Truth about the ELCA

ELCA Vault - Room 16

The ELCA Vault is a collection of articles, blogs, and documents related to issues surrounding the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Grace, St. Timothy Lutheran churches become one

. . .In recent years, however, membership at the church declined dramatically. By last fall, the church that had once had nearly 700 members in January 1973 had fewer than 70 members, with only 20 of them active. . .

Assemblies of God tends to a rapidly growing flock

. . .The ELCA, Minnesota's second-largest denomination, saw membership dip to 737,537, a 13.6 percent decline from 853,448. . .

My Gay Roommate

. . .I think about Tim. I imagine what it would be like if friends, counselors, pastors, and theologians worked to convince me that my greatest struggles with sin were unnecessary. That to be prideful, lusty, and greedy is just “how I was made” and that God loves me just the same. How tempting to believe such a lie! . . .

What Makes Us Stand Out as a Church? Part 1

. . .some theologians within the ELCA and other Christian denominations have turned to universalism--a logical consequence of the relativity of truth. . .

Luvs & Guns: A Deception

Megan Rohrer is a transgender ELCA pastor. She, along with Nadia Bolz-Weber, have become the new “poster girls” for the denomination. I can only guess that any number of ELCA parents are less than delighted. . .

On Your Permanent Record

. . .Our brothers and sisters in the ELCA continue to reach out with their imperfect love, allowing the doctrine of bound conscience to remain an open avenue to disregard Scripture and fulfill the cravings of a sinful humanity. . .

You Didn't Build That

. . .The leadership of the ELCA, by invoking their doctrine of bound conscience, continues to lift up, what they call, “new things” that minimize our Lord’s role in their church. “God didn’t literally father Jesus”, “Mary wasn’t really a virgin when she conceived”, and “Jesus wasn’t resurrected in a physical sense.”. . .

Courage and Contending-Part 2

. . .You cannot pretend to love the same-sex attracted then agree to a legal covenant that further binds them, the children they adopt, and the culture that supports them to a perversion that has power to send body and soul to hell. . .

Luther Seminary indefinitely suspends its sacred music master’s program

Luther Seminary recently announced that it is “putting on hold” its Master of Sacred Music (MSM) program, effective with the 2013-2014 academic year. . .

Love is Love or Sin is Sin? (Video Discussion)

. . .We talk with Rebecca Julius, a Minnesota college student who created the Sin is Sin t-shirt and wore it on her campus during National Coming Out Day to make her views on homosexuality and same sex marriage known. . .

Searching for the soul of a nation

. . .The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is currently at work on a criminal justice statement, joining other denominations in questioning the war on drugs. . .

What will American Christianity look like in 50 years?

. . .Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, UCC: Increasing convergence so that they resemble each other almost interchangeably, while de-emphasizing troublesome doctrinal issues until their emphasis on social issues rather than personal salvation turns them into Christian-branded social service agencies. . .

Moving beyond conflict to mission (page 9 - pdf file)

. . .In other words, the ELCA’s decisions in August of that year meant our congregation was about to endure the most significant internal conflict in its fifty-year history. . .

Disgruntled Protestants Issue Irenic Jerusalem Declaration

The next Presiding Bishop of the ELCA would do well to forget the obsession with pro-Palestinian activism and pay more attention to the real wishes of the faithful. Ditto for the other churches whose members have signed the Declaration. . .

Head of Luther Seminary in St. Paul resigns amid financial woes

. . .The school's annual report for 2012 showed a total income of $23 million while expenses were $27.1 million. The total market value of its endowment has also taken a hit in the down economy. As of June, it was $65.4 million compared to the same time last year when it was $76.8 million. . .

The Other "F" Word

. . .God forgives each and every one of us, no matter how serious our sin may be. Complete, absolute, and unwavering forgiveness, each and every day, by faith alone. . .

Merry Christmas: Jesus’s Birthplace is an ‘Open-Air Prison’

. . .This year’s “Christmas Message” from JAI amply illustrates its political and spiritual emphases. There is no mention of opposing terror or working for peace, just opposing Israel. . .

ELCA Mission Support (check out the graph on page 5)

. . .Mission support is the portion of regular offerings that congregations share with synods and the churchwide organization to fund the ministries of the whole church. . .

New Protestant Declaration Affirms Israel and Persecuted Christians

. . .The signers saw a connection between attacks on Israel and rising threats to Christian communities across the Middle East. “The forces that refuse to tolerate the existence of a Jewish state are fiercely intolerant of other religious and ethnic minorities. . .

