On June 11-14, I attended the 2025 Annual Conference of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC). It was held at the Association Retreat Center (ARC), rural Osceola, WI.
As usual, I enjoyed the conference and wished there were other people from Trinity with me in attendance. There is, of course, business that takes place. The business is my least favorite part, but it’s still good. We heard reports on the various departments of the AFLC. Here are some of the noteworthy items from the last year: Rev. Tonnes Pollestad resigned as Director of Development. Two new staff were recently hired to the development department: Mr. Mark Sivertson and Mrs. Angel Luttmann. World Missions has commissioned Zachariah and Carey Ritland as missionaries to Paraguay, where they will be joining Matthew and Ednay Abel. The Ritlands will be here at Trinity on Monday, July 7 to present on their upcoming work. There was also a resolution to add Chile as a new mission field, as we have received contact from a new congregation there that wishes to be AFLC. Home Missions is continuing work on new church plants in Ankeny, IA; Fargo, ND; and Bismarck, ND. Two new graduates of the seminary were ordained this spring: Troy Hanson and Mikey Meester, both from Valley City, ND. This was a small graduating class, but the upcoming classes each have 6-7 students, which is roughly what the AFLC needs to replace pastors as they retire. However, it looks like there will be ten or more pastors retiring this year, and there are some vacancies in the AFLC, so we still need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to call more workers. In general, the work of the association seems to be going well.
Most of the resolutions were simple and agreeable to all. There was one resolution that garnered a little bit of debate. It was a resolution that the Coordinating Committee, which oversees the clergy roster, should consider pastors who have been divorced on a case-by-case basis, instead of automatically rejecting all such men. This is the continuation of a resolution that was passed last year for the Coordinating Committee to authorize a biblical study on divorce and remarriage, particularly as it applies to the clergy roster. This is something that many were asking for as far back as the 1960s, but no such study had ever been produced in the AFLC. The Coordinating Committee has simply been following a policy they set to not permit on the roster any pastor who is divorced or is married to a divorced woman. The conclusion of the biblical study is that there are different circumstances of divorce, and it may be permissible in some cases for a man who has been divorced to serve in the pastoral office. The resolution proposed this year was not voted on, but was instead postponed until next year. In the meantime, it was resolved that the Coordinating Committee should send the biblical study to every congregation and request feedback before next year’s conference.
As for elections, Rev. Micah Hjermstad was re-elected to a second term as President of the AFLC. This is a three-year term. Rev. Lloyd Quanbeck was re-elected to a one-year term as Vice-President. And Rev. Brett Boe was re-elected to a one-year term as Secretary. There were also various other elections to corporations, boards, and committees.
The conference is not all business, however. There are evening worship services, devotional times, and prayer times during the day. There are also educational lectures that can be attended during elective sessions. One of my favorite parts of conference is reconnecting with friends across the AFLC and making new friends.
Next year’s conference will be June 10-13 in Fargo, hosted by St. Paul’s Free Lutheran Church. The exact site is yet to be determined. I hope many of you will consider attending or even volunteering to help. It takes a lot of work to host a conference, so St. Paul’s will be depending on help from the rest of the Eastern North Dakota district. If you are interested in volunteering for the conference and/or serving on the planning team, please let me know and I will connect you with the right people.
One last thought: if you have not done so, you should all subscribe to The Lutheran Ambassador. It is the monthly magazine of the AFLC. Subscriptions are free in both print and digital form. If you like it, donations are helpful to cover the cost, especially to make it free for others. Go to aflc.org/lutheran-ambassador.
The peace of Christ be with you all,
Pastor Dan Antal