by Rev. Kevin Vogts
Since shortly after its formation in 1988 the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America has been fixated on deviant sexual behavior,
culminating in the endorsement of homosexual pastors in 2009, homosexual
“marriage” in 2011, and the election last month of their first
homosexual bishop. Dr. James Nestingen, a highly respected scholar and
retired ELCA seminary professor, recently concluded that promoting
acceptance of deviant sexual behavior has actually replaced the Gospel
of Jesus Christ as the primary mission and message of the ELCA.
Those within the ELCA demanding these radical changes asserted it is
necessary for the ELCA’s very survival. Supposedly, they simply must
move into the 21st century on these issues, or otherwise they will be so
out-of-step with modern society that it would mean the demise of their
denomination. By the way, this is the same deceptive reasoning behind
similar disturbing changes recently in the Boy Scouts of America.
However, the ELCA has now released some startling statistics that show the exact opposite has actually happened:
- When the ELCA was formed in 1988 they had 5.2 million members, but
they are now down to only 4 million members–a staggering loss of over
1.2 million members, or 23% of their membership. They have also lost
1,500, or 13%, of their congregations, from approximately 11,000 to
9,500. As they “celebrate” this year the 25th anniversary of the ELCA,
the fact is that during that time they have lost more members and
congregations than make up many entire denominations!
- Of these losses, over 500,000 members and 1,000 congregations have
left the ELCA in just the last four years, triggered by their
endorsement of homosexuality beginning in 2009. This is actually the
biggest denominational split in American church history, and is directly
attributable to that decision.
- Another measure of the ELCA’s decline is that in 1988, 2.1% of all
Americans were members of the ELCA, but by 2011 that figure had fallen
to 1.3%. The National Council of Churches reports that the ELCA has
“the sharpest rate of membership decline” among all mainline Protestant
denominations. Like Avis car rental which used to advertise “We’re
Number 2–But We Try Harder!” the LCMS has historically always been
the second-largest American Lutheran church body. However, at the
ELCA’s current rate of losing members–nearly 6% in 2010–in just a decade
the LCMS will surpass the ELCA as the largest American Lutheran church
body, and a few decades after that the ELCA will cease to exist.
- Even among those congregations remaining in the ELCA average weekly
worship attendance from 2003 to 2011 dropped 26%. The Lutheran
Church–Missouri Synod has 2.3 million members and the similarly
conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod has 300,000 members,
yet even with our smaller combined membership of 2.6 million the LCMS
and WELS have more people actually sitting in the pews each Sunday than
the ELCA with 4 million members.
- Donations to the ELCA on the national level were $88 million in 2008 but plunged to only $40 million in 2011.
- Luther Seminary, the ELCA’s largest seminary, located in St. Paul,
Minnesota, announced that last year they had a $6 million operating
deficit on a budget of $27 million. This was due largely to a recent
sharp decline in donations to the seminary, reportedlyincluding a couple
that for many years had given $1 million a year to the seminary but
stopped their donations after the ELCA’s endorsement of homosexuality.
The seminary was forced to cancel many of its programs and lay off a
third of the faculty and staff.
- Since the ELCA’s endorsement of homosexuality, many other Lutheran
church bodies around the world have severed their historic ties with the
ELCA, and are instead seeking new relationships with the LCMS. This
includes many of the largest and fastest-growing Lutheran church bodies
in the world, such as the Lutherans in Ethiopia with over 6 million
members–nearly as many as all American Lutheran church bodies combined.
The center of world Lutheranism is shifting from Europe and America to
Africa, Asia, and South America, and the LCMS is becoming the
theological leader of these growing Lutheran church bodies. While the
ELCA is becoming increasingly isolated in world Lutheranism, at our
national convention this month the LCMS will enter into formal
fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia, Siberian
Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Church of Togo.
The Lord warns:
“There will be false teachers among you, who will surreptitiously
introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who
bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow
their shameful, licentious ways.” (
2 Peter 2:1-2)
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you
formerly had when you lived in ignorance. Instead, just as He who
called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: ‘You
shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (
1 Peter 1:14-15)
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (
Romans 12:2)
These passages show how misdirected and sinful it is to accommodate
the church’s doctrine and practice to the world’s wicked ways. It is
also foolish and futile.
On the one hand, the world will never be satisfied–until Christians
completely renounce their faith. More importantly, the Lord will never
bless such unfaithfulness to Him and His Word.
We see from the sad example of what’s happened to the ELCA–the
biggest split in American church history–that whatever churches and
other organizations such as the Boy Scouts imagine they will gain by
giving in to the world is dwarfed by what they will surely lose.
