honor him as its spiritual father It would fill the pages of an entire book to recount even briefly what for many years this man with tireless zeal in the noblest unselfish spirit has done for our Lutheran Church and our Synod in particular 18 Founding and early years Edit St Paul s in Chicago where the first meeting of the Missouri Synod was held 19 Old Lutheran free church leader Friedrich August Brunn sent about 235 men to serve as pastors in the Missouri Synod 20 In 1844 and 1845 the three groups listed above the Saxons the Lohe men and Wyneken and one of his assistants began to discuss the possibility of forming a new confessional Lutheran church body As a result of these discussions the Lohe missionaries and Wyneken and his assistant F W Husmann decided to leave the synods they currently belonged to Two planning meetings were held in St Louis Missouri and Fort Wayne Indiana in May and July 1846 21 Then on April 26 1847 twelve pastors representing fourteen German Lutheran congregations met in Chicago Illinois and officially founded the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri Ohio and Other States Walther became the fledgling denomination s first president 22 The synod was quickly noted for its conservatism and self professed orthodoxy The synod s constitution required all members both pastors and congregations to pledge fealty to the entire Book of Concord to reject unionism and syncretism of every kind to use only doctrinally pure books in both church and school and to provide for the Christian education of their children 23 Among other things these requirements meant that altar and pulpit fellowship was usually restricted to those Lutheran congregations and synods who were in complete doctrinal agreement with the Missouri Synod 24 The LCMS conservatism soon drew it into conflict with other Lutheran synods the majority of which were then experimenting with so called American Lutheranism In addition the LCMS also quickly became embroiled in a dispute with the Buffalo Synod and its leader Johannes Andreas August Grabau over the proper understanding of the church and the ministry Within a few years this conflict led to a separation between the Missouri Synod and Lohe as Lohe s views were close to those of Grabau 25 Despite these conflicts the Missouri Synod experienced fairly rapid growth in its early years leading to the subdivision of the synod into four district synods Central Eastern Northern and Western in 1854 This growth was due largely to the synod s efforts under the leadership of its second president F C D Wyneken to care for German immigrants help them find a home among other Germans build churches and parochial schools and train pastors and teachers The synod continued these outreach efforts throughout the 19th century becoming the largest Lutheran church body in the United States by 1888 26 By the synod s fiftieth anniversary in 1897 it had grown to 687 000 members 27 Synodical Conference Edit Main article Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America Between 1856 and 1859 the Missouri Synod hosted a series of four free conferences in order to explore the possibility of entering into fellowship agreements with other conservative Lutheran synods 28 As a result of these conferences the LCMS entered into fellowship with the Norwegian Synod in 1857 In 1872 these two synods joined the Wisconsin Ohio Minnesota and Illinois Synods other conservative Lutheran bodies in forming the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America 29 In 1876 the constituent synods of the Synodical Conference considered a plan to reorganize into a single unified church body with a single seminary Some preliminary moves were made in this direction including the 1880 absorption of the Illinois Synod into the LCMS Illinois District but opposition from some synods postponed the complete implementation of this plan and the Predestinarian Controversy of the 1880s scuttled the plan entirely As a result of the controversy several pastors and congregations withdrew from the Ohio Synod to form the Concordia Synod this synod merged with the LCMS in 1886 30 Efforts were made in the 1920s to establish fellowship with the Ohio Iowa and Buffalo synods Representatives from the synods formulated the Chicago Theses as a for agreement but the 1929 LCMS synodical convention did not accept them and instead created a committee that in 1932 produced the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod After the Ohio Iowa and Buffalo synods merged in 1930 to form the first American Lutheran Church ALC representatives from the ALC and the LCMS came to agreement on the Brief Statement and the ALC s Declaration in 1938 but again no further action was taken 31 English transition Edit Further information English District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod For the first thirty years of its existence the Missouri Synod focused almost exclusively on meeting the spiritual needs of German speaking Lutherans leaving work among English speaking Lutherans to other synods particularly the Tennessee and Ohio synods In 1872 members of the Tennessee Synod invited representatives from the Missouri Holston and Norwegian synods to discuss the promotion of English work among the more Americanized Lutherans resulting in the organization of the English Evangelical Lutheran Conference of Missouri This conference was reorganized in 1888 as an independent church body the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States which subsequently merged into the LCMS as the English District in 1911 32 33 In its first twenty years the English Synod founded two colleges organized dozens of congregations and parochial schools took over the publication of The Lutheran Witness an English language newspaper published by LCMS pastors in Cleveland Ohio and published several hymnals and other books English work became more widespread in the LCMS during the first two decades of the twentieth century with older members of the synod continuing to speak primarily German and younger members increasingly switching to English As one scholar has explained The overwhelming evidence from internal documents of these Missouri Synod churches and particularly their schools indicates that the German American school was a bilingual one much perhaps a whole generation or more earlier than 1917 and that the majority of the pupils may have been English dominant bilinguals from the early 1880s on 34 The anti German sentiment during the wars hastened the Americanization of the church and caused many churches to add English services and in some cases drop German services entirely During the years of language transition the synod s membership continued to grow until by 1947 the synod had grown to over 1 5 million members 35 Franz Pieper June 27 1852 June 3 1931 During this time the LCMS expanded its missionary efforts through the creation of its own radio station KFUO AM 1923 and its own international radio program The Lutheran Hour 1930 Several years later the synod began broadcasting its own TV drama This Is the Life 1952 Post WWII Edit In 1945 a group of 44 leaders and theologians in the synod issued a statement criticizing the synod s approach toward other Lutheran bodies The document