LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 421

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OTHER PERTINENT DOCUMENTS 421

May our gracious God bless both the pastoral office and the
priesthood of all believers!

Traditional and Contemporary Worship

In the past few decades, numerous congregations of the LCMS
have introduced ‘“‘contemporary” worship forms and music in addi-
tion to and, in some instances, even in place of traditional liturgies
and hymnody. The conditions of membership in the Synod require
“Exclusive use of doctrinally pure agenda, hymnbooks, and cate-
chisms in church and school” (LCMS Constitution, Art. VI). This
presents a dilemma, since our Synod has not specifically stipulated
what these “doctrinally pure” contemporary worship resources for
use by our congregations and professional church workers must be.
The specific wording of our Constitution in this regard is:

The Synod, under Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, shall—

Encourage congregations to strive for uniformity in church practice,

but also to develop an appreciation of a variety of responsible prac-

tices and customs which are in harmony with our common profession of

faith. (LCMS Constitution, Art. [ff 7)

The result is that congregations search for and, in some cases,
implement worship resources that do not always measure up to our
common understanding of being “doctrinally pure.” At the same
time, some traditional worship resources, while considered “doc-
trinally pure,” are perceived by some as being “rote” or “routine,”
depriving some worshipers of a variety in worship they sincerely
desire and appreciate.

Many who read these words can perhaps identify with my own
experience, which includes attendance at “contemporary” worship
services that contain all the necessary ingredients of a truly
Lutheran service and some other services that miss the mark in that
regard. At the same time, some “traditional” worship services miss
a different mark in that while “doctrinally pure,” they fail to com-
municate Law and Gospel in understandable, meaningful ways to
worshipers whose concerns and burdens in life are quite different
from those of our forefathers.

Whether traditional or contemporary, worship services in con-
gregations of the LCMS must employ doctrinally pure resources
for the basic elements of distinctively Lutheran Christian worship.
Although neither the Order of Matins nor the Order of Vespers
(two of my favorites) in The Lutheran Hymnal includes a standard
invocation, confession, absolution or creed, those elements of wor-
ship, along with hymns or songs of praise, Scripture readings,
Christ-centered sermon or homily, prayer, and benediction are al-
ways appropriate and desired.

The bottom line is that the precise form of our worship in and of
itself is not a matter of divine mandate in which specific worship
forms are either commanded or forbidden by God. The proper uti-
lization of any form must always provide a proper setting for re-
ceiving the divine gifts of God and giving praise and glory to our
triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

May such God-pleasing worship flourish in the congregations
of our Synod!

Participation in Events or Services with Other
Christians or Non-Christians

The LCMS Constitution includes as requirements for member-
ship in the Synod: “renunciation of unionism and syncretism of
every description, such as serving congregations of mixed confes-
sion, as such, by ministers of the church; taking part in the services
and sacramental rites of heterodox congregations or of congrega-
tions of mixed confession; participating in heterodox tract and mis-
sionary activities” (LCMS Constitution, Art. VI).

The question of whether or when it is appropriate to participate
in an event or service at which non-LCMS participants are also
present, along with the general question of how we should relate
to people outside the LCMS, especially in the rapidly changing
world and country in which we live, continues to cause disagree-
ment and disharmony in our Synod. In The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod, this is nothing new. These questions have plagued
the Synod for years.

As indicated in a number of my communications to the Synod,
the synodical President who faced the conflict in the LCMS in the
1970s, Dr. J.A.O. Preus, said in his report to the 1981 convention
of the Synod:

We also have a whole series of overtures dealing in one way or another

with the subject of interchurch relations and unionism and separatism.

I have been in the ministry for over 35 years and have been involved in

discussions of unionism and related matters for all of these years. I have

hoped that during my years in office some greater clarity could be de-
veloped among us as to what really is unionism and what must be dealt
with in a disciplinary way, as over against things that might appear to
some to be a compromise of the Word of God but to others are not such
at ail and no intent at compromise is intended. I hope that the Synod
will try to develop rubrics and guidelines for a church of 3 million mem-
bers in the 1980s and 1990s, rather than always relying on definitions
which are a century old, which deal basically with a European situation
and are not particularly helpful for our modern time. I believe our
fathers were eminently sincere and totally correct in what they did, but

I think we have to rethink our own position on these matters so as to

make their position our own or so as to make their position something

that is workable and feasible and acceptable in our own midst. We can
all agree that we want to avoid a total separatism on the one hand and

a wild irresponsible ecumenism on the other. The difficulty is to find a

middle path which will avoid both of these extremes and which can

work in all situations in our church. (Dr. Jacob A. O. Preus, President’s

Address, 1981 LCMS Convention Proceedings, pp. 65-66).

Frankly, my brothers and sisters in Christ, I couldn’t agree
more. Those words could very well be my own, except that I have
been in the ministry for only 34 years (now 37 years), not 35. The
matters of interchurch relations, unionism, separatism, syncretism,
participating in events or services involving non-LCMS partici-
pants, etc., cry out for biblically based resolution among us.

2007 Convention Workbook