Mission History

Christian Lutheran Church in Honduras

The Iglesia Christiana Luterana de Honduras (ICLH) grew out of the mission work of North American missionaries from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, who established small Lutheran congregations in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and three other rural settlements in the 1950s.

Known as the Lutheran Mission of Juticalpa, this Lutheran venture changed and grew when Salvadorans migrated to Honduras in search of "soil to sow." As there were Lutherans among them, their missionary pastor in El Salvador, Gerhard Kempff, began visiting them in 1960. In 1964 Pastor Kempff moved to Tegucigalpa himself and served the scattered enclaves from this central location for the next seven years.

The Mission was granted legal status in 1984 as the Christian Lutheran Church of Honduras, and established new missions near Lake Yojoa and La Ceiba on the Atlantic Coast. As the political situation changed and Salvadoran refugees began to return to their country, the congregational life dwindled, and in 1990 the church set up new national working structures. The ICLH joined the Lutheran World Federation in 1994 and today has over 2000 members. Theologically, it follows the orientation of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador and its links with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod are diminishing gradually.