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The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations
"...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." II Corinthians 3, 17
(Click on the link at the bottom of the page to go to the AFLC website)
Mighty Fortress Evangelical Lutheran Church is affiliated with the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC), the fourth largest Lutheran body in America. Printed below is a thumbnail history of this Lutheran body. Please also visit the AFLC website which will provide you with more details about the association and their work.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE FREE CHURCH MOVEMENT
Professor Georg Sverdrup and Professor Sven Offedal had a vision and dream of free and living congregations being planted throughout America: "I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." (Joel 2, 28 & Acts 2, 17) Sverdrup and Offedal's concept was to offer Christians the chance to make a "new beginning" by returning to the New Testament pattern of Christianity. Just as a few men who had a dream to offer freedom to those oppressed, these two men had a dream to offer freedom within the church body. In 1890 three Norwegian Lutheran groups merged to form the United Norwegian Lutheran Church. Sverdrup and Offedal had faith that this merger would be an open and free church, but in practice the church was anything but free. The major sticking points were control of Augsburg Seminary and free church policy - not theology. Later in 1890, the new United Norwegian Lutheran Church had Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, and they wanted control of the Seminary. Sverdrup and Offerdal refused to turn the seminary over to them. Thirteen congregations joined in supporting the two professors, and formed a group called the "Friends of Augsburg." In the year 1895, the two professors were denied delegate status at the Annual Conference. At the conference, the thirteen congregations were given a year to renounce their stand. They refused to do so, and in 1897, those congregations were dismissed. On June 12, 1897, the "Free Church Committee" submitted the "Rules for a Lutheran Free Church." On that date, they then declared, together with representatives from over a 100 congregations, to be the Lutheran Free Church. Thus was born the forerunner of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations. HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE LUTHERAN CONGREGATIONS The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations has a heritage of being dreamers and risk-takers. It is a heritage of people who believed that they "can do everything through Him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4, 13). The ones who went before us in had confidence in God that motivated them to dream and take courageous steps of faith. They did not know what God would do, but they knew what He could do, so they went forward boldly. To many, the dreams seemed foolish. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (I Cor. 1, 18) "The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." (I Corinthians 2, 14-16) The dream did get planted, and in 1962 the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations was born. BIBLE SCHOOL AND SEMINARY The Association Free Lutheran Bible School, located in Plymouth, MN, was founded in 1966. It consists of a two year, evangelical college level school of the Bible. High school graduates come to build a Biblical foundation for future careers, grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ, prepare for youth or world missions work and lay down a ground work for becoming Pastors and Congregational leaders. The seminary, a four year course of study, is located in Minneapolis, MN.
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