“The title, From Freedom to Life, was chosen to express the conviction of our founders that polity or denominational structure is never an end in itself but a context in which true spiritual life might abound. My hope is that your reading of this book will not only supply the story of the birth and growth of a small Lutheran denomination. A greater goal is that you might catch the vision that captured me as a teenager, of a unique fellowship bound together not by organization but by Spirit-led commitment to the task of building and nourishing free and living Lutheran congregations.”

—Robert L. Lee