At the first conference, a 200-page book of documentation prepared by pastor Herman Otten of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, Missouri, was presented.
The conference on May 15–16, 1961, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was attended by over 400 laymen and pastors who hoped to make progress on their concerns at the synod's upcoming convention in 1962.
As a result, St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Detroit, Michigan, whose pastor, Cameron A. MacKenzie Sr., was a leader in the conferences, left the synod.
The ILC was organized in 1979 after three congregations left the WELS in protest after a pastor was suspended due to claims he made regarding the King James Version of the Bible.
The congregations that suspended fellowship in February 2006 withdrew their membership from the LCR in April 2006 after a special convention called to address the controversy refused to discuss the matter of female suffrage and the aforementioned dissolution.
A position paper titled The Ministry and Auxiliary Office with Respect to Legalism[11] that was presented at that conference in an attempt to resolve the controversy has since been adopted unanimously by the remaining congregations of the LCR.
Another LCR position paper titled Liberty or Death,[12] written to draw attention to different kinds of legalism, was subsequently adopted in July 2007.
[16] The Lutheran Churches of the Reformation publishes One Accord, a monthly devotional and news magazine, and The Faithful Word, a quarterly theological journal.
[22] The congregations of the LCR use the King James Version of the Bible for all public uses, the 1943 "Blue" edition of Luther's Small Catechism in confirmation instruction, and The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941.
In 1990, the LCR passed a resolution titled "Procreation" stating that birth control, in all forms, is sin, although the denomination "allow(s) for… exceptional cases (casuistry)", for example, when the woman's life or health is at risk.
The Lutheran Churches of the Reformation hold to Brief Statement of 1932,[23] which confirms the long-held traditional beliefs of the Lutheran Church as documented in the Book of Concord, including: inerrancy of Scripture, divine creation in six days, a young earth, the divine institution of the local congregation and of the local office of the ministry, closed fellowship, and of the antichrist.