known as A Statement of the Forty four was signed by Theodore Graebner and four other professors at Concordia Seminary and by H B Hemmeter who had recently retired as president of Concordia Theological Seminary among others The statement provoked immediate response from others in the synod 36 In 1947 its centennial year the church body shortened its name from The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri Ohio and other States to its present one The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod The 1947 convention also directed the Committee on Doctrinal Unity to meet with the Fellowship Commission of the ALC to develop a set of doctrinal theses The first meeting was on May 17 1948 and after additional meetings the Common Confession Part I was approved by the two committees on December 5 6 1949 Both the ALC and the LCMS accepted the document in 1950 The two committees continued meeting to develop Part II of the Common Confession covering additional topics The ALC accepted Part II in 1954 The 1956 convention of the LCMS recognized the Common Confession as one document in two parts that is a statement in harmony with the Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions however it also declared that the document should not be regarded or employed as a functioning basic document toward the establishment of altar and pulpit fellowship with other church bodies 37 The renewed interest in the ALC led a number of parties to fear that the synod was losing its doctrinal basis In 1951 a small group of pastors and congregations left the synod to form the Orthodox Lutheran Conference but the main impetus for the move was not church fellowship but the question of whether breaking an engagement in the modern sense is the same as the breaking of a betrothal historically and therefore a sin as those leaving the synod contended 38 Concerns about the LCMS becoming more open to less conservative Lutheran bodies cause problems in the Synodical Conference In 1955 the Evangelical Lutheran Synod ELS broke fellowship with the LCMS and in 1957 the WELS publicly admonished the LCMS and in 1961 it finally broke fellowship with the LCMS Both the ELS and the WELS withdrew from the Synodical Conference in 1963 leaving only the LCMS and the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches SELC an historically Slovak American church as members 39 In 1971 the SELC merged with the LCMS forming the SELC District 40 The National Evangelical Lutheran Church an historically Finnish American Lutheran church had already merged with the LCMS on January 1 1964 41 When the 1959 synodical convention did not take any action against the liberal movement a number of pastors and laymen met in a State of the Church Conference at Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven Missouri in which that church s pastor Herman Otten presented a book of documentation of the various controversies that had arisen in the LCMS since 1950 and before Several additional conferences were held with the one in Milwaukee on May 15 16 1961 attracting over 400 people Plans were made at that conference for actions they wanted the 1962 synodical convention to take The failure of the convention to do so led a dozen or so congregations and pastors to form the Lutheran Churches of the Reformation on April 28 29 1964 at Emmaus Lutheran Church in Chicago However many of those opposed to the direction of the LCMS decided to remain in the synod hoping to influence its direction 38 In 1967 the LCMS agreed with the second American Lutheran Church the successor to the first ALC and the Lutheran Church in America LCA to form the Lutheran Council in the United States of America LCUSA but only on the assurance that a program of theological discussion would be implemented 42 With the election of J A O Preus II as its president over the incumbent Oliver Harms in 1969 the LCMS began a sharp turn towards a more conservative direction A dispute over the use of the historical critical method for Biblical interpretation led to the suspension of John Tietjen as president of Concordia Seminary In response many of the faculty and students left the seminary and formed Seminex Concordia Seminary in Exile which took up residence at the nearby Eden Theological Seminary in suburban St Louis The same convention that elected Preus as president also established altar and pulpit fellowship with the ALC This was seen by many as a gesture toward Harms who had supported the declaration of fellowship Eight years later the 1977 convention declared a state of fellowship in protest as the ALC exhibited closer ties to the more liberal LCA The 1981 convention terminated the fellowship agreement 43 A number of pastors and others did not think that Preus s method of dealing with false doctrine would be successful On November 1 2 1971 members of he Conference for Authentic Lutheranism in California and the Free Association for Authentic Lutheranism in the Midwest met in Libertyville Illinois to form a new church body the Federation for Authentic Lutheranism FAL They expected 50 to 60 congregations to join but in the end only six did as the conservative wing continued to gain strength in the LCMS FAL declared fellowship with the WELS in 1973 but did not survive very long thereafter 38 In 1976 about 250 of the congregations supporting Seminex left the LCMS to form the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches AELC The LCMS restricted its participation with LCUSA shortly after the AELC schism and announced that it would not participate in any merger discussions In 1988 the AELC ALC and LCA merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and LCUSA was dissolved Foreign missions EditIn 1900 the LCMS began sending missionaries to Brazil to minister to German speaking immigrants in that country and in 1904 created the Brazil District for the administration of the resulting congregations Work was begun in Argentina in 1905 as part of the Brazil District A separate Argentina District was established in 1926 1927 Both districts became independent church bodies that retain close relationships with the LCMS the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil in 1980 and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina in 1988 44 The LCMS oversaw an extensive roster of congregations in Canada until 1988 when the Canadian component became a separate and autonomous organization Lutheran Church Canada However this was an administrative and not theological division and the two groups still share close ties A small number of Ontario and Quebec churches remain within the LCMS Beliefs EditDoctrinal sources Edit One of the signature teachings of the Lutheran Reformation is Sola scriptura Scripture alone The LCMS believes that the Bible is the only standard by which church teachings can be judged and holds that Scripture is best explained and interpreted by the Book of Concord a series of confessions of faith adopted by Lutherans in the 16th century LCMS pastors and congregations agree to teach in harmony with the Book of Concord because they believe that it teaches and faithfully explains the Word of God not based on its own authority alone Since the LCMS is a confessional church body its ordained and commissioned