ELCIN is the product of the Finnish missionaries who came to plant the seeds of christianity to Namibia in early 1870. The 9th of July 1870 marked the beginning of spreading the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the people at the northern pert of the country, that was known as ”Owambo.” After thirteen years of hard labour of the Finnish missionaries, the very first six men in Owambo were baptized on January 6th, 1883. This was the humble start of the expanding work of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission, (FELM) which resulted into the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Owambokavango Church (ELOC), in 1954, than is called Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia as from 1984.

ELCIN comprises of 678, 178 registered members. There are 126 parishes divided into two dioceses, which are divide into nine circuits each. The church has about 153 active pastors and 50 retired. 91 are deacons and 3 evangeliste, about 44 evangeliste are on retirement. ELCIN is served by many voluntay music leaders, group leaders and cleaners.

The very first bishop of ELCIN was Dr Leonard Auala (1960 – 1978) followed by Dr Kleopas Dumeni 1978 – 2000. Dr Kleopas Dumeni was the very first ELCIN Presiding bishop as from 1996 to 2000. Bishop Apollos Kaulinge is the third bishop of ELCIN (1996 – 2004. He served ELCIN in the capacity of presiding bishop as from 2000 –2004. Bishop Kaulinge was then preceeded by bishop Dr Tomas Shivute consecrated in 2000 and became a presiding bishop of ELCIN in 2004. Bishop Rev Johannes Chiwempe Sindano is the fifth bishop in ELCIN. He was consecrated in the year 2004 He is currently deputizes the presiding bishop Dr Tomas Shivute who is the head of the church. The bishops' offices are situated in their receptive dioceses, while the office of the presiding bishop is located in Oniipa, Ondangwa. Oniipa is the Head Quarter of the Evangelical Lutheran Chuch in Namibia.

The main emphasis with regard to the mission of the Church today is placed on the proclamation of the gospel of Christ to every person taking into account of the totality of his/her humanity. ELCIN is also ingage in proclamation of the gospel of reconciliation, to build peace in the nation, to admonish and to warn all people , to act as bridge between the groups opposing each other, and last but least, to serve as the conscience of the the nation as a whole including the authorities.