Confessional Lutheran in the context of "Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod"

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is an orthodox, traditional confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.7 million members as of 2023 it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States, behind the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In 2025, Pew Research Center estimated that 1.1 percent of US adults, approximately 2.9 million people, identified with the LCMS and evangelical Lutheranism in contrast with 2 percent, or approximately 5.2 million people, who identified with the ELCA and mainline Lutheranism. The LCMS was organized in 1847 at a meeting in Chicago as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (German: Die Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Synode von Missouri, Ohio und andern Staaten), a name which partially reflected the geographic locations of the founding congregations.

The LCMS has congregations in all 50 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, but over half of its members are located in the Midwest. It is a member of the International Lutheran Council and is in altar and pulpit fellowship with most of that group's members. The LCMS is headquartered in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb west of St. Louis and is divided into 35 districts—33 of which are geographic and two (the English and the SELC) non-geographic. The current president is Matthew C. Harrison, who took office on September 1, 2010.

Lutheran Church – Canada (LCC) is a confessional Lutheran denomination in Canada. It is the largest Lutheran body in Canada as of 2023, with a baptized membership of 44,790. Together with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations, it is one of only three all-Canadian Lutheran denominations. LCC was founded in 1988 when Canadian congregations of the St. Louis–based Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) formed an autonomous church body with a synodical office in Winnipeg, Manitoba. LCC has no substantial theological divisions from LCMS and the two church bodies are in full altar and pulpit fellowship with each other.

The Lutheran Church - International (LC-I) is a confessional Lutheran Christian denomination of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship. Founded in 1967, it is based in Lyons, New York with a global presence. The LC-I has an episcopal polity, with four dioceses in North America, including the Northeastern Diocese, the Mid-America Diocese, the Southern Diocese, and the Western Diocese. A Missionary District for Latin and Caribbean ministries is based in Puerto Rico. The LC-I also has ministry outreach in India. The current archbishop of the LC-I is Robert W. Hotes.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), also referred to simply as the Wisconsin Synod, is an American Confessional Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Characterized as theologically conservative, it was founded in 1850 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

As of 2022, it had a baptized membership of 340,511 in 1,250 congregations, with churches in 47 US states and 4 provinces of Canada. The WELS also does gospel outreach in 40 countries around the world. It is the third, or fourth, largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. The WELS school system is the fourth largest private school system in the United States.