Church History

Church life

American Lutherans spent the century merging. The main steps came in 1918, 1930, 1960, and 1962. In 1918 the United Lutheran Church in America formed. In 1930 the first American Lutheran Church formed. In 1960 a second American Lutheran Church formed. In 1962 the Lutheran Church in America formed. Each merger joined groups that began as separate immigrant churches. Each had to decide how much doctrinal agreement a union needs. That question touches the Gospel and the Lord’s Supper. P: ELCA constitution, merger preamble p. 18 V1: New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,” account of the ALC (1960) and LCA (1962) V2: Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions, “Lutheran Churches,” entries on the ULCA (1918), ALC (1930 and 1960), and LCA (1962). The 1930 merger of the Ohio, Iowa, and Buffalo synods: Pacific Lutheran University Archives, “American Lutheran Church”.
The ELCA began on January 1, 1988. It joined the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. P: ELCA constitution, introduction p. 9 and original merger preamble p. 18 V1: ELCA institutional history, founding paragraph V2: Mark Menacher, “The ELCA, Quo Vadis?”, pp. 287-288. Menacher’s sharp assessment is not adopted here as a historical fact.
The Lutheran Hour began on radio on October 2, 1930. The Lutheran Laymen’s League of the Missouri Synod sponsored it, and Walter A. Maier was its speaker from 1930 to 1950. It carried the Gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection into homes across North America. P: Lutheran Hour Ministries, history page (Maier, speaker 1930-1950) V1: Lutheran Laymen’s League of Canada, “Our History,” first program broadcast October 2, 1930 V2: Gene Edward Veith, “Sheen and Maier: Broadcasting Theology,” Acton Institute, Religion & Liberty 34:2 (Maier, KFUO, and the 1930 national broadcast).
William J. Seymour led the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles in 1906. Many Pentecostal churches trace their start to it. P: The Apostolic Faith, September 1906 V1: PBS, Jon Butler on religious worship and race V2: Encyclopedia of Religion, Seymour.
Class activity: compare worship in three texts. They are P: Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium 47-58 (on the Mass), P: ELCA, The Use of the Means of Grace, Principles 33-49, and P: Apology XXIV. Ask what each service gives to the people and what it asks them to do.

Controversy and heresy

In 1934 the Confessing Church (German Protestants who resisted Nazi control of the church) issued the Barmen Declaration. It says that Jesus Christ alone is the Word of God that the church must hear and obey. P: Barmen, introductory appeal and declaration V1: USHMM, German churches and the Nazi state, Confessing Church account V2: USHMM symposium, Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust, printed p. 41. The two checking works show the declaration and its setting. They do not prove every word of each thesis. Class activity: read Thesis I and compare it with P: Augsburg Confession III.
The Synodical Conference was a group of conservative Lutheran synods formed in 1872. It came apart over church fellowship. The question was about shared pulpits and altars. The Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) broke with the Missouri Synod (LCMS) in 1955. The Wisconsin Synod (WELS) broke with it in 1961. The ELS and WELS left the Conference in 1963. It became inactive in 1966 and was dissolved in 1967. The question was whether to share the Lord’s Supper and the pulpit with churches that disagree in doctrine. P: WELS history timeline, 1872, 1961, and 1963 entries V1: LCMS Reporter, “Paper outlines state of LCMS, WELS, ELS talks,” July 2025 (fellowship suspended with the ELS in 1955 and with the WELS in 1961) V2: ELS, “History of the ELS,” entries for 1955 and 1963. The ELS, WELS, and LCMS each give their own reasons in their own documents.
The Seminex crisis split the Missouri Synod. On January 20, 1974, the board of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, suspended its president, John Tietjen. On February 19, most students and faculty left and went on to form Concordia Seminary in Exile (“Seminex”). The dispute was about how to read and trust the Bible. About 200 congregations (counts vary) left the LCMS in 1976 and formed the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), which joined the ELCA in 1988. P: participant Ed Schroeder’s recollections, quoted in Crossings’ “Remembering Seminex,” account of February 1974 V1: Frank Imhoff, “Christ-centered theology and preaching,” historical account and participant interviews V2: Concordia Seminary Board of Regents minutes, February 8-9, 2024, p. 6, looking back on the 1974 walkout. Dates: Christianity Today, “Missouri Synod: The Showdown,” February 1974, on the January 20 suspension and LCMS Reporter, “A look back: The ‘Walkout,’” February 9, 2024, on the February 19 walkout. The AELC and its congregations: Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions, “Lutheran Churches,” entries on the AELC and the LCMS. This outline does not take either side’s view of the causes.
Class activity on biblical authority: read P: Formula, Rule and Norm, 1-10. Then read what each side in the Seminex dispute actually wrote. Do not guess a person’s view from the party he belonged to.

