Constitutions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

as adopted by the Constituting Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (April 30, 1987) and as amended by the First (1989), Second (1991), Third (1993), Fourth (1995), Fifth (1997), Sixth (1999), Seventh (2001), Eighth (2003), and Ninth (2005) and Tenth (2007) Churchwide Assemblies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Edition current as of August 2007 (revised April 2008)

Introduction

The basic commitments of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as well as its organizational outline, structural patterns, and rubrics or governance are reflected by this church’s constitutions, bylaws, and continuing resolutions. These documents govern our life together as congregations, synods, and churchwide organization.

We find ourselves consulting these documents again and again to guide, direct, and assist us. They express for us, as a church body, our understanding of the nature of the Church. They contain our statement of purpose and our principles of organization. They define our membership, our relationship, and our operating patterns.

While we recognize that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America officially began operation as a church body on January 1, 1988, through the uniting of three predecessor bodies, we realize that our roots reach deep into the soil of the Lutheran Confessions and we draw constant nourishment from our biblical foundations. So we really are an old church with a different name and structure from those of our three predecessor church bodies. We are a particular gathering of people known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As part of the whole Church of Christ, we announce and declare the teachings of the prophets and apostles and seek to confess in our time the faith once delivered to the saints.

The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, Secretary
Day of Commemoration for Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
October 7, 2007