ministers of religion are sworn by their oaths of ordination or installation or both to interpret the Sacred Scriptures according to the Book of Concord 45 Its ordained and commissioned ministers of religion are asked to honor and uphold other official teachings of the synod meaning to abide by act and teach in accordance with but are not sworn to believe confess and teach them as correct interpretations of the Sacred Scriptures 46 The Missouri Synod also teaches biblical inerrancy 47 the teaching that the Bible is inspired by God and is without error For this reason they reject much if not all of modern liberal scholarship The Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod written by Franz August Otto Pieper was adopted by the synodical convention in 1932 as a summary of the major beliefs of the LCMS 48 Salvation Edit The LCMS believes that justification comes from God by divine grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone It teaches that Jesus is the focus of the entire Bible and that faith in him alone is the way to eternal salvation The synod rejects any attempt to attribute salvation to anything other than Christ s death and resurrection Means of grace Edit The synod teaches that the Word of God both written and preached and the Sacraments are means of grace through which the Holy Spirit gives the gift of God s grace creates faith in the hearts of individuals forgives sins for the sake of Christ s death on the cross and grants eternal life and salvation Many Missouri Synod Lutherans define a sacrament as an action instituted by Jesus that combines a promise in God s Word with a physical element although the synod holds no official definition for sacrament This means that some may disagree on the number of sacraments All agree that Baptism and Communion are sacraments 49 Confession and absolution is called a sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and so is also considered by many Lutherans to be a sacrament because it was instituted by Christ and has His promise of grace even though it is not tied to a physical element Unlike Calvinists Lutherans agree that the means of grace are resistible this belief is based on numerous biblical references as discussed in the Book of Concord Sacramental Union and the Eucharist Edit Regarding the Eucharist the LCMS rejects both the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the Reformed teaching that the true body and blood of Christ are not consumed with the consecrated bread and wine in the Eucharist Rather it believes in the doctrine of the sacramental union Real Presence that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present in with and under the elements of bread and wine Or as the Smalcald Articles express this mystery Of the Sacrament of the Altar we hold that the bread and wine in the Supper are Christ s true body and blood 50 It is occasionally reported that the LCMS and other Lutherans teach the doctrine of consubstantiation Consubstantiation is generally rejected by Lutherans and is explicitly rejected by the LCMS as an attempt to define the holy mystery of Christ s presence 51 Eschatology Edit The Missouri Synod flatly rejects millennialism 52 and considers itself amillennialist 53 This means that it believes there will be no literal 1000 year visible earthly kingdom of Jesus a view termed as realized millennialism in which the thousand years of Rev 20 1 10 is taken figuratively as a reference to the time of Christ s reign as king from the day of his ascension Hence the millennium is a present reality Christ s heavenly reign not a future hope for a rule of Christ on earth after his return the parousia 54 cf Mt 13 41 42 Mt 28 18 Eph 2 6 Col 3 1 3 Law and Gospel Edit The LCMS believes that the Holy Scriptures contain two crucial teachings Law and Gospel The Law is all those demands in the Bible which must be obeyed in order to gain salvation However because all people are sinners it is impossible for people to completely obey the Law Therefore the Law implies an inevitable consequence of God s wrath judgment and damnation The Gospel on the other hand is the promise of free salvation from God to sinners The Law condemns the Gospel saves Both the Law and the Gospel are gifts from God both are necessary The function of the law is to show people their sinful nature and drive them to the Gospel in which the forgiveness of sin is promised for the sake of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ clarification needed 55 56 The LCMS holds that the Old Testament and the New Testament both contain both Law and Gospel The Old Testament therefore is valuable to Christians Its teachings point forward in time to the Cross of Christ in the same way that the New Testament points backward in time to the Cross This Lutheran doctrine was summarized by C F W Walther in The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel Other doctrine Edit Antichrists Edit The LCMS holds that all false teachers who teach contrary to Christ s Word are opponents of Christ and insofar as they do so are anti Christ 57 The LCMS does not teach nor has it ever taught that any individual pope as a person is to be identified with the Antichrist 57 However to the extent that the papacy continues to claim as official dogma the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent the LCMS position is that the office of the papacy is the Antichrist 57 Creationism Edit The LCMS officially supports literal creationism but does not have an official position on the precise age of the earth 58 An official publication of the synod the Brief Statement of 1932 states under the heading Of Creation We teach that God has created heaven and earth and that in the manner and in the space of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures especially Gen 1 and 2 namely by His almighty creative word and in six days 59 According to the recent 2004 LCMS synodical resolution 2 08A To commend preaching and teaching Creation all LCMS churches and educational institutions including preschool through 12th grade universities and seminaries are to teach creation from the Biblical perspective The LCMS website states that an individual s personal views regarding creation do not disqualify a person from being a member of the LCMS 60 Freemasonry Edit The LCMS believes that the teachings of Freemasonry are in direct conflict with the Gospel and instructs its pastors and laypeople to avoid membership or participation in it 61 Baptism and other doctrine Edit The LCMS practices infant baptism based on Acts 2 38 39 62 and other passages of Scripture It also subscribes to the statement of faith found in the Apostles Creed the Ten Commandments and the Lord s Prayer to be applicable to daily life These doctrines are emphasized in Luther s Small Catechism Practices EditWorship and music Edit The original constitution of the LCMS stated that one of its purposes is to strive toward uniformity in practice while more recent changes to those documents also encourage responsible and doctrinally sound diversity The synod requires that hymns songs liturgies and practices be in harmony with the Bible and Book of Concord Worship in LCMS congregations is generally thought of as orthodox and liturgical utilizing a printed