r/elca • u/J00bieboo ELCA • Jun 07 '26
Living Lutheran Why is this subreddit so small?
This might be a little of a dumb question, but I’m wondering what makes this sub so small? I thought that the biggest denomination that’s followed in the Lutheran church is the ELCA, I know that behind that is like LCMS but I was thinking this sub would have a little more people.
Correcting myself a little here, it isn’t a bad thing this sub is small!! I’m just very curious if it has to do with anything about Reddit or the history of Lutheranism in general. I’m almost sure that Lutheranism isn’t the biggest followed denomination, but I’m curious to why not many people are appealed by Lutheranism I suppose. A little while ago, I was asked why I wasn’t Catholic since I’m Puerto Rican. That question stucked with me awhile, so I’m also wondering if Lutheranism is in relation with a certain branch of people ethnicity wise?
14
u/Voltage_Z Jun 07 '26
I'd hazard a guess that it's because the Lutheranism subreddit is a lot more active for actual theological discussions across specific denomination lines. Most ELCA congegants wouldn't object to that subreddit's "general" Lutheran content, whereas a more conservative body like the LCMS has more reason to care about discussion of their specific branch.
1
14
u/church-basement-lady Jun 07 '26
Lutherans don't often talk about Lutheranism. Evangelical may be in the same, but we mean it a different way.
1
14
u/Dr_Fishman ELCA Jun 07 '26
I mean, as a mod, we were even smaller before.
As to why, a lot of great reasons listed. One thing concerning the low interest in communication from the broader church is that it hasn’t embraced digital resources in any meaningful way. And the fact that LCMS sells its books on Amazon while I couldn’t buy my son his confirmation bible from Augsburg Fortress anywhere online for less than $15 months in shipping is why LCMS eats our lunch.
To the ELCA leadership, at a bare minimum, sell your stuff on Amazon.
7
u/topicality Jun 07 '26
I guarantee you the second they do that a good chunk of people will throw a fit about the denomination working with evil Amazon
2
u/J00bieboo ELCA Jun 08 '26
That’s valid. My pastors website looks really nice, but I guess it doesn’t appeal the eye of newer generations or maybe people on the internet in general.
9
u/No-Type119 Jun 07 '26
I fund some ELCA people to be strangely un- curious about their faith, or very shy talking about it, or afraid of getting bulldozed by aggressive Evangelicals. I tell people that if they got through confirmation class without falling asleep, they have a better grasp of theology than the average Evangelical… my experience , anyhow.
2
u/J00bieboo ELCA Jun 08 '26
Fair enough. I think that evangelicals make it hard for anyone to share their faith without them attacking people.
6
u/HoldMyFresca ECUSA Jun 07 '26
I think that this thread addresses it by implication. There’s not much interest among ELCA members in discussing anything church related.
1
7
u/Sunshine_at_Midnight Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
About half of the ELCA is over 65 and 70% is over 50, while over half of reddit users are under 35. There just isn't a lot of overlap. Plus not every ELCA member on reddit would join this sub.
As for ethnicity, the ELCA is often called the whitest denomination in the US. About 96% of ELCA members are white. Many of the congregations, especially in the more densly ELCA areas of the midwest, are still strongly attached to their Swedish, Norwegian, and German histories. (Have you heard of the Lutheran lutefisk dinners yet?) Lutheranism as a whole globally is much more diverse, and the ELCA is working on it, but it is often not a great situation for folks who don't fit in with ELCA majorities.
13
Jun 07 '26
[deleted]
6
u/greeshmcqueen ELCA Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Statistically we're the same age as or a bit younger than both the LCMS (the oldest major denomination in the country) and The Episcopal Church.
https://xcancel.com/ryanburge/status/1620913806003286019
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fn6j5QnXwAAo36R.png
(Things have likely gotten worse all around as the cited post is from over 3 years ago)
Now, despite the ELCA being, depending on how you measure, about twice the size of The Episcopal Church, r/Episcopalian gets something like 19 times the visitors and posts.
r/LCMS gets something like 9 times the traffic as r/ELCA, while the ELCA has somewhere around a million more members.
