Sermons and Papers [Link]

htm

God’s Mission, Holy Ministry and Divine

Service

17th Annual Minnesota Lutheran Free Conference

October 30, 2004

Dr. Timothy C. J. Quill

The footnotes are dynamically linked. Click on the number to

read the footnote, and click on the footnote number to return to
the text at the reference point.

The topic assigned to me is to “focus on the Church’s mission and

how this plays out and is found in the liturgy and in the training of
pastors.” I have been instructed not only to “focus on the liturgy and the
training of pastors in the U.S.A., but throughout the world.” In an attempt
to summarize this inordinate topic, I’ve titled my presentation “God’s
Mission, Holy Ministry and Divine Service.” The title endeavors to
encapsulate the commonality, inseparability and reciprocity of “Mission,”
“Ministry” and “Liturgy.”

“God’s Mission, Holy Ministry and Divine Liturgy.” “God’s,” “Holy,”

and “Divine” all say the same thing. The genitives indicate that all three
belong to God. The mission to save the world from sin is God’s mission.
The Father chose, authorized and sent his Son to atone for the sins of the
world. The Son was given all authority and therefore called and sent the
apostles who in turn ordained other men to make disciples of all nations.
The Holy Ministry is holy because it was established by God and belongs
to God. The inseparable connection between God’s Mission and God’s
Ministers is clearly articulated in Articles 4 & 5 of the Augsburg

1 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

Confession.1

Article 4 on “Justification” states:

It is also taught among us that we cannot obtain forgiveness of

sin and righteousness before God by our own merits, works, or
satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sins and
become righteous before God by grace, for Christ’s sake,
through faith2

Article 5, “The Office of the Ministry,” explains how this faith is

obtained.

To obtain such faith God instituted the office of the ministry,

that is, provided the Gospel and the sacraments. Through these,
as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith,
when and where he pleases in those who hear the Gospel.3

The ordinary, regular, ongoing place in which the Gospel and

sacraments are preached and administered is in the Divine Liturgy. The
sacraments are not administered without the preaching of the Gospel.
Preaching the pure Gospel proclaims no other Christ than he who rose
bodily from the dead and is truly present with grace in his body and blood
in the Sacrament. Thus, Christian worship or the Divine Liturgy is
nothing other than the Liturgy of Word and Sacrament, i.e. the Liturgy of
the Gospel. Where the Gospel is preached and sacraments administered,
the Holy Spirit works faith, “when and where he pleases.” “When and
where he pleases” is mission language. “When ... he pleases” eliminates
synergistic, Baptist, manipulative missions strategies and revival worship.
“Where” applies to where ever the Gospel, catechesis, Baptism and the
Lord’s Supper are going on, whether here in America or overseas.

Mission, Ministry and Liturgy share a common owner. They all

belong to God and through them He is active in creating and sustaining
his church. Mission, Ministry and Liturgy are inseparable. You can not
have one without the other. God has established no mission apart from
the Holy Ministry. The Ministry knows only the Mission given to it by
God. There is no ministry without the means of grace which take place
where two or three are gathered in Jesus Name to receive his gifts and
respond in faith and thanksgiving. There is no true worship apart from
God’s Mission and the Holy Ministry. Mission and Evangelism are not
separate activities independent from the Liturgy. Certainly, there are
evangelism, catechetical, and devotional activities (e.g. daily office) that
take place outside of the actual divine service. But these flow from and
back into the place where Christ has promised to be present with his
preached word and his life-giving body and blood. “There is no separation
between liturgy and mission... worship is mission.”4

Mission, Ministry and Liturgy share an intimate reciprocity. A faulty

theology of missions leads to in a faulty understanding in the Holy
Ministry and a faulty theology of worship. Faulty theology leads to faulty
practices.

2 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

The Holy Ministry

God instituted the Office of the Ministry. It belongs to God and is a

gift from him to his church. Several years ago I visited a small Lutheran
Church in Belarus that managed to survive despite relentless persecution
under the Soviet Union. The church had been without a pastor for
decades. Amazingly the beautiful neo-gothic church building had not
been destroyed and was returned to the congregation. Sadly, the
congregation had forgotten what it means to be Lutheran and what it
means to be a Church. Their Lutheran identity was reduced primarily to
that of a German cultural society. I was asked to speak to the
congregation about the Holy Ministry. The leader of the congregation was
an elderly German woman who, frankly, was quite used to being in
charge. She raised her hand and confronted me with the question, “We
have been without a pastor for years and have gotten along just fine. Why
do we need a pastor?” I responded with reference to Ephesians 4:8-14.
After Jesus ascended into heaven he gave gifts to men.

“And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some

prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teacher, to equip
the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up the body
of Christ, until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may
no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine...” (11-14)

In short I told the lady, if you don’t think you need a pastor, or you
don’t want a pastor, then no one can force a pastor on you. Pastor’s are a
gift from God – from Jesus Christ himself. You can not force someone to
take a gift. But personally, if Jesus wants to give me a gift, I think I would
gladly receive it and do so with thanksgiving. The Holy Ministry belongs
to God. His ministers are gifts to his church.

God’s Mission is carried out by God’s Ministers when they do what

our Lord has given them to do. In Matthew 28:19-20 they are sent to
make disciples by baptizing and teaching. It is called Holy Baptism
because it belongs to God and in baptism God is forgiving sins, granting
new birth, bestowing eternal life. lt is called the Holy Gospel because it is
the Lord’s living and saving Word. When the Gospel is preached and
taught, God the Holy Spirit is active making disciples when and where he
pleases.

