Tag Archives: Worship

A Liturgical and Outreach Oriented Church? Yes!

Floating across the Lutheran blogosphere the last few weeks have been several professional YouTube videos focusing on Grace Lutheran Church in Tulsa, OK – what appears to be a vibrant confessional Lutheran church.  I’d encourage you to spend a few minutes watching and learning.

One thing I found very striking in the videos was how people from non-Lutheran backgrounds were drawn to a traditional and liturgical church and their understanding of Lutheran worship.  Pastor Beecroft acknowledges that the church has its own language, is formed by it, and wrestles to understand it.  We constantly hear that the church growth paradigm says this traditional approach should be a “turn off” for “seekers”.  While the people interviewed expressed their initial culture shock, after a time of learning and understanding they had a deeper  appreciation for the traditions and confessional Lutheran faith.  These people seem to have a better grasp on Lutheran worship than many who have been Lutherans all their life.  Catechesis at work!

Twittering During Worship

It seems twittering and tweeting may be coming to a worship service near you — perhaps they’ll call it “tworship”.  According to Time magazine, some pastors are encouraging their flock to twitter (or tweet) as they are moved during worship.

Wouldn’t this be a distraction during the time when God is showering us with His gifts?

Bach’s Road to Leipzig

I’d like to commend for your reading a paper written by Steven Cholak entitled “Behold, We Go To Jerusalem . . . ” on the history of how J.S. Bach became Kantor in Leipzig and an analysis of one of his audition cantatas -  BWV 22.  If you can muster up a copy of the cantata to listen to while reading, it will enrich the experience even more.

One of the points Cholak brings out in the cantata analysis is the intimate relationship between text and music.  The music was not indifferent — it helped to support and interpret the text.

. . . the Gottestienst experience is not a mono-sense experience, but that our Lord engages all of our first article gifts to convey his love.  It is not just something to be read, but becomes alive in the very eyes, ears, and all our members he has given us.

P.S.  The complete works of Bach on 155 CDs are available from Amazon for $90.99 – only $0.58/CD!  60 of those CDs contain the cantatas.  I can’t vouch for the performance quality, but I still have enjoyed listening to the treasures of Bach.

Heaven on Earth

After Divine Service today, a friend stopped me in the narthex and mentioned that the service was like “heaven on earth”. And so it was—literally. Not because of some “feeling”, but because of what Christ was actually doing. Where Christ is, there is heaven.  Christ coming to us and giving us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through the read and preached Word and His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

What a blessing it is to be in the Divine Service when heaven meets earth. Literally.

Compline – Prayer at the Close of the Day

“The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night and peace at the last.”

Compline

The Lutheran church has been blessed to have Compline – Prayer at the Close of the Day – included in its service books.  While I don’t know how many congregations gather to pray Compline on a regular basis, it is a salutary practice to consider.  With the recent introduction of Treasury of Daily Prayer, laypeople may be more inclined to pray Compline, if not in a group setting, at least in private prayer before going to bed.

Michael Brown with The Minnesota Compline Choir offers these thoughts from a brief essay on Compline:

Compline is the last in a continuous cycle of daily prayers and worship known as the Divine Office of the Church, to which Matins and Lauds (morning prayers) and the more familiar Vespers (evening prayer) also belong. In the text of the Compline service the act of going to sleep at the end of the day is analogous to the eternal rest that we find in Christ when we die. As we confess our sins, examine our consciences, and offer the actions of the day to God, we are assured that God continually watches over our lives, even as we sleep.

Counter to the current movement in church growth, with trends toward “contemporary” services, the Compline service preserves ancient traditions of simplicity, restfulness and timelessness of text and tune.

Compline is a restful service — whether chanted or spoken — and a fitting conclusion to the end of the day.  It is a service that spans generations and Christian denominations.

If this has piqued your interest in the Compline service, consider listening online to either The Minnesota Compline Choir of St. Paul, MN or The Compline Choir at St Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, WA.

Both of these groups have a weekly Compline service available for on-demand listening, download, or subscription via a RSS feed reader.  The Seattle group also has an option as an iTunes podcast.  You will notice these services are more elaborate than Lutheran Service Book with more “propers”, but you will recognize much of the same “ordinary” text and music.

“Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.”