Confessional Lutherans are Christians committed to believing, teaching and confessing the doctrines taught in the Book of Concord because they believe them to be faithful to the teachings of the Bible.

The confessional Lutheran movement arose in the 1830s as a reaction to pietism on the one side and rationalism on the other. It arrived in America with the emigration of groups like the Saxons of Missouri and Grabau's group in Western New York. Pastors such as F.C.D. Wyneken joined the movement as they read the works of Martin Luther and the Book of Concord. Unlike the confessing movement , the Lutheran Confessionalists do not compromise easily on matters of doctrine and practice.