The Pietist Synods
Pietism was the energy
behind missions, so the Lutheran bodies had their beginnings with a powerful
longing to be one with the Reformed. Count Zinzendorf came to America under a
false name, recruiting Lutherans for his Moravian sect.[1] He
was not an ordained pastor. That prompted the authorities to send an open
Pietist from Halle – Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, a trained pastor, which counted.
He identified with Pietism and was trained in the Francke Pietist institutions.
He organized the first church in 1742, identifying with the Augsburg
Confession, but naming it Augustus, after founder of the Halle institutions.
This is now called Old Trappe Church.
Paleo-Pietism, The ELCA
The Pennsylvania
Ministerium grew into the General Synod in 1820 by uniting with other regional
Lutheran groups. The Pennsylvania Ministerium withdrew to pursue union with
Reformed congregations. This attraction formed union congregations with two
liturgies, two confirmations, sometimes with the same pastor.
Samuel Schmucker led
the General Synod into an era of confessional strife and separation. He was
trained at Princeton Seminary (Calvinist) and never maintained a Biblical, Lutheran position.
He helped found Gettysburg Seminary (now ironically called United Lutheran
Seminary), and taught for 40 years, serving as president. United Lutheran
Seminary recently hired a Calvinist as its first president, Theresa Latini, a
former dean of diversity at a Calvinist seminary. They fired her soon after.[2]
Schmucker and others
tried hard to move the General Synod into complete merger with the Calvinists,
and that led to half the congregations leaving to form the General Council and
the Philadelphia seminary.[3]
The General Council objected to revivalism, Calvinist doctrine, and denial of
Biblical, Lutheran doctrine. The books published by General Council members
show a great appreciation for the Reformation and Luther’s Biblical doctrine. The
split came together again in 1918, celebrating the 400th anniversary
of the Reformation and setting the stage for another drift toward Calvinism and
rationalism.
WELS Pietism
The geographical parts
of the Wisconsin Synod – Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan – were unionist entities.
The bizarre two communions and two catechisms were quite familiar in those
states. Congregations were named Evangelical and Reformed, which meant Lutheran
and Calvinist, until some began to resist the movement. Nevertheless, the past kept a fondness for
non-Lutheran doctrine and cell groups as active forces, while rationalism
invaded the seminaries. Seminary Professor Adolph Hoenecke, another Halle
graduate, moved the Wisconsin Synod away from their fondness for Calvinist-Lutheran
congregations.[4]
LCMS Pietism – Loehe, Stephan
Loehe and Stephan were two
examples of Pietists establishing new churches in America. Loehe was very
active in world missions, setting up two seminaries for training pastors (Ft.
Wayne, LCMS, and Wartburg, now ELCA). The Loehe congregations were set up with
good leaders and prospered. The most famous is Frankenmuth, Michigan. The Loehe
pastors invited the Perryville cult to join them, so there is a double fiction
involved.
[1]
That may remind many people of those “conservative” Lutheran pastors who train at Fuller Seminary,
obtain degrees there, and deny they have anything to do with Church Growth.
[2] “Fired
Seminary President,”March 17, 2018. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/united-luther-seminary-president-fired-theresa-latini-philadelphia-gettysburg-gay-lgbtq-onebyone-20180317.html
[3] I
was interviewed for a position at the Philadelphia Seminary. They already had
their candidate, so I got a free trip and a chance to practice my dissertation
on a student audience. At lunch I met one of the last of the conservative
professors there.
[4] The
CLC church building in New Ulm, Minnesota, is from a split in the WELS
congregation, a block away. A new pastor came to the WELS parish and said, “I
thought we were done with the Reformed.” The Calvinists packed up and created
their own church, which became through mergers United Church of Christ. The CLC
bought it when the UCC built a new church and moved downtown.
