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Association of Free Lutheran Congregations is the sixth largest Lutheran church body in the United States. The AFLC includes congregations in 27 different states, as well as four Canadian provinces. The AFLC is not an incorporated synod, but a free association. Each local congregation is a separate corporation. Minnesota is the geographic center of the organization, with over 80 congregations and over 12,000 members. There are also numerous congregations in the neighboring states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The AFLC headquarters are at 3110 East Medicine Lake Blvd., Plymouth, Minnesota 55441 along with the Association Free Lutheran Bible School and Seminary.
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History
The AFLC was formed by 40 churches in 1962. The churches that formed the AFLC were members of the Lutheran Free Church who did not wish to join The American Lutheran Church. The body was originally called the Lutheran Free Church-not merged. The ALC filed suit against the group for using the name Lutheran Free Church. By 1964 the name Association of Free Lutheran Congregations was established. In 2006 the AFLC had 43,360 baptized members in 267 churches. The estimate for 2009 saw the AFLC growing to 44,000 members.
Doctrine
The AFLC accept and believe in the Holy Bible as the complete written Word of God, preserved by the Holy Spirit for salvation and instruction. The AFLC accepts the ancient ecumenical symbols, namely, the Apostles, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds; Luther's Small Catechism and the unaltered Augsburg Confession as the true expression of the Christian faith and life.
Five principal reasons for the formation of the AFLC:
The AFLC allows open communion and women's suffrage in congregational voting.
Committees and corporations
The AFLC has five corporations that are sponsored by the AFLC to direct their common endeavors: the Coordinating Committee, the Schools Corporation, the Missions Corporation, the AFLC Foundation and the Association Retreat Center (ARC. There are two auxiliary corporations in the AFLC: the Women's Missionary Federation (WMF) and Free Lutheran Youth (FLY).
Coordinating Committee
The coordinating committee consists of seven members from the congregations currently part of the AFLC. The main duties of the coordinating committee includes monitoring the pastoral roster, monitoring the congregational roster, and providing guidance for the other ministries of the AFLC, including youth, evangalism, parish education, etc.
Schools Corporation
The schools corporation's main delegation is the election of the board of trustees, which governs the Association Free Lutheran Bible School and Seminary (AFLBS). This corporation consists of fifty members from the congregations of the AFLC. The AFLC leaders came to the consensus to create a Lutheran Bible School patterned after the fundamental teachings of the Lutheran Bible Institute founded in 1919. The school was opened in 1966 with 13 students but grew to 35 the next year. By the 1990s, the AFLBS was averaging 105 students. Today there are approximately 200 students attending the school.
Missions Corporation
The missions corporation consists of one hundred members of the congregations of the AFLC, and elects from itself a World Missions Committee and a Home Missions Committee, which are involved in the outreach of the AFLC into the United States and several other countries.
Association Retreat Center
The Association Retreat Center (ARC) is a separate organization of the AFLC near Osceola, Wisconsin that serves as a retreat center for various activities within the AFLC.
Other Committees/Corporations
The Women's Missionary Federation (WMF) serves the women of the churches with Bible studies, fellowship, and has an emphasis on missionary services.
The Free Lutheran Youth (FLY), is a youth organization dealing with youth ministry.
Publications
The official publication of the AFLC is "The Lutheran Ambassador", with twelve issues per year devoted to Bible-centered articles and news of the churches. Ambassador Publications is the parish education department of the AFLC.
The "Ambassador Hymnal" is the hymnal published by the AFLC, which contains over 600 hymns as well as selected order of church services and responsive Bible readings.
Annual Conferences
The AFLC schedules each year a conference to share reports of congregations and other various ministries. The main reason for these conferences is spiritual edification, as the schedules include prayer times, worship hours, and business meetings together. It is here that suggestions to changes are presented and discussed. It is also here that the elections for positions in committees/corporations are made.