Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ

Lighthouse Lutheran Church, a member congregation in Freedom, Pennsylvania

LCMC was started by the WordAlone Network as an alternative for local churches that no longer believed that they could remain in the ELCA and work to reform it. The organization began in 2001 with 31 congregations as charter members. As of August 2022, membership was reported as 970 congregations, including 785 US congregations in 41 states, the U.S. Territories of Guam and Puerto Rico, as well as over 100 congregations in 15 other countries (including Belarus, Cambodia, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia, and Vietnam). LCMC is now the fourth largest Lutheran group in the United States, after the ELCA, the LCMS, and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).

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Heritage of the Synodical Conference of North America Association of Confessional Lutheran Churches Church of the Lutheran Confession Concordia Lutheran Conference Evangelical Lutheran Synod Independent Lutheran Diocese Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod Lutheran Churches of the Reformation Orthodox Lutheran Confessional Conference Protes'tant Conference United Lutheran Mission Association Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Heritage of the LFC or ALC American Association of Lutheran Churches Association of Free Lutheran Congregations Evangelical Lutheran Conference & Ministerium of North America Conservative Lutheran Association Lutheran Ministerium and Synod – USA
Heritage of the Awakening Apostolic Lutheran Church of America Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America Laestadian Lutheran Church Old Apostolic Lutheran Church
High Church Revival Evangelical Catholic Church Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America Lutheran Church - International

LCMC is congregational in structure, rejecting the historic episcopate which was adopted by the ELCA, the denomination to which many LCMC members had previously belonged, in the Called to Common Mission agreement.

The beliefs of the LCMC are based on the Bible and the Lutheran confessions in the Book of Concord. On one important issue, LCMC stands apart from other conservative Lutheran denominations: it permits, but does not require the ordination of female clergy. Some congregations' constitutions and bylaws allow only men to be installed into the Office of Holy Ministry.

The LCMC does not bless same-sex partnerships and requires all pastors on their clergy list to subscribe to their pastoral admonition on human sexuality: "We affirm that God created us male and female, and that it is God's will and intention that human sexual expression and fulfillment take place only within the boundaries of marriage between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24-25; Matthew 19:4-6; and Mark 10:2-9). And, we confess as individuals and as congregations that we have not fulfilled God's will in our decisions, modeling, and teaching."[5]

The LCMC has an evangelical catholic and charismatic strand. Many congregations hold to liturgical forms and vested celebrants when leading worship and administering the Sacrament of the Altar. The LCMC brings together the sacramental, evangelical, and charismatic nature of the church into one fold. The LCMC has ten geographic and three non-geographic districts. The non-geographic districts are theologically oriented.[6]

• Confessing Movement
• North American Lutheran Church

• Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