Jan 6 - What do Lutherans believe? Part 4

More and more people are asking me to tell them more about who Lutherans are and what Lutherans believe. Here's a continuing five-part glimpse of what Lutherans believe. Today we turn to history ...

Jesus said,

"Blessed rather are those

who hear the word of God

and obey it!"

Luke 11:28

I told the first piece of Lutheran history in part one. It is Luther turning to God's Word and discovering God's grace.

The Reformation started in October 31, 1517. Luther didn't originally want to split from the Roman Catholic church; therefore, a decade of debates commenced. Church leaders increasingly tried to silence Luther and debate. Luther kept trying to draw church teachings back to the scriptures. What tipped the balance was a brand new invention, called the printing press. With the ability to put the scriptures in people's hand -- many of the people saw what scripture itself taught and sided with the Reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others).

Luther didn't want a church named after him -- we are followers of Christ, after all. Nevertheless, his teachings and his name spread across northern Europe -- mainly Germany and the Scandanavian countries.

Each country added a piece of their own culture to the Lutheran traditions. Additionally, differing degrees of personal piety began to flavor the Lutheran personality too. For example, Denmark was famous for having Lutherans who were either "Happy Danes" (they reveled -- respectfully -- in the freedom of God's grace) or "Sad Danes" (very austere and pietistic, reading scripture in an equally sincere but totally different way).

Lutheran's filled North America through migration.

• The earliest Lutherans tended to be Germans settling up and down the east coast in the mid-1700s to the early-1800s. After many, many generations, they made up what predominately became known as the Lutheran Church in America (LCA). This band of Lutherans gradually migrated westward and fanned across the country from Eastern seaboard.
• The second wave of Lutherans were predominately Scandavians who settled in the mid-west and upper mid-west who settled in the mid-1800s. Joining with German Lutherans who were also settling these areas, they formed the American Lutheran Church (ALC). They too fanned out from these locations.
• The third significant wave, which came at about the same time as the second wave, were Germans who sailed up the Missippippi, settled around St. Louis, and became known as the Missouri Synod (LCMS). They too fanned out across America.

For Lutherans, the nineteenth century was generally small regional clusters of congregation, divided along ethnic line. In fact, many -- if not most congregations -- still worshiped in their own ethnic languages. 

The twentieth century, however, was a period of increasing Lutheran unity. Ethnic barriers were dissolving, and travel and communication permitted wider affiliation, Lutherans were beginning to band together in larger and larger groups.

Dozens of Lutheran denominations still exist (most either ethnic, regional, or theological in their identity -- there's even a small charismatic Lutheran "denomination"! click here to see! ). By the late 1970s, however, there were really just three major Lutheran bodies -- LCA, ALC, and LCMS -- and all had about two and a half million members.

The LCA was probably the most urban and more liberal (though theologically liberal in a still more traditional era). LCMS was surely the most conservative -- i.e. the most conserving of old Lutheran traditions and old traditional scriptural views. For a while, the more centerist ALC and the LCMS flirted with a merger. This would have been a larger, more traditional Lutheran body. That never quite came to pass.

Therefore, in the late 1980s the door was open for the ALC to merge with the LCA. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was formed. Spirit of Joy was part of this merger; indeed, our congregation was being formed at about that time.

This merger, however, didn't go as smoothly as anyone hoped. Two distinct ministerial identities were spliced together -- one more hierarchical in structure (LCA), one more congregational in authority (ALC). One group was more urban (LCA) and sought more inter-denominational affiliation. No one opposed this in principle -- every believe in Christian unity -- but in practice, many faithful Lutherans rejected some of the theological compromises that other denominations required of us for unity.

As culture changed, more theological compromises were made. As the denomination voted more and more with culture rather than traditional scriptural authority, a fatal crack erupted in this increasingly fractuous denomination. In 2009, a significant exodus began from the ELCA. Hundreds of congregations -- and tens of thousands of individual members -- left this body and its congregations.

Spirit of Joy (along with six other Charlotte area congregations) are now part of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). The distinguishing characteristics of LCMC are:

1. traditional scriptural authority (which is shared with most Christians, including most Lutherans, around the world), 
2. love and grace (that's the second of Luther's key principals -- he turned to the Word and discovered God's grace),
3. and a passionate call to missions! (LCMC maintains an intentionally small national structure. They don't want our offering sponsoring a hierarchal organization; they want to propel us hands-on into local missions. This has given Spirit of Joy greater focus and renewed energy. A full ten percent of our regular giving now go directly to missions. In addition, we have dozens of additional outreaches that individual members choose to support, including angel tree donations, food bank donations, mission trips, etc.)

That's our history. Now, some look at history and yawn. I invite you to look back over this and look for God. Where has he shown up in the past? And where have we gotten in the way? And what does this tell us for moving forward as a people of God?

In Christ's Love,

a guy who likes

to learn from history

so I don't have to repeat

the bad parts