order of service and hymnal and is typically accompanied by a pipe organ or piano The contents of LCMS hymnals from the past such as The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Worship and those of its newest hymnal Lutheran Service Book highlight the synod s unwavering stance towards more traditional styles of hymnody and liturgy More traditional LCMS Lutherans point to the Lutheran Confessions in their defense of liturgical worship 63 Towards the later parts of the twentieth century and up until present day many congregations have adopted a more progressive style of worship employing different styles such as contemporary Christian music with guitars and praise bands and often project song lyrics onto screens instead of using hymnals While this shift in style challenges the traditionalism of hymnody that the LCMS holds strongly the LCMS has released a statement on worship stating that The best of musical traditions both ancient and modern are embraced by the Lutheran church in its worship with an emphasis on congregational singing reinforced by the choir 64 Reception of communion Edit The LCMS endorses the doctrine of close or closed communion 65 66 the policy of sharing the Eucharist ordinarily only with those who are baptized and confirmed members of one of the congregations of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod or of a congregation of one of its sister churches with which it has formally declared altar and pulpit fellowship i e agreement in all articles of doctrine Missouri Synod congregations implement closed communion in various ways requiring conformity to official doctrine in various degrees Usually visitors are asked to speak with the pastor before coming to that congregation s altar for the first time Most congregations invite those uneducated on the subject of the Eucharist to join in the fellowship and receive a blessing instead of the body and blood of Christ Ordination Edit Ordination is seen as a public ceremony of recognition that a man has received and accepted a divine call and hence is considered to be in the office of the public ministry The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope agrees that ordination was nothing else than such a ratification of local elections by the people 67 The LCMS does not believe ordination is divinely instituted 68 or an extension of an episcopal form of apostolic succession but sees the office grounded in the Word and Sacrament ministry of the Gospel arguing that Scripture makes no distinction between a presbyter priest and a bishop see Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope paragraphs 63 64 citing St Jerome The Augsburg Confession Article XIV holds that no one is to preach teach or administer the sacraments without a regular call LCMS pastors are generally required to have a four year bachelor s degree in any discipline as well as a four year Master of Divinity degree which is usually obtained from one of these institutions Concordia Seminary in St Louis or the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne Indiana or at the two seminaries run by the Lutheran Church Canada Candidates may earn their Master of Divinity degree at other seminaries but may then be required to take colloquy classes at either St Louis or Ft Wayne Seminary training includes classwork in historical theology Biblical languages Biblical Greek and Hebrew practical application education preaching and mission and doctrine the basic teachings and beliefs of the synod Role of women in the church Edit The Missouri Synod teaches that the ordination of women as clergy is contrary to scripture The issue of women s roles in the church body has continued to be a subject of debate within the synod During the Cooperative Clergy Study Project in 2000 10 out of 652 LCMS pastors surveyed stated that all clergy positions should be open to women while 82 disagreed 69 Congregations were permitted to enact female suffrage within Missouri Synod congregations in 1969 and it was affirmed at the synod s 2004 convention that women may also serve in humanly established offices as long as those offices do not include any of the distinctive functions of the pastoral office Thus in many congregations of the LCMS women now serve as congregation president or chairperson etc This is the cause of contention within the LCMS with some congregations utilizing women in public worship to read lessons and assist in the distribution of holy communion Other traditional Lutherans reject such practices as unbiblical with a minority of congregations continuing the historic practice of male suffrage similar to the Wisconsin Synod Interfaith services Edit The LCMS bars its clergy from worshiping with other faiths holding that church fellowship or merger between church bodies in doctrinal disagreement with one another is not in keeping with what the Bible teaches about church fellowship 70 In practice of this a Connecticut LCMS pastor was asked to apologize by the president of the denomination and did so for participating in an interfaith prayer vigil for the 26 children and adults killed at a Newtown elementary school and an LCMS pastor in New York was suspended for praying at an interfaith vigil in 2001 12 days after the September 11 attacks 71 LCMS National Youth Gathering Edit The National Youth Gathering is held every three years The most recent gathering took place from July 9 13 2022 in Houston Texas with a theme of In All Things The 2019 gathering was held in Minneapolis Minnesota with a theme of Real Present God The theme for the 2016 gathering in New Orleans Louisiana was In Christ Alone The previous gathering took place in 2013 in San Antonio Texas from July 1 5 2013 It was based on the theme Live Love d The 2010 gathering in New Orleans was based on the theme We Believe In both 2007 and 2004 The LCMS National Youth Gatherings were held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando Florida The gathering s theme in 2007 was Chosen The gathering in 2007 was originally planned to be held in New Orleans Louisiana but due to Hurricane Katrina the location was changed to Orlando Florida Around 25 000 youth attend each gathering Many Christian bands and artists perform at gatherings 72 Church structure Edit Official seal of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod The LCMS has a modified form of congregational polity This is different from some other Lutheran bodies which have maintained episcopal polity however this is not considered to be a point of doctrine as the synod is in fellowship with some Lutheran church bodies in Europe that have an episcopal structure The corporate LCMS is formally constituted of two types of members self governing 73 local congregations that qualify for membership by mutual agreement to adhere to stated principles and clergymen who qualify by similar means Congregations hold legal title to their church buildings and other property and call hire and dismiss their own clergy Much of the practical work of the LCMS structure is as a free employment brokerage to bring the two together it also allows the congregations to work together on projects too large for even a local consortium of congregations to accomplish such as foreign mission work Synod Edit The LCMS