Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod

Founding and early years

In 1844 and 1845, these two groups (the Saxons and the Löhe men) as well as Wyneken and one of his assistants began discussing the possibility of forming a new, confessional Lutheran church body. As a result of the discussions, the Löhe missionaries and Wyneken and his assistant (F. W. Husmann) decided to leave their synods. Planning meetings were held in St. Louis in May 1846 and in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in July 1846. On April 26, 1847, twelve pastors representing fourteen German Lutheran congregations met in Chicago and officially founded the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States. Walther became the fledgling denomination's first president.

The synod was quickly noted for its conservatism and self-professed orthodoxy. The synod's constitution required all members (both pastors and congregations) to pledge fealty to the entire Book of Concord, to reject unionism and syncretism of every kind, to use only doctrinally pure books in both church and school, and to provide for the Christian education of their children. Among other things, these requirements meant that altar and pulpit fellowship was usually restricted to those Lutheran congregations and synods who were in complete doctrinal agreement with the Missouri Synod.

The LCMS' conservatism soon drew it into conflict with other Lutheran synods, the majority of which were then experimenting with so-called "American Lutheranism". In addition, the LCMS also quickly became embroiled in a dispute with the Buffalo Synod and its leader, Johannes Andreas August Grabau, over the proper understanding of the church and the ministry. Within a few years, this conflict led to a separation between the Missouri Synod and Löhe, as Löhe's views were close to those of Grabau.

Despite these conflicts, the Missouri Synod experienced fairly rapid growth in its early years, leading to the subdivision of the synod into four district synods (Central, Eastern, Northern, and Western) in 1854. This growth was due largely to the synod's efforts, under the leadership of its second president, F. C. D. Wyneken, to care for German immigrants, help them find a home among other Germans, build churches and parochial schools, and train pastors and teachers. The synod continued these outreach efforts throughout the 19th century, becoming the largest Lutheran church body in the United States by 1888. By the synod's fiftieth anniversary in 1897, it had grown to 687,000 members.

Synodical Conference

Between 1856 and 1859, the Missouri Synod hosted a series of four free conferences in order to explore the possibility of entering into fellowship agreements with other conservative Lutheran synods. As a result of these conferences, the LCMS entered into fellowship with the Norwegian Synod in 1857. In 1872, these two synods joined the Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and Illinois Synods, which were also conservative Lutheran bodies, to form the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America.

In 1876, the constituent synods of the Synodical Conference considered a plan to reorganize into a single unified church body with a single seminary. Some preliminary moves were made in this direction (including the 1880 absorption of the Illinois Synod into the LCMS' Illinois District), but opposition from some synods postponed the complete implementation of this plan, and the Predestinarian Controversy of the 1880s scuttled the plan entirely. As a result of the controversy, several pastors and congregations withdrew from the Ohio Synod to form the Concordia Synod; this synod merged with the LCMS in 1886.

Efforts were made in the 1920s to establish fellowship with the Ohio, Iowa, and Buffalo synods. Representatives from the synods formulated the Chicago Theses as a for agreement, but the 1929 LCMS synodical convention did not accept them and instead created a committee that, in 1932, produced the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod. After the Ohio, Iowa, and Buffalo synods merged in 1930 to form the first American Lutheran Church (ALC), representatives from the ALC and the LCMS came to agreement on the Brief Statement and the ALC's Declaration in 1938, but again no further action was taken.

English transition

For the first thirty years of its existence, the Missouri Synod focused almost exclusively on meeting the spiritual needs of German-speaking Lutherans, leaving work among English-speaking Lutherans to other synods, particularly the Tennessee and Ohio synods. In 1872, members of the Tennessee Synod invited representatives from the Missouri, Holston, and Norwegian synods to discuss the promotion of English work among the more "Americanized" Lutherans, resulting in the organization of the "English Evangelical Lutheran Conference of Missouri." This conference was reorganized in 1888 as an independent church body, the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States, which subsequently merged into the LCMS as its English District in 1911. In its first twenty years, the English Synod became responsible for two colleges, organized dozens of congregations and parochial schools, took over the publication of The Lutheran Witness (an English-language newspaper published by LCMS pastors in Cleveland, Ohio), and published several hymnals and other books.

