American Association of Lutheran Churches - Historical Background

Historical Background

The AALC began with 12 congregations and has, as of 2008, grown to 70 congregations spread across 23 states. The AALC sees itself in the conservative middle of Lutheranism in the United States. At its beginning, TAALC defined itself by its opposition to the theology of the ELCA, and became a home to Orthodox, Evangelical, and Charismatic Lutherans. At one point the three strands were unofficially described as being a threefold cord, (Ecclesiastes 4:12). This approach was never formal policy, but occurred because this new church body did not have a broad corpus of doctrinal writings and historical precedent to rely upon.

The unofficial intent was for each of the three strands to respect each other's differences and, in doing so, to learn from each other. In practice the various "strands" struggled for control. In the mid 1990s, the renewal movement seemed to be ascendent. A handful of congregations split off from the AALC in 1995 to form the Lutheran Ministerium and Synod - USA, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Several West Coast charismatic churches began drifting out of the AALC orbit in 2007 as confessional/orthodox leaders started setting the tone. These churches saw the association with LCMS (see below) and its seminary in Fort Wayne as foreign to the original intent of the AALC. Many of these charismatic/renewal congregations are ending up in the Alliance of Renewal Churches.

The AALC operates its own seminary, The American Lutheran Theological Seminary (ALTS), originally located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In the fall of 2005, ALTS relocated to Fort Wayne, Indiana and is hosted by Concordia Theological Seminary of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS).