ST. LOUIS — The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) increased its number of congregations by 94 in 2003, the most in the last 15 years. Robert Scudieri, the top U.S. missions official for the denomination, said the LCMS has increased by an average of about 60 congregations each year over the last decade.
More than half of the new congregations represent nonwhite ethnic groups, the denomination announced. For example, 24 are Hispanic and 15 include African immigrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia and Sudan. The highest number of new churches — 14 — were started in the denomination’s Florida-Georgia District. Most of those were started by congregations that already existed.
“More and more LCMS churches are taking this kind of initiative and starting new missions,” said Scudieri in a statement. He especially credited multicultural and ethnic congregations, saying their emphasis on outreach has led to new churches. The St. Louis-based denomination has a total of 6,150 congregations in the United States.
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