Who We Are

WordAlone’s primary concern is that the ELCA is losing its Christ-centered focus. ELCA churches and members are turning to authorities other than the authority of God’s Word, revealed in his risen Son, Jesus Christ, and in his inspired Word in the Holy Scriptures. The other authorities – human experience, wisdom and tradition – are used to turn aside the authority of God’s Word. The weaknesses within the ELCA – ecumenical agreements that compromise on significant biblical and confessional truths, the teaching and preaching of universalism, a decline in the proper mission of the church (global missions and new mission starts) and the push for approval of sexual relationships outside of marriage to name just a few – are symptoms of the deeper problem within the ELCA, the crisis over the authority of God’s Word.

Mission Statement

WordAlone is a Lutheran grassroots network of congregations and individuals committed to the authority of the Word manifest in Jesus the Christ as proclaimed in Scripture and safeguarded through the work of the Holy Spirit. WordAlone advocates reform and renewal of the church, representative governance, theological integrity, and freedom from a mandated historic episcopate.

Introductory brochure

A brochure entitled "An Introduction to the WordAlone Network" may be downloaded and printed or ordered from our office.

Introductory video

A 30-minute video that introduces the WordAlone Network may be ordered from the WordAlone office. Those who know little or nothing about the WordAlone movement, or want to review its history and goals will benefit from watching the video.

The video features Pastor Mark Chavez, WordAlone’s Vice President. He summarizes the history of the movement and WordAlone’s three main goals, its three R’s—Renew, Reform and Reflect.

The video lends itself well to being used in an adult forum on Sunday morning or some other time, at a church council meeting, at a chapter meeting or in a small group setting. The video is available in either DVD or VHS format. The cost is $10.00 for the DVD and $8.00 for the VHS videotape.

Credit card orders may be placed by phone (toll free, 888-551-7254 or local, 651-633-6004) or send a check with your order to: WordAlone Network, 2299 Palmer Drive, Suite 220, New Brighton, MN 55112.

The Common Confession

Our concern about the drift of the ELCA from the Scriptures and the Lutheran confessions is best summarized in seven short articles of The Common Confession,  a document that was approved by the 2005 WordAlone annual convention

WordAlone Theological Advisory Board

WordAlone has a tremendous asset in its Theological Advisory Board. This group of internationally renowned theologians and scholars provide the religious "backbone" to the WordAlone Network's efforts to fulfill its Mission Statement.

Who We Are -- A History

WordAlone started as an email list

WordAlone began as a “virtual renewal community,” a discussion group using an e-mail list. The list began in December 1996 with about 40 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America laypersons, pastors, and theologians. The group focused its efforts on defeating changes in Lutheran ordination practices that would be required by a proposed Concordat of Agreement with The Episcopal Church. The primary changes were that all new ELCA bishops would be installed/ordained into an historic episcopate and a bishop must ordain all new pastors.

Symptoms

Other symptoms include the ELCA’s ecumenical agreements, which compromise on significant biblical and confessional truths, the teaching and preaching of universalism...

The agreement with The Episcopal Church was the catalyst that sparked the formation of the WordAlone  movement. The agreement is one of many symptoms of a much deeper problem, the crisis over the authority of God’s Word. The ELCA is losing its Christ-centered focus as ELCA churches and members turn to authorities – human experience, wisdom and tradition – and turn aside the authority of God’s Word, revealed in his risen Son, Jesus Christ, and in his inspired Word in the Holy Scriptures. Other symptoms include the ELCA’s ecumenical agreements, which compromise on significant biblical and confessional truths, the teaching and preaching of universalism, the decline in the proper mission of the church (global missions and new mission starts), the avoidance of biblical language and names for the Triune God and the push for approval of sexual relationships outside of marriage to name just a few.

There were two primary reasons for the opposition to the Concordat: 1) the agreement called into question the sufficiency of Christ alone for the unity of the Church by requiring bishops in an historic episcopate “as a sign of the unity and apostolic continuity of the whole church”, and 2) the agreement required uniform human rites and traditions contrary to the Lutheran confessions:

…The church is the assembly of saints in which the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly. And it is enough for the true unity of the church to agree concerning the teaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. It is not necessary that human traditions, rites, or ceremonies instituted by human beings be alike everywhere . . . [Article 7, Augsburg Confession, emphasis added]

The 1997 ELCA churchwide assembly narrowly defeated the Concordat and called for a new agreement. The agreement was rewritten in 1998 with no substantial revisions in changes the ELCA would be required to make in its ordination practices, and was renamed Called to Common Mission (CCM).

More than 200 WordAlone e-mail list participants decided to meet face-to-face in February 1999, at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, Minn., at the invitation of Pastor Roger Eigenfeld, to discuss opposition to CCM. Church leaders from across the ELCA attended the meeting including Dr. Robert Marshall, former president of the Lutheran Church in America, and Dr. David Preus, former president of the American Lutheran Church. The “Mahtomedi resolution,” which called for pulpit and altar fellowship with The Episcopal Church and the defeat of CCM, came from that meeting and was approved by synods representing almost half of the ELCA’s baptized membership in 1999.