I was once making a presentation about the importance of missions

and pastoral training at Concordia Theological Seminary. When I made
reference to our Lord’s mandate to the Apostles in Matthew 28 as
foundational to the task of pastors, an agitated layperson insisted that
Jesus was not only addressing those in the Holy Ministry but all believers.
It is true that Jesus words are, indirectly, addressed to the entire church,
but I pointed out that in the text, Jesus was talking to the apostles, not to
all believers. Certainly, this does not preclude the importance of lay
people witnessing to others in word and deed. Lay people support God’s

3 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

mission prayerfully and financially. They teach and live the faith in their
homes. They support the mission when they bring their children to be
baptized and when they encourage their sons to enter the holy ministry. I
pointed out that Jesus was sending the Apostle to make disciples. How
are disciples made? By baptizing and teaching. So I asked the lady, “Have
you been baptizing people lately?” “Have you been conducting the liturgy
and administering Holy Communion lately?” A proper interpretation of
Matthew 28 does not diminish the Royal Priesthood nor does it falsely
elevate the Office of the Holy Ministry to some elitist hierarchy. For an
excellent little treatise on the distinction between clergy and laity, see
“The Christological Character of the Office of the Ministry and the Royal
Priesthood” by Dr. Jobst Schöne5

The attitudes expressed by these two women concerning the roles

of the Office of Holy Ministry and the Royal Priesthood is not limited to a
few misinformed laypersons. It has become systemic in the teaching,
preaching, worship, mission and evangelism practices of the LCMS.
District Lay Ministry training programs are sprouting up all across the
LCMS in which laymen are given a minimal theological training with no
intention of ordination and then put to work in congregations to do “Word
and Sacrament ministry.” Mission paradigms adopted from non-Lutheran,
Anabaptist seminaries and institutes are used in both American and
overseas mission strategies. Often the argument is put forward that this
is necessary due to the shortage of trained pastors. In foreign missions,
the concern is often expressed that the demand for the on-going financial
support of a highly trained clergy will stifle outreach.

It is interesting that Martin Luther spoke to this issue already in the

year 1522.

The gospel naturally ought to be preached throughout the

whole world, and why is it not? Certainly it is not the fault of
the gospel, for it is right and true, profitable and blessed. No,
the trouble is that there are not enough people who are
qualified to do it. And if a person doesn’t have the qualifications
it is better to keep silent than to preach; otherwise the
preaching will be false and harmful.6

In 1996 Concordia Theological Seminary established the Russian

Project in which over thirty Russian speaking men from the former Soviet
Union came to study in Fort Wayne. The men have since returned to
serve Lutheran Churches in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia
and Lithuania. In 1997 CTS joined the mission enterprise of the Siberian
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the formation of Lutheran Theological
Seminary in Novosibirsk, Siberia. President Wenthe dedicated the new
seminary in the summer of 1997. By 2001 the Seminary had out grown its
original facilities and moved into a new building in the center of
Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk. In June of 2004 the first class of five men
completed the five-year program. The ordination of trained pastors
continues. The 2004-05 academic year began with thirteen new students
bringing the enrollment to 17. The men come from Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgistan, Ukraine, Moldovia and The Republic of Georgia.

4 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

The training of pastors in America and overseas is an intensive,

costly, time-consuming enterprise. One of the men who studied at Fort
Wayne is Rev. Alexei Streltsov (MA and STM from CTS) who serves as
Rector of Lutheran Theological Seminary. The LCMS can learn much
from this young man. Streltsov explained, “Because of the vast distances
in Siberia and the isolation of mission congregations, it is important to
have ordained pastors who are thoroughly trained in Lutheran doctrine
and practice, other wise serious problems develop.”

The Divine Liturgy

Catechesis and Baptism Lead to the Lord’s Supper and the Liturgy

God’s Mission includes God’s pastors who preach his Holy Gospel,
proclaim his Holy Absolution, and administer his Holy Baptism and Holy
Communion. In God’s Mission, teaching and baptism leads to the Lord’s
Supper, that is, to the Divine Liturgy. A few years ago I visited a Lutheran
missionary who had been in the mission field for just short of a year. He
shared his delight in the fact that they had recently baptized several
people, most of them adults. Out of curiosity, I inquired as to what he
used for the liturgy when the newly baptized were communed. This is
always a challenge in the mission context when missionaries are still
learning the local language and the liturgy and hymnody have yet to be
translated into the vernacular. “Oh,” he said, “I am not allowed to give
them the Lord’s Supper.” Why, I asked with genuine incredulity. He
answered, “its mission policy. We are not allowed to celebrate the Lord’s
Supper until after we have been in the country for twelve months.”
Catechesis and Baptism lead to the Lord’s Supper and to the Liturgy.

When the Augsburg Confession, Article 5 states that justifying faith

is obtained through the Holy Ministry, that is, the preaching of the Holy
Gospel and the sacraments, it presupposes the Divine Liturgy. The
historic western liturgy was retained by the Lutheran fathers because
both its content and form were given shape by and faithfully reflected
pure or orthodox theology. Granted, it was necessary to reform and purify
the liturgy from theological and ritual abuses that had crept into the
medieval Roman Mass. But the liturgy was retained. The Lutheran
Church is a liturgical Church.

