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 ...

denominations are

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

church bodies that identify, to a greater or lesser extent, with the

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

and with the writings contained in the

Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since ...

. Most Lutheran denominations are affiliated with one or more regional, national, or international associations, the largest of which—the

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 ...

—has over 74 million members worldwide. There are also two smaller and more conservative international associations—the International Lutheran Council, with 7.15 million members, and the

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 ...

, with approximately 500,000 members. Finally, the

Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum The Global Confessional & Missional Lutheran Forum (Global Forum) is a global gathering of national and regional Lutheran churches. The forum was founded in Dallas, Texas by invitation of the North American Lutheran Church in 2015 to bring togeth ...

(Global Forum) is a global gathering of

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. This list is grouped by affiliation with the four major international Lutheran associations mentioned above. This list does not include groups that have been merged into other groups (e.g.

Hauge Synod The Hauge Synod (formally Hauge's Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod in America) was the name of a Norwegian Lutheran church body in the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Background The Hauge Synod (Norwegian: ) wa ...

), nor groups that have become defunct (e.g.

Eielsen Synod The Eielsen Synod (originally named the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) was a Lutheran church body. It was founded in 1846 at Jefferson Prairie Settlement, Wisconsin, by a group of Haugean Lutherans led by Elling Eielsen, the first Norweg ...

). Some of the denominations belong to more than one of the four associations.

Lutheran World Federation

The

(LWF) is the largest association of national and regional Lutheran church bodies in the world. Founded in 1947 by 47 church bodies from 26 countries, the LWF has grown to include 145 church bodies in 98 countries.

International Lutheran Council

Founded in 1993, the International Lutheran Council (ILC) is the second largest international association of Lutheran churches after the LWF, representing 7.15 million Lutherans in 54 church bodies as of 2018. Unlike the members of the LWF, not all members of the ILC are in

altar and pulpit fellowship Altar and pulpit fellowship describes an ecumenical collaboration between two Christian organizations, and is a Lutheran term for full communion, or ''communio in sacris.'' ''Altar'' refers to the altar in Christian churches, which holds the sacram ...

with one another.

Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference

The

(CELC) is the third major international association of Lutheran church bodies, representing approximately 500,000 Lutherans in 32 church bodies.

Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum

The

(Global Forum) is the fourth major international association of Lutheran church bodies and organizations, representing Lutherans in church bodies across 15 nations.

Unaffiliated Lutheran denominations

The following denominations are not members of the LWF, ILC, CELC or Global Forum, though several of them work with or are in fellowship with individual members of those associations. In addition, a number of these denominations have fellowship agreements with one another, without being part of any larger association. Note that several of these denominations have congregations in multiple countries. In such cases, the denomination is listed under the country in which its headquarters is located.

Notes

References

{{Reflist * Denominations