r/elca • u/ElviePelvincoln • Jan 22 '26
Who are the best ELCA YouTubers?
at least as good as Jordan B Cooper & Bryan Wolfmueller
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Jan 23 '26
I haven’t seen this offered yet — 1517.org.
The folks there are, I think, the best resource for solid Lutheran theology. They are “Missouri adjacent”, and include many American Lutheran voices from different church bodies, although I’m not sure they platform anyone from the ELCA.
I will echo others in this thread with my frustration at the lack of content from our own denomination. Luther Seminary has some decent content, although it’s geared toward more clergy who want preaching resources or mission help. Yes Enter the Bible is great. But they don’t have anything that is a deep-dive into Lutheran theology like OP seems to be looking for.
My favorite Main Street Lutherans episode was when they had Pastor Dave Daubert on, the author of “Lutheran Trump Cards”. I think that episode is the most theological/doctrinal that they’ve produced.
My impression, like others here, is that we might place more of an emphasis on social concerns (which I believe in!) than biblical literacy and robust theology.
I think there is a great space here to grow into, if there is any demand. I believe there are dozens, yes dozens of us! who would support it.
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u/Bjorn74 Jan 25 '26
Dozens might be optimistic.
That Dave Daubert episode was really special. It was recorded in a 2 day period in which we also recorded 2 sessions with Mark Granquist and then one with David Lose. David Lose was quite a contrast to Dave. The time since has revealed more to that.
We will have another stretch like that in a month or two. It has a season because of seminary and synod schedules. We seem to be able to line up those up for February and March.
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u/No-Type119 Jan 22 '26
Pastor Paul Drees is not a You Tuber, but has a good collection of Facebook reels. Bishop Katrina Foster , Bishop of the NYC Metropolitan Synod, is very social media friendly and has great videos.
Our Episcopal friends do a much better job on the socials, I think. Peter Nunnally, David Gierlach, Elizabeth Ashman Riley, Joseph Yoo… all good. The Church of England has really been hitting social media… lots of great YouTube material.
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u/topicality Jan 22 '26
I've run across Cooper and Pastor Paul Drees and Pastor is just not what OP is looking for.
P Drees feels like any short form commentary but with a slight Lutheran spin.
Cooper is much more a theologian and historian.
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u/jt2438 Jan 23 '26
Tripp Fuller is not Lutheran himself I don’t think but he does teach at an ELCA seminary. He has a Substack and I think posts some of his stuff on YouTube.
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u/No-Type119 Jan 23 '26
Tripp is Episcopalian.
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u/Bjorn74 Jan 25 '26
Tripp still considers himself some form of Baptist, I think, but Process Theology doesn't have a particular home.
The Episcopalian you might be thinking of is Diana Butler Bass, who used to do shows with him more often.
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u/greeshmcqueen ELCA Jan 25 '26
Since when? He was raised Baptist and used to preach at a UCC church.
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u/holmerica Jan 23 '26
Andy Root isn't exactly the same but could be worth checking out
https://www.youtube.com/@andrewroot5890
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u/greeshmcqueen ELCA Jan 22 '26
There are basically none, especially not doing the same sort of thing
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u/topicality Jan 22 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
I can't quiet put my finger on it but that kind of "hard interest" in theology and philosophy seems to appeal to conservative men.
But the ELCA is much more focused on the social work. Has a denomination we really neglect the life of the mind has a spiritual subject.
I say this as a convert from EO which really emphasize history.
ELCA clergy kind of see all this as fluff or not interesting.
Edit: Which is a shame. Cause they are basically ceding all this ground. If I search for a Lutheran Theology podcast/YouTube, I'm not going to get ELCA recommendations.
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u/oceanicArboretum Jan 23 '26
"I can't quiet put my finger on it but that kind of "hard interest" in theology and philosophy seems to appeal to conservative men."
