A group of Lutherans announced Wednesday that they will begin work on a proposal for an alternate church body that would accommodate those who want to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

"Many ELCA members and congregations have said that they want to sever ties with the ELCA because of the ELCA’s continued movement away from traditional Christian teachings," said the Rev. Paull Spring of State College, Pa., chair of Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Renewal).

The renewal group's steering committee made the announcement during its Nov. 17-18 meeting in Minnesota. more >>

The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America reported that 40 positions may be cut as the denomination struggles financially.

"These have been very painful days in this organization," ELCA Presiding Bishop the Rev. Mark S. Hanson told the Church Council Friday, according to the ELCA News Service.

Lutherans are looking to reduce their 2010 budget by 10 percent due to decreased giving over the past 30 years, the economic downturn, and the decision by some congregations to withhold funding. more >>

A letter written by the vice president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is being distributed to the church body’s 4.6 million members in response to the growing dissatisfaction over divisive decisions made this past summer by the denomination’s chief legislative authority.

Since ELCA's Churchwide Assembly adopted a social statement on human sexuality and made it possible non-celibate homosexuals to serve as rostered leaders, a number of congregations have considered parting ways with denomination, which they say has been parting ways with the Word of God.

And some are thinking about ceasing their donations to the church body, which is already facing a significant decrease in its budget. more >>

"It wasn't primarily about sex." With those words, Lutheran theologian Robert Benne explained that the actions recently taken by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to normalize homosexuality were not primarily about sex at all, but about theological identity. "The ELCA has formally left the great tradition for liberal Protestantism," Benne declared.

Taking its stand with the radical theological revisionism of the Protestant Left, the ELCA "left the Great Tradition of moral teaching to identify with United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church," Benne lamented.

Writing in Christianity Today, Benne argued that his denomination had abandoned the Gospel for a social gospel. "The liberating movements fueled by militant feminism, multiculturalism, anti-racism, anti-heterosexism, anti-imperialism, and now ecologism have been moved to the center while the classic gospel and its missional imperatives have been pushed to the periphery." more >>

Hip-hop, musical comedy and contemporary Christian music artists have joined forces on a nationwide music tour aimed at inspiring young Lutherans to fight global poverty and hunger.

Entitled “Jesus Justice Jazz: The Tour,” the show is hitting a total of 16 stops where at each location young attendees are hearing testimonies about hunger and being encouraged to donate towards the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s World Hunger fund. The venues are ELCA-affiliated Christian colleges and Lutheran churches.

The colleges are underwriting many of the tour expenses so that money raised can go towards the hunger fund. more >>

Bishops within the largest Lutheran denomination in America are asking President Obama to “remain firm” in his commitment to achieving a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

"The U.S. plays a key role in negotiating necessary compromises and in holding both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to their obligations," expressed the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and 58 of the denomination’s 65 synod bishops.

“We express profound concern at the stalemate that persists and at the fading hopes for a two-state solution due to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem," the bishops added in their letter to Obama, dated Tuesday. "It is our firm belief that a just resolution is within reach if the United States remains unwavering in its determination to help the parties finally reach agreement." more >>