Concordia Lutheran Conference

The Concordia Lutheran Conference (CLC) is a small

Concordia Lutheran
organization of Lutheran churches in the United States which
formed in 1956.[1] It was a reorganization of some of the
Conference
churches of the Orthodox Lutheran Conference (OLC), Classification Protestant
which had been formed in September 1951, in Okabena, Orientation Lutheran
Minnesota,[2] following a break with Lutheran Church–
Theology Confessional Lutheran
Missouri Synod (LCMS). It is the remaining successor of the
Orthodox Lutheran Conference. The current president is Polity Congregational
David T. Mensing, pastor of Peace Evangelical Lutheran President David T. Mensing
Church in Oak Forest, Illinois. All members of the board of
Associations 9 mission stations in
directors serve one year terms.[3] The CLC has five
congregations and is in fellowship with nine mission Russia and Nigeria
congregations in Russia and Nigeria.[4] Region United States,
especially Illinois,
History Washington, and
Oregon
In the 1930s, some theologians and leaders in the LCMS Founder Paul E. Kretzmann,
began advocating the establishment of altar and pulpit Wallace McLaughlin,
fellowship with the American Lutheran Church (ALC). One and others
of these was Dr. Theodore Graebner, a professor at
Origin 1951, 1957
Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Graebner gave a
lecture to a Texas pastors conference in 1934 that criticized Okabena, Minnesota
what he saw as unnecessary legalism in the synod; it was Separated from Lutheran Church–
published as a book, The Borderland of Right and Wrong, in Missouri Synod
1935. In subsequent revisions of the book, Graebner took an
Absorbed Fellowship of Lutheran
increasingly less restrictive view of church union.
Congregations (2004)
Nevertheless, in 1943, he and a colleague at the seminary, Dr.
Paul E. Kretzmann, co-authored a book against unionism, Congregations 5
Toward Lutheran Union: A Scriptural and Historical Ministers 3
Approach. However, in 1944, Graebner signed the
"Statement of the Forty-four" which openly repudiated the Other name(s) Orthodox Lutheran
synod's stand on church fellowship. Kretzmann, who Conference
staunchly supported the LCMS position, filed charges of false Official website www
doctrine against Graebner. When nothing was done, .concordialutheranconf
Kretzmann resigned from the seminary and began organizing .com (http://www.conc
opposition.[5] ordialutheranconf.co
Among those pastors who supported Kretzmann were m)
Wallace McLaughlin, who eventually became, with
Kretzmann, one of the founders of the OLC, and Harold Romoser, who was well connected to the
president of the LCMS, John Behnken, but did not join the OLC. The synod's 1950 convention provided
additional impetus to the eventual split when it approved the Common Confession that had been drawn up
with the ALC.[5]
However, the big issue that drove the split was the question of whether breaking an engagement should be
considered the same as getting a divorce. Historically, betrothal had been seen as the equivalent of marriage
and was legally binding; however, the modern view of engagement had become prevalent in the United
States in the twentieth century. The two views led to extended debate within the LCMS. On May 24, 1949,
the faculty of Concordia Seminary issued a theological opinion that the modern practice of engagement was
not the same as betrothal and that an engagement could be broken without sinning. In response, a group of
laymen and a few pastors in St. Louis formed a study group and produced the "Confession of Faith
Professed and Practiced by All True Lutherans". This document served as the basis for the OLC when it
was founded on September 25, 1951, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Okabena, Minnesota. Originally the
OLC consisted of ten pastors (one of whom later withdrew) and six laymen.[5]

About four years later, the OLC split. Some of its members joined the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran
Synod, some remained independent, and the remainder formed the CLC.[5] Kretzmann, who taught at the
OLC's seminary, had been accused of teaching false doctrine by another pastor, resulting in Kretzmann and
those who supported him breaking fellowship with several of the congregations in the OLC; those
congregations then formed the CLC.[6]

In 2004, the CLC absorbed the congregations of the Fellowship of Lutheran Congregations. The FLC
was organized in 1979, when a group of Lutheran congregations left the Lutheran Churches of the
Reformation over issues of excommunication.[7]

Scriptural Publications, the publishing arm of the CLC, has published an anthology, Historical Essays by
David T. Mensing: The Missouri Synod's Slide into Heterodoxy, 1932–1947; The Establishment of
Heterodoxy in the Missouri Synod, 1950; and The Founding of the Orthodox Lutheran Conference, 1951.