Interest in WordAlone steadily increased. The website, which was created in 1998, was averaging around 1,200 daily visitors by the summer of 1999. The e-mail list grew to more than 400 people. Participants in the e-mail list began holding regional meetings in all parts of the country.

After the 1999 Churchwide assembly narrowly approved CCM, WordAlone held a second national gathering in November 1999, at Roseville Lutheran Church, Roseville, Minn. More than 300 people attended and decided to create a formal renewal and reform movement within the ELCA.

In February 2000 in Milwaukee, Wis., 18 ELCA and WordAlone leaders, evenly balanced in the number of CCM supporters and opponents, participated in an unofficial two-day dialog that was professionally mediated. By a vote of 17 to 1, the group issued the “Milwaukee Common Ground Resolution,” which called for the ELCA to make changes so that all who objected to CCM would be free to practice traditional Lutheran ordination practices. Then Saint Paul Area Synod bishop and now Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson was one of the leaders who convened the meeting.

The already scheduled constituting convention for the WordAlone Network soon followed at St. Andrew’s in Mahtomedi in March 2000. More than 1,000 people attended and they overwhelmingly endorsed the Milwaukee Common Ground Resolution.

The convention also called for a second organization primarily because seminary graduates who would refuse to conform to CCM would need a Lutheran church body in which to serve if the ELCA were not to allow for non-episcopal ordinations. Also a few people and churches had decided in 2000 to withdraw from the ELCA, but did not want to join an existing Lutheran church body. The second organization, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, formed in 2001 and allows its churches to belong to more than one Lutheran church body. Many of its churches are also ELCA churches that belong to WordAlone.

In spring 2000 synod assemblies representing half the ELCA’s baptized membership also supported the changes called for in the Milwaukee Common Ground Resolution. The ELCA Conference of Bishops and Church Council would not consider the Resolution. Instead they began work on an amendment to the ELCA bylaws that would “in unusual circumstances” allow a bishop to authorize a pastor to ordain. The 2001 Churchwide Assembly approved this bylaw amendment.

Since CCM was approved, 40 pastors have not been ordained by bishops, 38  under the 2001 bylaw amendment. These pastors are graduates of six of the eight ELCA seminaries and have been assigned to 21 different synods. The bylaw amendment has also been used once when a bishop was not able to get to the ordination due to weather problems. It was used one other time when a bishop failed to show up for an ordination due to a mistaken entry in his calendar. However in this case, a bishop affirmed his ordination at the pastor’s installation, reportedly making the pastor acceptable for service in The Episcopal Church.

The 2004 WordAlone annual convention unanimously adopted a resolution, Concerning the Gift of Sexual Life and Its Divinely Created Structure, which affirm upholds the “Biblical teaching about sexual life and its vision for marriage,” and rejects “any proposed change in standards and definitions for sexual life or marriage which contradicts this Biblical teaching.” WordAlone participated from 2003 to 2005 in Solid Rock Lutherans, the coalition that successfully worked for the defeat at the 2005 ELCA churchwide assembly of the proposal to allow for exceptions to ordain practicing homosexuals.

The 2005 WordAlone annual convention called for an association of confessing congregations joined together by the Common Confession. Participants at WordAlone's 2005 fall theological conference formed  the association, originally called Lutheran Churches of the Common Confession (LC3). In 2008 LC3 changed its name toLutheran CORE Congregations and intentionally became the congregational component of  Lutheran CORE, the Coalition for Reform. Churches need not belong to WordAlone to participate in LC3.

Lutheran CORE was also formed at WordAlone's 2005 fall theological conference by the groups and individuals who had participated in Solid Rock Lutherans. On the basis of the  Common Confession, WordAlone and a number of reform groups, individuals and churches work together in Lutheran CORE to help the ELCA remain grounded in the Scriptures and the Lutheran confessions.

The 2005 WordAlone annual convention also approved a proposal for a Lutheran theological house of studies, and the 2006 annual convention called for an autonomous and accredited house of studies. The house of studies was formed and incorporated independently of WordAlone in 2007 as the Institute of Lutheran Theology.

WordAlone steadily grows as a renewal movement nationwide with more than 230 member churches and more than 100 other churches supportive of the movement. There are almost 6,000 individual members in 45 states and all geographic ELCA synods. There are more than 40 local chapters in many locations throughout the ELCA that meet regularly. WordAlone has points of contact in more than 45 synods. More than 1,000 pastors have joined WordAlone, which includes graduates of all eight ELCA seminaries.

Aside from its Christ-centered focus, WordAlone is a diverse movement. Members come from all of the predecessor Lutheran church bodies that merged to form the ELCA. Gnesio Lutherans, pietists, charismatics, evangelicals, evangelical catholics and plain vanilla Lutherans belong to the movement. The worship practices of WordAlone churches run the gamut from high to low, from weekly communion to once a month communion. On the political spectrum, WordAlone members are liberal and conservative, and are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents.

View the By-Laws of the WordAlone Network

in In Web format (appears as normal web page and will print)

in PDF format