The Global Confessional & Missional Lutheran Forum (Global Forum) is a global gathering of national and regional

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

churches. The forum was founded in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

by invitation of the

North American Lutheran Church The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) is a Lutheran denomination with over 420 congregations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, counting more than 142,000 baptized members. The NALC believes all doctrines should and must be judged by t ...

in 2015 to bring together

Confessional Lutheran Confessional Lutheranism is a name used by Lutherans to designate those who believe in the doctrines taught in the ''Book of Concord'' of 1580 (the Lutheran confessional documents) in their entirety. Confessional Lutherans maintain that faithfulne ...

bodies who wish to emphasize

missional In Christianity, missional living is the adoption of the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message. The missional church movement, a church renewal movement predicated on the nec ...

discipleship as the focal point of ministry in the world. The gathering can be seen as an alternative to the more liberal

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...

and to the more conservative International Lutheran Council and

Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference The Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC) is an international fellowship of 34 Confessional Lutheran church bodies. The CELC was founded in 1993 in Oberwesel, Germany with an initial thirteen church bodies. Plenary sessions are hel ...

. In 2018, the Global Forum was hosted in

Bishoftu Bishoftu (; ) is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it sits at an elevation of 1,920 metres (6,300 ft). It was formerly known as Debre Zeyit () however since the late 1990s it has been officially k ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

by the

Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY; also called Mekane Yesus Church) is a Lutheran denomination in Ethiopia. It is the largest individual member church of the Lutheran World Federation. It is a Lutheran denomination with some ...

. 43 leaders representing Lutheran bodies and organizations in 15 nations participated.

Members & Signatories

''Sorted by country in alphabetical order'' * Bolivia : Christian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bolivia * Canada :

Lutheran CORE Lutheran CORE, or Coalition for Renewal, is a community of confessing Lutherans spanning several Lutheran church bodies. It ultimately led to the formation of the North American Lutheran Church, a denomination consisting mostly of congregations w ...

World Mission Prayer League The World Mission Prayer League (WMPL) is a pan-Lutheran fellowship committed to Christian prayer as a working method of mission. WMPL exists as an international community of approximately 6,000 members with formal offices in the United States (M ...

* Denmark : Evangelical Lutheran Network : Danish Bible Institute : Lutheran Mission * Ethiopia :

* Germany : Church Coalition for the Bible and Confession : International Christian Network * India :Christu Suda Communications and Ministries * Indonesia : Indonesian Lutheran Christian Church * Kenya : Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya * Mongolia :Mongolian Evangelical Lutheran Church * Norway :

Norwegian Lutheran Mission The Norwegian Lutheran Mission (''Norsk Luthersk Misjonssamband'' in Norwegian; NLM) is one of several independent Lutheran organisations based in Norway. History The organization was founded in 1891 as Det Norske Lutherske Kinamisjonsforbund ...

: Inner Mission Federation :

NLA University College NLA University College ( no, NLA Høgskolen) is a private Norwegian Christian college accredited by the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education. The school has about 2,000 students and 200 employees distributed across three instituti ...

* Peru :

Evangelical Lutheran Church - Peru Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual experi ...

* South Sudan :Lutheran Church of South Sudan * Sweden :

Mission Province The Mission Province ( sv, Missionsprovinsen ) is a Swedish independent ecclesiastical province founded by members of the Church of Sweden who are opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate. The province, which aligns ...

* Tanzania :

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) is the federation of Lutheran churches in Tanzania and one of the largest Lutheran denominations in the world, with more than 6 million members, or 13% of the Tanzanian population. It is the secon ...

* United States of America :

References

External links

* {{Authority control International bodies of Lutheran denominations Christian organizations established in 2015 International bodies of Lutheran denominations (currently existing)

Members & Signatories

See also

References

External links