The Lutheran Free Church ( LFC ) was a Lutheran denomination that existed in the United States , mainly in Minnesota and North Dakota , from 1897 until its merger into the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in 1963. The history of the church body predates its official organization, and a group of congregations that did not join the ALC formed the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations .
20-556: Messenger Press was the publishing house of the Lutheran Free Church (LFC). At the time of the merger of the Lutheran Free Church with other church bodies to form the "new" American Lutheran Church , Messenger Press merged with the other publishing houses to form Augsburg Fortress . This article relating to Lutheranism is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about
40-530: A United States publishing company is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about religious mass media is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Lutheran Free Church Georg Sverdrup and Sven Oftedal were two scholars from prominent Haugean families in Norway who came to Augsburg Seminary, now Augsburg University , in Minneapolis , Minnesota , to teach in
60-641: A larger number of foreign missionaries than many of its contemporary Lutheran church bodies of comparable size. By the 1950s there was a growing movement by many Lutherans throughout the United States to merge smaller Lutheran bodies into larger ones. The Lutheran Free Church joined the American Lutheran Church on February 1, 1963, after votes were held in 1955, 1957, and 1961. In 1988 the ALC itself joined with other Lutheran churches to form
80-647: Is a youth organization dealing with youth ministry. The official publication of the AFLC is The Lutheran Ambassador , with twelve issues per year devoted to Bible-centered articles and news of the churches. Ambassador Publications is the parish education department of the AFLC. The Ambassador Hymnal is the hymnal published by the AFLC. It contains over 600 hymns as well as a selected order of church services and responsive Bible readings. The AFLC schedules an annual conference to share reports of congregations and other various ministries. The main reason for these conferences
100-558: Is the election of the board of trustees, that governs the Free Lutheran Bible College and Seminary (FLBCS). This corporation consists of fifty members from the congregations of the AFLC. The AFLC leaders decided to create a Lutheran Bible School patterned after the fundamental teachings of the Lutheran Bible Institute founded in 1919. The school was opened in 1966 with 13 students but grew to 35
120-526: Is the sixth largest Lutheran church body in the United States. The AFLC includes congregations from the former Lutheran Free Church in 27 different U.S. states and four Canadian provinces . The AFLC is not an incorporated synod , but a free association. Each local congregation is a separate corporation. Minnesota is the geographic center of the organization, with over 80 congregations and over 12,000 members. There are also numerous congregations in
140-842: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). About 40 Lutheran Free Churches however did not join the ALC, instead forming the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC) in October 1962. Today the AFLC has more than 250 congregations. In 1963, just before its merger into the ALC, the LFC had 252 pastors, 334 congregations, and 90,253 members. Term of office: one year 1897–1920. Three years 1920–1963 Association of Free Lutheran Congregations The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations ( AFLC )
160-633: The New Testament , the local congregation was the correct form of God's kingdom on earth. Their vision was for a church that promoted a “living” Christianity, emphasized an evangelism that would result in changed lives, and enabled the church member to exercise his/her spiritual gifts. Augsburg was the seminary of the Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America In 1890,
180-418: The United States and several other countries. The Association Retreat Center (ARC) is a separate organization of the AFLC located near Osceola, Wisconsin , that serves as a retreat center for various activities within the AFLC. The Women's Missionary Federation (WMF) serves the women of the churches with Bible studies, fellowship, and has an emphasis on missionary services. The Free Lutheran Youth (FLY)
200-623: The "Conference" joined with two other Lutheran church bodies to form the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (UNLC). A dispute within the UNLC over which school, Augsburg or St. Olaf , should be the college of the church body led in 1893 to the creation of the Friends of Augsburg. By 1896, Sverdrup, Oftedal, and others felt their beliefs of a "free church in a free land" were being compromised and broke away from
220-599: The 1870s, bringing with them a radical view of Christian education that was centered on Scripture and the simple doctrines of Christianity. The Haugean movement took its name from Norwegian lay evangelist Hans Nielsen Hauge who spoke up against the Church establishment in Norway. Sverdrup and Oftedal had been concerned about hierarchy within the Christian church as well as the study of the Bible . They believed that, according to
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#1732787037678240-866: The AFLC: Unlike most other conservative Lutheran bodies in the United States, the AFLC allows open communion and women's suffrage in congregational voting. The AFLC has five corporations that are sponsored by the AFLC to direct their common endeavors: the Coordinating Committee, the Schools Corporation, the Missions Corporation, the AFLC Foundation, and the Association Retreat Center (ARC. There are two auxiliary corporations in
260-571: The AFLC: the Women's Missionary Federation (WMF) and Free Lutheran Youth (FLY). The coordinating committee consists of seven members from the congregations currently part of the AFLC. The main duties of the coordinating committee includes monitoring the pastoral roster, monitoring the congregational roster, and providing guidance for the other ministries of the AFLC, including youth, evangelism, parish education, etc. The schools corporation's main delegation
280-702: The Holy Bible as the complete written Word of God, preserved by the Holy Spirit for salvation and instruction. The AFLC accepts the ancient ecumenical symbols, namely, the Apostles , the Nicene , and the Athanasian Creeds ; Luther's Small Catechism , and the unaltered Augsburg Confession , as the true expression of the Christian faith and life. There were five principal reasons for the formation of
300-616: The UNLC, forming the Lutheran Free Church in 1897. The LFC's publishing house was the Messenger Press and its official English language magazine was the Lutheran Messenger started in 1918. During most of its earlier history the church also published a Norwegian language publication named Folkebladet (the People's Paper). In harmony with its emphasis on utilizing and developing the natural spiritual gifts of all
320-430: The foundation of faith and life; the ascending dove is symbolic of the freedom of congregation and the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit; and the green vine is symbolic of the living congregation bearing fruit for God. The AFLC was formed in 1962 by 40 congregations of the former Lutheran Free Church that did not want to join the 1963 merger into The American Lutheran Church (ALC). The ALC had been formed in 1960 by
340-517: The members of the Church, the LFC gave a freer rein to women within its church body to hold non-ordained ministries, offices, and responsibilities than many of its contemporary Lutheran counterparts. The LFC also strongly emphasized the importance of foreign missions (with missions fields in Madagascar and the Cameroons) and spent more of its financial resources on foreign missions and supported
360-527: The merger of several ethnic Lutheran denominations. The AFLC was originally called the Lutheran Free Church-not merged , but the ALC filed suit against the group for using the name Lutheran Free Church. The name Association of Free Lutheran Congregations was chosen by 1964. In 2006, the AFLC had 43,360 baptized members in 267 churches and in 2009, the AFLC had 277 pastors, 280 congregations, and 44,473 members. The AFLC accept and believe in
380-616: The neighboring states of North Dakota , South Dakota , and Wisconsin . The AFLC headquarters are in Plymouth, Minnesota , where the Association Free Lutheran Bible School and Seminary are also located. The beliefs of the AFLC are grounded in Pietist Lutheran tradition. The AFLC logo consists of an open Bible, ascending dove, and green vine. The open Bible is symbolic of God's word as
400-408: The next year. By the 1990s, the school, renamed to Association Free Lutheran Bible School, was averaging 105 students. Today there are approximately 100 students attending the school. The missions corporation consists of one hundred members of the congregations of the AFLC and elects from itself a Home Missions Committee and a World Missions Committee which are involved in the outreach of the AFLC into
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