This is timely article for me. My wife and I attended a North American Lutheran Church for the first time yesterday. We have a number of conservative friends who attend there.
We were very impressed and are still in the watching and praying time as we decide where we need to be.
From what I can tell they are Bible believing and teaching. The pastor prayed for Israel (among many other issues.)
Anyone have any input on the NALC?
First I’ve heard of it.
The NALC was formed from a breakaway group of congregations following the 2009 decision by the ELCA to ordain active homosexuals.
However, the NALC still ordains women, and with the exception of their opposition to ordaining active homosexuals, the NALC can be effectively considered as ELCA-lite.
Furthermore, a church body (or an individual) is defined as "Lutheran" if that body publicly holds an unconditional acceptance of the Book of Concord of 1580 as a true and correct exposition of the doctrine contained in Holy Scripture. Internationally, a number of Lutheran church bodies include that definition in their constitutional confessional statement of faith (though some are pretty lax in their practice of that confessional acceptance).
However, the NALC's confessional statement of faith only holds an unconditional acceptance to the three (Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian) Creeds and the Augsburg Confession, but not to the other confessions within the Book of Concord, which NALC considers as only "valid interpretations of faith."
The LCMS leadership has been holding ecumenical talks with the NALC since it was founded, with the pipedream of convincing the NALC to reject the ordination of women and to accept a complete Book of Concord confession. During that time there has been not even an iota of a hint of a notion that the NALC is considering the possibility it might end their ordination of women as pastors.