Apology XV
“Human Traditions”

We gladly keep the old traditions set up in the church because

they are useful and promote tranquillity, and we interpret them
in an evangelical way, excluding the opinion which holds that
they justify. (Tappert 220:38; Kolb/Wengert 229:38)

Apology XXIV

5 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

“The Mass”

“...we do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend
it. In our churches mass is celebrated every Sunday and on
other festivals.... We keep traditional liturgical forms, such as
the order of the lessons, prayers, vestments etc.” (Tappert
249:1; Kolb/Wengert 258:1)

Augsburg Confession XXVI

“The Distinction of Foods”

We on our part also retaln many ceremonies and traditions

(such as the liturgy of the mass and various canticles, festivals
and the like) which serve to preserve order in the church.
(Tappert 69:40; Kolb/Wengert 81:40)

One does not choose to join a liturgical church, become a liturgical

church, or remain a liturgical church on the basis of personal preference
or taste. The liturgy includes aesthetic elements like music, art, and
ceremony, but elements of style always come second. Worship forms are
based on doctrine. Worship practice reflects and communicates the
beliefs of the church. It is true that churches make decisions about how
they will worship. Such decisions are particularly important for those
doing mission work.

The forms of the historic liturgy have varied, yet share a common
structure. They also share a common approach or understanding toward
how man acts in God’s presence, or more importantly, how God has
chosen to be present and how God acts toward those gathered in his
Name. God acts through his Word and Sacrament. Since the 16th century,
Lutheran liturgies have retained this historic understanding. Authentic
Lutheran liturgies share a common understanding, approach and attitude
(fostered through reverent ceremony) concerning how God, who is
present in worship has chosen to be present in grace.

Churches make decisions. In one sense the liturgy is an adiaphora.

The exact form and details (texts, music, and ceremonies) are not
commanded or prescribed in Holy Scripture. But it does not follow that
liturgical matters are unimportant or are to be treated arbitrarily. The
well-known maxim attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine (d. 463) can be
helpful here. Lex orandi, lex credendi. (The law of prayer/worship, the
law of belief) The way you worship effects and determines what you
believe. Islamic worship makes Muslims. Buddhist worship makes
Buddhists. Roman Catholic worship makes Roman Catholic. Pentecostal
worship makes Pentecostals. American neo-evangelical contemporary
worship makes generic, Arminian, protestant Christians. Lutheran liturgy
makes Lutherans and keeps them Lutheran.

But the opposite is also true in a different sense. One can reverse
Prosper of Aquitaine’s maxim to read, lex credendi, lex orandi, what you
believe effects, determines and shapes the way you worship. Hermann
Sasse observed, “Nothing can be liturgically correct that is not
dogmatically correct.”

6 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

Lutheran Missions use Lutheran Worship

Lex orandi, lex credendi. The way you worship shapes the way you
believe. Each generation must be formed and shaped anew in faith and
piety – in what it believes and how it prays and lives. One could expand
Prosper’s maxim to read Lex credenti, lex orandi, lex vivendi. What one
believes establishes the way one worship which together establish the
way one lives. This is true in newly established churches among nations
that have no history of Christianity. And it is true for congregations in
North America that are serious about evangelism-where new converts or
non-Lutherans are brought into established churches.

Most, if not all, of you are acutely aware of the current controversy
in American Lutheranism over traditional versus contemporary worship
(i.e. the style vs. substance debate). The fact is’ much of what claims to
be “contemporary” is simply not new. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the
Pietism and Rationalism movements popularized the false notion that the
early church did not use the liturgy, but simple, informal, spontaneous
styles of worship. 20th century scholarship has demonstrated that this is
simply false and historically inaccurate. The real reason for the rejection
of the historic liturgy was theological. Pietists minimized the external
means of grace and replaced them with a direct experience of God
through the heart. Rationalists placed the mind or reason above Holy
Scriptures. Their rejection of the supernatural also led to a penchant for
simplicity and intolerance of traditional forms in the liturgy. One can not
reject the deity of Christ and the resurrection and still retain a liturgy
shaped by a belief in which the risen Lord’s body and blood are present in
the bread and wine, forgiving the sins of those who eat and drink with
faith, and condemning those who eat and drink with out repentance and
faith.

Today’s co-called “contemporary worship” also has more recent

roots in the American frontier tradition, or what historian James White
has coined as “frontier worship.” The LCMS fathers were very familiar
with the dangers of adopting non-Lutheran worship practices prevalent in
America in the 19th century. The Second Great Awakening took place
between 1800-1830. Revivalist worship forms and the Arminian theology
of conversion (that man cooperates in his conversion by free will) had a
major effect on every American Protestant denomination, including the
Lutheran Church. Friedrich Wyneken came to America in 1838 and
formally organized Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne in
1846. In 1839, C.F.W. Walther and the Saxons arrived in Missouri. In
1847, “The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and
Other States,”7 or Missouri Synod was officially organized.

The camp meetings of the early 19th century were the result of the
geographical, social and religious conditions on the American frontier. An
economic slump after the Revolutionary War caused a steady migration
west of the Alleghenies which continued until the 1920s.8 In the rough
and isolated wilderness the “frontiersman left many of their social and

7 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

religious traditions behind as they expressed their distinct individualism

in a pioneering spirit.”9 The beginning of the Second Great Awakening is
often dated from the first camp meeting that took place in Cane Ridge,
Kentucky in 1801. People were carving a life out of the wilderness and
were cut off from cities and towns, isolated from schools, hospitals and
churches. Camp meetings gave them an opportunity to reestablish social
contact, catch up on the news, find a spouse for their children and “get
religion.” When news spread that a camp meeting would be held,
thousands of people literally came out of the woods to attend what was
often a week long event.

