Founded in 1960 in Minnesota, it has approximately 85 congregations in 24 U.S. states, and missions in Canada, India, Africa, Nepal, and Myanmar.

The CLC was created primarily (though not solely) from congregations that broke away from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) because of a doctrinal difference in the matter of church fellowship.

While there were joint talks in the 1990s between the CLC and the WELS and ELS to resolve the dispute, no resolution was reached.

It subscribes to the Lutheran Confessions (the Book of Concord, 1580) as an accurate presentation of what Scripture teaches.

It is strongly linked to the concept of sola scriptura—scripture alone, and its website states, "If it is not Scripture; it is not Lutheran."