Talk:Evangelical Lutherans in Mission

Evangelical, in mission, moderate

ELIM members, like all the other theolical dissidents throughout LCMS in the 70's were, in my experience, anything but "evangelical" or "in mission" unless they meant in mission to themselves. I attended the meeting at which the "evangelical" pastors in the Atlanta area (at Grace Lutheran) formed the Georgia chapter of ELIM. This group called themselves moderate in addition to evangelical. A couple of the pastors knew me and knew me to be conservative. Most were barely civil to me and at least two were outright hostile. Not much moderation there and they certainly were not in mission to me. This was a sad day, but at least the lines were finally drawn and we knew who was who in the Florida-Georgia District of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. No, there was no moderation among the moderates from that day forward. Truthchaser (talk) 20:33, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

There are multiple senses to the word "evangelical" which might be at play here. In the US, the most common perception probably involves "doing evangelism" and is associated with more conservative faith communities. Within Lutheranism, there's also the historical sense of "Evangelische Kirke", distinguished from the Katholische Kirche. Martin Luther didn't want his movement named after him, and instead chose a name expressing its relationship to the Gospels. This seems to me to be the sense adopted by ELIM and its successor bodies, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Msramming (talk) 23:47, 11 October 2017 (UTC)