The revivals took place in open fields, meadows, or cleared forests.

A high “preachin’” platform faced the congregation who used pine logs
for pews. “Except for the “mourner’s bench,” a large area remained clear
in front of the platform.”10 Theologically the Wesleyan / Methodist
perfectionism tradition came to dominate the camp meeting movement.
From the platform the preachers emphasized regeneration. A personal
turning from sin and to Christ resulted in immediate regeneration. The
immediacy of decision and regeneration are illustrated in a typical 19th
century camp song.

Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, Come to Jesus, just now,

Just now come to Jesus, Come to Jesus just now.

He will save you, he will save you, He will save you just now,
Just now he will save you, He will save you just now.11

It is revealing to compare the song “Come to Jesus” with the

contemporary praise song, “Come, Now is the Time to Worship.”12It was
sung in a LCMS congregation two weeks ago. It was the first song of the
opening praise medley.

Verse: Come, now is the time to worship.

Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Come, just as you are to worship.
Come, just as you are before your God.
Come.

Chorus:
One day, every tongue will confess You are God.
One day, every knee will bow.
Still, the greatest treasure remains for those
Who gladly seek you now.

In 1802, Moses Hoge wrote a letter to Ashbel Green in which he

describes a camp meeting he had recently attended:

In the time of preaching, if care is taken, there is but little

confusion; when that is over, and the singing, and praying, and
exhortation began, the audience is thrown into what I call real
disorder. The careless fall down, cry out, tremble, and not
infrequently are affect with convulsive twitchings. Among these
the pious are very busy, singing, praying, conversing, falling

8 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

down in extacies, etc. Then the shout is raised, Glory be to God

for a newborn soul. Nothing that imagination can paint, can
make a stronger impression on the mind, than one of those
scenes. Sinners dropping down on every hand, shrieking, falling
down in distress for sinners or in raptures o joy! Some singing,
some shouting, clapping their hands, hugging and even kissing,
laughing; others talking to the distressed, to one another, or to
opposers of the work, and all this at once.13

The emotional catharsis of the experience resulted in a joyous

atmosphere of which music was absolutely essential. Both preaching and
song centered on one’s personal faith and experiences. There were few
hymnbooks and the illiteracy rate was high. Songs had to be learned from
memory. This ruled out the more complex texts of Watts and Wesley.
“The teaching of these hymns by rote demanded that the tunes be easy,
singable, and instantly contagious.”14 Thus a chief characteristic of
revival song was the stanza and refrain or chorus response. The preacher
would often sing the stanza and the people respond with the refrain. The
“call and response” song was also popular.

Call: Remember sinful youth, you must die!

Response: You must die!
Call: Remember sinful youth, you must die!
Response: You must die!
Call: Remember sinful youth, you hate the way of truth;
And in your pleasures boast, you must die!
Response: You must die!
Call: And in your pleasures boast,
Response: You must die!15

The main musical components of the camp song were: (1)

simplicity, (2) repetition, (3) emotional fervor, (4) subjective/personal
experience, and (5) frequent improvisation.

The typical revival ordo followed a three part structure of (1) Song
(or warm up), (2) Preaching, and (3) Conversion (or altar call). It would
be Charles Grandison Finney, the greatest revival preacher of the
nineteenth century who systematized the revival ordo, and coined the
term “new measures” in his famous essay of 1835, “Lectures on Revivals
of Religion.”16

For Finney, God had established no particular system or form of

worship: “When Jesus Christ was on earth, laboring among his
disciple, he had nothing to do with forms or measures. [Jesus
commission to the apostles was] ‘Go and preach the gospel, and
disciple all nations.’ It did not prescribe any forms, [so] Do
it-the best way you can-ask wisdom from God-use the faculties
he has given you-seek the direction of the Holy Ghost-go
forward and do it.”17

9 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

But Finney could and did recommend a form based on pragmatic

goals. Not surprisingly, he chose the three-fold structure of the frontier
revival service. Finney’s order of service consisted of: (1) A song/praise
service or ‘preliminaries,’ gauged to prepare for preaching. (2) A sermon,
and (3) A “harvest” of the converts.18

The founders of the LCMS not only had to contend with threats
from American Protestants, they also had to contend with influences from
other Lutheran Churches. The most influential leader among American
Lutherans was Samuel Simon Schmucker (1799-1873). Schmucker was
an avid proponent of the “American Lutheranism” movement. In his
infamous “Definite Synodica1 Plaform” (1855),

Schmucker urged the Lutheran Church to move away from its

past doctrinal superstitions’ to a more rational, feeling-centered
Christiamty. Specifically, the church should remove from its
confession any reference to four points: 1) the real presence of
the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper; 2) baptismal
regeneration; 3) private confession and absolution; 4) the use of
traditional liturgies.19

