A new Lutheran
denomination begins
By Peggy Hedden, The Layman, August 30, 2010
Just 23 years after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was formed in Columbus, Ohio, by three American Lutheran denominations, a new denomination has been formed by congregations dissatisfied with the ELCA’s abandonment of its own Scriptural and confessional theology.
The new denomination, the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), seeks to link Lutheran congregations from Canada to Panama (including the Caribbean) that are “Christ-centered, mission-driven, congregationally-focused and grounded in tradition.”
Approximately 1,100 individuals gathering a few miles south of Columbus adopted a constitution and elected a bishop and other officers to serve this multi-national body. Eighteen congregations from 11 states formed the charter body; expectations are that about 200 churches will be members by the first official assembly in mid-2011.
Many of the same people had assembled last September in Fishers, Ind., to begin the process that resulted in this new denomination. In August 2009, the ELCA’s national gathering authorized the ordination as clergy of persons who engage in homosexual and lesbian behaviors. That authorization, however, was just the last straw to top off the load of ELCA policies that the Fishers participants considered heretical and apostate, betraying basic understandings about who Jesus Christ is and what salvation through Him means; the nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and the authority of the Scripture over Christians.
So, they gave the LutheranCORE leaders, who called that 2009 meeting, one year to report back with a recommendation on how to reconfigure American Lutheranism, with options including to continue within the ELCA, to join another existing Lutheran group, or to form a new denomination. Within several months, LutheranCORE announced that the formation of a new Lutheran church was its recommended option, and seven task forces began work on fleshing out how that would be done. The resulting reports formed the basis of the new NALC.
The 11-page constitution adopted last week is provisional; comments about concerns and improvements were received and forwarded to the newly formed Executive Council of four lay members, four pastors and the bishop for their consideration and recommendation when a permanent constitution will be presented for ratification by both the 2011 assembly and the member congregations.
A major feature of the new denomination’s structure is the focus on mission – bearing witness to Christ – done by the congregations directly, rather than through a large ecclesiastic bureaucracy. Each congregation is expected to cultivate a direct relationship with at least one faithful mission body or individual and with a newly planted mission congregation in its own country or abroad.
Two areas of the constitution generated a number of comments: The provision (4.05) that forbids clergy from belonging to organizations whose teaching claims “that which the Lord has given solely to His Church;” and section 17.03, on ratification of subsequent amendments. Section 4.05 goes back to before the 1950s in the documents of a number of Lutheran groups and was aimed at societies with secret rituals; a motion to remove the prohibition failed.
Ratification of amendments is outlined in section 17.03: an amendment must be approved by both a convocation and by member congregations; if a congregation fails to ratify an amendment within the allotted period, its failure is deemed as approval. Several persons asked that that be reversed, and that failure be deemed as rejection, citing their experience that clergy are the gate-keepers to the congregation, and that the current state of the ELCA is partly because pastors have kept issues and actions from the congregation’s knowledge.
Another topic forwarded for consideration is to allow individuals in the ELCA to become members of the NALC. The constitution now allows membership for congregations and pastors. For this initial convocation, voting members were individuals as well as congregations who had signed the Common Confession of LutheranCORE and came to the meeting.
The new denomination will continue two practices of the current ELCA: That property belongs to the congregations and that each congregation will be asked to support the administration of the denomination through an apportioned contribution.
The NALC leadership will include:
- The Rev. Paull Spring, who was elected as bishop. Spring currently resides in Pennsylvania and served as a bishop in the ELCA from 1987 until his retirement in 2001 and he served on LutheranCORE as chairman.
- The executive council includes four lay people: James
Rev. Paull Spring Hansen of Nebraska, Carol Lattier of Texas, Ryan Schwarz of Washington, D.C., and Kay Johnson Weaver of North Carolina; and four pastors Donald Allman of Ohio, Amanda Grimmer of Pennsylvania, Victor Langford of Washington and Jim Lehmann of Illinois. - In addition, seven lay people and clergy were installed to serve as a court of adjudication for the new denomination.
The new denomination intends to continue its relationship with Lutherans around the world, as well as faithful non-Lutheran bodies. The convocation was attended by representatives of Lutheran denominations in Tanzania and Ethiopia, as well as the Anglican Church in North America. Spring was installed in a service led by The Rev. Dr. Benson Bagonza, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania’s Karagwe Diocese. The NALC will be applying for membership in several world-wide Lutheran bodies.
LutheranCORE, the organization formed in 2005 to effect reform within the ELCA and which shepherded the formation of the NALC, will continue to work and it elected new officers. The Rev. Mark Chavez its executive director, said the group will serve to resource both the NALC and individuals and congregations within the ELCA, but LutheranCORE will no longer focus on changing the policies of the ELCA.
LutheranCORE will help in providing theological education for adult Lutherans, such as the 3-day conference attended by 820 people preceding the NALC convocation, and for youth, including a national conference for Lutheran youth July 7, 2011, in Chicago. Additionally, LutheranCORE will assist in carrying out the vision of the NACL that congregations be directly related with faithful mission agencies and mission congregations so, as Chavez repeatedly stated, that the Main Thing is the Main Thing – the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord, the presentation of His Gospel, the witnessing of people coming to faith in Jesus and making disciples in Him.