Posted on 08/27/2010 10:26:53 AM PDT by SmithL
The NALC embodies the theological center of Lutheranism in North America. It is a church body committed to the authority of the Bible as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life. In keeping with the Lutheran Confessions, we believe all doctrines should and must be judged by the teaching of Scripture.
The NALC is committed to shaping its life around four attributes: Christ-Centered, Mission-Driven, Traditionally-Grounded, and Congregationally-Focused.
The NALC is a renewed Lutheran community moving forward in faith and mission, focused on living out Christ’s Great Commission to go and make disciples. We hope that you will see the NALC as a church body that will enable your congregation to carry out its mission and ministry faithfully.
Come on board!
(Excerpt) Read more at thenalc.org ...
Hooray! Good for you! God bless your new denomination!
Be rooted in Christ!
No Homo pastors right?
Protestants seem to splinter on a weekly basis and there's always some faction out there starting a brand new denomination. No wonder the rest of us are confused.
Read here. http://www.unitedlutheranmission.org/
Not so easy to stay with one of the synods these days. They are all straying to some degree or another.
My family and another 20 or so people left our LCMS church after 15 years and began a small mission congregation sponsord by ULMA; not a synod. We are steeped in tradition and confessional Lutheranism.
Why start yet another new Lutheran denomination? Why not join one of the many EXISTING Lutheran denominations (Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Evangelicals, etc.) in North America if you're not happy with the ELCA? Most have churches from coast to coast.I can't speak for all protestants, but any hope for any kind of Lutheran Unity was shattered at the ELCA's Church-wide Assembly 2009.
The Missouri Synod (LCMS), Wisconsin Synod (WELS), and other very conservative Lutheran bodies all celebrate closed communion and do not allow women pastors.
The ELCA is the only Lutheran body that allows non-celibate homosexual pastors.
Lutheran Congregations in Mission to Christ (LCMC) is a collection of Lutheran congregations instead of a formal church structure. LCMC celebrates open communion and has women pastors.
The new-formed North American Lutheran Church (NALC) has a formal nationwide church structure and will have bishops. NALC also celebrates open communion and has women pastors.
The issues of open/closed communion and women pastors are deal-breakers for a lot of Lutherans.
I knew WELS had closed communion, but I thought LCMS was open. Though I could easily be wrong.
Personally, I’m pro-open communion, and undecided on woman pastors.
It’s confusing when there are a zillion groups claiming to descended from Martin Luther’s teachings, and none of them are on speaking terms with each other.
The Roman Catholic Church and Byzantine Catholic Church have very different traditions. For example, the Roman branch does not allow married priests and the Byzantine branch does. Communion is done vastly differently in both denominations as well. Yet both are united and answer to the Pope. There are many other factions that many people haven’t even heard of, like the independently run “Eparchy of Križevci”. Yet they’re all under the Pope as well and in communion with other Catholic denominations.
Ditto with all the various denominations of Orthodox churches.
There are a few exceptions to the rule, renegage Catholic or Orthodox denominations not in communion with the rest, but they are very rare and often extremely small factions.
But not only are the various Protestant movements all doing their own thing, but they aren’t even on speaking terms with groups within their OWN movement. Southern Baptists want nothing to do with the National Baptist Church USA. LCMS wants nothing to do with ECLA and one LCMS member here told me she doesn’t even consider them to be Christians.
Bizarre stuff with protestantism.
As for me, Lutheranism comes from Catholicism, and I don’t believe Martin Luther himself ever objected to the church’s teachings with male-only pastors and closed communion. So I’d side with the LCMS here.
The LCMS congregations I have associated with have open communion. As to women pastors, I have experienced them in the ELCA and found them to have chips on their shoulders.
It is a deal breaker with good reason.
1 Timothy 2:12-14 (New King James Version)
12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
Scripture teaches that the Lord’s Supper is a precious gift of God in which Christ gives us His true body and blood (in a miraculous way), together with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. Because the Bible teaches that this sacrament may also be spiritually harmful if misused, and that participation in the Lord’s Supper is an act of confession of faith, traditional Lutheran pastors commune only those who have been instructed in the teachings of the church and who have confessed their faith in these teachings.
Close[d] Communion is for two main reasons. First, we are a close fellowship. We all believe and confess the same things, especially about Holy Communion. We express and celebrate that close Communion with each other when we commune together.
The second reason is more serious. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:29 make it important for us to teach people about Holy Communion, or at least be sure they have been taught, before giving it to them. St. Paul wrote, “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” St. Paul gave instructions in this regard to the Christian congregation at Corinth (1 Cor. 11) regarding their responsibility to make certain that people receive the Sacrament to the blessing and not to their harm. It would be very irresponsible to let anyone and everyone receive Communion when they may very well be eating and drinking judgment on themselves. So as you can see, Christians commune not only as individuals, but also as persons who share the same confession of faith as formally confessed in the host church. It is important to emphasize that God has given to Christian congregations the responsibility of administering the Lord’s Supper properly and to exercise spiritual care toward all those who desire to commune.
If you are interested in clearing any confusion, read Luther’s Small Catechism and then see if the “Lutheran” church in question adheres to it. You will find that the synods have taken liberties and thus division has occurred. It’s really not so surprising.
And deal-essentials for biblical, historical, confessional Lutherans.
Any church body that deviates from the historic Christian practice of closed Communion and introduces the novum of "women pastors" is, by definition, in error.
If they practice open communion, then they are not being faithful to the conditions of membership for the Missouri Synod.
AMEN, Pastor Henrickson !!!
There’s no such thing as an Orthodox or Roman Catholic “denomination”. The Church, whether Eastern or Western, is “pre-demoninational”.
A few LCMS congregations are willing to share the body and blood of Christ with people that do not understand or are unwilling to acknowledge their true significance.
But I would agree they're all one holy catholic and apostalic church that was created by Jesus Christ himself.
In case of the east-west schism, the Catholics (all their denominations) now speak with one voice and the Orthodox (all their denominations) speak with one voice.
The protestant denominations speak with hundreds of thousands of voices and don't agree on anything, even if they come from the SAME traditions! What is Lutheranism? What is Calvinism? What is Pentacostalism? You'll get 20 different answers from 20 different bishops that all claim to be from those traditions. There's no central authority.
The central authority for the true Christian church is Jesus Christ and the Word of God; not a person (i.e. pope), or a diocese or a synod, etc.
I sure wish some of the new orthodox denominations would craft more attractive acronyms...NALC? Or ACNA? (Anglican Church of North America) Or AMiA? (Anglican Mission in the Americas) etc. etc....
Acronyms become names (like Elca...), and ought to be considered really well, before coining titles for groups. Lutheran Church of America (LCA) would be better as at least that way folks would pronounce the letters (like they do with the LCMS) instead of making a government-law-enforcement sounding name with it....
The only good new acronym I know is CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) due to it’s biblical roots.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.