In 1811 the number of camp meetings reached the 400 mark. By

1820, almost a thousand camp meetings had been held. Their impact on
religious life in America would be felt into the twenty-first century. An
analysis of “Frontier Worship” reveals six basic characteristics. It is (1)
evangelistic, (2) non-sacramental, (3) experiential, (4) individualistic, (5)
moralistic, and (6) pragmatic.20 The theological, liturgical and ecclesial
successors for the revival movement can be traced through the revival
movements of the 20th century (e.g. Billy Graham), the charismatic
movement (Pentecostals and Assembly of God denominations) to today’s
MegaChurch/Meta Church movement. A comparison of the Willow Creek
worship ordo in Chicago and Community Church of Joy in Phoenix,
Arizona (ELCA) reveal striking similarities to the order of service found in
the “Frontier Worship” tradition.21

What Lutheran churches in America and overseas are experiencing

today in the area of liturgy, ministry, mission and evangelism is not new.
Our problem is one of historical amnesia. Pietism (from European and
Scandinavian mission societies) and Revivalism from American Protestant
missionaries have been setting African Christianity ablaze for decades.
My father was a missionary in Africa. While attending boarding school in
Jos, Nigeria, I attended my first revival service in a soccer stadium. I was
sixteen years old at the time. That was nearly forty years ago. The revival
movement was already spreading rapidly already at that time and it is
still going strong. In the article, “The Other Gospel of Neo-Pentecostalism
in East Africa,” Finnish missionary and theologian Anssi Simojoki
provides first-hand insights into the Neo-Pentecoastalism that is presently
spreading across Africa and changing the face of Christianity

The religion of salvation becomes a human-centered, voluntary

program for the attainment of health, wealth, and success . . .
Praise and miracle meetings are weekly mass events in Kenya.

10 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

On top of that, one is increasingly likely to come across them on

television . . .. Instead of the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins,
the center is occupied with miracles and the improvement of
the quality of life, along with temporal blessings from God.22

Four years ago I traveled to Kenya to lecture on the liturgy at a

pastoral seminar. I arrived in Nairobi exhausted, jet-lagged and delighted
to finally reach my hotel room. I had barely put my head on the pillow
when an evangelist with a very loud microphone started preaching at a
revival in a field next to my hotel. Later, when I turned on the television,
channel after channel was broadcasting programs by American
evangelists. All over Nairobi, large billboards advertised upcoming revival
meetings. Fortunately, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya is led
by Bishop Walter Obare and other leaders who understand the
importance of the Liturgy of the Word and Sacrament. The only way to
defeat superstition and magic is by some thing bigger than magic,
namely, the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of Holy
Baptism, Holy Absolution and the Holy Body and Blood of our Lord.

The Lutheran Church is a liturgical Church.23 The Lutheran Liturgy

is not a concatenation of randomly selected liturgical elements that can
be shuffled about like a deck of cards – nor are the various parts of the
Liturgy set immovably in cement. There is, however, a logical order to the
many parts of the liturgy. Each part confesses, reflects, bestows Jesus
Christ to the worshippers in its unique way or permits the worshippers to
respond to the gifts given and received with immediate and appropriate
thanksgiving and praise. No part stands in isolation from the service as a
whole. Each part works and moves together toward the two chief points
of the divine service: (1) Hearing the Word of God and the very words of
the present Jesus Christ at the proclamation of the Holy Gospel. (2)
Communing with the present Christ through the reception of his body
and blood in the Lord’s Supper. The reason the Church gathers together
for the Liturgy each Sunday is because Jesus comes. Thus, the Lutheran
Church follows the historic liturgical ordo of Word and Sacrament as an
authentic, time-tested expression of pure doctrine. It does not replace it
or blend it with an Arminian, revival ordo of 1) praise music, 2)
preaching, and 3) conversion/altar call.

Lutheran Missions Use Lutheran Hymns

The use of so-called “praise songs” or “contemporary music” from

heterodox denominations and publishing houses is currently rampant
among Lutheran Churches. The common justification is that it is
necessary for the sake of evangelism and church growth. The “conditions
of membership” clearly stated in the Constitution of the Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod are simply ignored by many pastors and congregations.
Article VI states, “Exclusive use of doctrinally pure agenda, hymnbooks
and catechisms in church and school.”24

Kantor Richard Resch has offered the following succinct definition

of the Lutheran Hymn: “The Lutheran Hymn is a sung confession of the
faith.” To sing hymns whose content and music represent a different
confession is counterproductive to establishing and maintaining a

11 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

Lutheran Church. In fact, it leads to division not unity. Lutheran pastors

who solemnly promise to perform the duties of their office in accordance
with the Lutheran Confessions should take seriously the wisdom
expressed in the Augsburg Confession (Article XV, “Human Traditions”),
“We gladly keep the old traditions set up in the church because they are
useful and promote tranquillity...”

The Lutheran Church is a liturgical church. Therefore, the Lutheran

Church sings liturgical hymns. “There must therefore be a relationship
between the hymn and the liturgy. The hymns ought to have the same
goal as the liturgy and the liturgy as the hymns.”25 Liturgical hymns are
part of the liturgy, not merely adjuncts to the liturgy, extra devotion
imported into the liturgy, or employed as support for the sermon.26 One
of the most important and challenging tasks in mission work is the
translation and composition of hymnody in the vernacular. It requires
people who are skilled linguists, trained musicians and competent in
biblical and dogmatic theology. For a hymn to qualify as genuinely
Lutheran and liturgical, it must meet at least some of the following
standards.27

1. The liturgical hymn should be Trinitarian.

2. The liturgical hymn should be Christological or
Christocentric.
3. The liturgical hymn should be Sacramental. This is not to say
that all liturgical hymns have to be “communion hymns.” However . .
. all hymns used with the liturgy ought to have an
ultimate relation to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
4. Liturgical hymns should be clearly dominated by their texts,
not their tunes.
5. The liturgical hymn ought to be objective. Its content must
not comprise an excessively subjective analysis of personal
experience.
6. The liturgical hymn should have a due regard for the church
year.