English work became more widespread in the LCMS during the first two decades of the twentieth century, with older members of the synod continuing to speak primarily German and younger members increasingly switching to English. As one scholar has explained, "The overwhelming evidence from internal documents of these [Missouri Synod] churches, and particularly their schools... indicates that the German-American school was a bilingual one much (perhaps a whole generation or more) earlier than 1917, and that the majority of the pupils may have been English-dominant bilinguals from the early 1880s on." The anti-German sentiment during the wars hastened the "Americanization" of the church and caused many churches to add English services and in some cases, drop German services entirely. During the years of language transition, the synod's membership continued to grow, until by 1947, the synod had grown to over 1.5 million members.

During this time, the LCMS expanded its missionary efforts through the creation of its own radio station—KFUO (AM) (1924)—and its own international radio program—The Lutheran Hour (1930). Several years later, the synod began broadcasting its own TV drama—This Is the Life (1952).

Post-WWII

In 1945, a group of 44 leaders and theologians in the synod issued a statement criticizing the synod's approach toward other Lutheran bodies. The document known as "A Statement of the Forty-four" was signed by Theodore Graebner and four other professors at Concordia Seminary and by H. B. Hemmeter, who had recently retired as president of Concordia Theological Seminary, among others. The statement provoked immediate response from others in the synod.

In 1947, its centennial year, the church body shortened its name from "The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States" to the present one, "The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod". The 1947 convention also directed the Committee on Doctrinal Unity to meet with the Fellowship Commission of the ALC to develop a set of doctrinal theses. The first meeting was on May 17, 1948, and, after additional meetings, the Common Confession, Part I, was approved by the two committees on December 5–6, 1949. Both the ALC and the LCMS accepted the document in 1950. The two committees continued meeting to develop Part II of the Common Confession covering additional topics. The ALC accepted Part II in 1954. The 1956 convention of the LCMS recognized the Common Confession as one document in two parts that is a statement "in harmony with the Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions"; however, it also declared that the document should not be "regarded or employed as a functioning basic document toward the establishment of altar and pulpit fellowship with other church bodies".

The renewed interest in the ALC led a number of parties to fear that the synod was losing its doctrinal basis. In 1951, a small group of pastors and congregations left the synod to form the Orthodox Lutheran Conference, but the main impetus for the move was not church fellowship, but the question of whether breaking an engagement (in the modern sense) is the same as the breaking of a betrothal (historically) and therefore a sin, as those leaving the synod contended. Concerns about the LCMS becoming more open to less conservative Lutheran bodies caused problems in the Synodical Conference. In 1955, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) broke fellowship with the LCMS, and in 1957, the WELS publicly admonished the LCMS, and, in 1961, it finally broke fellowship with the LCMS. Both the ELS and the WELS withdrew from the Synodical Conference in 1963, leaving only the LCMS and the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (SELC), an historically Slovak-American church, as members. In 1971, the SELC merged with the LCMS, forming the SELC District. The National Evangelical Lutheran Church, an historically Finnish-American Lutheran church, had already merged with the LCMS on January 1, 1964.

When the 1959 synodical convention did not take any action against the liberal movement, a number of pastors and laymen met in a State of the Church Conference at Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, Missouri, in which that church's pastor, Herman Otten, presented a book of documentation of the various controversies that had arisen in the LCMS since 1950 and before. Several additional conferences were held, with the one in Milwaukee on May 15–16, 1961, attracting over 400 people. Plans were made at that conference for actions they wanted the 1962 synodical convention to take. The failure of the convention to do so led a dozen or so congregations and pastors to form the Lutheran Churches of the Reformation on April 28–29, 1964, at Emmaus Lutheran Church in Chicago. However, many of those opposed to the direction of the LCMS decided to remain in the synod, hoping to influence its direction.