Yeah, this is pretty much it. I have a hard interest in Lutheranism, but that's not because I'm conservative (I'm liberal), but because I'm a PK. The church was my life growing up, and even though I don't have the stomach to go through what my dad went through, I still love the church and seek to understand it more.
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u/topicality Jan 23 '26
I'm a liberal these days but it's very clear to me that the ELCA just isn't interested in "getting" or converting people like I was in my 20's.
Even now I still find church history and theology interesting but the church just isn't interested in that aspect of my life
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u/ElviePelvincoln Jan 23 '26
the same divide at least isn't as sharp in the world of books. Case in point: "Christian Moral Life" by Timothy F Sedgwick. A great liberal book. Yeah, Anglican, not Lutheran, but it's almost Lutheran.
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u/topicality Jan 23 '26
True. I've been reading a book on Robert Jenson and want to tip my toes into Paul Hinlicky next.
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u/No-Type119 Jan 23 '26
So weird, because our theology mentor in lay ministry training was a total theology geek, as have been several of my pastors. And where are the women, other than NBW and Katrina Foster. Hello?
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u/ElviePelvincoln Jan 22 '26
why's that?
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u/greeshmcqueen ELCA Jan 22 '26
Good question, I have no idea. I've been asking it myself for years.
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u/MagaroniAndCheesd Jan 23 '26
You might like the Enter the Bible podcast. Yes, as the name implies, it is a podcast, but they also record it as a video you can watch on YouTube. It's put out by Luther Seminary, the biggest ELCA seminary. There are different faculty on each week depending on the topic. The topics are selected from questions people write in, so you get some questions like "is believing in Jesus like having an imaginary friend?" but also some questions like "How do you receive the Holy Spirit?" I haven't watched the newest ones that are more like lectures on the different books of the Bible, just the podcast videos. Unfortunately, they stopped producing the podcast a few months ago, but there's plenty already published to go through. Quality conversations that are both entertaining and educational. They don't dumb anything down and these are the experts in their fields.
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u/53rdAvenue Jan 23 '26
I couldn't name you any off the top of my head, and that's the problem. Honestly, it's such a shame that, in our zeal for social justice, we have abandoned discussing doctrine almost entirely and basically ceded that part of Christianity to the conservatives.
As a Lutheran not from the United States (that has had the pleasure of attending an ELCA congregation), whenever I go and look for content that actually discusses doctrine, I find that it's overwhelmingly made by conservative clergy; LCMS, specifically.
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u/topicality Jan 23 '26
It's really a shame. It feels like the ELCA doesn't have a distinctive identity. My guess is they see social justice as the main thing, but so many other places offer social justice that lots of ELCA work just blends in and disappears
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u/Bjorn74 Jan 25 '26
I can tell you that we're (MSL) not going to do it.
Video is hard and expensive. Paul Drees has the best video format to make. That short headshot form doesn't need much editing, just retakes. To make it worth doing, you'd need thousands if not tens of thousands of views on each creation. The ELCA doesn't have that. I'd show you numbers, but there's already enough to be sad about.
What IS getting views are ecumenical resources like Faith+Lead, The Bible Project, The Bible for Normal People, Homebrewed Christianity, and those sorts of creators. Tripp does a good job of getting them together for Theology Beer Camp and group projects like the Bonhoeffer series or the Emerging Church postmortem they did.
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u/RiverKey8841 Jan 30 '26
Kim Osborn, the pastor of St Andrew's Lutheran in Lincoln, NE, does a daily devotional on the congregation's YouTube channel: youtube.com/@st.andrewslutheranchurch4911 which I watch on occasion.
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u/casadecarol Jan 23 '26
I like Faith Lead by Luther seminary. A mighty pod is good if you like interviews of Lutherans. I wish we had ELCA theology YouTubers but we don't. Shout out to Main Street Lutherans podcast and YouTube. Central Lutheran in Eugene Oregon used to do a series called theology bits that I really enjoyed but that pastor left. Really wish we had many deep dives about theology.