The Real Way to Unity in the LCMS
In February 2025, then-Texas District President Michael Newman laid out his blueprint to “The Way to Unity in the LCMS.” I had previously responded to his piece here. But it popped up again in my feed, and I had some further thoughts on it. His solution involves Article 7 and Formula 10 (cherry picked), while ignoring Article 24. It involves reducing the treasure of the Divine Service to snotty comments about candles and cassocks. And this from the DP who was in charge when Concordia Texas led the way to “unity” in his district. I’m not so sure he is the best guy to be lecturing us about unity. Especially given this recent revelation. Really?
We had a lot of unity when we didn’t collectively ignore Article 24, when we didn’t have congregations having Sunday morning variety shows, rebaptisms, lay consecrations, and unvested pastors strutting around like late night TV furniture salesmen on a stage bereft of altar, font, and pulpit.
President Newman says: “It’s time for a groundswell of what truly unites us.” I agree. And we saw in our recent convention that a solid majority of us are quite united. We are united in that we want a synod comprised of churches that are serious about the Gospel and the Sacraments, not purveyors of clown-shows that ape the latest fads among non-sacramental megachurches. “For the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments.” And that’s what the Divine Service is: it is the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. So when the former president mocks the Divine Service as being about candles and vestments, it only shows that he doesn’t get it at all. He is only looking at the externals. He doesn’t seem to have the blick. And he most certainly doesn’t understand us. He just wants us to shut up and accept whatever goes on in LCMS congregations, no matter how disunited they are from the rest of us. As his fellow former Texas DP put it: we liturgical types are the speedbumps. Well, maybe we’re kind of fed up with being driven over.
The reason that “We do not abolish the Mass” isn’t because we think candles are romantic or that vestments look nice. Our forbears retained the liturgy and its ceremonies precisely because “it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.”
Candles are not necessary. Neither are vestments. Neither is an altar. I just celebrated Mass today with none of those things - although I wore the little ribbon stole from my communion kit. But what I did have was the Mass. And it is enough for my parishioner in the hospital. I didn’t strut around and tell jokes. I invoked the Most Holy Trinity and made the sign of the cross. I didn’t show up dressed like I was going to the zoo. I celebrated the Mass in her hospital room. I read the Word of God with reverence. I preached the Gospel with serious joy. I followed the Mass that she knows by heart. I chanted the verba. I did not rush through it like an auctioneer or mindlessly mumble the words. By means of those words of Christ, Christ became miraculously present for us. I genuflected before the Divine Presence. We reverently ate the body of Christ and drank His blood out of a simple, but dignified chalice. We sang the Agnus Dei. We sang the Nunc Dimittis. Satis est: It is enough. For in this Divine Service that we have retained, we do indeed agree about the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
And yes, our rites don’t have to be exactly the same. Unlike my usual practice in celebrating the parochial Mass every Sunday and Wednesday, I spoke an ex corde collect and spoke the post-communion collect (instead of chanting them). We have the freedom for such variation - even differing from ourselves at different times and places. But the overall Mass was the same, dare I say it, it was united with what Christians have done for millennia, Lutherans have done for centuries, and we in the LCMS have been doing since the mid 19th century. Our unity transcends the LCMS, and extends back to the apostles themselves.
And while the former president does the usual omission of Augsburg Confession Article 24 in his confessional argument and apology for CoWo, that too is part of the confessions that are supposed to unite us:
[1] Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence. [2] Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, except that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns. These have been added to teach the people. [3] For ceremonies are needed for this reason alone, that the uneducated be taught ‹what they need to know about Christ›. [4] Not only has Paul commanded that a language understood by the people be used in church (1 Corinthians 14:2, 9), but human law has also commanded it. [5] All those able to do so partake of the Sacrament together. This also increases the reverence and devotion of public worship. [6] No one is admitted to the Sacrament without first being examined. [7] The people are also advised about the dignity and use of the Sacrament, about how it brings great consolation to anxious consciences, so that they too may learn to believe God and to expect and ask from Him all that is good. [8] This worship pleases God [Colossians 1:9–10]. Such use of the Sacrament nourishes true devotion toward God. [9] Therefore, it does not appear that the Mass is more devoutly celebrated among our adversaries than among us.