In 1967, the LCMS agreed with the second American Lutheran Church (the successor to the first ALC) and the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) to form the Lutheran Council in the United States of America (LCUSA), but only on the assurance that a program of theological discussion would be implemented. With the election of J. A. O. Preus II as its president over the incumbent, Oliver Harms, in 1969, the LCMS began a sharp turn towards a more conservative direction. A dispute over the use of the historical-critical method for Biblical interpretation led to the suspension of John Tietjen as president of Concordia Seminary. In response, many of the faculty and students left the seminary and formed Seminex (Concordia Seminary in Exile), which took up residence at the nearby Eden Theological Seminary in suburban St. Louis.

The same convention which elected Preus as president also established altar and pulpit fellowship with the ALC. This was seen by many as a gesture toward Harms, who had supported the declaration of fellowship. Eight years later, the 1977 convention declared a state of "fellowship in protest" as the ALC exhibited closer ties to the more liberal LCA. The 1981 convention terminated the fellowship agreement. A number of pastors and others did not think that Preus's method of dealing with false doctrine would be successful. On November 1–2, 1971, members of the Conference for Authentic Lutheranism in California and the Free Association for Authentic Lutheranism in the Midwest met in Libertyville, Illinois, north of Chicago, to form a new church body, the Federation for Authentic Lutheranism (FAL). They expected 50 to 60 congregations to join, but in the end, only six did as the conservative wing continued to gain strength in the LCMS. FAL declared fellowship with the WELS in 1973, but did not survive very long thereafter.

In 1976, about 250 of the congregations supporting Seminex left the LCMS to form the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). The LCMS restricted its participation with LCUSA shortly after the AELC schism and announced that it would not participate in any merger discussions. In 1988, the AELC, ALC, and LCA merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and LCUSA was dissolved.

History

Baepler, Walter A. A Century of Grace: A History of the Missouri Synod, 1847–1947. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1947.

Bodensieck, Julius, ed. The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church (3 vol 1965) vol 1 and 3 online free

Cimino, Richard. Lutherans Today: American Lutheran Identity in the Twenty-First Century. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2003. ISBN 0-8028-1365-8

Dau, W. H. T., ed. Ebenezer: Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod during Three Quarters of a Century. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1922.

Forster, Walter O. Zion on the Mississippi: The Settlement of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri 1839–1841. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953.

Galchutt, Kathryn M. The Career of Andrew Schulze, 1924–1968: Lutherans and Race in the Civil Rights Era. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005.

Graebner, August Lawrence. Half a Century of Sound Lutheranism in America: A Brief Sketch of the History of the Missouri Synod St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1893.

Granquist, Mark. Lutherans In America: A new History. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4514-7228-8

Gronberg, Erik K.J. "Adaptive Leadership in Crisis: John Tietjen, Concordia Seminary, and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Crisis of 1969–1975" (Dallas Baptist University, 2017) online.

Meyer, Carl S. Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964. LOC 63-21161

Nelson, E. Clifford et al. The Lutherans in North America. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8006-0409-1

Polack, W. G. The Building of a Great Church: A Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Rudnick, Milton L. Fundamentalism and the Missouri Synod: A historical study of their interaction and mutual influence. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1966. LOC 66-28229

Schieferdecker, G.A. History of the First German Lutheran Settlement in Altenburg, Perry County, Missouri with Special Emphasis on its Ecclesiastic Movements. Clayton, Iowa: Wartburg Seminary, 1865.

Schiffman, Harold. "Language loyalty in the German-American Church: the Case of an Over-confident Minority" (1987) online

Schmidtz, F. The Destinies and Adventures of the Stephanists who emigrated from Saxony to America Dresden: C. Heinrich, 1839.

Settje, David E. Lutherans and the Longest War: Adrift on a Sea of Doubt about the Cold and Vietnam Wars, 1964–1975. Lanham, Lexington Books, 2007.

Suelflow, August R. Heritage in Motion: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod 1962–1995. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1998. ISBN 0-570-04266-6

Todd, Mary. Authority Vested: A Story of Identity and Change in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2000. ISBN 0-8028-4457-X

Walz, Jeff, and Steve Montreal. "The Political Attitudes and Activities of Missouri Synod Lutheran (LCMS) Clergy in 2001 and 2009: A Research Note." Review of religious research 58 (2016): 149–163.