Mirror Image

In 1995 the ELCA was formally examining man’s relationship with God in regards to our sexual nature. The study, The Church and Human Sexuality, a Lutheran Perspective, was being discussed by many churches in the ELCA and my church was among those having what were called “cottage meetings”. . .

Man wants Lutheran bishop to stay away from politics

David Davis is a member of a Lutheran Church in Lexington County and he is concerned about the activities of the church’s state leader.

Davis said Bishop Herman Yoos is engaging in political lobbying. . .

Proportionality once again

. . .A blogger who goes by Theonerd thinks Israel is “carpet bombing” Gaza and is “waging an unjust war.” For a decidedly more expert opinion on that subject you might check out the testimony of someone who knows what he is talking about over at. . .

Roughly Riding the Roads?

. . .should a denomination that is judged by me as apostate, holding position outside of the clear dictates of scripture, become a part of the group, I would then cease to participate in the organization. . .

Church Leader Shows Where Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic Merge

. . .Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. . .by allowing their good names to be associated with efforts to isolate and boycott Israel and now to join forces with vicious anti-Semites, these churches and their members have been compromised to the point where no Jewish group or, indeed, any decent person, should have anything to do with them. . .

UCC Minister Enlists Help of Anti-Semitic Publication to Get Message Out

. . .The UCC’s response is very alarming because suggests that 15 religious leaders from a variety of institutions in the United States were so intent on getting their message out that they were willing to give an interview to a publication that traffics in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. . .

Beatles Mass?!?!

Here is the Beatles Mass arranged by Pastrix Megan Rohrer, at St. Paulus Lutheran Apostate Church in San Francisco. . .

The Flim Flam Man

. . .So much of the ELCA’s efforts have gone into secular ideals such as their “Care for Creation” attempting to prevent man from polluting the world, they have neglected to protect their members from being polluted by the world. . .

Score one for the pope (from 1994)

. . . the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America issued a 21-page report on "The Church and Human Sexuality: A Lutheran Perspective." Press reports stated that the report breaks some of society's biggest taboos when it says masturbation is healthy, that there is biblical support for homosexual unions, and that teaching teenagers to use condoms to prevent disease is encouraged. . .

Bride Of Christ is Anti-Semitic

. . .I once asked a 70 yr old Lutheran in the ELCA what his thoughts were on prophecy. His response, "Believing that the Bible can tell us what will be happening in the future is like believing in fortune tellers."

When I pressed him about the prophesies written that foretold Christ....I never heard back. . .

Update November 11, 2012

(Two churches vote on leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)

Why Homosexual Behavior Is More like Consensual Incest and Polyamory than Race or Gender

. . .I contend that a better analogy (i.e., with more points of substantive correspondence) can be made between homosexuality and transsexuality on the one hand and polysexuality (an orientation toward multiple sexual partners) and incest (here I am thinking of an adult-committed sort) on the other hand. . .

Pakistani Parents Kill Daughter by Acid

. . .I wonder if those same Christian leaders (who wrote from the ELCA and other mainline denominations) will send a letter to Congress asking us to withdraw any funding from Pakistan because of the complicit accpetance of these human rights abuses! . .

Primarily Secondary

. . .Beginning with the 2009 Churchwide Assembly decision on human sexuality and its embrace by ELCA leaders, numerous congregations are leaving the denomination, other congregations are being split apart, and others are simply closing due to dwindling attendance. Non-denominational churches, however, are thriving and expanding. . .

Letters - Immanuel Church: A time to say ‘here I stand’

Many leaders in the ELCA in Minnesota (but perhaps not the majority of the laity) have come out in opposition to the MN Marriage Amendment and the natural/biblical definition of marriage.
We wish to be clear that our Lutheran congregation, along with many others, unequivocally confesses otherwise. . .

Churches now run by Muslim fanatics?

. . .Have Muslim fanatics gained control of the hierarchy of Christian leadership? Hamas and Hezbollah must be cheering at this development and their surprising new ally.
I would urge those in church leadership positions come to their senses. . .

Updates October 28, 2012 Reformation Sunday

. . .An official report by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) revealed that the denomination suffered a net loss of 370 congregation in 2011, along with a loss of 213,000 members. ELCA membership at the end of 2011 stood at 4,059,785, down from 4,272,688 at the end of 2010. . .

Social Witness for a Re-aligned Protestantism

. . .In the church I became publicly critical of the consistent left-wing tilt of the Lutheran Church in America and then the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I was and am infuriated over their continual harassment of Israel. The head of the powerful Church and Society Division warned me many years ago that I would have no role in the church’s social witness if I continued in the direction I was going. He was right. . .