The following publications about the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations are available:

• Standing Fast in Freedom • Welcome to Biblical THE • Free and Living Congregations • A New Springtime ASSOCIATION • Roots of Freedom • God’s Word Our Witness OF FREE • George Sverdrup: Champion of the Free Congregation • A Biblical Response to the Question LUTHERAN of the Ordination of Women • An Introducation to the AFLC and CONGREGATIONS Its Ministries (DVD) For more information on these publications The purpose, form and please contact the AFLC at: function of the AFLC Phone: 763.545.5631 Web: www.aflc.org

The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations 3110 East Medicine Lake Boulevard , MN 55441 What is the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations?

Venture of Faith Church Organization Contribution to the Lutheran Church The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations The Association of Free Lutheran The Association of Free Lutheran 1is a venture of faith. It is an attempt to build 4 Congregations is not a synod. It does not have 6 Congregations is sincerely grateful for the work an effective and orderly Christian fellowship the authority, save by consent of its congregations, of other Lutherans; yet it desires to have its own with a minimum of human organization. It is an to unite with Lutheran synods in effort to bring peculiar share in the mighty work and witness of the experiment in extreme ecclesiastical democracy and about an organically unified Lutheran Church. It Lutheran Church. It does not seek to pass judgment decentralization. It is a searching test of faith in the is one of the smaller Lutheran groups, standing on the relative contribution to Lutheranism of power of the Spirit of God. deeply in need of the varied contributions of other groups small or large; it earnestly seeks to be kept and larger bodies if it is to do its work effectively truly humble because of the imperfection of its Common Cause, Common Tasks in its various fields of endeavor. It is an effort to achievements, and rightly proud because of the achieve not a specific form of Church organization greatness of its heritage. Limited in number so The Association of Free Lutheran but a high quality of Christian life, in the faith that that not even its name is known in many Lutheran 2 Congregations is a fellowship of independent true spiritual life will tend to mold for itself a fitting circles of our country, and conscious that it will Lutheran congregations bound together by the bond form of organization. It was conceived to be a kind probably never be regarded as “successful” in the of loyalty to a common cause and common tasks. of ecclesiastical and spiritual leaven in American eyes of the world, it still believes in the continuing It is a specific and direct rejection of the superior Lutheranism. urgency of its message. Willing if necessary to find authority of every ecclesiastical organization above its success in seeming failure, the Association of the congregation. It is an attempt to test seriously Dream Becomes Reality Free Lutheran Congregations is commited, together the uniting power of Christian love and cooperation. with others of like mind, to the struggle for true It is a call to a spiritual pilgrimage with no endeavor The Association of Free Lutheran congregational life in the Lutheran Church in to organize the pilgrims into the rigid battalions of 5 Congregations was born of a dream of spiritual America. an army. power and vitality; yet it has been able to carry on even when its power and spiritual vitality seemed Bernhard M. Christensen Priesthood of Believers at lower ebb. It was launched under a great and The Lutheran Messenger inspiring leadership in a period of intense struggle; (24, no. 12, April 10, 1941) The Association of Free Lutheran yet it has not perished when led through calmer seas 3 Congregations is a cooperative venture in and by spirits less flaming. It has been ridiculed building Lutheran congregations by means of a as small, impractical and visionary; yet those who dominant emphasis neither upon organization nor know it best know that none of these words is a fatal upon the intricacies of doctrine but upon living indictment. It has been accused of “separatism”; yet and personal Christian experience. It is an attempt it has throughout all of its history been earnestly in to carry out in everyday practice the Reformation favor of full spiritual cooperation. Its dissolution principle of the universal priesthood of believers. It has long and often been foretold; but it still lives. is a concrete expression of revolt against ritualism The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations and formalism, and of the desire to nourish the is an attempt to translate a high spiritual vision spiritual life in utter simplicity upon the Word of into reality, even at the cost of being suspected of God. It is an effort to provide orderly channels for turning reality into a dream. This brochure was orignally published under the cultivation of the laity’s personal witness for the title, “What is the Lutheran ?” Christ, both in public and in private. Yet it cherishes All references to “Lutheran Free Church” have the ordered ministry of consecrated and trained been changed to “Association of Free Lutheran men, and the noble heritage of Christian worship, Congregations.” The Lutheran Free Church (LFC) that its people may know themselves to be one with was the predecessor to the AFLC and the AFLC was Christ in all the ages. founded upon the LFC’s Fundamental Principles.