The ELS and its Place on the American Lutheran Landscape

A small number of pastors and congregations from the old Norwegian Synod declined to enter the 1917 merger of that synod with two other Norwegian-heritage church bodies because of the unbiblical compromise on the doctrines of conversion and election that this merger involved. These protesting pastors did not join an already existing Lutheran synod since they believed that they still had a unique mission among Norwegian Lutherans in America, and there were no orthodox Lutheran synods of Scandinavian heritage at that time. So they decided to reorganize the Norwegian Synod and, in this new synod, to perpetuate the historic doctrinal commitments, and the liturgical and hymnic tradition, of their former body.
In 1919, the year after this reorganization, the new synod was comprised of 14 churches. By 1929, that number had increased to 46. Most of those congregations had previously been affiliated with the old synod and had entered the 1917 merger – albeit with reservations. But before long, they and their pastors had reconsidered this decision. They came to the conviction that they could no longer remain in fellowship with error. They withdrew from the merger and saw the reorganized synod as a place of refuge where they could be united in fellowship with like-minded orthodox Lutherans while also feeling “at home” in a familiar ecclesiastical culture. And the reorganized synod, on its part, exercised loving patience in a spirit of fraternal evangelical encouragement toward those who were for a time struggling with these decisions or who were weak in their ability to immediately grasp the significance of these questions.
The reorganized synod was generally referred to as the “little” Norwegian Synod. In comparison to other Lutheran church bodies, it was indeed a small group without much influence in the larger world of American Lutheranism. But it played an important role among Norwegian Lutherans who wanted to remain faithful to God’s Word and to take a stand against compromise and error.
The “little” synod, while itself reflecting the culture of Norwegian Lutheranism, practiced fellowship with the ethnic Germans and Slovaks of the Synodical Conference (to which it belonged) and declined to practice fellowship with its fellow Norwegians in the merger church. This was an important testimony to the fact that, in matters of conscience, solidarity with sound teaching is always more important than ethnic solidarity and that we must always remember Jesus’ warning that those who love “father or mother” more than him are not worthy of him (Matthew 10:37).
Within the Synodical Conference, the reorganized Norwegian Synod benefitted from the fraternal goodwill of its larger sister synods. The Missouri and Wisconsin Synods opened their educational institutions to Norwegians who wanted to study to be pastors and teachers. Norwegian Synod missionaries served in Missouri Synod mission fields. And the Norwegian Synod participated in the preparation of The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941, which was a Synodical Conference project.
Both before and after the 1917 merger, the leaders of the Missouri Synod in particular had been of great encouragement to the pastors who declined to enter that merger because of their convictions. It was, therefore, especially distressing to the Norwegians when, a generation later, they began to see a certain “drift” toward doctrinal compromise within the Missouri Synod that was sadly similar to what had occurred in the old Norwegian Synod. This concern came to a head in 1950 when the Missouri Synod and the American Lutheran Church adopted a “Common Confession” that ostensibly settled the historic doctrinal differences that had existed between them, but was really a verbal papering-over of those differences that did not clearly express a real, Biblically-based agreement. The ALC was a German-heritage body that was in fellowship with the Norwegian merger church and that shared its doctrinal shortcomings. In 1960, the ALC and the merger church actually came together into a new church body that retained the “American Lutheran Church” name. But before that happened, in 1955, the “little” Norwegian Synod, with much regret, felt it necessary to suspend fellowship with the Missouri Synod. The Wisconsin Synod followed suit in 1961. The Missouri Synod had put itself on a trajectory toward fellowship with the ALC, which was formally declared in 1969. The Norwegian and Wisconsin Synods could not follow them down that path.
Several pastors and congregations within the Missouri Synod also objected to the new direction their church was heading. Their concerns were triggered not only by the ALC fellowship, but also by the use of the historical-critical method of Biblical interpretation that had become entrenched at the Missouri Synod’s St. Louis seminary and by the increasing number of doctrinal errors and lax practices that were taking root in many sectors of the Missouri Synod as a result. Especially in the 1960s and 1970s, a fairly large number of congregations and pastors withdrew from the Missouri Synod. After a while, many of them found their way into the Evangelical Lutheran Synod – which was the new name adopted by the “little” Norwegian Synod in 1957. By this time, the ELS had become almost completely Anglicized, so any linguistic barriers for non-Norwegians that might have existed in the past were now gone. Just as had been the case in the 1920s, the ELS became a place of refuge for those who had made the difficult decision to withdraw from their previous church body and who wanted to align themselves with like-minded Confessional Lutherans. So, while the ELS was still a relatively small church body, it once again played an important role for fellow Lutherans who shared its doctrinal convictions and who now needed a new synodical home. Throughout its history, in fact, the ELS has often become a new home for conservative Lutherans from other liberalizing synods.
In the Missouri Synod, the heterodox professors in St. Louis were pressured to leave the seminary in 1974. Fellowship with the ALC was severed in 1981. The current leadership has publicly committed itself to the promotion of Confessional Lutheranism and to bringing about the internal reforms that would be necessary for the Missouri Synod to become once again a consistently orthodox church body. To be sure, a significant number of problems remain, so the ELS is not able to restore its previous fellowship with the Missouri Synod. But in the context of these positive developments, the ELS, in spite of its small size, did serve as a catalyst for a new dialogue among the synods that formerly belonged to the Synodical Conference. Informal meetings have accordingly been taking place between representatives of the Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Synod, and the ELS. Information is being shared so that there can be an accurate mutual understanding of where agreement does exist and of where disagreements or misunderstandings still need to be addressed or clarified. And the ELS’s representatives have an opportunity to bear witness to their convictions and to encourage the Missouri Synod’s representatives in their stated desire to be advocates for Confessional Lutheranism within their church body.
In its relationships with the Wisconsin Synod and overseas sister churches, the ELS is also able to serve as a “leaven” of positive encouragement toward continued faithfulness in doctrine and practice. A large number of ELS congregations, before their entrance into the ELS, endured times of controversy and conflict in their former church bodies and were forced by circumstances and conscience to contend earnestly for the truth of God’s Word. Because of this history, ELS pastors tend to have a heightened sensitivity to the dangers of doctrinal comprise, but they also remain committed to bringing the comfort of the pure gospel of salvation by God’s grace to a lost world. Those who are a part of the ELS of today pray that the Lord of the church would always preserve them in these convictions – not only for the sake of their own salvation, but also so that the ELS can continue to exercise a positive influence on others, and set a positive example for others, for the sake of His kingdom.
Rev. David Jay Webber
Contributing Writer
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Scottsdale, AZ