I have a stack of bulletins from LCMS congregations who

incorporate praise songs into their so-called contemporary and blended
services. The song, “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever,”28 was part of the
opening praise song medley at a Missouri Synod congregation.

Over the mountains and the sea

Your river runs with love for me,
And I will open up my heart,
And let the Healer set me free.
I’m happy to be in the truth,
And I will daily lift my hands,
For I will always sing of when Your love came down.

Chorus
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,

12 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

I could sing of Your love forever.

Repeat Entire Song

Oh, I feel like dancing, it’s foolishness I know;

But when the world has seen the light,
They will dance with joy like we’re dancing now.
Repeat Chorus

This hymn meets none of the standards for a genuine Lutheran

hymn. There is no mention of the Trinity or of Christ. A Deist, Buddhist,
or New Ager could sing this hymn. It is certainly not sacramental in any
sense. The song has absolutely no connection to the appointed Scripture
readings for The 11th Sunday after Pentecost (which were included in the
bulletin). Its focus is subjective not objective. Even though it refers to
God’s love, the emphasis is on what I am doing and feeling. “I will open
up my heart.” “I will daily lift my hands.” “I will always sing.” “I could
sing.” “I feel like dancing.” I do not know the tune, but I suspect the tune
drives the words rather than the words drive the tune.

Liturgical hymns confess Christ and the Gospel within the changing
variety of the Church year and different parts of the liturgy. By singing
hymns, the congregation confesses, teaches and preaches to one another.
Thus the words and content of hymns are important – extremely
important! Personal views, interpretations, feelings and musical
preferences are not important. A proper Lutheran hymn is a shared
confession, a biblical confession and a united response of praise and
thanksgiving to common gifts received. Hymn writer Stephen Starke’s
observation is priceless: “There are Lutheran pastors who would never
permit a Baptist pastor to preach a sermon in their pulpit, but see no
problem in regularly putting the words of Baptist hymns into the mouths
of their people.”

A similar observation was expressed by Rev. Saulius Jouzaitis

concerning the reemergence of the Lithuanian Lutheran Church from
under Soviet Communism. “It doesn’t matter that much what tunes and
words people prefer listening to in the secular music, but we must be
concerned about what is sung in the Church. If we are concerned about
the Lutheran Confessions and desire to build a Church with a true
Lutheran identity, we must be concerned about the hymns and liturgy.
These are the outward faces of the Church. Church members and visitors
will seldom, if ever, read the Lutheran Confessions, but they will hear and
sing the Liturgy and hymns.” The reason we are concerned about the
Lutheran Confessions, Lutheran identity, and that Lutheran missions lead
to Lutheran churches, is because we are concerned about the Gospel.

Wilhelm Löhe (1808-1872) in Drei Bücher von der Kirche (Three

Books on the Church) appealed for liturgical recovery in the church as a
defense of doctrine. He wrote: “The true faith is expressed not only in the
sermon but is also prayed in the prayers and sung in the hymns. In this
way the liturgy will serve the church as a new defense against its
enemies.” Both in the 19th century and today in the 21st century, many
Lutheran Churches have lost their familiarity with their own historical

13 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

forms of worship — these forms must be retrieved. What Löhe had to say
to Lutheran Churches in the 19th century is still salutary for Lutherans
today: “A habit must be developed again, and what has become unnatural
must become natural through practice.”29 I teach Lutheran Worship at
the Seminary. This year I asked the class how many come from
congregations that use Lutheran Worship or TLH. There were two men
who have never used any hymnbook in their Lutheran congregations.

In an article titled, “Sacramental Hymnody in American Lutheran

Hymnals During the Nineteenth Century,” Peter C. Cage begins with a
thought provoking quotation: “If all our records were destroyed, from our
hymnals alone the future historian might learn, at least approximately,
the religious, intellectual, and doctrinal history of our Church.”30

In Matthew 28:19-29, our Lord commanded, “Go therefore and

make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . and teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to
the close of the age.” Baptizing and teaching, catechism and baptizing
lead to the Lord’s Supper and therefore to the Liturgy where the Lord is
present to the end of the age. The teaching never ends. In the liturgy the
teaching continues for life. Lex orandi, lex credendi.

The Lutheran fathers knew well that the liturgy teaches the laity.
They stated in the Augsburg Confession, Art. 24, “The Mass,” “After all,
the chief Purpose of all ceremony is to teach the people what they need to
know about Christ.”31 The liturgical church year and lectionary orders
the instruction in such a way that it is centered on Christ — His person
and saving deeds. In the liturgy one not only learns historical facts about
a person named Jesus Christ, one learns from Jesus. The lectionary
assures that the entire counsel of God is proclaimed. The Church Year
and lectionary prevents the pastor from always preaching on his pet
topics and personal agenda. Instead, the pastor preaches a lot of Jesus
into the people. You want people to have a bigger faith? Give them a
bigger Jesus. You want people to have more faith? Give them more Jesus.