Teachings
The CLC describes itself as "orthodox," with special emphasis on the inerrant, literal interpretation of the
Christian Bible. It subscribes to the Book of Concord and the Brief Statement of the Doctoral Position of
the Missouri Synod in its doctrinal stance.

Purpose
The CLC is a gathering of churches to engage in tasks that would be hard for any one church to perform.[8]
This includes the training of future pastors in their seminary program.[8]

External links
Official website (http://www.concordialutheranconf.com)
A Little Lecture on Little Little-Known Lutheran Synods by Edward C. Fredrich (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20100707220127/http://www.wlsessays.net/node/540)
The Doctrinal Differences Between the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the
Church of the Lutheran Confession, The Concordia Lutheran Conference, and the Lutheran
Churches of the Reformation. by Lyle W. Lange (https://web.archive.org/web/201007071501
55/http://www.wlsessays.net/node/1292)
 Archived official website of the Fellowship of Lutheran Congregations (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20020309152052/http://www.concido.com/flc/)

References
1. Wuthnow, Robert (1989). The restructuring of American religion society and faith since
World War II (https://archive.org/details/restructuringofa0000wuth) (2. print., and 1. Princeton
pbk. print. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 184 (https://archive.org/details/r
estructuringofa0000wuth/page/184). ISBN 9780691020570.
2. David Mensing, Historical Essays, (Oak Forest, Illinois: Scriptural Publications, 2009), 3.
3. "Constitution of the Concordia Lutheran Conference: Article XI - Term of Office" (http://www.c
oncordialutheranconf.com/doctrine/constitution.cfm). Concordia Lutheran Conference.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120204095655/http://www.concordialutheranconf.c
om/doctrine/constitution.cfm) from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved December 8,
2014. "Officers and members of standing committees shall be elected to hold office for one
year"
4. "Congregations and Corporate Addresses" (https://www.concordialutheranconf.com/2010/0
2/20/congregations-and-corporate-addresses/). Concordia Lutheran Conference. February
20, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
5. Peperkorn, Todd A. (April 2021). "The Splintering of Missouri: How Our American Context
Gave Rise to Micro-Synods as a Solution to Theological Conflict" (https://ctsfwmedia.s3.us-e
ast-1.amazonaws.com/CTQ/CTQ%2085-2.pdf) (PDF). Concordia Theological Quarterly.
Concordia Theological Seminary. 85 (2): 158–162. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
6. "Our Declaration" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070808202451/http://www.concordialuther
anconf.com/clc/content/ourdeclaration.cfm). Concordia Lutheran Conference. January 18,
1956. Archived from the original (http://www.concordialutheranconf.com/clc/content/ourdecla
ration.cfm) on August 8, 2007.
7. Mensing, David T. (July 2, 2015). "Introducing The Pastors of The F. L. C. N." (http://www.con
cordialutheranconf.com/2015/07/02/iintroducing-the-pastors-of-the-f-l-c-n/) Concordia
Lutheran Conference. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180401144301/http://www.co
ncordialutheranconf.com/2015/07/02/iintroducing-the-pastors-of-the-f-l-c-n/) from the original
on April 1, 2018. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
8. "What is the Concordia Lutheran Conference?" (http://www.concordialutheranconf.com/).
Concordia Lutheran Conference. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/19991012163205/htt
p://concordialutheranconf.com:80/) from the original on October 12, 1999. Retrieved
March 19, 2015.

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