Lutherans Discuss the Future of Worship

ORLANDO, Fla. (ELCA) -- "Worship is like a gas station where people get spiritually tanked up for the week," said Marty Haugen, a liturgical composer from Eagan, Minn. "Liturgy is about invitation and conversion."
Haugen spoke to more than 450 musicians, pastors, seminary professors and worship leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at "The Future of Worship: Exploring the Critical Issues" held here Nov. 18-20. The conference preceded "Alive in Christ: Equipping Congregations for Effective Ministry in the 21st Century" Nov. 20-22. Both events were organized by the ELCA's Division for Congregational Ministries.
Haugen discussed the role music plays in a worship celebration. "All people of God need to hear music. What do we sing? We sing the lectionary to celebrate the stories we are called to remember. We also sing our rites. Ritual music gives the congregation the ability to say, 'Amen,'" said Haugen. "Lutherans need to remember that to sing a hymn is a ritual act."
"Why do we sing? We sing to remember. The music leader serves to remind people who and whose they are. We sing to express things too deep for words. We sing because it connects our experience with other Christians from all over the world. Lutherans understand the rhythm of worship," he said.
Haugen added, "We need music that is theologically inspiring. Music is also about presentation and architecture. Lutherans must continue to grow, mentor and train those who will eventually lead the community."
The conference featured five plenary discussions. "The intent of the conference was to identify the critical issues facing ELCA worship and music resource production and develop goals for the next generation of work," said the Rev. Michael R. Rothaar, ELCA director for congregational studies and planning.
"What most of our people are engaged in is the hard and unglamourous work of being faithful. At the same time they are crafting worship that can communicate the gospel to the North American people in all of their cultural, ethnic, socioeconomic and generational diversity," said the Rev. Karen Ward, ELCA assistant director for worship.
"Almost 50 percent of the population of North America does not relate to the church and its worship. This provides us with a tremendous opportunity to reach out to the diverse people of this continent with the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ," she said.
Ward is a member of the Lutheran World Federation's Worship and Culture Study Team. The Lutheran World Federation is a communion of 124 member churches in 69 countries representing more than 57 million of the world's 61 million Lutherans.
"The Federation study has outlined four major categories or diagnostic lenses through which we can look at worship in relationship to culture. The categories are the transcultural, the contextual, the countercultural and the cross-cultural," said Ward.
"The transcultural components of our worship form the common ground that transcends the cultural realities of individual congregations and form the basis of the culture of the gospel under which all Christians stand.
"With a deep understanding of the values, patterns and institutions of a given culture one can then begin to contextualize the transcultural pattern of worship.
"Of the four lenses through which we look at our worship, the lens of counterculturality often requires specific attention, especially within North America," said Ward.
"The North America 'umbrella culture' characterized by individualism, market- driven consumerism and the preoccupation with entertainment, is being exported throughout the world. Because of the mass marketing of our culture throughout the globe, North Americans are susceptible to believing that our cultural 'umbrella' is beyond critique. Some of the values, patterns and institutions of any human culture are contrary to the values, patterns and institutions of the gospel and its expression in worship.
"True cross-cultural sharing is motivated by the desire to know and love Christian brothers and sisters from other cultures. We share in each other's cultures in worship as a means of embracing the people of that culture and of gaining new insights into the gospel," said Ward.
The Rev. Susan R. Briehl, executive director for Holden Village, a Lutheran center for renewal in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington state, led a discussion on language used in Lutheran liturgy.
"Words fail us. They are fragile and finite. But words are the tools we have," she said. "Sometimes we want to say so much that we do not take time for conjunctions and commas, or time to breathe."
"Our liturgy is not a museum artifact. Our words are not to be dusted and presented. We are inheritors of a living liturgy. In the best of times words have nourished and blessed people. In the worst of times, words have oppressed. During these times we need to be, like God, extravagant. Let our language reflect God's future," said Briehl.
"Overall, people who worship in our congregations feel that they have been lifted out of their everyday world and encountered that which is holy," said Rothaar. Rothaar led a discussion on "changes and priorities in 420 exemplary congregations of the ELCA."
"The 420 congregations were selected by ELCA bishops, worship leaders and staff from the ELCA's 65 synods when asked, 'Where would you send someone who wanted to experience the best in Lutheran worship?' These congregations have strong local reputations in their communities," said Rothaar.
"Forty-six percent of the congregations selected added music staff in order to expand the music program in worship," said Rothaar. "Forty-six percent reduced the age at which children may first receive Holy Communion, and 41 percent increased the frequency with which Holy Communion is celebrated."
The conference also featured work group sessions designed for participants to review production models for ELCA worship resources.
The Rev. Paul R. Nelson, ELCA director for worship, and the Rev. Frank W. Stoldt, editorial director for worship and educational materials for Augsburg Fortress, the publishing house of the ELCA, offered models of "processes which church bodies have used or are using to produce materials for worship." Participants evaluated each of the models in their work group sessions.

For information contact:
Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Director 1-773-380-2955 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html