The Book of Concord
During the Reformation Martin Luther and others wrote documents to publish their faith and identify issues needing to be addressed. When to these was added another document written after Luther’s death, the whole collection became known in 1580 as the Lutheran Confessions, otherwise known as The Book of Concord. It remains the standard by which a church is identified as Evangelical Lutheran.

Lutheran Synods
In North America Lutheranism established itself through waves of European immigrants settling in the New World. These Lutherans came from different lands (chiefly Denmark, Germany, Norway, and Sweden) and during different eras (from early colonial to the mid-1800s). As they settled in different parts of the United States, they formed various “synods,” organizations whose member congregations and pastors communed together, preached in each others’ pulpits, sponsored missionary efforts, and trained pastors.

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod
…began in 1847 as Die Evangelische-Lutherische Synod von Missouri, Ohio, und anderen Staaten (The Evangelical-Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States). As the reference to the state suggests, we started out in Missouri – specifically, south of St. Louis and close to the Mississippi River. Over the next century and a half the Missouri Synod grew and divided into districts, which in turn were divided into local or area circuits for visitation. When a mission to Wichita was first conceived, Kansas was included in the Synod’s Western District, but soon the growth of churches in Kansas led to the formation of a Kansas District – to which Immanuel still belongs.