The current president is David T. Mensing, pastor of Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oak Forest, Illinois.
[4] In the 1930s, some theologians and leaders in the LCMS began advocating the establishment of altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Lutheran Church (ALC).
Graebner gave a lecture to a Texas pastors conference in 1934 that criticized what he saw as unnecessary legalism in the synod; it was published as a book, The Borderland of Right and Wrong, in 1935.
The synod's 1950 convention provided additional impetus to the eventual split when it approved the Common Confession that had been drawn up with the ALC.
Historically, betrothal had been seen as the equivalent of marriage and was legally binding; however, the modern view of engagement had become prevalent in the United States in the twentieth century.
Some of its members joined the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, some remained independent, and the remainder formed the CLC.