Councils and major events

The Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) met in Rome from October 11, 1962, to December 8, 1965. Pope John XXIII called it. Pope Paul VI led its last three sessions. It issued sixteen documents. P: John XXIII, opening address, October 11, 1962 V1: USCCB, “The Second Vatican Council” (convened by John XXIII in 1962; sixteen documents) V2: Encyclopedia.com, “Vatican Council II”. Its teaching on the Mass, Scripture, and the Church ties it to the Lord’s Supper and to Christ.
- Lutheran classification: Mixed. The Confessions agree with Dei Verbum’s teaching that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh who completes the work of salvation (Dei Verbum 4). They also agree that Baptism truly joins a person to Christ (Unitatis Redintegratio 22). They reject four teachings. One is that the Pope has a supreme and infallible teaching office (Lumen Gentium 18 and 25). Another is that tradition and Scripture form one source of revelation (Dei Verbum 9-10). A third is that the priest offers the Mass as a sacrifice (Lumen Gentium 10-11). The fourth is that Christians ask the saints for help (Lumen Gentium 50). The reasons are in Smalcald Articles II, 2 and 4, Apology XXIV, and Apology XXI.
Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium, December 4, 1963) set out how the Mass is to be celebrated. It encouraged use of local languages and fuller participation by the people. P: Sacrosanctum Concilium, 14 and 36, dated conclusion V1: St Andrews, Vatican II, constitution on the liturgy V2: St Andrews, Embodiment and Liturgy, account of Vatican II’s liturgical reform. Class activity: read sections 14 and 36.
The Lutheran World Federation was founded at Lund, Sweden, in 1947. It links Lutheran churches around the world. Not every Lutheran church belongs to it. The LCMS does not. P: LWF, “Who we are” V1: LCMS Reporter, “Resource provides history of Lutheran World Federation,” 2024 (LWF founded 1947; the LCMS is not a member) V2: ELS, “History of the ELS,” on the 1993 Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference.
The Leuenberg Agreement of 1973 sets up pulpit and table fellowship among the Lutheran, Reformed, and related European churches that signed it. Not all Lutheran churches signed. P: Leuenberg, 1-2 and 29-34 V1: Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe, history of the agreement V2: “The Leuenberg Agreement and church unity,” 2009, analysis of fellowship.
In 1999 the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ). Justification means how a sinner is made right with God through Christ. P: JDDJ, dated publication and preamble V1: LCMS, Ecumenical Discussions on Justification, Leader’s Guide, pp. 3-4 V2: Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, The Hope of Eternal Life, introduction, account of the 1999 agreement.
Class activity: compare how two North American Lutheran sources speak of their church’s continuity and common confession. Use the P: Harstad sermon excerpt and the P: ELCA merger preamble.

Major people

Bjug Harstad preached the opening sermon at the Norwegian Lutheran meeting at Lime Creek, Iowa, in June 1918. The meeting started the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS), a small church that held to the older doctrine of the Norwegian Synod. P: his sermon excerpt, from the 1918 proceedings (Beretning), p. 78, quoted in Ferkenstad, “Doctrinal Divergence,” note 16 V1: Peter Faugstad, 2018 convention essay, Lime Creek meeting and opening sermon V2: ELS centennial archive, “Founders Day Resources”. See also ELS, “History of the ELS”. The full Norwegian proceedings were not read.
Class activity: read P: Harstad’s 1918 essay on unity of the Spirit and the warning against unionism with P: Augsburg Confession VII. Ask how spiritual unity differs from a merger of church bodies.
Francis Pieper (1852-1931) was a leading Missouri Synod theologian and president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, from 1887 until his death. He served on the committee that produced the Brief Statement of 1932, the synod’s short statement of doctrine, which revised his earlier writings. P: LCMS, A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position V1: Concordia Historical Institute, Francis A. O. Pieper collection, biographical note (1852-1931; seminary president after Walther’s death until his own) V2: Todd A. Peperkorn, Concordia Theological Quarterly 65:4 (2001), on the 1932 Brief Statement and Pieper’s part in it.
Walter A. Maier (1893-1950) was a Missouri Synod pastor, professor, and the radio speaker of The Lutheran Hour from 1930 until his death. P: Lutheran Hour Ministries, history page V1: Wm. Arndt, “Walter Arthur Maier, 1893-1950,” Concordia Theological Monthly 21 (1950) V2: Gene Edward Veith, “Sheen and Maier: Broadcasting Theology,” Acton Institute, Religion & Liberty 34:2 (Maier, 1893-1950, and the 1930 national broadcast).
Pope John XXIII was elected on October 28, 1958, and called Vatican II. He died on June 3, 1963, before it ended. P: John XXIII, opening address of Vatican II V1: Vatican, biographical profile of Pope John XXIII (elected 28 October 1958; died 3 June 1963) V2: Paul VI, In Spiritu Sancto, December 8, 1965 (council opened under John XXIII; Paul VI carried it on after his death).
Class activity: compare two firsthand Seminex accounts, P: Ed Schroeder, as quoted and described by Crossings and P: Kurt Hendel and other participants, interview excerpts. Keep what a person saw separate from what he later judged.
Billy Graham led the Los Angeles evangelistic campaign of 1949, which made him known across the United States. P: Graham, Just As I Am, Los Angeles excerpt V1: Christianity Today, Billy Graham biography V2: TIME, Graham’s greatest sermons.
Billy Graham preached forgiveness through Christ’s death and called people to personal faith in Christ. P: Graham, Finding Jesus Christ P: Graham, How Do I Know I’m Saved? V1: TIME, Graham’s New Sermon, 1977 V2: PBS American Experience, Billy Graham.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer published Discipleship (The Cost of Discipleship) in 1937. P: Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, Internet Archive copy V1: International Bonhoeffer Society, DBWE V2: Encyclopedia of Religion, Bonhoeffer.
Martin Luther King Jr. gave the “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963. P: King, I Have a Dream V1: Stanford King Institute V2: National Park Service, March on Washington.

