The first issue of the Luthersk Tidende (today, Lutheran Sentinel) was dated July 16, 1917 which was one year prior to the reorganization of the synod. That inaugural issue said, “If there are enough subscribers for the paper, it will come out twice each month with eight or sixteen pages. If not enough favor is…

Fourteen congregations sent representatives to the 1919 constituting convention which was hosted by Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Albert Lea, Minnesota. Along with twenty-two clergy, these congregations are regarded as the charter members of the reorganized synod. This constitution remained in force until 1986, when the present constitution and bylaws were adopted.

One hundred years ago, because there were war-time restrictions in the state of Iowa prohibiting the use of any language other than English in public gatherings, a tent was erected in Minnesota, one mile north of the Lime Creek Lutheran Church. Some of the 1918 convention sessions were held in this sixty-foot square tent where…

One hundred years ago — on June 17, 1918 — at Lime Creek Lutheran Church in northern Iowa, our synod was reorganized as “The Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church.” The synod was contending for the same confessional doctrine of the old synod of 1853. In 1957 the name was changed to “Evangelical…

One hundred years ago, over two-hundred pastors and representatives from congregations were preparing to make their journey to Lime Creek Lutheran Church near Lake Mills, Iowa for the synod’s reorganizing convention which was to meet Friday, June 14, through Wednesday, June 19, 1918.

One hundred years ago, during the reorganization convention of the ELS, the Rev. Bjug Harstad, who was the first president of the newly formed church body, encouraged the small gathering. He referenced words from the book of Jeremiah: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in…