Church Hunters
Here are a couple videos spoofing the TV “reality” shows that feature people looking for a house. Only these folks are looking for a church.
But like most comedy, the real life version isn’t so funny.
Twenty-five years ago, my wife and I were in a similar boat as this couple. Only we were traditional, liturgical Missouri Synod Lutherans in a large Southern metropolitan area. We later learned that this district was in open rebellion against the synod’s statements on closed communion, and awash with Seminexer wannabes who should have left back in the 1970s. Just finding a church that did the liturgy at all was hard enough. We “shopped” ten or twelve LCMS congregations. Sadly, we found a lot of the same stuff as the couple in these spoofs.
It was awful.
We had an LCMS congregation a mere 20 minutes from where we lived, but ended up driving about an hour to the one we ended up joining. We did not want to be entertained. We did not want lounge music, skits, and infrequent but open communion. We did not want the focus of Sunday morning to be a sense of hipness. We did not want contemporary worship, children’s sermons, lay readers (male and female) , and a jokey pastor cutting up during the distribution, one who was afraid to be authentically Lutheran. We did not want to attend a church whose piety and confession betrayed a Reformed or Methodist or Nondenominational underpinning, explicitly or implicitly.
We simply wanted a church that actually believed, taught, confessed - and practiced - what drew me into the Lutheran tradition in the first place: the Augsburg Confession. We wanted reverence for the Word and Sacraments. We wanted actual preaching, not the shucking and jiving and a goofy pastor desperate for attention and acceptance from the world. We wanted the very liturgy that we claim (in our church constitutions and in our ordination vows) is constituent to our confession:
“Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught [what they need to know of Christ]. And not only has Paul commanded to use in the church a language understood by the people 1 Cor. 14:2-9, but it has also been so ordained by man’s law. The people are accustomed to partake of the Sacrament together, if any be fit for it, and this also increases the reverence and devotion of public worship. For none are admitted except they be first examined. The people are also advised concerning the dignity and use of the Sacrament, how great consolation it brings anxious consciences, that they may learn to believe God, and to expect and ask of Him all that is good. [In this connection they are also instructed regarding other and false teachings on the Sacrament.] This worship pleases God; such use of the Sacrament nourishes true devotion toward God. It does not, therefore, appear that the Mass is more devoutly celebrated among our adversaries than among us.”
“Now, forasmuch as the Mass is such a giving of the Sacrament, we hold one communion every holy-day, and, if any desire the Sacrament, also on other days, when it is given to such as ask for it. And this custom is not new in the Church; for the Fathers before Gregory make no mention of any private Mass, but of the common Mass [the Communion] they speak very much. Chrysostom says that the priest stands daily at the altar, inviting some to the Communion and keeping back others. And it appears from the ancient Canons that some one celebrated the Mass from whom all the other presbyters and deacons received the body of he Lord; for thus the words of the Nicene Canon say: Let the deacons, according to their order, receive the Holy Communion after the presbyters, from the bishop or from a presbyter.”
And this from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession:
“At the outset we must again make the preliminary statement that we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend it. For among us masses are celebrated every Lord’s Day and on the other festivals, in which the Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things.”
And now, 25 years after my own sojourn in the wilderness, I am a pastor who has been serving for almost 20 years, and work with Gottesdienst. I often receive communications from faithful Lutherans - most (but not all of them) of them young. They are frustrated that they can’t find an authentically Lutheran church near them. Like the words of the ancient hymn, they are surrounded by clowns to the left of them, and jokers to the right. If they’re lucky, they’ll find a church where the pastor at least wears vestments, where at least the congregation sings its part while the pastor speaks his, where often there are such goofy rituals as bringing the kids down for a few you-know-whats and giggles while the pastor splays himself awkwardly on the floor in front of the holy altar. The liturgy might make up some new and unfamiliar words, or omit other things. You might only get the Sacrament of the Altar twice a month, and your Roman Catholic or Methodist neighbors may be kneeling next to you and receiving the Sacrament. And the pastor’s sermon may well be full of jokes and secular illustrations. He might even wear an NFL or college football “vestment” into the pulpit for a few chuckles.
And these may well be the good, confessional, and liturgical options. The non-liturgical options are even worse. Lord, have mercy!
The good news is that young Lutherans are often willing to relocate, as the job market these days often allows people to work from home. Church is important to them, and they will go to where the pastor could read portions of Article 24 from the pulpit and the people would nod in agreement and recognize that this is what their congregation does. They will do whatever it takes to find a congregation that uses the hymnal. They yearn for the pure meat of the Gospel instead of the saccharine Kool-Aid of lukewarm American Niceanity. And speaking of Kool-Aid, they don’t want a church that serves grape juice masquerading as the blood of Christ.
Certainly, there are churches in transition, where the pastor is working toward authentic Lutheran practice. And this takes patience. But it also takes faithful lay people to model reverence in worship, to live the liturgical life both inside and outside the walls of the church, both on Sunday and during the week. Pastors who are truly trying to abolish un-Lutheran practices need their support and encouragement. And it helps when such laymen hold offices in the church, and push back against antagonists who do not want Lutheran authenticity. Talk about Article 24 and all that it implies in Bible class. Share articles and podcasts with people in the parish. A bulk subscription to Gottesdienst and making them available to members of the parish can bear fruit in the long run.
Deciding whether to stay and be an agent for change, or to leave and find another congregation, is a matter of discernment. It largely depends on whether the pastor and congregation are trying to change, or if they are happy where they are.
In the print edition of Gottesdienst, there is a column called “From the Wilderness” that shares the outcry of people who desire authentic Lutheran worship, but find themselves awash in something alien. We encourage those who are wandering in the desert not to give up, to support pastors who are moving the congregation in the right direction, to defend authentic Lutheran practice against those who may be hostile, and if need be, to be willing to sacrifice time and gasoline to find a parish that takes our confessions seriously.
And pastors, if you are in the desert, like Moses, and the people whom God has called you to lead are grumbling, we encourage you too. Reach out to faithful, liturgical pastors for advice and counsel. Pray and study and serve. Your work is not in vain. You too have to decide whether to stay and continue to bring manna to the people in the wilderness, or shake the dust off of your feet. This too requires discernment.
For too long, faithful pastors and faithful laity have been severed from one another. Let us work together for the sake of the kingdom - which is not a show and not a joke. Rather it is everlasting life. That is indeed worth contending for.
Non abolere missam, sed religiose retinere ac defendere. Amen.