Statements
from the President's Office of the LCMS
HOME • "WE BELIEVE..." • E-MAIL US
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP
A Statement from The Office of the President
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
1333 South Kirkwood Road
St. Louis, Missouri 63122
United States of America
As we discussed at the beginning of this newsletter, when the Wise Men visited Jesus Christ they were moved to fall down and worship Him as the promised Savior. As I thought about the Wise Men worshipping Jesus, it made me think about the whole area of worship and liturgy. No matter where I go in the Synod these days questions about our liturgy and our worship practices are asked by church workers and laity alike. In the mail I frequently receive letters expressing concerns, offering opinions and requesting more information about our Lutheran liturgical heritage.
Perhaps a good place to begin is with the old German word for our worship service, Gottesdienst, or "divine service." Actually, a better way of translating this word is to say, "God's service to us." That is really the meaning of the word as it is used in our Lutheran Confessions. As Lutherans, we have a Christocentric worship style in contrast to other denominations which have worship practices and emphases which tend to be anthropocentric [man centered]. Our Christocentric liturgy places the emphasis on the fact that Christ is present among us, serving us with His mercy and grace through His Word and Sacraments. The focus is on Him, not on us.
The fact that Christ is actually present among us with His grace as He distributes it to us through the Word and Sacraments should cause us to ask, "What style is most appropriate for the Lutheran church's emphasis on Word and Sacrament? What forms will result from a Christocentric emphasis in our theology and the practices which flow from this theology?" These are the sorts of questions I hear being asked. I hear some suggesting that the Lutheran Church needs to move away from its liturgical worship if it wishes to be "successful" as it reaches out to our American culture. I find these kinds of attitudes troubling, and I know many others of you do as well.
I am encouraged by those who are reflecting deeply on these issues. I am especially happy to note that Concordia Publishing House is releasing this month a significant new volume on liturgy and worship practices titled Lutheran Worship: History and Practice. An anonymous donor has made it possible for this book to be printed at a significant savings, thus making it possible for you to buy this book at a very reasonable cost. I would like to offer a strong word of encouragement to you to purchase a copy of it for yourself and study it carefully. It would be good for this book to be discussed in circuit conferences, and during pastor's and teacher's conferences. You may obtain a copy by calling CPH at 1-800-325-3040.
One of the items that cannot help but concern me are some tendencies I have noticed in our Synod toward imitating non-Lutheran worship styles and practices. We need to use great caution so as to note use worship forms, music, songs or other practices which flow from doctrine at odds with our Scriptural and Confessional theology. For that matter, unity in our worship practices contributes mightily to our unity in the Faith, as our Missouri Synod forefathers recognized when they wrote our Synod's Constitution and discussed the matter of the worship materials which are to be used in our congregations. I ran across something recently which Dr. C. F. W. Walther said about our Lutheran liturgy. It really caught my attention and so I wanted here to share it with you. Walther writes:
"We refuse to be guided by those who are offended by our church customs. We adhere to them all the more firmly when someone wants to cause us to have a guilty conscience on account of them. . . . We are not insisting that there be uniformity of perception or feeling or of taste among all believing Christians-neither dare anyone demand that all be minded as he. Nevertheless it remains true that the Lutheran liturgy distinguishes Lutheran worship from the worship of other churches to such an extent that the houses of worship of the latter look like lecture halls in which the hearers are merely addressed or instructed, while our churches are in truth houses of prayer in which the Christians serve the great God publicly before the world. . . . Some might ask, what would be the use of uniformity of ceremonies? The answer: What is the use of a flag on the battlefield? Even though a soldier cannot defeat the enemy with it, he nevertheless sees by the flag where he belongs. We ought not to refuse to walk in the footsteps of our fathers. They were so far removed from being ashamed of the good ceremonies that they publicly confess in the passage quoted: 'It is not true that we do away with all such external ornament' " (Walther, Essays for the Church, Vol. 1, p. 194).
As we move forward in our mission efforts, we will of course need to be extremely sensitive to how we help visitors and newcomers grow in their understanding of the worship forms of our church. Resources to assist in this process need to be developed. Our priceless theological heritage finds its expression in a style of worship which flows from the doctrines of Holy Scripture and the Scripture's teaching of God giving His gifts to us through Word and Sacrament. Here too we join the Wise Men and say, "We have come to worship Him."
From: The President's Newsletter, January 1994, p. 2