Fine Tuning - Shaping Modern Lutheran Worship sans Praise Band

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Excerpt:

1. Lutheran hymnody is exciting

This is really a theological matter. If a pastor is convinced that the Lutheran hymn heritage has something unique to offer Christians in the way of Gospel proclamation and catechesis, they will want to drink deeply from it. If they want to use it, they can find ways of making that happen without capitulating to the desires of naysayers who think other, less theologically astute songs are more “exciting.” There is nothing more exciting about one kind of music over another. One can cultivate an appreciation for all kinds of music, if one opens their minds and interests to doing so. As Christians, we should be open to cultivating appreciation for the Lutheran hymn corpus because of the great value it possesses and the great contribution it makes to Christian understanding theological knowledge and ultimately, spiritual growth.

(HT: Issues, Etc. - Pr Todd Wilken's pick for Blog of the Week - mp3, 2.14 MB, 05m18s)

Fine Tuning: What Makes Lutheran Worship Lutheran

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Part 2 of a series (Part 1)

Excerpt:

One of the most challenging things I faced as a former worship leader in the Evangelical Free Church was exactly how to define what worship was. One elder at the time quipped, “Ask 50 different people what worship is and you’ll get 50 different answers.” This was absolutely true and remains true today. One of the great things about Lutheranism is that it recaptures and explains a view of worship that is Biblical and objective–– not according to my whims, but according to what God says.

Worship is God gathering His church together so He might give to us His gifts. These are the gifts of His Word, Baptism, His Supper and His Holy Absolution. We are sustained through these things. Worship in essence calls us to get out of the way and let these things come to us, that we might receive them in gratitude and allow them to renew and shape our faith. As we hear the Word of God read and preached, we also share it together in our songs and hymns. Since we know that the Holy Spirit works through the Word of God, we do not wish to waste time singing things that are not the clear and well-explicated Word. Lutherans have always regarded our hymns as mini-sermons. This is because what we sing is just as important as what we hear preached. The Word of God present in our hymns sustains us in our faith.

Fine Tuning: How We're Changing

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Part 3 of a series

Excerpt:

Here are some things that are happening in the LCMS now that the evangelicals did ever so long ago. It all looks really familiar to me because it is exactly what occurred when I was in the Evangelical church through the 80's and the 90's.

• Viewing doctrine as divisive and an impediment to missions

• Thinking that one can possess strong doctrinal positions, and change the musical styles to those influenced by the pop-culture (top 40 mostly).

• Disappearance of the chancel furniture except maybe on Communion Sundays

• Praise band leads almost all of the service, typically drums, guitar, keyboard, bass, lead singer.

• Hymns barely to non-existent

• Old=bad, new=good

• How-to, practical sermons for daily living rather than Christological, law/Gospel proclamations (may not be epidemic in the LCMS yet, but don’t worry, it’s coming)

• Disdain for the liturgy. We retain the things that might still qualify us as “Lutheran” but we really wish we could get rid of those too. The liturgy becomes a “style” seen as a necessary evil, rather than a “substance” that is life-giving through what it purveys. So it is altered to become "cooler," if not downplayed, or discarded altogether.

• Communion practiced less frequently or on days other than Sundays

• Service more like a concert with the band warming up for the main act -- the sermon!

I have noticed that we are shifting to a more and more amorphous brand of Christianity where doctrinal distinctions and precision is downplayed in favor of “bringing in the lost.” But we are not using the true Gospel to do it. We’re using techniques. We take the true Gospel for granted. We think to ourselves, “Hey, we’re Lutheran. That cannot happen to us. I mean, my pastor has a Book of Concord sitting on his shelf, after all–– I think.”

Dr. Gene Edward Veith, Provost and Professor of Literature at Patrick Henry College, discusses Entertainment-Driven Youth Ministry with Pr Todd Wilken (mp3, ~16.1 MB, 40m12s, 2010-Aug-25)

Read also Dr Veith's article, Stupid Church Tricks, in World magazine

Part 1: http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2010/06/lets-call-it-what-it-is-sectarian.html

Part 2: http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2010/06/lets-call-it-what-it-is-sectarian_24.html

Printable (, ~54.67 KB)

Excerpt:

Since it was the Roman Catholic Church that, with its heretical innovations, had really broken away from the ancient, orthodox, catholic (“universal”) Church, the Lutheran Reformers {were} not compelled to abandon the worship forms of the Church catholic. On the contrary, they insisted on using the catholic ceremonies, both because of their usefulness for instructing the common people, and to give a clear confession of their unity with the Church catholic. The Lutherans refused to be numbered among the sects, although Rome still refers to us this way. At some times and in some places during the 16th century, Lutherans {were} compelled to stop using this or that ceremony as a confession against the papists who were trying to compel the use of these ceremonies among the Lutheran churches. But wherever possible, Lutherans retained the ceremonies of the Church catholic, because they proclaimed the unity and collective wisdom of over a thousand years worth of believers from all over the world, especially the Western Church in which the Lutherans mainly lived.

Unlike the confessional Lutheran Church, the sects have broken away from the Church catholic by false teachings. Most of them don’t even wish to be associated with the Church catholic. One of the most widely shared of these false teachings is a false teaching regarding the Means of Grace, that is, how God communes and communicates with men, how God creates and strengthens faith in man, how God distributes to individuals the forgiveness of sins won by Christ for all men. The Lutheran Church recognizes that it is the Gospel alone, in Word and Sacrament, that God has chosen as his means to accomplish these things. (More will be said about the theological underpinnings of sectarian worship forms in the next post on this subject.)

The sects, having abandoned the Church catholic, have developed their own worship forms, their own practices, in keeping with their false understanding of the Means of Grace and how man interacts with God. The “contemporary” worship phenomenon has grown out of this false understanding commonly held among most of the sects. Because of the sectarian origins of these worship forms, we refer to it as “sectarian worship.” “Sectarian worship” is incompatible with Lutheran worship because it confesses (intentionally or unintentionally) a disassociation from the Church catholic.

Mr. Brett McCracken, author of the WSJ article, "The Perils of ‘Wannabe Cool’ Christianity” and the book, “Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide”, discusses Hipster Christianity with Pr. Todd Wilken (mp3, ~10.6 MB, 26m29s, 2010-Aug-19)

Stephen Sizer discusses Christian Zionism with Pr. Todd Wilken (mp3, ~10.6 MB, 26m30s, 2010-Aug-17)

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller and Seminarian Even Goeglein play Law and/or Gospel, Praise Song Cruncher, How to Tell if You're Being Manipulated by a Youth Speaker, and Which Ladder, National Youth Gathering (LCMS) Edition (mp3, ~25.2 MB, 1h13m22s)

The top five listener favorite hymns are studied:

5 -- Monday, Aug. 9: Pr. Bill Cwirla, "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" (mp3, ~21.8 MB, 54m29s)
4 -- Tuesday, Aug. 10: Dr. Arthur Just, "The Church's One Foundation" (mp3, ~21.8 MB, 54m30s)
3 -- Wednesday, Aug. 11: "Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart" (mp3, ~21.8 MB, 54m29s)
2 -- Thursday, Aug. 12: Dr. Arthur Just, "Thy Strong Word" (mp3, ~21.8 MB, 54m29s)
1 -- Friday, Aug. 13: Pr. Wil Weedon, "God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It" (mp3, ~21.8 MB, 54m29s)

Listen live from 4-5 pm CDT or on-demand at www.issuesetc.org.

Part 4 of Issues Etc. program on Law and Gospel with Dr Carl Fickenscher is posted.