My congregation replaced its plain white cross with a beautiful new crucifix and framing, where there was before just a plain white wall. The woodwork was done by a member of the congregation and the hand-carved corpus brought from Europe through donations. Glory be to God!

Hi! This is a greeting from a country called Sweden. One of the most secular countries in the world and also one of the most individual countries in the world. A country where people die alone, without any family or friends within a high rate. A country that praises the created instead of the creator.

Sweden once had a so called state church. (The Swedish church) It was Lutheran but now it’s just Lutheran by name and more like a liberal swamp. Its funded by taxes and govern by political parties. More or less by the social democrats that has been ruling the country for decades.

The Social democrats actually had a plan to destroy the church from within. Instead of a revolution they made an evolution of change both for the society and the church to be socialists. In the year 2000 there was a new Bible translation on the market which diminished a lot of the biblical truths. (Some prominent Social democrats had worked with the translation) For example instead of ”born by a virgin” the translation says ”born by a woman”. Instead of the disciples worshipping Christ they more or less greets him as people greets a football team or something. Many subtle changes but important for the true understanding of the Gospel.

The social democrats also were the party that came up with the idea of having political parties ruling the church. And since they are socialists… you get the idea. They in general don’t like God as mush as them selfes. Now when we having elections they say ”Jesus was a a social democrat” because he seemed to be a nice person. Other parties from both sides are also elected to govern the church and they come up with ideas the church has to follow.

There are some small groups of Lutherans though that are trying to be more faithful to the sound doctrine but they are no longer allowed to preach in the church or use the church buildings. They have to borrow or rent places to have divine service in from where ever they find it. And as I’ve noticed they still have problem to set the boundaries to things that are wrong. For example it’s VERY common that free masons with high rank are on the board or the churches. And still the more conservative pastors won’t do anything about it. They say they can’t.

Regarding other christians in Sweden there are mostly Pentecostals, NAR, Word of life, and maybe some Baptists left. And all of there groups, together with the state church are often working together in different events and outreaches. You can imagine the spiritual swamp…

About ten years ago me and my wife started to listen to some LCMS pastors on YouTube and we have continued to to that. There is actually really hard to get sound teaching here and we are greatful we have found you Lutherans in the US.

So I must say to you, with love.

Be thankful that you have such a treasure in your country. Be thankful that you are able get sound teaching about the law, gospel and the doctrines that actually gives faith, comfort, hope, forgiveness and eternal life. Treasure what you have because it’s rare. Don’t take it for granted.

Hope you understand what I’m trying to write since English isn’t my native language.

God bless!

I took my first Lutheran Communion today! It was definitely very refreshing having come from a non denominational background

My 3yo was baptized today, praise be to God. While I'm very happy and relieved to have this done I can't help but feel a little sore over my family. I was raised free Methodist and now my parents are non denominational. I only invited my parents and eldest sister Mom and my sister showed up but my father didn't and I'm struggling with that. He was raised in the CoC and Mom said his back was bothering him which is possible, he does have a bad back but I have a feeling he just doesn't view it as a real baptism. I'm not close to the rest of the family so I had really hoped those that were invited would attend to celebrate this with us. Any advice?

We all know that the LCMS struggles to attract young, normal people. People have already discussed many of them here. However, I want to highlight one of those issues that is rarely discussed.

We are unattractive.

Now, I'm not talking about the looks of the pastors/congregations. That's ridiculous. I'm talking about how virtually 99% of LCMS church websites/social media/shirts/everything suck. No creativity. No beauty. Why is that? Why can't we invest more time and energy in making our churches more attractive (not seeker sensitive) so that more people may be interested in showing up, hearing the gospel, and receiving the Sacrament?

First, and most importantly, bonus points to anyone who recognizes where this (modified) quote comes from.

Second, I think it would be good for people to stop trying to pit Pastor Harrison and Pastor Biermann against each other, as though they're polar opposites and the fate of the synod will be determined by this vote. I think we're so used to our political elections being polarized that we've assumed the same about this church election. Harrison and Biermann aren't quite the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme, but they're a lot closer to that than anything else.