For it is a lie when our Roman Catholic opponents say that we have abolished the Mass. Or is it? Well, it’s a lie if it is said about me and my congregation. Sadly, not every LCMS pastor of every LCMS congregation could stand and publicly read Article 24 to his congregation with a straight face like I can. Better to just not mention it at all, I suppose. We worship liturgically according to the Mass that we have received because it “pleases God” and “nourishes true devotion toward God” (AC 24:8). Satis est indeed! And I can actually say this even about the simple Mass that I celebrated in the hospital: “It does not appear that the Mass is more devoutly celebrated among our adversaries than among us” (AC 24:9).
Look at those words from our confessions that unite us: Reverence. Devotion. Dignity. Devoutly.
We are devout because we actually believe this stuff. We can do without candles and vestments when they would become cumbersome - such as in a hospital. But we cannot do without the Mass. The candles and vestments are enhancements that point to our confession that something greater than ourselves is present. And it was God Himself who instituted the use of vestments for ministers who are presiding in the Divine Presence. That is not a manmade tradition. That is of divine design. Our neo-evangelical and non-denominational brethren don’t believe in the Real Presence in the New Testament church. That’s why they don’t vest. If they did, I believe that they would. They are devout. But they don’t confess the sacramental Presence. That’s why they don’t genuflect. That’s why they don’t elevate. That’s why they don’t ring bells. That’s why they don’t receive the Supper on their knees. Those things make no sense to those who do not confess the Real Presence. And to us who do, none of those things are necessary, but all of those things are salutary because they confess the Real Presence, and they enhance the unity of our confession. And that is why the Lutheran reformers were unified in retaining the Mass and its attendant ceremonies.
The ordinary and normal use of vestments, the celebration of Mass at an altar, and preaching from a pulpit all point to the dignity, reverence, and seriousness of our confession. For here’s another part of our confessions that unite us that the former president omitted, which comes from the Augsburg Confession: "A Review of the Various Abuses That Have Been Corrected":
It can easily be judged that if the churches observed ceremonies correctly [si ceremoniae rite fiant in ecclesiis], their dignity would be maintained and reverence and piety would increase among the people.
There is no one right way to “observe ceremonies,” but they can indeed be observed “correctly” [Latin: rite, literally “according to the rite”]. And this also means that they can be observed incorrectly. So there are wrong ways - and those wrong ways impede, not enhance, our unity. The correct way to carry out ceremonies involves the words dignity, reverence, and piety. And that all grows out of that which separates us from our non-denominational brethren in both Gospel and Sacraments, i.e. our sacramental imagination.
And another confession omitted by the former president, Apology 24:
At the outset, we must again make this preliminary statement: we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously keep and defend it. Masses are celebrated among us every Lord’s Day and on the other festivals. 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 such things.
And Formula 10 isn’t a free-for-all, as I wrote about here:
And to throw a wrench into the whole works, the darling passage from the Book of Concord that the anti-liturgical faction of the LCMS likes to point to, FC SD 10, actually does put an asterisk on the definition of adiaphoron: “When there are useless, foolish displays [Latin: inutiles nugas et puerilia spectacula, German: unnütze, närrische Spektakel [Schauspiele]] that are not profitable for good order, Christian discipline, or evangelical practice in the Church, these also are not genuine adiaphora, or matters of indifference” (FC SD 10:7).
For that is another part of our confession that the former president didn’t really want to talk about.
The kind of unity President Newman is encouraging is a group decision to just look the other way and collectively pretend that the naked emperor is clad. It almost worked for the crooked tailors in the tale who promoted a unity based on a convenient and collectively agreed upon falsehood. As pragmatic as the false unity was, it came crashing down when the townspeople came to grips with the reality that they had been bamboolzed.
Maybe the real way to unity in the LCMS is to embrace all of our confessions, and look once more to the time when we didn’t have liturgical chaos: everyone doing what is right in his own eyes, turning our worship services into spectacles (Spektakel, Schauspiele), and abolishing the Mass.
Unity is achievable to those who truly desire it.