Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - Organization

Organization

The ELCA is headed by a Presiding Bishop, who is elected by the Churchwide Assembly for a term of six years (it was a 4 year term until 1995). To date, three pastors have been elected to the position of presiding bishop of the ELCA. Herbert W. Chilstrom served as the first presiding bishop from 1987 to 1995. He was followed by H. George Anderson (1995–2001), who had previously been the President of Luther College. The current presiding bishop is Mark S. Hanson, who is the past president of the Lutheran World Federation. Hanson began his tenure as bishop in 2001; he was re-elected in August 2007 for a second term.

The ELCA is divided into 65 synods, one of which is non-geographical (the Slovak Zion Synod) and 64 regional synods in the United States and the Caribbean, each headed by a synodical bishop and council. Within the ELCA the term synod refers to the middle judicatory, which is referred to in some other denominations as "districts" or "dioceses".

Outside of the United States, ELCA also has congregations in the Caribbean region (Bahamas, Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and one congregation in the border city of Windsor, Ontario, a member of the Slovak Zion Synod. Before 1986, some of the congregations that form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada were part of the ELCA's predecessor churches.

Within the church structure are divisions addressing many programs and ministries. Among these are support for global mission, outdoor ministries, campus ministries, social ministries, and education. They include the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, Lutheran Women's Caucus, Lutheran Volunteer Corps, and the Lutheran Youth Organization ELCA Youth Gathering. The denominational publishing house is Augsburg Fortress, and the official denominational magazine is The Lutheran. ELCA predecessor bodies established twenty-six colleges and universities now affiliated with the ELCA.

Most local congregations are legally independent non-profit corporations that own their own property. Actual governing practice within the congregation ranges from congregational voters' assemblies to elder-and-council-led, to congregations where the senior pastor wields great, if informal, power (more common in larger churches).