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The Co-ordinating Committee (CoC) of the AELC
The Australian Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC), as an organisation or synod, is an institution of men for the benefit of the member-congregations who form the AELC. Congregations who have come together for the mutual benefit of one another and a shared confession of faith are those who make up the organisation or synod known as the Australian Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC). Congregations who have become member-congregations of the AELC provide mutual support and encouragement to each other and aim to better utilise their resources and maximise their mission efforts by doing so.
As the local congregation is the chief focus of work in the Lord’s name, the unit of membership in the organisation of the AELC is the local congregation, rather than the wider organisation. A person may become a member of the AELC only by joining one of its member-congregations. The AELC recognises the autonomy and sovereignty of the local congregation in matters that God has neither commanded nor forbidden. The congregations that are member-congregations of the AELC can be found at our Church Locations page.
The AELC strives to have no hierarchy or degrees of status and superiority among the laymen or among the pastors of the AELC. All office-bearers of the various committees of the AELC shall be seen as servants of the congregations that they serve, and not lords or masters. Furthermore, the AELC does not function with a centralised structure of administration.
The AELC believes that the Holy Scriptures are the inspired, inerrant, infallible, and authoritative Word of God, and accordingly, believe that the Holy Scriptures are the sole source of what we believe, teach, and confess. The AELC furthermore subscribes to The Book of Concord of 1580, The Word Shall Stand (1990) and The AELC Statement of Faith as correct expositions of Scripture, which address issues that have arisen throughout history by the Word of God. We continue to confess the teachings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church wherever she is found and stand on Scripture alone as God’s Word to us. We teach the message of Christ crucified for sinners. We teach that salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.