Wider world

The Wright brothers made the first powered, controlled flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. P: National Air and Space Museum, 1903 Wright Flyer V1: HISTORY, Wright brothers V2: National Park Service, “History - Aviation” (first controlled, powered flight, December 17, 1903, Kitty Hawk).
World War I armistice, 1918: The agreement of November 11 stopped the fighting on the Western Front. P: Armistice with Germany, dated text and section A.I V1: National Archives, armistice history V2: National WWI Museum and Memorial, November 11, 1918.
The U.S. stock market crashed in 1929, at the start of the Great Depression. The crash was not the only cause of the Depression. P: Hoover’s November 5 news conference, speculation and crash discussion V1: Federal Reserve History, Stock Market Crash of 1929 V2: Richard Norton Smith and Timothy Walch, The Ordeal of Herbert Hoover, crash account.
The Holocaust: between 1933 and 1945 the Nazi German state persecuted Jews, and from 1941 to 1945 it and its allies murdered about six million European Jews. At the Wannsee meeting on January 20, 1942, officials discussed the plan to carry out the “final solution.” P: Wannsee Protocol, January 20, 1942 V1: USHMM, Introduction to the Holocaust V2: National Archives, Holocaust-era records, overview.
Japan signed its surrender to the Allies on September 2, 1945, which ended World War II. P: Instrument of Surrender, operative text and signatures V1: National Diet Library, signing history V2: National WWII Museum, Full Circle, Tokyo Bay surrender.
The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948. P: UDHR, dated identification, preamble, and proclamation V1: UN, History of the Declaration V2: John Sears, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, printed p. 4.
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. P: mission voice transcript, 109:24-109:53, including Armstrong’s reading of the dated plaque V1: NASA, July 20, 1969, historical account V2: National Air and Space Museum, Apollo 11, Moon landing section.

Confessional Lutheran connection

Confessional Christology holds that Christ is fully God and fully man in one person. P: Augsburg Confession III.1-6 V1: Formula VIII.6-13 V2: Large Catechism, Creed, Second Article, 26-31. Class activity: connect this to the Supper by reading P: Formula VIII.76-85.
Baptism gives God’s grace. Christ’s body and blood are truly present in the Supper. P: Small Catechism, Baptism and Sacrament of the Altar V1: Augsburg Confession IX-X V2: Apology IX.51-53 and X.54-57. Class activity: compare how these texts explain forgiveness and faith.
Class activity on the Synodical Conference: ask when the Confessions call for church fellowship and when they call for separation. Read P: Augsburg Confession VII and P: Formula, Rule and Norm. Then read the ELS, WELS, and LCMS statements on fellowship, each in its own words. This is the curriculum’s confessional question, not a verdict on any body.
Class activity on Vatican II: compare P: Dei Verbum 9-10 with P: Formula, Rule and Norm, 1-10. Note where the two agree that Scripture is God’s Word and where they disagree on tradition.
Class activity on Leuenberg and JDDJ: compare P: Leuenberg 15-23 with P: Formula VII-VIII, and P: JDDJ 15-24 and 40-43 with P: Apology IV. Keep the reported agreement apart from the class’s own judgment of whether it is enough.
Class activity on world history: read P: UDHR Articles 1-3 and 18 P: Barmen V, and P: Augsburg Confession XVI. Discuss force, conscience, love of neighbor, and the state. Legal rights are not the same as saving grace.
Class activity on the Pentecostal movement: read The Apostolic Faith, September 1906, pages 1-2. Ask how the writers relate Christ, salvation, the Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues. Compare Acts 2 with AC V, IX-X. Compare the Small Catechism too. Pentecostal churches later became very diverse. One text does not speak for all.
Class activity on discipleship: read the chapter on costly grace. It is in The Cost of Discipleship. Ask how Bonhoeffer links grace, obedience, the cross, and the incarnation (God becoming man). Look at what he says about Baptism and Communion in context. Compare AC IV-VI, IX-X. Discipleship follows justification and does not cause it.
Class activity on public speech: read King’s whole speech. Note its Bible images and its call for justice. Read it beside the Fifth Commandment in the Small Catechism. Read AC XVI too. Civil rights and service to the neighbor differ from being made right with God. This one speech does not show all of King’s teaching on Christ or the sacraments.
Class activity on evangelism: read two Graham texts. Start with How Do I Know I’m Saved? and then take Finding Jesus Christ, a spoken transcript. Compare his preaching of Christ’s cross with AC IV-V. Compare his call to personal faith too. Then read the Small Catechism on Baptism and the Supper. Ask where assurance rests and how Word and sacraments give Christ’s promise. These two readings do not show his whole teaching on the sacraments.