as a whole is led by an ordained synodical president currently Reverend Matthew C Harrison The president is chosen at a synodical convention a gathering of the two membership groups professional clergymen and lay representatives from the member congregations The convention is held every three years discussions of doctrine and policy take place at these events and elections are held to fill various synod positions The next LCMS convention is currently scheduled to take place in 2023 due to the COVID 19 pandemic 74 75 Local conventions within each circuit and district are held in the intervening years Presidents Edit Matthew C Harrison is the current president of the Missouri Synod 1847 1850 Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther 1850 1864 Friedrich Conrad Dietrich Wyneken 1864 1878 Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther 1878 1899 Heinrich Christian Schwan 1899 1911 Franz August Otto Pieper 1911 1935 Friedrich Pfotenhauer 1935 1962 John William Behnken 1962 1969 Oliver Raymond Harms 1969 1981 J A O Preus II 1981 1992 Ralph Arthur Bohlmann 1992 2001 Alvin L Barry 2001 2001 Robert T Kuhn 2001 2010 Gerald B Kieschnick 2010 present Matthew C HarrisonDistricts Edit Main article Districts of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod The entire synod is divided into 35 districts Of these 33 have jurisdiction over specific geographic areas The other two the English and the SELC are non geographic and were formed when the English Missouri Synod and the Slovak Synod respectively merged with the formerly German speaking Missouri Synod Each district is led by an elected district president who must be an ordained clergyman Most district presidencies are full time positions but there are a few exceptions in which the district president also serves as a parish pastor The districts are subdivided into circuits each of which is led by a circuit visitor who is an ordained pastor from one of the member congregations Districts are roughly analogous to dioceses in other Christian communities Congregations Edit Most congregations are served by full time professional clergy Some congregations usually in rural areas are served by ordained bi vocational ministers worker priests who maintain secular employment for sustenance and receive a small stipend or none at all The LCMS is quasi congregationalist with regard to polity Organizations EditEducational institutions Edit In addition to its two seminaries the LCMS operates seven universities known as the Concordia University System Auxiliary organizations Edit Among the LCMS s other auxiliary organizations are the Lutheran Laymen s League now known as Lutheran Hour Ministries which conducts outreach ministries including The Lutheran Hour radio program and the Lutheran Women s Missionary League The synod also operates Concordia Publishing House through which it publishes its official magazine The Lutheran Witness 76 and newspaper Reporter 77 Relationship with other Lutheran bodies EditMaintaining its position as a confessional church body emphasizing the importance of full agreement in the teachings of the Bible the LCMS is not associated with ecumenical organizations such as the National Council of Churches the National Association of Evangelicals the World Council of Churches or the Lutheran World Federation It is however a member of the International Lutheran Council made up of over 50 Lutheran churches worldwide that support the confessional doctrines of the Bible and the Book of Concord At the 2007 convention the delegates voted to establish altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Association of Lutheran Churches AALC Although its strongly conservative views on theology and ethics might seem to make the LCMS politically compatible with Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists in the U S the LCMS largely eschews political activity partly out of concerns to keep the denomination untainted with potential heresies and also because of its strict understanding of the Lutheran distinction between the Two Kingdoms see above which repudiates the primarily Calvinist presuppositions about the totalizing rule of God that informs much if not most of U S evangelical understanding of politics and Christianity citation needed However both LCMS and Evangelicals share the common belief that life begins and should be protected by law since conception 78 The LCMS is distinguished from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod WELS by three main theological beliefs The biblical understanding of fellowship the LCMS believes in a distinction between the altar pulpit fellowship and other manifestations of Christian fellowship in other words a prayer fellowship The WELS does not The doctrine of the ministry the LCMS believes that the Pastoral office is divinely established but all other offices are human institutions and hence are not divinely established The WELS believes that the Ministry of the Word is divinely established and that congregations and the synod may choose the forms of public ministry they wish to use The role of women in the church Although both the LCMS and WELS agree that Scripture reserves the pastoral office for men the WELS also believes that Scripture forbids women s suffrage in the congregation Respondents to the Pew Research Center s U S Religious Landscape Survey of 2008 included members of LCMS and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ELCA 79 Pew Survey Results by Denomination LCMS ELCANumber of adults surveyed out of total of 35 556 588 869Percent of adults in the United States 1 4 2 0 Percent of adult Protestants in the United States 2 7 3 8 Do you believe in God or a universal spirit Absolutely Certain 84 77 Fairly Certain 12 19 Do not believe in God 1 0 Don t Know Refused Other 1 1 The Bible Word of God to be taken literally word for word 42 23 Word of God but not literally true word for word Unsure if literally true 39 48 Book written by men not the word of God 15 20 Don t Know Refused Other 4 9 Abortion Abortion should be legal in all cases 16 18 Abortion should be legal in most cases 35 42 Abortion should be illegal in most cases 32 26 Abortion should be illegal in all cases 13 6 Don t know Refused 5 7 Interpretation of Religious Teachings There is only ONE true way to interpret the teachings of my religion 28 15 There is MORE than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion 68 82 Neither Both Equally 1 1 Don t Know Refused 3 2 Homosexuality Homosexuality should be accepted 44 56 Homosexuality should be discouraged 47 33 Neither Both Equally 4 3 Don t Know Refused 5 3 Membership and demographics EditMembership growth was substantial in the first half of the 20th century According to the Yearbook of American amp Canadian Churches 80 the LCMS had 628 695 members in 1925 By 1950 the number of members had grown to over 1 6 million Membership peaked in 1970 at just under 2 8 million In 2020 the LCMS reported 1 861 129 members and 5 976 churches with 5 938 active clergy 81 LCMS membership continues to be concentrated in the Upper Midwest The five states with the highest rates of adherence are Nebraska Wisconsin South Dakota Minnesota and Iowa 82 The Pew Research Center s U S Religious Landscape Survey in 2014 