Instruction takes place on many levels in the liturgy. Through

hymns, psalms, canticles, chant, readings, prayers, and sermon. It is
something other than mere lecture or classroom lesson. It is one thing to
give a lecture on the importance of showing respect to God. It is quite
another to bow, or to kneel for confession, prayer and the reception of the
Lord’s body and blood. Thus the Augsburg Confession, Art. 24, “The
Mass” states:

Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass.

Actually, the Mass is retained among us and is celebrated with
the greatest reverence (summa reverentia celebratur). (Latin)32

The Apology, Article 24, adds:

In our churches Mass is celebrated every Sunday and on

other festivals, when the sacrament is offered to those who wish
for it after they have been examined and absolved. We keep
traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of lessons,

14 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

prayers, vestments etc.33

It is not enough to simply celebrate the Lord’s Supper every

Sunday.34 It must be celebrated in a way that fully expresses, teaches
and extols the rich theology of the real presence. Several years ago I
attended a LCMS mission congregation that proudly celebrated the
Lord’s Supper every Sunday . But in order to attract the unchurched, they
discarded the historic liturgy in favor of a so-called informal, user-friendly
contemporary service. Non-Lutheran praise songs led by praise bands
replaced the organ. The texts and music were emotive and subjective.
The sermon was modeled after the style of TV talk show hosts. The pastor
causally walked about the room, informally engaging the congregation,
avoiding the theological language of the church and punctuating his
discourse with personal stories, illustrations and jokes. The Service of
Holy Communion was slashed to include only the Lord’s Prayer and
Verba. There was no Sursum Corda, no Preface, no Sanctus, no Agnus
Dei, no vestments, and no chalice. Sacramental hymnody was replaced
with sentimental background music which set an emotional spiritual
mood more fitting a church which confesses only a spiritual presence.
The service met the felt-needs of the people but failed to teach and foster
reverence fitting an encounter with the living God, where even the angels
cover their faces in reverence.35

Similarly, I am completely baffled at “conservative” pastors who

believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, the six day creation, literal
interpretation of the Jonah narrative, oppose the ordination of women,
practice closed communion and yet see no problem with hiring a polka
band to accompany a Sunday morning Polka Service which includes the
Lord’s Supper. I am utterly nonplused that they fail to see the crass
irreverence in singing the Sanctus to “Roll Out the Barrels.” But, they
insist, it “gets people into church.” Do these men really believe the
Lutheran Confessions to which they subscribed faithfulness in their
ordination vows? “The Mass is retained among us and is celebrated with
the greatest reverence.” Can a Lutheran pastor presiding over a polka
mass make such a claim?

The decision expressed in the Augsburg Confession, Art. 24, to

retain the historic liturgy (purified of medieval abuses, in particular the
sacrifice of the Mass) along with its ceremony and vestment and
conducted with even greater devotion and the greatest reverence was
made for theological reasons.36 One does not choose to join a liturgical
church, become a liturgical church, or remain a liturgical church on the
basis of personal preference or taste, nor on the preference, taste,
demands, requirements and felt needs of unbelievers and “unchurched.”
Lutheran missions lead to Lutheran churches. Lutheran churches are
liturgical churches for theological reasons. Doctrine and practice can not
be separated. Lutheran practice reflects, teaches, confesses and lives out
Lutheran doctrine. This was true in Wittenberg in the 16th century and it
remains true today, whether in a suburban mission congregation in the
United States, a mission congregation in Siberia, a congregation in urban
Nairobi, or a village congregation in the hill country of Sri Lanka.
Lutheran missions must lead to Lutheran Churches with Lutheran
pastors, Lutheran Preaching and Lutheran Liturgy.37

15 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

ENDNOTES
1. Articles IV & V of the Augsburg Confession is one of the best
mission statements ever produced

2. The Book of Concord, ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia:

Fortress Press, 1959) 30.

3. Ibid., 31.

4. Thomas H. Schattauer, “Liturgical Assembly as Locus of

Mission,” in Inside Out: Worship in an Age of Mission (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1999) 3.
5. Logia Books, 16205 Fifth Avenue North, Plymouth, MN 55447.

6. Martin Luther, “Receiving Both Kinds in the Sacrament,” AE

36:259.

7. Die Deutsche Evangelische-Luthensche Synode von Missouri,

Ohio und andern Staaten. The name was changcd to “The Evangelical
Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Others States” (Die
FvangelischeLuthererische Synode von Missouri, Ohio undandern
Stauten) in 1917.

8. In 1790, 94% of the American population lived within the original

thirteen colonies. By 1820, one-fourth had migrated west outside the
former colonies.

9. Ellen Jane Lorenz, Glory Hallelujah! The Story of the

Campmeeting Spiritual, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1980), 27.

10. James Sallee, A History of Evangelistic Hymnody, (Grand

Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978) 30-31.

11. Donald P. Hustad, Jubilate! Church Music in the Evangelical

Tradition, (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Company, 1946) 128.

12. MPW2 56; by Brian Doerksen; © 1998 Vineyard Songs; CCLI

#874857.

13. Lorenz, 27.

14. Williarn J. Reynolds and Milburn Price, A Joyful Sound’:

Christian Hymnody, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978)

15. Hustad, 128

16. Charles Grandison Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion,

William G. McLoughlin, ed., (Cambridge: Havard University Press, 1960)

16 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

250.

