Lutheran Churches

American Denominations > Denominational Family Trees > Lutheran Family


Church of the Lutheran Confession
The Church of the Lutheran Confession was organized in 1960 at Watertown, South Dakota, by congregations and clergy who had formerly belonged to the various Lutheran denominations who had formerly comprised the Synodical Conference, a Lutheran ecumenical body. With the loss of doctrinal unity within the conference, for conscience sake, they felt compelled to leave.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2003

  • Clergy: 90
  • Churches: 77
  • Members: 8,390

Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
The Wisconsin Synod began with the organization of German Lutheran immigrants in Wisconsin in the 1850s. It spread as similar synods from other states associated with it. It is among the most conservative of Lutheran bodies.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2005

  • Clergy: 1,844
  • Churches: 1,263
  • Members: 398,282

Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America
The Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America was founded in 1900 by a group of Norwegian-American Lutherans under the leadership of the Rev. Kurt O. Lundeberg.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2005

  • Clergy: 219
  • Churches: 107
  • Members: 14,223

Association of Free Lutheran Congregations
The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations was founded in 1962 by Rev. John P. Strand and others who rejected the merger of the Lutheran Free Church into the American Lutheran Church.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2003

  • Clergy: 223
  • Churches: 257
  • Members: 39,409

Lutheran Free Church (Norwegian)
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961

  • Clergy: 252
  • Churches: 334
  • Members: 90,253

Iowa Synod
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1929

  • Clergy: 637
  • Churches: 932
  • Members: 150,683

American Association of Lutheran Churches
The American Association of Lutheran Churches was formed by conservative Lutheran ministers and lay people who did not wish to participate in the merger that created the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2004

  • Clergy: 187
  • Churches: 84
  • Members: 25,908

American Lutheran Church (1930-1960)
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1959

  • Clergy: 2,156
  • Churches: 1,961
  • Members: 1,002,015

Buffalo Synod
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1929

  • Clergy: 45
  • Churches: 54
  • Members: 7,981

Ohio Synod
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1929

  • Clergy: 768
  • Churches: 876
  • Members: 166,521

The American Lutheran Church (1960-1987)
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1986

  • Clergy: 7,671
  • Churches: 4,959
  • Members: 2,319,443

United Evangelical Lutheran Church
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1959

  • Clergy: 197
  • Churches: 164
  • Members: 66,623

Evangelical Lutheran Church
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1959

  • Clergy: 2,242
  • Churches: 2,482
  • Members: 1,125,867

Norwegian Synod
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1943

  • Churches: 2,522
  • Members: 595,034

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (1988) continues several varied streams of Lutheran church life introduced to America during the Colonial era. The ELCA was formally constituted in 1988 as a merger of the Lutheran Church in America, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the American Lutheran Church.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2005

  • Clergy: 17,666
  • Churches: 10,657
  • Members: 4,984,925

Associaton of Evangelical Lutheran Churches
The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, the newest and the smallest to enter into the 1988 merger to form the ELCA, was formed in 1976 by ministers and churches which withdrew from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1986

  • Clergy: 672
  • Churches: 250
  • Members: 103,263

Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
The second-largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. was founded in Missouri by German immigrants in 1847. Many of these immigrants had rejected the planned merger of the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2005

  • Clergy: 8,502
  • Churches: 6,144
  • Members: 2,440,864

Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church (Suomi Synod)
The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1890 in Calumet, Michigan. It used the liturgy of the Church of Finland.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961

  • Clergy: 105
  • Churches: 153
  • Members: 36,274

Lutheran Church in America
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1986

  • Clergy: 8,586
  • Churches: 5,832
  • Members: 2,896,138

American Evangelical Lutheran Church
No description available.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961

  • Clergy: 84
  • Churches: 76
  • Members: 23,808

United Lutheran Church in America
The 1918 merger of the General Synod, the General Council, and the General Synod of the South formed the United Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran body through much of the twentieth century.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961

  • Clergy: 4,893
  • Churches: 4,363
  • Members: 2,390,075

Evangelical Lutheran Synod
The Evangelical Lutheran Synod was formed at Lake Mills, Iowa, in 1918 by a group of 40 pastors and laymen who declined to enter the merger of other Norwegian Lutherans deciding instead to establish and independent synod. The name Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church was adopted. The present name was assumed in 1957.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2005

  • Clergy: 173
  • Churches: 138
  • Members: 20,429

Augustana Synod
The Augustana Synod originated in 1851 when the Synod of Illinois was established by Lutheran immigrants in the Midwest. Around 1860 the Swedish and Norwegian elements in the Illinois Synod withdrew and formed the Scandinavian Augustana Synod.

Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961

  • Clergy: 1,353
  • Churches: 1,219
  • Members: 619,040