But the denomination’s history goes back well before 1847.
In the decades prior to the founding of the LCMS, several different groups of Lutherans immigrated to, and settled in, the United States. Most of these groups had a strong ethnic heritage. The groups involved in the LCMS were German. Other ethnic Lutheran groups included Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, and Danes; they founded other denominations. Among all these groups, the ethnic identity, fostered primarily through language, was strong, although there were instances of Americanization.
But ethnicity was not the strongest factor in defining these groups. Each had a vision of Lutheranism which shaped their communal faith practices.
Four groups eventually coalesced to form the Missouri Synod. There is some ambiguity in this narrative, because some of these groups were not clearly organizationally defined, but consisted rather of loose trends. Some historians simplify the narrative and speak of the LCMS as the merger of two major groups, with other individuals or small movements joining in under the umbrella of the two. Interpretations of the Synod’s founding are therefore somewhat debatable, but the narrative presented here is serviceable.
One of the four trends is confessionalism. The word ‘confessionalism’ here denotes the view that Lutheranism is definitively shaped by the teachings of the Book of Concord. This book, compiled in 1580, is a collection of texts which set forth the essential doctrines of Lutheranism. The confessionalists were concerned to retain the purity of doctrine. The Prussian monarchy, which ruled large areas of central Europe, had decided in 1817 to force a merger of Lutheran and Calvinist church bodies. This merger was unacceptable to the confessionalists, who saw that it compromised Lutheran teachings. Some of the confessionalists emigrated to America. A few came as individuals or families; others came in larger organized groups.
One particular group came from the area around the city of Chemnitz, including the small towns of Oberfrohna and Niederfrohna. This area is in the German region of Saxony. Martin Stephan organized and led this group in 1838-1839 to settle eventually in eastern Missouri. In late 1839, the group exiled Martin Stephan on charges of embezzlement and sexual misconduct. Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther eventually emerged as the leader of these people in the wake of Stephan’s departure. They established a cluster of small villages not far from the Mississippi River.
Pietism was a second movement incorporated into the Missouri Synod. The term ‘pietism’ is used in a variety of ways; in church history, it refers to a trend in the 1600s and 1700s, and relevant to this narrative is Lutheran pietism. Not relevant is reformed or calvinist pietism, or forms of piety in later centuries. An influential preacher and author, Philipp Jacob Spener, shaped Lutheran pietism in several European nations. Spener’s most popular book, published in 1675, became a standard text within pietism.
Already at this point in the narrative, two groups have been identified: pietism and confessionalism. Even before examining two more groups who would be part of the founding of the LCMS, it is worth noting that there is a fair amount of overlap between these two movements. Many of the people involved in Martin Stephan’s 1838-1839 confessionalist Saxon Emigration were simultaneously influenced by pietism.
A third factor in the formation of the Missouri Synod was a movement of missionary activity. Beginning in the early 1840s, Wilhelm Löhe recruited and sent clergy to America. It had come to his attention that many German-speaking settlers in North America were unchurched and ignorant of their faith. Löhe’s trend broadened over the decades to include missionary work among the Native American Indians.
A final category of influences on the founding of the LCMS is vague yet significant. There were German-speaking immigrants who didn't fit neatly into any of the three categories already delineated, yet who became significant parts of the new church body. They were not especially confessionalistic or pietistic, and weren’t part of organized missionary movements. Many came to America looking for economic opportunities or political liberty. Yet they carried some manner of Lutheran identity with them. They desired churches and pastors for their towns, and schools for their children. They arrived in America over a series of decades, independently of each other, and not part of any organization. On average, they may have been financially more stable than the pietists, confessionalists, or missionaries.
The melding of these four groups into the LCMS ensured that the new church body would incorporate a variety of approaches to the faith. In some instances, this was synergy. In other instances, it led to conflict. Each of the four had its strengths and weaknesses. It is still possible today to detect the effects of each on the Synod.
The confessionalists left a legacy of strong attachment to clearly-stated and correct doctrine. The pietists contributed their desire for a personal vivid life-changing faith which manifests itself in daily conduct. Löhe’s emissaries emphasized outreach and evangelization. The fourth, uncategorized category, lent a communal impulse: the desire to establish villages and neighborhoods in which Lutheran churches and Lutheran schools were societal hubs.
Even if historians debate about the exact nature and number of the groups which joined together to build the LCMS, it is in any case clear that there was a diversity of approaches to the faith which made for a robust spiritual and communal life within the denomination.
