Check.Church

North American Lutheran Church

Lutheran · 2010 · United States; Canada

Formed by congregations leaving the ELCA after its 2009 changes on sexuality and ordination, seeking a confessionally traditional Lutheranism distinct from both the ELCA and the LCMS; retains women's ordination and a decentralized structure.

North American Lutheran Church was formed in 2010. North American Lutheran Church continues today. North American Lutheran Church's institutional line runs back through Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.

Between the post-apostolic church and North American Lutheran Church stand 3 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.

At a glance

Formed
In 2010
Family
Lutheran
Region
United States; Canada
Cause tags
Doctrine, Governance
Also known as
NALC

What it separated from

On the tree

North American Lutheran Church and its institutional line back to the post-apostolic churchAD 33The church at Pentecost: On divine groundThe church at Pentecost: on divine groundtoday1004244314511054151719882010The post-apostolic church (The spine)The post-apostolicchurchDepartureChurch of the East (Church of the East)Church of the EastChurch of the EastThe conciliar church (The spine)The conciliar churchDepartureThe Chalcedonian church (The spine)The Chalcedonian churchDepartureOriental Orthodoxy (Oriental Orthodox)Oriental OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxEastern Orthodoxy (Eastern Orthodox)Eastern OrthodoxyEastern OrthodoxRoman Catholicism (Catholic)Roman CatholicismNot gatheredLutheran (Lutheran)LutheranLutheranEvangelical Lutheran Church in America (Lutheran)Evangelical LutheranChurch in AmericaLutheranNorth American Lutheran Church (Lutheran)North American LutheranChurchLutheran

Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2. Dashed gray boxes mark the institutional line after the apostles, shown as departure; no line of descent is drawn from Pentecost. A verdict appears on a box once its section is published.

Adherents

About 175,000 adherents (self-reported claim, as of 2025).

A figure the body itself has stated, often years old, with no census apparatus behind it.

Source: logos.com guide (c. 2025, ~530 congregations)

Sources

Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-31.