Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is reaching beyond its roots for the first time, opening its membership and services to all Christian faiths.
The financial services firm confirmed Thursday that its members supported expansion by a margin of 72 percent to 28 percent. About 425,000 members — 21 percent of Thrivent's total membership — voted on the measure, a higher participation rate than executives had expected.
The decision to redefine the organization's "common bond" struck at the heart of the not-for-profit institution, whose roots go back more than 100 years.
"People tend to be looking for a good church probably more than a specific type of church," said Brad Hewitt, Thrivent's president and CEO.
Thrivent is a fraternal benefits organization based in Minneapolis that sells insurance, annuities and other financial services to its 2.5 million Lutheran members. For years, the Fortune 500 firm has wrestled with whether to extend its reach beyond the Lutheran faith, amid declining loyalty to church denominations. The number of practicing Lutherans is shrinking as younger generations consider other faiths.
The results of the member vote is a response to the reality that "brand loyalty to denominations" isn't what it was in first-generation immigrants, Hewitt said, adding that executives didn't know what to expect when they opened the question to a vote.
"We hoped we would at least get two-thirds, so 72 percent is obviously better than we hoped," Hewitt said.
The change won't be immediate and is more likely to start at the beginning of 2014, the company said. Currently, a person must either be Lutheran or married to a Lutheran to be eligible to join Thrivent. Membership is also open to people who attend a Lutheran school, such as St. Olaf, or who work for a Lutheran organization such as Lutheran Social Service.
