A Brief History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod: Part 1

a confessional Norwegian Lutheran Church in America or an Evangelical Lutheran Synod if it had not been for the dedicated training and instruction of two professors at Christiania: C. P. Gaspari and Gisle Johnson.3 These two men returned the theological bedrock into the classroom and planted it in the hearts of their students. The early leaders of the Norwegian Synod can thank God for the training they received from these men.

Unlike the German immigrants from the mid-1800s, the Norwegian immigrants did not come for religious reasons. Their motives were economic. As Christian Anderson writes in Grace for Grace:

The greater number of the Norwegian immigrants found their homes in rural districts and engaged in farming. They were, as a rule, men of the ages thirty to forty. The hope of finding more favorable living conditions than in "the Old Country" led most of them to emigrate to the Land of Hope." 4 Though the immigrants did not leave Norway for religious reasons, neither did they leave their religious beliefs behind in Norway. The strong Lutheran identity which was theirs in Norway came with them to the New World. Granted the earliest immigrants were religiously disorganized. In Grace for Grace it is reported:

The coming of this group (1834 Kendall settlers), however, did not have any direct bearing on the establishment of Norwegian Lutheran Congregations. Many of them had been dissenters, including Quakers, in the homeland, who were glad to get away from the restraints placed on them by the State Church of Norway. Others soon affiliated with various Reformed Churches. Yet this large-scale migration led to the coming of others who later on were instrumental in organizing Lutheran congregations.5

R. B. Anderson also writes in his work, First Chapter: In the Fox River settlement all was chaos and confusion during the early years of the colony. Some of the Norwegians there were Quakers, others Baptists, others Presbyterians, others Methodists, others Lutherans, others Mormons, and some were free-thinkers, all in inextricable disorder.6

Even among the Lutheran Norwegians there were factions. Lay preachers, influenced by the pietist Hans Nielsen Hauge, traveled the countryside to bring the Word to Norwegian settlers. Though there were many of these lay-preachers, the most noteworthy was Elling Eielsen Sundve. Elling detested the educated clergy, their clerical garb and formal liturgy. Nevertheless he realized that since there was a bond that Norwegians had to the State Church, their loyalty and

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