17. Gordon W. Lathrop, “New Pentecost or Joseph’s Britches?

Reflections on the History and Meaning of the Worship Ordo in the
Megachurches,” Worship, (Vol.72, No.6, Nov.1998) 530.

18. Lathrop, 531.

19. Lawrence R. Rast, Jr., “The Doctrine of Justification in American

Lutheranism,” in 2001: A Justification Odyssey, (St. Louis: The Luther
Academy, 2002), 48.

20. Rhoda Schuler, “Worship among American Lutherans: A House

Divided,” in Studia Liturgica, (Vol.25, No.2, 1995) l76-77 Concerning
“moralistic” Schuler observes, “No other period of American history
boasts the creation of as many societies for moral improvment as the
nineteenth century.”

21. See the articles by Gordon Lathrop and Rhoda Schuler for a
detailed analysis of the structure of contemporary worship at Willow
Creek and Community Church of Joy and their similarities to the
“Frontier Tradition.”

22. Concordia Theological Quarterly (Vol. 66, No.3, July 2002)

271-72.

23. AC 15:1, “Church Usages.” “With regard to church usages that

have been established by men, it is taught among us that those usages
are to be observed which may be observed without sin and which
contribute to peace and good order, among them being certain holy days,
festival, and the like.” Tappert, p.36. See also Apology 15:38 “Human
Traditions,” “We gladly keep the old traditions set up in the church
because they are useful and promote tranquillity, and we interpret them
in an evangelical way, excluding the opinion which holds that they
justify.” Tappert220. See Also Ap. 15:20-21.

24. Article VI,4. Page 8.

25. Harold W. Schiebert, The Hymn and the Liturgy,” in Concordia

Theological Monthly (Vol. XXIX, No. 5, May 1958) 321.

26. Schiebert, 331.

27. Scheibert. Numbers 1,3,4,5,& 6 are adapted from Scheibert’s

article, “The Hymn and the Liturgy.”

28. MPW2 #63; by Martin Smith; © Curious? Music UK; CCLI

#874857

29. Quotes from Frank Senn, Christian Worship, 580.

30. Concordia Theological Quartedy, (Vol.66, No.3, July 2002)195.

Cage is quoting from A. J. Weddell, Evangelical Review 17 (April 1866)

17 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

211.

31. Tappert 56:3.

32. Tappert 56;1.

33. Tappert 249:1.

34. “A church that does not continually gather around the Supper
must undergo secularization. It must irreversibly turn into a piece of the
world, because the Supper establishes the boundary between church and
world. The destruction of the Supper is followed by the disappearance of
the living remembrance of Jesus from the hearts of Christians, especially
of his suffering and death.” Sasse, 420.

35. Sixty-five years ago Hermann Sasse wrote a warning that is

amazingly applicable to conditions in the Lutheran Church today. “A
warning is in order for anyone who undervalues and disdains the special
blessing of the Sacrament of the Altar: Let him beware lest he lose the
Sacrament altogether and along with the Sacrament the Word also! How
often have people imagined themselves to be gathered in Jesus’
name,when in fact they were only gathered in their own! How often have
they believed themselves able to subject the presence of Christ to sense
perception – we can only accept this claim on trust – when in fact they
have merely imagined this presence! How often have people believed
themselves to have experience the communion of saints when what they
experienced was not the communion of the Holy Spirit but just a
communion of the pious flesh! Hymns such as Zinzendorf’s Herz und
Herz vereint zusammen (“Heart and heart made one together”) have
never been sung with greater ardor than in the worst sects known to
church history.

Just as the Holy Spirit is not an object of our psychological

experience but is only knowable by faith, and just as the church is not an
“article of sight” (Sehartikel), but rather an article of faith
(Glaubensartikel), so likewise the communion of saints can only be
believed. It is a state of affairs within the church that is inaccessible to all
psychological experience and to all sociological perception. We would not
know anything of it if God’s Word did not tell us that it exists.” “Church
and Lord’s Supper: An Essay on the Understanding of the Sacrament of
the Altar,”1938, The Lonely Way (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
2001) 398-99.

36. The decision flows out of and is the reasoned, logical result of
articles 1-23. Particularly important in forming this view are Articles 4 &
5, “Justification” and “The Office of the Ministry [of the Gospel and
Sacraments],” Article 7, “The Church,” Article 10, “Lord’s Supper,”
Article 14, “Order in the Church,” Article 15, “Ecclesiastical Rites,”
Article 20, “Faith and Good Works,” Article 21, “The Cult of Saints,” and
Article 22, “Both Kinds in the Sacrament.”

37. Sasse, 429. The Sacrament can be rightly administered only

where the Gospel is purely taught, and the proclamation of the Gospel

18 de 19 04/10/07 18:58
Sermons and Papers [Link]

can remain pure only where Christ’s Sacrament is rightly celebrated. Just
as continued celebration of the Sacrament keeps the church’s
proclamation from ending up as mere dogmatic theology, so likewise
constant care for pure doctrine must protect the celebration of the
Sacrament from sinking into cultic mysticism and magic. Word and
Sacrament, Gospel and Lord’s Supper belong indissolubly together,
because Christ the Lord is present in them and through them builds his
church on earth in divine omnipotence and love. This he does neither
through the Word alone, nor through the Sacraments alone, but through
them both together.>

Back to Sermons and Papers

Confessional Lutheran Main Page | Calendar of Upcoming Events

Sign our Guestbook | Related Links

19 de 19 04/10/07 18:58