found that the LCMS was the third least racially diverse major religious group in the country The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was second and the National Baptist Convention was the least diverse 83 The 2008 figures were 84 Demographic Results for 2008 ELCA LCMS Total PopulationAge 18 29 8 11 20 30 49 36 32 39 50 64 29 31 25 65 27 26 16 Marital Status Never Married 11 11 19 Married 63 60 54 Living with Partner 3 5 6 Divorced Separated 10 11 12 Widowed 13 13 8 Children at home under 18 No Children 70 72 65 One Child 11 11 13 Two Children 13 10 13 Three Children 5 5 6 Four or more Children 1 2 3 Race White non Hispanic 97 95 71 Black non Hispanic 1 2 11 Asian non Hispanic 1 1 3 Other Mixed non Hispanic 1 1 3 Hispanic 1 1 12 Region Northeast 19 7 19 Midwest 51 64 23 South 16 16 36 West 14 13 22 Gender Male 44 47 48 Female 56 53 52 Level of Education Less than High School 6 9 14 High School Graduate 38 38 36 Some College 26 25 23 College Graduate 19 18 16 Post graduate 11 9 11 Family Income Less than 30 000 24 24 31 30 000 49 999 24 20 22 50 000 74 999 21 20 17 75 000 99 999 15 18 13 100 000 or more 17 17 18 LCMS Membership StatisticsYear Pastors Congregations Members References1847 22 NA NA1848 50 NA NA1849 61 NA NA1850 75 NA NA1872 415 543 NA 85 1897 1 564 1 986 687 334 86 1922 3 073 NA 1 041 514 87 1925 3 062 3 849 628 695 88 1929 3 279 3 542 696 967 88 1935 3 605 4 224 1 230 705 88 1939 NA 4 205 1 277 097 88 1941 NA 4 326 1 320 510 88 1944 NA 4 075 1 356 665 88 1946 NA 4 430 1 469 213 88 1950 4 621 4 430 1 674 901 88 1951 4 661 4 478 1 728 989 88 1953 4 817 4 592 1 850 100 88 1954 4 916 4 701 1 932 000 88 1955 5 020 4 805 2 004 110 88 1956 5 037 4 989 2 076 550 88 1957 5 178 4 979 2 150 230 88 1958 5 299 5 028 2 234 844 88 1959 5 398 5 109 2 304 962 88 1960 5 506 5 215 2 391 195 88 1961 5 658 5 276 2 464 436 88 1962 5 756 5 432 2 522 095 88 1963 6 091 5 519 2 591 762 88 1964 6 257 5 556 2 650 857 88 1965 6 395 5 639 2 692 889 88 1966 6 469 5 647 2 729 897 88 1967 6 572 5 707 2 759 308 88 1968 6 719 5 733 2 781 892 88 1969 6 758 5 745 2 786 102 88 1970 6 866 5 690 2 788 536 88 1971 7 041 5 724 2 788 110 88 1972 7 174 5 741 2 781 297 88 1973 7 316 5 777 2 776 104 88 1974 7 331 5 813 2 769 594 88 1975 7 425 5 797 2 763 545 88 1976 7 414 5 832 2 757 271 88 1977 7 163 5 687 2 673 321 88 1978 7 161 5 669 2 631 374 88 1979 7 211 5 689 2 623 181 88 1980 7 296 5 694 2 625 650 88 1981 7 376 5 710 2 636 715 88 1982 7 559 5 752 2 630 823 88 1983 7 682 5 829 2 630 947 88 1984 7 823 5 812 2 628 133 88 1985 7 954 5 876 2 638 164 88 1986 8 044 5 897 2 630 588 88 1987 8 139 5 912 2 614 375 88 1988 8 193 5 939 2 604 278 88 1989 8 271 5 990 2 609 025 88 1990 8 301 5 296 2 602 849 88 1991 8 389 5 364 2 607 309 88 1992 8 799 5 369 2 609 905 88 1993 8 844 6 134 2 598 935 88 1994 8 879 6 148 2 596 927 88 1995 8 140 6 154 2 594 555 88 1996 8 215 6 099 2 601 144 88 1997 8 672 6 215 2 603 036 88 1998 8 316 6 218 2 594 404 88 1999 8 365 6 220 2 582 440 88 2000 8 257 6 150 2 554 088 88 2001 8 497 6 187 2 540 045 88 2002 8 505 6 142 2 512 714 88 2003 8 515 6 160 2 488 936 88 2004 8 515 6 151 2 463 747 88 2005 8 502 6 144 2 440 864 88 2006 8 601 6 155 2 417 997 88 2007 8 901 6 167 2 383 084 88 2008 9 010 6 123 2 337 349 88 2009 9 357 6 178 2 312 111 88 2010 8 927 6 158 2 278 586 88 2011 7 879 6 145 2 231 858 89 2012 NA 6 151 2 196 788 90 2013 8 948 6 151 2 163 698 91 2014 9 042 6 136 2 097 258 91 2015 6 049 6 101 2 060 514 92 2016 NA 6 100 2 017 834 93 2018 6 473 6 046 1 968 641 94 2020 6 308 5 976 1 861 129 95 2021 6 116 5 914 1 807 408 1 See also EditLutheran Church of Australia Protestantism in the United States Christianity in the United StatesNotes Edit a b LCMS Inc Annual Report 2021 Retrieved October 25 2022 a b LCMS Inc Annual Report 2021 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Retrieved July 7 2022 The Official Stylebook of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod February 2018 Retrieved November 29 2020 LCMS Inc Annual Report 2021 Retrieved July 7 2022 Kieschnick Jerry November 2007 Worldwide Partners in the Gospel The Lutheran Witness Retrieved January 29 2012 Lueker Erwin L 1965 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod In Bodensieck Julius ed The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church Vol 2 Augsburg Publishing House pp 1408 1409 Baepler Walter A A Century of Grace A History of the Missouri Synod 1847 1947 St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1947 9 12 Forster Walter O Zion on the Mississippi St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1953 199f Baepler 28 Forster 202 217 Forster 203 Forster 218 Lueker 1408 Baepler 46ff Graebner Theodore The Loehe Foundations in H W T Dau ed Ebenezer Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1922 78 81 Pless John T Wilhelm Loehe and the Missouri Synod Forgotten Paternity or Living Legacy paper presented to the International Loehe Society assembled at Wartburg Theological Seminary July 12 2005 6 Graebner 87 93 Michigan s Little Bavaria Retrieved January 11 2018 Erich H Heintzen Love Leaves Home Wilhelm Loehe and the Missouri Synod St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1973 73 Mezger George Denkstein zum funfundsiebzigjahrigen Jubilaum der Missourisynode 1847 1922 Concordia Publishing House St Louis 1922 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Christian Cyclopedia Brunn Friedrich August W G Polack Fathers and Founders St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1938 66 68 Baepler 98f Polack 72f Baepler 100 D H Steffens The Doctrine of the Church and the Ministry in H W T Dau ed Ebenezer Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1922 150ff Matthias Sheeleigh ed The Lutheran Almanac and Year Book for the Year of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 1889 Philadelphia Lutheran Publication Society 1889 20 21 Note that this is the first year the LCMS was larger than all of the constituent synods of the General Council combined If comparing the LCMS to individual synods within the General Synod or General Council it had been the largest American Lutheran synod since around the year 1870 Baepler 217 Lueker Erwin L Poellot Luther Jackson Paul eds 2000 Free Lutheran Conferences Christian Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House Baepler 160 Lueker Erwin L Poellot Luther Jackson Paul eds 2000 Synodical Conference Christian Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House Lueker Erwin E 1965 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod In Bodensieck Julius ed The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church Vol II Minneapolis Augsburg Publishing House p 1410 LCCN 64 21500 Lueker Erwin L Poellot Luther Jackson Paul eds 2000 Missouri and Other States The English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Christian Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House Our History The English District of the LCMS Schiffman Harold 1987 Language loyalty in the German American Church the Case of an Over confident Minority Baepler 355 MacKenzie Cameron A April 2021 Concordia Springfield as the Conservative Alternative to St Louis PDF Concordia Theological Quarterly Concordia Theological Seminary 85 2 129 130 Retrieved