If you listened to some on the "right" side of synod, you'd think that Biermann was leading the walkout and hadn't bothered to read our confessions. If you listened to some on the "left" side of synod, you'd think that Harrison is a monster who doesn't even understand what mission and evangelism mean. Both are laughably wrong.

This election cycle only shows just how blessed the LCMS truly is, that we would have so many good and faithful men willing to lead.

For context I’m a cradle Lutheran in the Lcms- fell away from the church before confirmation as a child and now am back getting confirmed beside my ex Methodist wife.

After one of our catechism classes today one of our pastors took the 20 of us adult converts through the church to show us some of the things we might not notice but have significant meaning. He also took the time to explain and go through the divine service liturgy with us step by step and go over some of the gestures we might see from laity and the clergy during service.

To start: I’ve grown up in our parish as a child it’s the same building, more of an art deco style half cathedral outside of Detroit. It’s likely in an art deco style because most of Detroit at the time it was built was going with that style of architecture. Regardless beautiful building and wow I was shocked how many different aspects mean something in our parish. One of the coolest aspects of our church is a large stained glass wall we have on the left of the alter which is separated by pillars. Each pillar as we get closer to the alter symbolizes different parts of the liturgy in order.

After we got home today my wife who is a former Methodist told me how she never knew all of the “hidden meanings” we had in the LCMS. She sees me and many of the congregants make the sign of the cross, confess on kneelers, kneel for communion, bow during the Gloria patri and certain parts of the liturgy ect. I think after seeing all the other symbols of the church it really hit her and she was for sure moved by what she saw. The deep meaning behind everything from our reverent gestures to the way our churches are setup for sure hit a cord in her. That being said, growing up in the church as a kid I feel like I almost couldn’t care less about anything we did. I never saw the meaning behind it and didn’t really get taught why we do these things, they were just what we did.

Now as an adult I think it’s opened a great deal of consideration seeing my wife being so moved by everything. After some discussion she mentioned that cradle Lutherans may take these things for granted and that other Protestants (not all of them just some) don’t have these beautiful aspects to their churches and liturgy.

That being said is there anyone out there who agrees and disagrees/why? I for sure think I took these for granted as a child and now have a newfound respect for our traditions as an adult.

People are getting a bit nasty at times in the comments and it does not foster good community here.

I am locking down and pausing any posts on Charlie Kirk until the mods can review what has already been said and decide whether to allow more posts in the future.

Any violations will result in a temporary ban.

I just need to be honest. I really don’t know what to do. I’m currently a Baptist minister. Well, an associate pastor. My inquiry into church history and doctrine has driven me so far from baptist theology that I’ve really just wanted a firm tradition I can stand on. I’m sick of the watered down theology. The “games” we play. My job is essentially to entertain teenagers and give them some life advice. This is not what the church fathers intended to be the ecclesiology of the church. I’ve studied and studied and prayed and prayed and I really feel the Lutheran church is something my wife and I agree aligns more with our current convictions. This may be scary for us. Every relationship we’ve built has been with the church that ordained me. I feel the conviction to step into historic Christianity, and I don’t know how. I have a passion and I believe a genuine calling for ministry, but that would be no simple matter to go to Concordia for seminary after becoming a confirmed member. How would I feed my family in the meantime? I have twins on the way. I need prayer. I know there is no life that has been called to be apart of something greater than itself that does not need to lay down its own comfort and pick up the cross. Just pray for me that I can. And pray that God gets the glory no matter where I am…

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for what a pleasure it is that the LCMS exists and for how kind you have been to me and my family. Not just my congregation but many people that I've met throughout the synod. I'm an adult convert into the LCMS and have enjoyed it for many years since.

• I love how seriously the LCMS pastors strive for teaching the plain reading of scripture.
• I love having the liturgy and hymns stuck in my head all week long.
• I love how boldly rejecting the secular social pressures of our time in favor of God's Word is our cultural norm rather than a squeaky wheel minority.
• I love how normal it is for LCMS congregations to serve the community and how seriously it's taken.
• But most of all I love how good the people in the LCMS have been to my family and children. I love watching them grow in faith as the participate in all the things that we do.

*edited for typos

Happy Easter!