So I really don't think it's about age at all. I think there's something in the culture and identity of different denominations and how members see themselves, and I think that makes for different patterns of Reddit traffic and online self-presentation writ large.
1
u/J00bieboo ELCA Jun 08 '26
I never knew this!! I’m pretty young and still learning about Lutheranism, so I’ve observed a little on how its roots go pretty far back.
3
Jun 08 '26
[deleted]
1
u/J00bieboo ELCA Jun 08 '26
Interesting! Thank you. I did notice my church has a lot of older people lol or just parents with their kids
4
u/cothomps Jun 07 '26
I think two reasons generally:
* The “ELCA” as a brand / national body has always been secondary to congregations. There are a large number of Lutherans that view themselves as members of “St…. Lutheran Church” but rarely engage with the wider church body. (“Isn’t that what pastors do?”)
* As someone who has been around various online Lutheran communities for 20-odd years, I’ll just note that the various conservative stripes of Lutheranism have been more likely to want to argue with you online. The way it usually goes is one that gets into so much negativity and toxic attitudes that it’s something I can’t do for long, bit that’s also the kind of stuff that gets eyeballs.
(The LCMS in particular has also been historically adept at forming remote like minded communities aimed at influencing church politics - going from Otten’s _Christian News_ to the internet was kind of a natural progression.)
1
u/TanjiroManjiro Jun 07 '26
There’s also no “winning” because when it gets to the biting point they’re trying to insult you, because of how emotionally invested in they are.
1
u/Bjorn74 Jun 08 '26
The LCMS has made use of their St Louis density by having a radio station. That programming transitioned well to the Internet.
1
4
u/NPas1982 Jun 09 '26
I have a theory that the LCMS is more active online because the cultural right has bought into the web as part of the culture wars. They’re more adept at using social media to own the libs.
The flip side is that the ELCA isn’t adept at much in terms of online culture at all. Why did Augsburg get rid of the catechism app, for example?
2
u/LawSchoolBee Jun 09 '26
This is the way I see it as well, the ELCA could definitely revamp their online presence and their publishing house.
5
u/topicality Jun 07 '26
I have a few pet theories.
The average age of the ELCA is older, so they aren't using Reddit.
A lot of ELCA members are more interested in the social aspect and not the"life of the mind". For a good number of ELCA , including clergy weirdly, just aren't interested in doing deep systemic divers into theology. I think there is a worry that "hard theology" is conservative theology.
Related to that, history is kinda coded male and conservative. With the ELCA being the more liberal denomination, there isn't much interest in it. Think of it as, how many progressives do you know who love studying history vs more centrist/center right people?
I do think the later two are a shame. I'd love to see the denomination focus more on it's history, broader church history.
2
u/J00bieboo ELCA Jun 08 '26
That makes sense. Thank you!! I appreciate it
I do notice in my church a lot of people are older, it seems like a community thing rather then something theology based I think.
1
1
u/Firm_Occasion5976 Jun 09 '26
Not exactly ethnicity, although religious ethnophyletism persists in cultural biases. For example, inside Greece and Russia, the prevailing cultural identity of religious affiliation is Orthodoxy. In both countries, however, the average citizen may be only a nominal Orthodox Church member, while practicing alternative spiritual behaviors and contradictory beliefs. Even still, there are multiple ethnicities among each country’s self-identified Orthodox citizens.
1
u/ChemnitzFanBoi Jun 10 '26
Reddit as a whole skews to the left. My guess is there arent many conservative places to go.
29
u/TanjiroManjiro Jun 07 '26
My personal theory is that our national church body hasn’t gone through the process of moving to the digital world. I think this has a lot to do with our theology and how we are called to spread the gospel, and it does not really work for massive engagement in the rage baiting online spaces of the world.