How do we help the Worship Challenged?

Jesus tells us "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  

My spirit is poor when I worship in ELCA churches that do half-assed worship and cut out half of the service and think it's good. I walk away angry and hungry to be fed.  My church, for instance, has a husband-wife team of pastors who are dynamic and interesting, but are worship challenged. (I am not a fan of couples working together as co-pastors in churches. It is taboo in the corporate world and in academic settings, and should be in churches.)

The worship board of celebration, (bored of celebration, if you ask me) decided on using Evangelical Lutheran Worship Setting 8, after I coaxed them. Its one of the popular settings of liturgy in the ELCA, with it's bright, uplifting, cheery, fun music to sing, which shines on a electronic keyboard or piano.  It's not made for use on an organ.  This setting is the mountain peak of good, contemporary Lutheran worship. We do it in Denver at my ELCA church with just a piano, and sometimes guitars added. It is a wonderful liturgy that uplifts people to the glory of God. The Kyrie, Hymn of praise (2 of them!), Alleluia, Sanctus, and  Lamb of God give you a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven at hand.  

I walked out of church in a foul mood when I went to church last Sunday to worship God with this new setting, and I became poor in spirit as a result. The Holy Communion was again the half-assed streamlined "get er done" version with this...

The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give God thanks and praise. In the night in which he was betrayed...

There is no pastoral preface here, and this is not theologically correct, as there is NO Thanksgiving after the last "let us give thanks to the Lord our God."  And there was no Sanctus to sing with the hosts of heaven, and the clouds of witnesses and angels. They just used the "Lamb of God" after the words of Institution. I don't know where pastors are getting this crap, but it is either coming down from the ELCA's ELW manual on worship, Higgins Road, or the local synod offices telling pastors they can do this garbage. 

Luther clearly stated in the Augsburg Confession "We do not abolish the mass!"  What part of this historic Lutheran confession don't pastors get when planning worship these days? Are our ELCA seminaries teaching pastors how to do half-assed worship? Are they just becoming too lazy to assemble a liturgy that is theologically sound?

Half of John Vlvisaker's "This is the Feast" was used. And, only Jay Beech's awesome "Lamb of God" from Setting 8 was sung. The rest of Setting 8 was missing, and only a contemporary offertory and some strange alleluia song was used- all played on the PIPE ORGAN!  Yuck. You couldn't even hear the high, uplifting bright tones in the music, because it is made for a keyboard, not organ. I love the organ, but not contemporary music on it, and I am a traditionalist!

Worst part, is several congregants who know I am on the "Board of Celebration" came up to me to complain about the service sounding like a "funeral dirge" or "depressing."   I agreed. 

Wrote the head pastor who assembled the service, but he responded avoiding the missing liturgy, and with excuses about the organist needing permission from the board to use the piano???  (I wrote back asking him if they were going to tell her how to cut her meat at dinner too- I hate committees, as they stifle talent.) He also said that the Alleluia was rejected by the board, that is why it was not used.  How could anybody not like that Alleluia? (They must have no musical taste.) He avoided the complaints about the service missing, but then wrote they were going to use the Kyrie maybe for Advent?  Hello?  

I don't think he or his wife have a concept of Lutheran liturgy. The last time they did any full form was my Mom's funeral service a year ago when I used Regina Fryxell's Setting 2 from the old Service Book and Hymnal!  I assembled Mom's funeral service in a pamphlet myself so they couldn't screw it up. 

Setting 8 is supposed to be uplifting, by using it, not half or parts of it with half-assed worship.One can add more things to it from contemporary sources.

Again, I wrote the pastors about poor worship practice and cutting the service out. Once, I remembered, I had a stern comment once from the pastor's wife, the other pastor, that she "thought the service was just fine the way it was."  She needs help, I thought.

