Region 4-South Archives

Archives have been called the collective memory of an organization. In order to preserve the entire history of the synods and churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, well-maintained and accessible archives are needed. The Region 4-South Archives has materials pertaining to the history of the Church in this region of the ELCA. To view the materials available, please click on the Archives Online link below. The Collection is constantly being cataloged and updated; we invite you to visit the site often. For specific questions not addressed on the website, e-mail a volunteer at the Archives. The Archives is staffed entirely by volunteers, and your questions will be addressed as soon as possible.

For information beyond the Texas-Louisiana area for which the Region 4-South Archives is responsible, please contact the ELCA Churchwide Archives at ww.elca.org/archives.

Archives Online

Those materials include parish records of disbanded congregations, historical information about disbanded and active congregations, biographical information on deceased rostered leaders, minutes and various records of judicatories, their institutions and organizations, and historical photographs, films, and recordings. It also maintains a library of publications related to Lutheran church history. Two emphases of this ELCA-related archives are materials related to the St. Chrischona missionary movement to early Texas and the Ohio Synod's and American Lutheran Church's Mexican Mission work in Texas, 1920-60.

The Region 4-South Archives was authorized by the ELCA in 1988 and was sited in Blumberg Library at Texas Lutheran University until 2002 when it moved to the Lutheran Ministry Center on the TLU campus. Space in the Lutheran Ministry Center was provided through a dissolution bequest from First Lutheran Church, Corpus Christi. Funding is provided from the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, the Southwestern Texas Synod, the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, and from proceeds from the publication, Mission to Frontier Texas, by Carl and Leonora Wolf. The archivists, librarian, and all workers in the archives are volunteers.

This institution exists to assist the Church in remembering the history of the antecedent synods of the ELCA located in Texas, Louisiana, and parts of New Mexico and Arkansas. It preserves and makes available for study materials related to the pastoral, congregational, synodical, and institutional ministries in this geographical area.

Mission to Frontier Texas - This two-volume set includes the biographies of 127 missionaries from St. Chrischona who came to Texas from 1850 to the early 1900s.

From Merger to Merger - This book documents the history of the Southern District of the ALC, 1960-87. Essays and photos are included.

Both publications are available from the ELCA Region 4-South Archives.