American Association of Lutheran Churches
| American Association of Lutheran Churches | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Polity | congregationalist polity |
| Origin | 1987 |
| Separated from | American Lutheran Church |
| Congregations | 67 (2014) |
| Members | 16,000 (2008) |
| Official website | www.taalc.org |
The American Association of Lutheran Churches (TAALC, also known as The AALC) is an American Lutheran church body. It was formed on November 7, 1987 as a continuation of the American Lutheran Church (ALC) denomination, the majority of which merged with two other Lutheran church bodies, the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The AALC offices were located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The national office moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2007. It has 67 congregations, with about 16,000 members, in 2008. Its current Presiding Pastor is the Rev. Dr. Curtis E. Leins.
The AALC began with 12 congregations and has, as of 2008, grown to 70 congregations spread across 23 states. The AALC sees itself as a confessional Lutheran Church body in the United States. At its beginning, TAALC defined itself by what it saw as maintaining a commitment to the authority of Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Lutheran confessions by way of retaining the Confession of Faith of the American Lutheran Church.
The AALC operates its own seminary, The American Lutheran Theological Seminary (ALTS), originally located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In the fall of 2005, ALTS relocated to Fort Wayne, Indiana and is hosted by Concordia Theological Seminary of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS).
The AALC holds to the inerrancy of scripture. It does not ordain women. However, it has been somewhat more tolerant of the charismatic movement than other conservative Lutheran bodies. Due to this, a number of congregations broke away in 1995 to form the Lutheran Ministerium and Synod – USA.
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