Lutheran developments

In North America, Lutheran churches grew from immigrant groups that spoke German, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Danish. Through the century, language and ethnic lines faded as these churches merged. The ELCA’s three predecessor bodies are the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. P: ELCA constitution, introduction p. 9 and merger preamble p. 18 V1: ELCA institutional history, founding paragraph V2: Menacher, The ELCA, Quo Vadis?, pp. 287-288.
The Missouri Synod published A Brief Statement of its doctrine in 1932. It states that the Bible is God’s inspired Word and that the Lutheran Confessions are the right statement of it. The Brief Statement grew out of the failure of the Chicago Theses, a 1920s attempt at agreement with the other synods. P: LCMS, A Brief Statement V1: Carl S. Meyer, “The Role of A Brief Statement Since 1932,” Concordia Theological Monthly 33 (1962), abstract V2: Todd A. Peperkorn, Concordia Theological Quarterly 65:4 (2001), on the Chicago Theses (rejected 1929) and the Brief Statement committee.
The Synodical Conference ended between 1955 and 1967 (see “Controversy and heresy”). After 1963 the LCMS, WELS, and ELS stood in separate fellowships. The ELS and WELS worked together with other churches abroad, and in 1993 they helped found the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference. P: WELS history timeline V1: Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, “Evangelical Lutheran Synod—USA” (Lime Creek 1918; the old Synodical Conference; the 1993 CELC) V2: ELS, “History of the ELS”.
In 1970 the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America began ordaining women as pastors. The LCMS teaches that ordaining women is contrary to Scripture. P: LCMS Reporter, “CTCR responds to dissent over reports, actions,” 2006 (the 1994 CTCR report on women and the pastoral office) V1: Grand Canyon Synod, ELCA, “June 29 marks 50 years!” (LCA vote of June 29, 1970; ALC resolution a few months later) V2: Metropolitan New York Synod, ELCA, “Memorial 1: The ELCA’s 50th Anniversary of the Ordination of Women” (both bodies voted in 1970). Read each body’s own statement and the Scripture it cites before you judge.
The Seminex split of 1974 led to the AELC in 1976 and then to the ELCA in 1988 (see “Controversy and heresy”). It left the LCMS more conservative. P: Ed Schroeder in Crossings’ “Remembering Seminex” V1: Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions, “Lutheran Churches,” entries on the AELC and the ELCA V2: New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Evangelical Lutheran Church in America”.
In 1994 the ELCA rejected Luther’s hostile writings against the Jews. P: Declaration to the Jewish Community, paragraphs on Luther’s later writings V1: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1994 report, opening paragraphs V2: AJC, On Luther and His Lies, account of the 1994 statement. The report and the AJC article are separate works. Class activity: read the declaration beside the 1543 excerpt in unit 16 and the P: Large Catechism, Fifth Commandment.
Class activity on JDDJ: tell apart taking part in dialogue and signing an agreement. Read P: The Hope of Eternal Life, introduction note 5 and Appendix I beside P: the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations’ 1999 assessment. Judge the actual arguments by P: Apology IV.
Class activity on North American bodies: compare their own words in the P: ELCA merger preamble and confession chapter, the P: LCMS Brief Statement, and the P: ELS doctrinal statements. Compare each with the Book of Concord before drawing conclusions.