Haugeanism

"Haugeanism has maintained from the very first that every believer has the right publicly to testify concerning his faith, basing this contention on the teaching of the Word of God as to 'the universal priesthood of believers.' They had also demanded that this activity should be free within the congregation, that is, not under the control of the clerical office, but controlled either by the congregation itself or by the body of professing believers . . . Lay preaching has become a recognized and permanent function in our Church . . . "No one will claim that Haugeanism has been without its shortcomings; in this respect it shares the fate of all similar movements. Neither do we mean to imply that the Haugeans have been 'without spot or blemish.' And yet it may with truth be stated, as it has been so often stated by others, even by the most competent critics, that the Haugean awakening was Light and Salt to the Church and the people of Norway . . . The results of the movement have not been confined within the boundaries of Norway. Its benign influence has also been felt in the neighboring countries, on heathen mission fields, and especially among us Norwegian Lutherans in America." --from the Summary