This time I questioned both pastors about their seminary worship classes and if they were taught how to do a Lutheran service correctly. They went to Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, which I had some reservations about when I visited looking for a seminary, since they didn't seem so Lutheran anymore but just like the Jones' trying to be like everybody else. And, God forbid if you like being Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, Finlander, or Icelandic, because they want you to forget about that and be multi-ethnic!  (Being Scandinavian and the others, including Afro-American, Native American, and Spanish,  is being multi-ethnic, you dipheads!)

Why is worship so bad in some ELCA churches in this area of the country? 

I have found most of the Green Bay ELCA churches to have half-assed worship with most of the service missing, or other silly things going on. (One pastor announces each page and hymn we are to sing, even tho listed in the bulletin we can read with first grade educations. LOL)

The first point of contact people have with a congregation is the Sunday service, and for visitors for the first time, it can make or break their return trip to your church. When Lutheran worship is not done reverently, and poorly, many do not come back. If a church is unfriendly, that is another subject for another blog. 

I am supposed to be related to Martin Luther, and I carry his torch on good worship to teach others. I defend the liturgy and worship, as stated in the Augsburg Confession. I have tried the passive "maybe we could do it this way approach" with pastors with no luck.

Maybe being tough on them like Luther with a few choice words might make them wake up to their silly ways with Lutheran worship practice?

God does so much for us with his steadfast love, and everything he gives us, and we respond to him, his word and sacrament in church with half-assed worship! What is wrong with this picture?  Plenty!  God help us!

ELCA pastors cutting part of liturgy!

I have noticed recently while visiting many ELCA churches in the upper Midwest, the service is watered down and parts of the liturgy are missing. It is alarming to this Lutheran who was raised on four-part liturgy and hymns. The liturgy is just as sacred to our story as hymns are, and should not be cut out or skimped on. It is the journey through worship that we do in a singing, liturgical church using key biblical phrases, set to music. We inherited it from our Roman Catholic founders, who in turn inherited it from the worship styles taught by Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish rites found in the synogogues. I am sure Jesus didn't cut anything out when he was teaching, as he loved the sacred liturgy. Why are pastors cutting it out of our Lutheran services?

Posting the format here that my church in Denver uses might help some churches and clergy here in the Midwest or elsewhere. I love using a hymnal, but my church publishes a 10 page bulletin each Sunday –“killing trees for Jesus” I call it. We use a bulletin cover from Augsburg Fortress that has the cover art, and readings for that week on the back to follow along with. Most churches publishing use MS publisher, and this can be in 10 ft format or 12. Music is inserted from CD Rom. However, nothing gets cut, and we get everything that every ELCA Lutheran church should be doing if they are Lutheran – contemporary or traditional, even with the beauty of a hymnal in the pews. People are not stupid, but smart, have a first grade education, and can follow a liturgy without announcing the page we are on. Using a hymnal with a bulletin listing what is next helps their brains inquire and resolve and think instead of dumbing it down further. Both formats can be accomplished using the following.

Here goes to help you with our format that we found works in 26 steps:

1. Start with your confession first. Save announcements to just before the last hymn. (You might have a deacon or host do a quick welcome, but start the worship asap while people are prepared and have contemplated after the prelude music)

2. Start your opening hymn, do not skip stanzas, but sing them like you believe every word. Use bright, happy opening hymns, and not slow ones for openers, even during Lent.

3. Moving like clockwork, start your Kyrie, (even ELW Setting 8) and then go right into your Hymn of Praise/This is the Feast. Keep it at a good tempo.

4. Sit – start with the first and second lessons. (We skip the Psalms, as they take up time, and were not used until LBW came out) You might want to skip the second reading, and do a Psalm instead.

5. Gospel reading by the pastor.

6. Children’s sermon – make it geared toward kids, but not adults with entertainment or using kids for laughs. Puppet shows are really not appropriate, but sitting down with the kids on the steps and talking to them like Jesus could will get them to eat out of your hands.

