Mission History
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Liberia
The Lutheran Mission in Liberia—the very first Lutheran missionary attempt in Africa—was established in 1860 by missionaries from the Lutheran Church in America, beginning with a boys’ school at Muhlenberg, a site forty miles from the coast on the St. Paul River. The unique vision of the first missionaries was to move “up country” as soon as possible to work among the indigenous population and not to remain along the coast among the Americo-Liberian population where other mission efforts concentrated.
Mission work, carried out by both missionary pastors and Liberian evangelists, focused in rural central and northwestern Liberia, mostly among the Kpelle and Loma people. In 1948 a literacy program was established, where evangelists and many other Christians learned how to read their native language. The Bible was translated into Kpelle and Loma equipping the Liberians to lead their congregational life.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Liberia was first organized in 1947 alongside the Lutheran Mission, and then was reorganized in 1965 under indigenous Liberian leadership as the Lutheran Church in Liberia. The first bishop, Roland J. Payne, the son of a tribal chief, led the church into this new independent phase. The LCL joined the Lutheran World Federation in 1966.