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As we prepare for the 250th birthday of America, I thought it might be interesting to look back at a little bit of our Lutheran history. While in our area Baptist is the predominant religion, it is sometimes easy for us to forget the long history of Lutheranism in North Carolina. With that in mind, I found an interesting article from UNC that tells a few of the stories of the earliest Lutheran settlers in North Carolina.
https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr08-0372
A little bit closer to home is our own Grace history. Some will remember that we updated the official history of the congregation for the 100th Anniversary back in 2023. https://www.gracelutheranboone.org/about-2
In both the wider story of Lutheranism in North Carolina and our own story of Lutheranism in the High Country, we see faithful predecessors embodying the evangelical nature of our reforming movement. Not many may know this, but Lutherans are the original “Evangelicals.”
In the early days of the reformation, Catholic opponents sometimes would take to calling reforms “Lutherites” or “Lutherans.” The idea was that by associating these reformers with Luther it would make them seem like a cult or a new religion of some kind. In fact, this was Martin Luther’s very concern when he heard that some of the reforms had taken on these names willingly. He wrote publicly that reformers should simply be called “Christians” or “Evangelicals.” To this day, the reforming church in Germany is simply called “Evangelisch.”
I pray that you have a good 4th of July and take time to enjoy the many blessings we share. And maybe, if you have a little extra time with the holiday, you might enjoy reading through some of the articles above.
In Grace,
Pastor Steve
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