The Rev. Kurt Rau said he and his congregation at Calvary Lutheran Church in Evergreen began having second thoughts about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America long before the assembly vote in August opened the church's ministry to gay and lesbian clergy.

"It's the issue of standing on God's word and they [the ELCA] have fallen off the wagon in multiple areas," Rau said. "The issue isn't just about gay rights or gay marriage. The bottom line is the church has walked away from the word of God. They left us. We didn't leave them."

Calvary Lutheran members voted Sept. 13 to leave the ELCA and plan to join Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, a new Lutheran affiliation with 235 congregations in 38 states.

The Calvary congregation will take a second vote 90 days after the first vote. Prior to the final vote, church members will be visited by the synod bishop or a representative who will discuss the move with church members and try to encourage them to remain with the ELCA, Rau explained.

His church's mind is made up, though, he said. Some time ago Calvary Lutheran began sending its tithe to its new affiliate.

"We're calling it a realignment," Rau said. "We don't want to diss the ELCA. We're just moving in a different direction, and these opportunities to stand on the word of God don't come along every day."

CALVARY Lutheran is not alone in its decision to leave the ELCA. Congregations throughout the United States have made similar moves, including Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Ariz., one of the larger ELCA churches in the country, which also has joined Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.

For Community Church of Joy, the ELCA's policy toward Israel, its interpretation of scripture and the sexuality issue were key reasons for its decision to leave the ELCA, according to the church's Web site.

Rau echoed those same reasons for Calvary Lutheran's action.

Just last week, St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minneapolis voted to leave the ELCA. It, too, is aligning with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.

There are several groups that have organized or are forming as alternatives to the ELCA. WordAlone, a Lutheran grass-roots network of congregations committed to the authority of God's word as proclaimed in scripture, says its primary concern is that the ELCA "is losing its Christ-centered focus."

Last weekend, about 1,200 Lutherans attended the Lutheran Coalition for Renewal (CORE) convocation in Indiana.

Lutheran CORE opposes some parts of the ELCA social statement and the ministry policy changes. The convocation sought to bring like-minded Lutherans together to talk about their future in the church and help organize CORE.

Herbert W. Chilstrom, the first presiding bishop of the ELCA, recently wrote an article questioning Lutheran CORE's mission, titled "The real 'CORE' issue - churchmanship."

Leaders of the recent CORE convocation "have made it clear that they are not ruling out the possibility of having this movement evolve into a separate church body or some quasi-independent entity within the ELCA," Chilstrom wrote. "The consequences of such drastic action would be corporate, personal and immediate. We would see the mission of the ELCA in this country and around the globe hobbled and maimed."

THE 4.7-million member ELCA, formed in 1988 by three North American church bodies - the American Lutheran Church, Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and Lutheran Church in America - is not the only Christian church that has wrestled with sexuality issues.

Just a few weeks before the ELCA decision, the Episcopal Church moved to accept gays and lesbians for all roles of ministry. The United Church of Christ formally recognized the ministries of gay clergy in 1991 and same-gender marriage in 2005. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches have had high-profile discussions about sexuality issues for many years.

Wanting to set the record straight about where it stands on the sexuality issue, Trinity Lutheran Church in Kalispell, affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, issued a press release, noting that there are some 70 separate Lutheran church bodies worldwide and many, including the Missouri Synod, do not agree with the ELCA decision.

"The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is an evangelical, confessional organization of congregations that teaches the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the sole norm for faith and practice," Trinity Lutheran Senior Pastor Mark Cutler said in the press release. "This means that no part of the scripture can be changed to accommodate current cultural standards."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com