In 1959, just before its merger into the ALC, the ELC had 2,242 pastors, 2,482 congregations, and 1,125,867 members.
[1] The Norwegian Lutheran Church of America was formed by the merger of the Hauge Synod (est.
1853), and the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (est.
The NLCA changed its name to the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) in 1946 as part of its Americanization process.
[citation needed] This coalescence of Lutheran churches continued into recent times, with the ALC later joining others 28 years later to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988.