October 9 2021 Lueker Erwin L Poellot Luther Jackson Paul eds 2000 Common Confession Christian Cyclopedia Online ed St Louis Concordia Publishing House Retrieved November 9 2021 a b c Peperkorn Todd A April 2021 The Splintering of Missouri How Our American Context Gave Rise to Micro Synods as a Solution to Theological Conflict PDF Concordia Theological Quarterly Concordia Theological Seminary 85 2 158 165 Retrieved October 9 2021 Fredrich Edward C 1992 Trumpet with a Certain Sound The Synodical Conferences Confessional Commitment PDF Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Essay File pp 10 12 Retrieved November 9 2021 About Us SELC District of the LCMS Retrieved May 21 2016 Lueker Erwin L Poellot Luther Jackson Paul eds 2000 Finnish Lutherans in America Christian Cyclopedia Concordia Publishing House Lutheran Council in the United States of America Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved November 10 2021 Lueker Erwin L Poellot Luther Jackson Paul eds 2000 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod The Christian Cyclopedia Online ed St Louis Concordia Publishing House VIII Retrieved November 10 2021 Lueker Erwin L Poellot Luther Jackson Paul eds 2000 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Districts of The Christian Cyclopedia Online ed St Louis Concordia Publishing House Retrieved May 16 2018 Constitution of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 2010 edition Article II Confession p 13 and Article V Membership p 14 The Bylaws of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 2010 edition Doctrinal Resolutions and Statements 1 6 2 7 p 39 Of the Holy Scriptures Archived September 20 2005 at the Wayback Machine Missouri Synod Brief Statement of LCMS Doctrinal Position The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod www lcms org Retrieved November 11 2020 Of the means of grace Archived August 28 2005 at the Wayback Machine Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Smalcald Articles Concordia The Lutheran Confessions St Louis Concordia Publishing House 2005 305 Francis Pieper Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1953 3 326 27 and John Theodore Mueller Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 519 20 528 Of the Millennium Archived August 30 2005 at the Wayback Machine Lutheran Church Missouri Synod End Times The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Christian Cyclopedia Parousia Nafzger Samuel H 2009 An Introduction to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod PDF Concordia Publishing House p 12 Retrieved September 22 2014 Harrison Matthew May 2014 Back to Basics Law and Gospel The Lutheran Witness Concordia Publishing House 133 5 1 ISSN 0024 757X Retrieved September 22 2014 a b c LCMS Frequently Asked Questions Creation and Evolution Lutheran Church Missouri Synod by Dr A L Barry Of Creation A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod Adopted 1932 LCMS Frequently Asked Questions LCMS Views Frequently Asked Questions The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod www lcms org Acts 2 38 39 Since therefore the Mass among us is supported by the example of the church as seen from the Scriptures and the Fathers we are confident that it cannot be disapproved especially since the customary public ceremonies are for the most part retained Augsburg Confession XXIV 40 Also We on our part also retain many ceremonies and traditions such as the liturgy of the Mass and various canticles festivals and the like which serve to preserve order in the church Augburg Confession Article XXVI 40 And We gladly keep the old traditions set up in the church because they are useful and promote tranquility Our enemies falsely accuse us of abolishing good ordinances and church discipline the public liturgy is more decent than in theirs Apology to the Augsburg Confession Article XV 38 39 And we do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend it Apology to the Augsburg Confession Article XXIV 1 And We on our part also retain many ceremonies and traditions such as the liturgy of the Mass and various canticles festivals and the like which serve to preserve order in the church Augburg Confession Article XXVI 40 What About Lutheran Worship PDF LCMS org Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Retrieved January 17 2020 Christian Cyclopedia s v Close Communion St Louis Concordia Publishing House Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 2000 2006 Fellowship in the Lord s Supper PDF Archived from the original PDF on March 26 2009 LCMS Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope Book of Concord paragraph 70 Adopted at Synod Convention 1849 1 97 Ordination though an accepted praiseworthy ceremony has no command of God Official Missouri Synod Doctrinal Statements Archived 2009 02 25 at the Wayback Machine Summary The Cooperative Clergy Study Project Data Archive The Association of Religion Data Archives Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod Concordia Publishing House 1932 Retrieved February 28 2013 Pastor apologizes for role in prayer vigil after Connecticut massacre Reuters 2013 Retrieved March 26 2017 Home 2019 LCMS Youth Gathering Retrieved September 17 2018 Constitution of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Article VII 1 FAQ On the Proposal to Add an Extra Year to the 2019 2022 Triennium Lutheran Church Missouri Synod December 2020 Magness Cheryl December 8 2020 Council of Presidents encourages Harrison to invite congregational vote on convention delay Reporter Retrieved February 2 2021 Lutheran Witness 1 Year Print Online Subscription Concordia Publishing House Retrieved May 17 2021 Subscribe to Reporter Reporter Retrieved May 17 2021 What About Lutheran Worship PDF LCMS org Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Archived from the original PDF on March 26 2009 Retrieved January 17 2020 U S Religious Landscape Survey Religious Beliefs and Practices Diverse and Politically Relevant PDF Washington D C Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life June 2008 Retrieved September 27 2009 For 2014 U S Public Becoming Less Religious PDF Washington D C Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life November 2015 Retrieved January 17 2020 Historic Archive CD and Yearbook of American amp Canadian Churches The National Council of Churches Retrieved December 4 2009 LCMS Inc Annual Report 2020 Retrieved July 19 2021 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Study Glenmary Research Center Retrieved December 4 2009 Lipka Michael July 27 2015 The most and least racially diverse U S religious groups Pew Research Center Retrieved July 27 2015 U S Religious Landscape Survey Religious Beliefs and Practices Diverse and Politically Relevant Detailed Data Tables Washington D C Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life June 2008 For 2014 demographics see the updated survey Baepler p 113 Baepler p 167 Baepler p 217 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo Lutheran Church Missouri Synod LCMS American Denomination Profiles Association of Religion Data Archives Retrieved April 16 2014 LCMS The October 12 2012 More LCMS congregations return statistics report Reporter Retrieved November 11 2021 Isenhower Joe