What the LLC says it believes
The LLC's Constitution, adopted July 1, 2000, states in Section V that the church is composed of congregations confessing the faith “founded on the Holy Word of God,” expressed in the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, and Luther's catechisms, and that “the Holy Word of God is the highest authority and only measure according to which all doctrines and teachings in said Corporation are to be examined and judged.” Its Bylaws (Article II, Section 9) permit expulsion of a member congregation only where it fails to act in accordance with the Constitution and Bylaws and fails to obey the decisions of the LLC. The SRK in Finland is bound by its own registered rules to work “in accordance with the Holy Bible and the Evangelical Lutheran faith, confession, and doctrine” (SRK säännöt § 2). Keep that standard in mind; the story below is what happened when it was invoked. The LLC’s current Constitution, Bylaws, and Articles of Incorporation, adopted July 2, 2022, are posted here: PDF.
The pattern, in one paragraph
In two proceedings now, with a third in motion, congregations have been removed or targeted for removal from the LLC without anyone stating, in writing or aloud, a single specific doctrine of the Constitution from which they departed or a single passage of Scripture they violated. Minneapolis and Wolf Lake were removed together, in one action at the same 2022 meeting; Coastal California is the third. The stated grounds have been spiritual sensations: a testimony that “doesn't answer to any of our spirits”, congregations that “no longer walk with us.” The 2022 removals were carried out with no advance notice, no written charges, and no opportunity to respond, contrary to Minnesota law and the LLC's own Bylaws. The 2026 effort against Coastal California attempts to add some legal procedure, but it is the same in the one respect that matters: it still states no doctrinal charge. And each step has been publicly endorsed by the SRK, the movement's central organization in Finland, whose chairman, Valde Palola, now teaches that the congregation “cannot err on any point of doctrine either.”
The timeline
The full sequence of events, from the first removals in 2022 to the vote now before the delegates, is on the home page as a single, filterable timeline. You can follow one congregation or the role of the SRK in Finland, and each entry links to its source. Open the timeline →
The meetings themselves are published in full, with follow-along transcripts, on the Recordings page: the 2026 Annual Meeting, the LLC board’s December 7, 2019 meeting with Wolf Lake, the April 13, 2019 board members’ workshop, and the March 14, 2026 Southwest Area board meeting. What the term “continual forgiveness” was made to mean, and what the LLC’s own ministers preach, is set out on the Continual Forgiveness page; every source is listed on Sources & Documents.
Why it matters
If a church may remove congregations by majority vote, on the ground that a spirit did not answer, while declining to state any doctrine, cite any Scripture, or promise to obey the law, and if its central organization in Finland teaches that such a vote cannot err, then the Word of God is no longer the “highest authority and only measure” its Constitution confesses. That is not a procedural quibble. It is the doctrinal question. It has now been put, openly, to the men with the authority to answer it.