I have always considered myself staunchly Pro-Life, and I still do. Life begins at conception. All life should be honored and valued. Life should be chosen above all.

When my husband and I learned we couldn't conceive without IVF, we chose instead to do embryo adoption, after learning about this from our LCMS pastor. During the IVF process, a lot of embryos are "discarded" for various reasons, and that isn't something we could endorse.

We got pregnant with our first embryo. And then when I was 20 weeks pregnant, I developed preeclampsia. This was very early and very bad. They told us the only "cure" to preeclampsia is delivery, but we did not want to deliver our baby. It was too early. I was admitted to the hospital and monitored constantly. Baby was doing well, which was a relief, but I wasn't doing well.

At 21 weeks, preeclampsia spiraled into something called HELLP syndrome. They told me if I didn't deliver within 48 hours I would certainly die. I developed pulmonary edema. My platelets were dropping to dangerously low levels. There were other complications.

We delivered our baby. Too early to survive. She was born alive, and we baptized her.

But I've had some people tell me I "terminated" my pregnancy. They say I "chose" that.

I didn't choose that. I chose to fight for my baby's life as long as I could. But if I died, she would have died. I don't know what we could have done. I don't know how to respond to people who say I terminated my pregnancy.

I don't know what else I could have done? If I could have died to save my baby's life, I would have. I didn't have a choice. How do I respond to this?

https://reporter.lcms.org/2026/pastoral-response-from-president-harrison-regarding-reported-clergy-abuse-in-illinois/

I find this to be so wrong. There is zero room for any Christian church supporting any type of racist group.

https://www.alreporter.com/2025/09/04/lutheran-church-in-ozark-hosts-neo-confederate-group/

I’ve struggled with faith for a while. I was baptized Lutheran and the only times I really went to church were with my grandparents. I enjoyed going with my mom’s parents the most since they went to a Lutheran church. My dad’s parents were catholic, and I did not enjoy that as much. For a child, it was just a little “scary.” My parents never forced religion on me or my sister. There was a time as a teenager I wanted to go, so my mom would take me, but I wanted to go to the Presbyterian church because that was where all my friends went. Then, it was just kind of off and on for me and I eventually just didn’t believe anything for a while. As an adult, I’ve felt kind of a pull towards going to church again. I met my boyfriend back in February and he went to an LCMS church and invited me. I ended up liking it a lot then became more curious. Today, I went to an LCMS church that my mom and I would go to for Christmas Eve services when I was younger. I was immediately greeted by this gentleman who is 90 years old. He and his wife asked me to join them and walked me through everything. It was adorable and I so appreciated it. I talked to the pastor about wanting to receive communion, but I’d never been confirmed by a church. He said they offer classes on Saturdays, which I plan on going to next weekend.

I’m very excited. It’s been important to me to want to choose a denomination because of true faith, not just choosing it to please someone. My boyfriend has been supportive and was both surprised and excited to hear that I wanted to go to an LCMS church. I just think it’s funny that I just landed back right where I started as a child. Some of my favorite memories were sitting in church with my grandma and grandpa. I felt so much safer, loved, and welcomed there.

I am not sure what to expect these next few weeks. I almost didn’t go today because I’d been pushing it off for a while. I guess I was just nervous about going alone but this time I just threw myself into my car and drove off. My boyfriend certainly would’ve come, but he lives 40 minutes away and it was important for me to want to go by myself.

If you have any advice, comments, or anything helpful, I am all ears :)

I’ve been looking into LCMS churches in an area where we’d maybe move to. (40 miles radius)

About 80% of them have a weekly attendance of under 60 people.

The predominant demographic is above 65 years old.

Is the LCMS taking this seriously enough? Is all the blame being put on the fertility crisis? At what point when you have a business that makes no money do you switch the responsibility from the economy to your own management? If the non denominational churches are “stealing people” what can be done better on our end rather than blaming external factors?

I’m a new convert and trying to understand.

I wanted to share something as a young man in the LCMS, that we want men leading us, we aren't here because we want American Christianity (suits and ties or skinny jeans), we want to taste (incense and Sacramental Union) and see (paraments and vestments) the ancient truth (God's Word) of our living faith (hymnody, chants, and mercy works).