7. Sermon – 10 -15 minutes (reassure people of God’s love, keep it organized – use the Gospel, don’t use the repeating word model, get the point across and move on)

8. Hymn of the Day is sung – all stanzas (Baptism is done here if needed- skip Creed, as it is in there already in that liturgy.) We use cardstock, in the size of the bulletin for the baptism liturgy, inserted and stored away.

9. Creed – Apostles or Nicene will work nicely.

10. Prayers of the Day – have them read by a lay person, even written by a lay person, with the response “hear our prayer.” Pastor does the last petition – “into your hands we commend our prayers, trusting in your mercy… etc. “

11. Sharing the Peace. ( we call it the intermission)

12. Offertory – have ushers move quickly. Sung solo or choir can sing here nicely.

13. Offertory song – use one of the versions of “Create In Me” “Let The Vineyards” or “Old 100th” Even using one the two beloved "Create in Me' versions from SBH can be fun and contemplative for babyboomers. Keep all songs to one stanza as written.

14. Offertory prayer.

15. Preface to Holy Communion – start immediately singing or saying

16. Pastor Preface – don’t skip or cheat, as this is a part of the ancient church preface from the Jewish faith – “It is our duty and our delight in all places etc.”

17. Sanctus – let the people sing the song of the angels. People need to hear and know the words “Hosanna in the highest!”

18. Words of Institution – sing or say them. You can use the music that Martin Luther used, to make a dent.

19. Another option in ELW is the old SBH communion prayer that is updated, and written by noted Lutheran scholar, Dr. Luther Reed. (i.e. “Holy are you and great is the majesty of your glory”

20. Lamb of God - sing it. (we have sometimes sung the ELW setting 8 version twice through because it is beautiful.)

21. Post-Communion canticle – use it as a close to Communion. One stanza. ELW has options of settings, or you can use ELW 201, which is updated from SBH Setting 2. “O Lord Now Let Your Servant” in ELW 313 one stanza works well too.

22. Benediction and Amen. A great version is the old version from Numbers: The Lord Bless you and keep you etc. It reaches people more than the Aaronic blessing “Almighty God, Father Son etc.” Sometimes insert the old Danish Amen from SBH to be sung, it moves people and helps them remember their confirmation, or wedding etc.

23. Now do the Announcements! (have people sit) Keep them brief; do not regurgitate the bulletin, which can be read by people with a first grade education. Have presentations like Thrivent or a fundraiser for earthquake victims here, but brief.

24. Stand and sing your last hymn, all stanzas.

25. Go in peace, serve the Lord! Thanks be to God!

26. Postlude


Some findings to reinforce what is above: Here are some of my observations:

I have noticed the Kyrie is sung, and then there is no Gloria or This is the Feast, and an offertory (Create In Me or other) is skipped as a sung response. Then, if there is Holy Communion, the Preface (i.e. The Lord be with you; and also with you etc ) is rushed through, going right to the Words of Institution, without a sung Sanctus or Preface sung by the pastor. Then a quickie Lamb of God is sung with no Post Communion canticle. Things may be rushed a bit by “drive thru communion” which is Intinction to get the line moving faster so there is no time to contemplate at a rail or kneel or receive a blessing when you need to pray while taking communion. I felt like I had been pushed through the drive thru at Burger King in most churches instead of communing. Are all these elements what the online worship source “Sundays and Seasons” suggests?

Is it because pastors are worried about space limitations in the bulletin and trying to get everything done in one hour? Did they not learn in seminary how it is done & flows with the Service Book & Hymnal, and Lutheran Book of Worship formats – then without the aid of desktop publishing for bulletins back then? The new Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal offers more, but a church can assemble a full service in a bulletin using it start to finish and not skimp. Even with the pew editions, one can do a service fully without cutting things out. My church does Holy Communion each week.

Hopefully this posting can help you in worship planning. Enjoy!

For more information see book "And Also With You" http://voiceoftherockies.com/m_19.asp?pro=171&c=25&pn=And+Also+With+You+%2D+a+look+at+today%27s+Lutheran+worship