Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
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![The Synodical Conference was founded in St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which at the time held membership in the Wisconsin Synod.](/Images/godic/202502/21/St_John's_Evangelical_Lutheran_Church4831.jpg")
![Rev. Paul Mayerhoff lived in this tent for six months in 1896 at the beginning of his Call as a Wisconsin Synod missionary to the Apache. He catechized children, learned their language, and translated parts of Luther's Small Catechism into Apache.](/Images/godic/202502/21/Mayerhoff4831.jpg")
![Martin Luther College, a college of the WELS](/Images/godic/202502/21/OldMainMLC4831.jpg")
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) is a North American Confessional Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Characterized as theologically conservative, it was founded in 1850 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As of 2012, it had a baptized membership of 380,728 in 1,278 congregations, with members in all 50 US states and 4 provinces of Canada. It is the third largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.