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Or how about 12 steps for ELCA dissenters? (With some apologies to my friends who are in recovery, knowing they will not take offense.) 1. We admitted that we were powerless over ELCA Assemblies and our churches had become unmanageable. 2. We came to believe that a power outside the ELCA could restore us to orthodoxy. 3. We made a decision to turn our lives over to the care of this power as we understood it, whether it be NALC or LCMC. 4. We made a searching and fearless inventory of our constitutions, looking for escape clauses. 5. We admitted...

The ELCA's Southeastern Iowa Synod issued a statement in their weekly newsletter concerning the Southeastern Iowa Synod Council's removal of St. Mark's Lutheran church (Marion, IA) from the roster of ELCA congregations. Within the statement it says, "The congregation is being served by a pastor of LCMC, a church body considered to promote separation (schismatic) from the ELCA (see HERE ) This is interesting to me because firstly they openly claim that the LCMC promotes separation from the ELCA. What are the facts that support this allegation? The fact of the matter is that this congregation, which the synod took...

A Message from the Board and Staff of WordAlone Times of difficulty and crisis are ones that often call us to hard decisions. For people of faith, this makes it even more critical that we seek to live in trust and obedience. Such is the case facing WordAlone as an organization at this time. As servants of Christ, we are called by our Lord to be faithful managers and stewards of all that he has entrusted to us - not only in terms of our material resources, but even more importantly, in his Word as "stewards of the mysteries of...

Bishop Stephen S.Talmage, Grand Canyon Synod ELCA, sent a letter to synod pastors stating that Shepherd of the Hills, Fountain Hills, AZ was removed from synod rolls, December 11, 2010 because of their dual affiliation with the LCMC. Their pastor, Steve Berges, resigned from the ELCA clergy roster as well. It is quite amazing that ELCA congregations across the country are being held to the constitution of the national church body when it comes to voting. Yet, the rules for congregations holding dual membership in other Lutheran bodies are enforced differently from synod to synod. Literally hundreds of ELCA congregations...

When the ELCA approved ordaining gays into the ministry last August, nearly two-thirds of the congregation at Seward's Faith Lutheran Church decided it was time to go. So nearly half of Faith Lutheran's members -- including its longtime minister and most of the church council -- broke away to start a new church. Thirty days later, last Sunday, Living Word Lutheran Church opened its doors in Seward's former First Presbyterian Church, which closed last winter. In the pulpit is the Rev. Jim Miller, Faith Lutheran's pastor for the past 11 1/2 years. On that same Sunday across town, many Faith...

A Lutheran pastor and four congregations in South Dakota were recently censured by their bishop for affiliating with another Lutheran body. The Rev. Frezil Westerlund of Philip, S.D., received a letter last week from the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America informing her that she was in violation of church law. The four churches she serves had voted to join the more "centrist" Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ and redirect funds away from the synod. At the same time, they did not vote to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The votes were made...

A leadership conference at west Omaha’s Lutheran Church of the Master drew close to 350 people from around the country. That’s a sign of how fast a breakaway church group, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, is growing as members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America grapple with a controversial decision allowing gay clergy who are in committed relationships. The annual conference was for pastors and lay leaders of churches in Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. The association was founded in 2001 by people, including members of Omaha’s Lutheran Church of the Master, who disagreed with the direction...

ROY -- A church in Roy may end up affiliated with a different Lutheran congregation because of a split with national church leaders over gay priests. Last summer the Evangelical Lutheran Churches of America voted to allow openly practicing gay and lesbian pastors to preside over congregations instead of requiring gay pastors to practice celibacy, as had been the previous policy. The Standard-Examiner reports that vote has caused concern for at least one Utah congregation. Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Roy will hold a forum on Thursday to talk about the possibility of joining a different Lutheran congregation, the Lutheran...

It was standing room only Monday night at St. Paul's Lutheran Church at a meeting of Lutherans unhappy with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's recent vote to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy. Those assembled — about 450, organizers estimated — voted unanimously to approve a resolution to form a Lutheran Coalition for Renewal (CORE) group in North Carolina. CORE is a conservative network of clergy and lay Lutherans who believe the church has fallen into heresy and whose goal is a "reconfiguration of North American Lutheranism." At issue mainly is the ELCA's adoption on Aug. 19...

Fargo will be ground zero for the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ annual gathering, and some of those attending may use it as a way to find a new church that reflects their values. Fargo will be ground zero for the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ annual gathering, and some of those attending may use it as a way to find a new church that reflects their values.Of the 600 people registered for the event, which starts Sunday at Atonement Lutheran Church in Fargo, 37 percent are non-members.Atonement Senior Pastor Dale Wolf said nearly all of those visitors...

St. Paul, Minn. — Members of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minneapolis decided to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after a 96 percent vote by members on Sunday. The decision to leave came after the ELCA Church-wide Assembly vote on Aug. 21 in Minneapolis, that allowed gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Before the ECLA's decision, gay clergy were allowed to be ministers only if they were celibate. Some church members object to the new policy, saying it goes against Scripture. The St. Paul's congregation's council set a policy in October 1990 that...

Chuck Wallner believes the leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is taking the church in the wrong direction. “It is my belief and the belief of a number of others that sin, repentance and redemption are soon to be considered antiquated words within the ELCA,” he said. “Orthodox theology is a theology of repentance and redemption as opposed to what I believe the new theology is, and that appears to be a theology of tolerance and social justice.” Wallner, 69, said he has no ax to grind with the latter theology, but it should grow from what he...

Local Lutheran church changes affiliation By SCOTT POWELL Ledger Staff Writer St. Paul's Lutheran Church took the historic step Sunday of becoming the first South Carolina church to leave its state and national Lutheran governing bodies. St. Paul's Lutheran Church congregation members voted 90-25 following Sunday's worship service to leave the S.C. Synod and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). The move followed a 4-year span in which St. Paul's and several other Lutheran churches statewide have struggled with what pastor Roger Lindler described as a national "theological shift in the direction of the Lutheran church." The ELCA's activities have...