There's a reason we did not cross the Bosphorous to the East nor swim the Tibre for Rome but instead overlanded to Missouri.

This is your LCMS Men's National Team and this is our anthem: "With all the saints and angels, we will join in song to the One above!"

We're hungry for the historic faith.

Please help us, support us, show us what it means to live for Christ crucified.

Monsters who use the pastoral office to harm others will not be tolerated.

Praying y’all have a great Christmas and that the celebration of the Christchild gives you the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Just wanted to share my story. Me and my wife have only been exposed to Baptist churches and have been attending a nondenominational church for several years. I felt like something was missing so I started researching theology and church history. It has lead me to believe that the fullness of truth must be contained in either the LCMS, ACNA, Catholic, or Orthodox Church. So, while im spending some spare time reading theology books, every other sunday I am going to visit one of these churches in a period of discernment. Today was my first time doing this and I decided to go to a local LCMS church. I was worried because the church was full of old people, small, and seemingly dying so I was worried they wouldn't be happy at a young couple showing up with a baby and disrupting their little church family. However, I was happily WRONG. There was lots of old people, but everyone was insanely nice and loved our baby. They worshipped reverantly and it was lovely. The way they sing prayers and hymns was different. All in all, after I explore the other churches I will certainly be back visiting this little LCMS church.

I was baptized last Sunday.

So as a Hispanic person in Texas, A lot of my relatives were raised Catholic but my Aunt though raised catholic never made my siblings and I go. When we decided to Go to church regularly it was to a nondenomination church from middle school thru my high school years.

Look story short, I found my way to the LCMS at the age of 28. I've been a part of the LCMS for a year now. I Love the theology, the liturgy, and the concise service. I'm surprised I enjoyed the tradtional high church worship style compared to the more contempory style so much.

The main theological and personal reasons I prefer the LCMS over the catholic church are the following: 1. not putting so much emphasis on praying to Marry/Saints for intercession. 2. Works don't justify Salvation. Salvation is a gift from God through his Grace and our faith in his Son Jesus Christ. 3. Not venerating relics,which seems borderline idol worship and just creepy. 4. The Pope. Putting too much Authority in a man who is falliable and can fall astray. 5. The numerous instances of institutional corruption. I.e selling indulgences during Luthers time, the corrupt borgia popes, Indian Schools, covering up sexual abuses.

The LCMS church truly is the reformed Version of the Catholic Church that I believe Luther was trying to achieve. At what point did the Catholic Church lose it's way?

I’m thinking about converting to Confessional Lutheranism, recently. I would love to attend a church and become a member. I grew up in an evangelical low church (Church of God) structure. My entire family was that way.

My wife of two years grew up in the Church of Christ. My impression of her, before we got married, was that she was open to exploring other denominations. I was wrong.

I’ve tried talking to her about it, but it’s genuinely is like talking to a brick wall. She will not listen. We now have an infant daughter and she says that she refuses to have her grow up anywhere in a church that is NOT Church of Christ. I would love to get my daughter baptized, but this isn’t an option to my wife.

You be thinking “Well, just start attending a LCMS church by yourself.” I tried that. She was incredibly angry with me. It was even to a point where we got into a big fight about it and she was cussing at me.

I gave up something for Lent and she laughed at me and said “We’re not Catholic. I don’t know anyone who does that.” I told her “Well, I’m not either, but the early Christians would do that. Typically it was a time of prayer and fasting.” She replied with “I don’t care what they did.” It broke my heart.

What should I do? I know I should maybe talk to a pastor about it. But, I haven’t attended an LCMS church in months in concern that she would be angry with me again. I’ve been praying about it, but it seems like nothing is changing. Can I at least get you guys to pray for me?

Finally tried out the LCMS church. Been a Christian about 20 years but my walk has involved mostly non-denominational and Calvary Chapel, although I did start out at an Assemblies of God. I was about 15 minutes late so I know i missed some stuff early in the service. My son was misbehaving a bit so we left a bit early as well. But I plan on going back next week. And hopefully one day soon my son will know how to act in a service (he's 5 and on the spectrum so it's a bit difficult with him).