October 11 2013 LCMS congregations report statistics for 2012 The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod News and Information Retrieved January 26 2022 a b Isenhower Joe October 27 2015 LCMS congregations report statistics for 2014 The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod News and Information Retrieved January 30 2018 Commentary Annual statistical reporting beyond the numbers The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod News and Information November 28 2016 Retrieved January 30 2018 LCMS statistics for 2016 membership down contributions up The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod News and Information November 2 2017 Retrieved January 30 2018 The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Rosters and Statistics updated November 2018 The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Retrieved November 10 2021 LCMS Inc Annual Report 2020 Retrieved July 19 2021 Further reading EditHistory Edit Baepler Walter A A Century of Grace A History of the Missouri Synod 1847 1947 St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1947 Bodensieck Julius ed The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church 3 vol 1965 vol 1 and 3 online free Cimino Richard Lutherans Today American Lutheran Identity in the Twenty First Century Grand Rapids MI William B Eerdmans 2003 ISBN 0 8028 1365 8 Dau W H T ed Ebenezer Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1922 Forster Walter O Zion on the Mississippi The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839 1841 St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1953 Galchutt Kathryn M The Career of Andrew Schulze 1924 1968 Lutherans and Race in the Civil Rights Era Macon Mercer University Press 2005 Graebner August Lawrence Half a Century of Sound Lutheranism in America A Brief Sketch of the History of the Missouri Synod St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1893 Granquist Mark Lutherans In America A new History Minneapolis Fortress Press 2015 ISBN 978 1 4514 7228 8 Meyer Carl S Moving Frontiers Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1964 LOC 63 21161 Nelson E Clifford et al The Lutherans in North America Philadelphia Fortress Press 1975 ISBN 0 8006 0409 1 Polack W G The Building of a Great Church A Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1941 Rudnick Milton L Fundamentalism and the Missouri Synod A historical study of their interaction and mutual influence St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1966 LOC 66 28229 Schieferdecker G A History of the First German Lutheran Settlement in Altenburg Perry County Missouri with Special Emphasis on its Ecclesiastic Movements Clayton Iowa Wartburg Seminary 1865 Schiffman Harold Language loyalty in the German American Church the Case of an Over confident Minority 1987 online Schmidtz F The Destinies and Adventures of the Stephanists who emigrated from Saxony to America Dresden C Heinrich 1839 Settje David E Lutherans and the Longest War Adrift on a Sea of Doubt about the Cold and Vietnam Wars 1964 1975 Lanham Lexington Books 2007 Suelflow August R Heritage in Motion Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 1962 1995 St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1998 ISBN 0 570 04266 6 Todd Mary Authority Vested A Story of Identity and Change in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Grand Rapids MI William B Eerdmans 2000 ISBN 0 8028 4457 XSeminex Edit Adams James E Preus of Missouri and the Great Lutheran Civil War New York Harper and Row 1977 Board of Control Concordia Seminary Exodus From Concordia A Report on the 1974 Walkout St Louis Concordia Seminary 1977 Burkee James C Power Politics and the Missouri Synod A Conflict That Changed American Christianity 2011 excerpt and text search Danker Frederick W No Room in the Brotherhood The Preus Otten Purge of Missouri St Louis Clayton Publishing House 1977 ISBN 0 915644 10 X Marquart Kurt E Anatomy of an Explosion Missouri in Lutheran Perspective Fort Wayne IN Concordia Theological Seminary Press 1977 Tietjen John Memoirs in Exile Confessional Hope and Institutional Conflict Minneapolis Augsburg Fortress Press 1990 Zimmerman Paul A Seminary in Crisis St Louis Concordia Publishing House 2006 Missions Edit Gieseler Carl A The Wide Open Island City Home Mission Work in a Big City St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1927 Kretzmann Paul E Glimpses of the Lives of Great Missionary Women Men and Missions IX St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1930 Krueger Ottomar Unto the Uttermost Part of the Earth The Life of Pastor Louis Harms Men and Missions VIII St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1930 Our China Mission Men and Missions IV St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1926 Doctrine Edit Koehler Edward W A A Summary of Christian Doctrine A Popular Presentation of the Teachings of the Bible 2nd rev ed Edited by Alfred W Koehler St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1952 Mueller John Theodore Christian Dogmatics St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1934 A summary of Pieper sDogmatics Pieper Francis Christian Dogmatics 4 vols St Louis Concordia Publishing House 1950 1957 Walther C F W Law amp Gospel How to Read and Apply the Bible Translated by Christian C Tiews St Louis Concordia Publishing House 2010 Primary sources Edit Synodal Handbuch der deutschen ev luth Synode von Missouri Ohio u a St St Louis Lutherischer Concordia Verlag 1879 Synodal Handbuch der deutschen ev luth Synode von Missouri Ohio u a St St Louis Luth Concordia Verlag 1888 Kirchen gesangbuch fur Evang lutherische Gemeinden ungeanderter augsburgischer Confession St Louis Verlag der ev luth Synode von Missouri Ohio u a Staaten 1868 The Doctrinal Resolutions of the National Conventions of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod 1847 2004 Strommen Merton P Milo L Brekke Ralph C Underwager and Arthur L Johnson A Study of Generations Report of a Two Year Study of 5 000 Lutherans Between the Ages of 15 65 Their Beliefs Values Attitudes Behavior Minneapolis Augsburg Publishing House 1972 ISBN 0 8066 1207 X Vehse Carl Eduard Die Stephan sche Auswanderung nach Amerika Dresden Verlagsexpedition des Dresdner Wochenblattes 1840 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Official LCMS websites Edit Official website Lutheran Heritage Foundation Lutherans For LifeAdditional resource websites Edit Documents of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Lutheran Resources for Christian Faith in the World Early History of the LCMS by George F Wollenberg History of the LCMS in Montana LCMS Pastors Resources Meanings of the LCMS Seal amp Logo Crosses and Other Symbols The Book of Concord The Lutheran Confessions Scholarly articles on the LCMS from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library Synodical Conference Breakup A collection of synodical documents from the 1950s to the 1960s Profile of the LCMS on the Association of Religion Data Archives website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lutheran Church Missouri Synod amp oldid 1135019543, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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