LCMS Church Relations – ‘The Lutheran World Federation Today: Missio Dei, Imago Dei and the Ongoing Reformation’

A new paper on The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) perspective on the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is now available for study and discussion.

“The Lutheran World Federation Today: Missio Dei, Imago Dei and the Ongoing Reformation,” written by LCMS Church Relations Director Rev. Dr. Jonathan Shaw, details how the LWF has rejected God’s Word and instead embraced a social justice gospel.

Part 1 gives an overview of LWF history — from its first assembly in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, to the 2023 assembly in Kraków, Poland — while Part 2 does a deep dive into the most recent assembly in Kraków.

Through this examination, Shaw traces how the LWF has lost its confessional Lutheran theology; redefined itself “as a practicing communion based on reconciled diversity”; and replaced the Gospel with “a liberal agenda of political, social, sexual, gender and environmental justice and reconciliation.”

In the paper’s appendix, Shaw has included an evaluation of the LWF by the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations, as well as a list of resources for future study.

Download paper

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