Among other campaigns, WordAlone seeks to pare back what it sees as a top-heavy administrative structure in the ELCA, returning much authority to congregations and freeing up funds for more aggressive mission work.
This is in general keeping with conservative renewal movements in other mainline denominations, reflecting an anti-bureaucratic posture against what it believes to be the source of errant teaching and ethics.
Its members coalesced in opposition to changes in ELCA ordination practices that were required as part of the proposed Concordat of Agreement with the Episcopal Church (United States) (ECUSA).
The changes would have required that new pastors be ordained only by bishops, reflecting the ECUSA's understanding of apostolic succession, as a pre-condition to the sharing of ministers between the two church bodies.
Some of the animus against ECUSA derived in part from the general dominance of theological liberalism within Anglicanism, abhorrent to many who consider the Augsburg Confession and the other writings in the Book of Concord to be definitive of proper Christian belief and practice.
In a small concession to WordAlone supporters, the ELCA assembly in 2001 did enact an amendment to church bylaws to allow for pastors, rather than bishops, to preside at ordinations in "unusual circumstances," a method that has been used 17 times as of 2005.
WordAlone has viewed these "unusual" ordinations as small victories, although they have provoked irritation from some in the ECUSA who see the practice as reflecting a lack of commitment to the Called to Common Mission agreement.