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The ACLC is open to all faithful, confessional Lutheran congregations and pastors regardless of ethnic or synodical background.
We love good theology, and love to associate with those who also love it.
The first formative meeting that led to the formation of the ACLC was held at Oxbow Public Library in October of 2007 to help meet the needs of a number of faithful congregations. So that the needs of the congregations might properly be met, the pastors of those congregations met together at the Oxbow Public Library during the time of the 2007 ELS General Pastoral Conference. The pastors and congregations saw the need to work together as they looked at various church bodies, and saw to any future pastoral vacancies.
The name Association of Confessional Lutheran Churches was suggested by Pastor Rolf Prues to emphasize that the larger church organization was not to be thought of as the be all, end all, but that it exists for the benefit of the member congregations. The pastors and congregations of the ACLC see all too clearly that synods consistently overstep their bounds, and are thought of by many as being more church than the congregations that comprise them. It is primarily in the congregations that the Gospel is preached and the sacraments properly administered. Any preaching of the Gospel at the level of a larger church body is more incidental than primary. The work of the larger church body is always to be supportive of the work of the congregations.
The first meeting was attended by a Rev. Roger Fehr, a representative of the Orthodox Lutheran Confessional Conference of Independent Churches OLCC(IC). The ACLC soon received an invitation from the OLCC to participate in free conferences beginning the following January. The conferences were expanded to include the Evangelical Diocese of North America. Several areas of concern were identified and worked on. A few less formal meetings also took place between various members of the three groups, and Bishop Heiser of ELDoNA was invited to meet with the ACLC pastors at our 2008 Pastoral Conference to address concerns on both sides. While free conferences have been suspended, it appears that as of April 2010 all concerns between ELDoNA and the ACLC have been satisfactorily addressed. It is hoped that discussions will begin again with the OLCC.
At our 2010 General conference the ACLC acknowledged the resignation of Pastor Rolf Prues as Superintendent and withdrawal from membership in the ACLC. At that conference the ACLC also unanimously adopted "A Statement On Confessional Fellowship" to clarify how we practice fellowship. We also moved closer to expressing fellowship with ELDoNA, and following the conference had informal and very cordial meetings with Pastor Martin Diers of OLCC. We continue to actively search for those with whom we are in fellowship, so that we may outwardly express what the Holy Spirit has inwardly created.
Sincerely yours in Christ.