Evangelical Lutheran Church In America

Ministries of social justice, pastoral care, and evangelism are all advanced by the liturgy itself in most Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregations. When conducted with authenticity, the liturgy provides for the proclamation of the gospel, for the comforting of the sorrowing, and for the addressing of social issues in light of God's Word. Full participation of women and the inclusion of children also signify that the liturgy itself is a symbol of the coming kingdom of God.

As a liturgically and sacramentally oriented church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has given considerable attention to the ways in which worship finds integration with other ministries of the church. Women's issues, outreach, social concerns, spiritual formation, education, children's ministries, and pastoral care are all areas which Lutheran worship has attempted to address in some way. Women's Issues and Worship Full participation of women in worship and ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is ensured by the fact that the church ordains women to the ministry of Word and sacrament. Official ELCA policy mandates the inclusion of women in every aspect of church life. A Commission on Women promotes and monitors this inclusion throughout the denomination. This commitment means that this church has chosen to express in its mission the eschatological ideal articulated by St. Paul in Galatians 3:28, rather than the culture-bound instructions he gives in 1 Corinthians 14:33b–35 (and which seem to contradict the assumption in 1 Corinthians 11 that women may pray and prophesy in public worship). Accordingly, women in the ELCA routinely serve in every liturgical role. Even traditional male roles, such as ushering, can include women; while traditional women's roles, such as the altar guild ministry, can include men. Nevertheless, the feminist critique has raised questions related to the content of worship itself, especially concerning the language used in public worship. When the Lutheran Book of Worship was published in 1978, there was already concern to avoid language which suggested that the male is the representative of the species and that the female is subordinate. Feminists would claim that this book did not go far enough. In addition to sins of commission, such as the predominance of masculine images and references, sins of omission, such as the paucity of references to female saints in prayers or of stories about women in the lectionary selections, also exist. Since no biblical translation was mandated by the Lutheran Book of Worship, ELCA congregations were free to experiment with such resources as the Inclusive Language Lectionary (National Council of Churches of Christ) and the Lectionary for the Christian People (Yukon, Oklahoma: Pueblo Publishing House, 1986) prepared by Lutheran scholars Gordon Lathrop and Gail Ramshaw. The advent of the New Revised Standard Bible has provided a mediating translation that is finding widespread use in ELCA congregations, especially through bulletin lectionary inserts published by the denomination's publishing house. More problematic has been language about God used in worship. While Lutheran ministers can be routinely heard to refer in modalistic terms to God the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, the bishops of the ELCA, in an exercise of teaching authority, have mandated that baptisms should be performed only in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. If the name of God revealed by Jesus can be protected, people may be open to have their understanding of God enlarged through edifying use of other titles and images found in Scripture and tradition. However, no matter how expansive the use of various titles and images of God, orthodox Christian prayer will continue to be addressed to God the Father, through Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord, in the Holy Spirit. Worship and Evangelism Typical Lutheran worship has been regarded as an obstacle to evangelism, if by evangelism one means an outreach to unchurched people with the gospel. Lutheran worship requires a knowledgeable use of a sophisticated worship book. The liturgy is typically sung throughout, which requires familiarity with liturgical chants and classical hymns. This corpus of liturgical and hymnological material, however, enshrines a witness to the catholic and apostolic faith. It is evangelistic in the sense of being an authentic proclamation of the gospel. Lutherans are aware of the fact that in some periods of church history, such as the age of the Enlightenment, liturgy alone proclaimed the gospel while preaching degenerated into rationalism and moralism. The loss of the historic liturgy, therefore, would be risky in terms of the mission of the gospel. Interest in the church growth movement poses just such a risk. The bedrock principle of this movement is that the Sunday morning worship experience should be tailored to the unchurched. In its extreme form, this has meant celebrational events—lacking Scripture readings, creeds, or even the Lord's Prayer—in which musical groups and drama capture people's attention and an upbeat message is given. In this format, requirements of overt participation are minimal. Those who show an interest in church membership are moved by stages into a liturgy of the faithful on some other evening. Relatively few ELCA congregations have opted for this approach. The positive effect of the church growth movement has been to raise the consciousness of congregations about their practices of hospitality to guests and strangers. Within the ELCA, literature designed to help congregations assess their practices of hospitality is being developed (see especially Gerald J. Hoffman, How Your Congregation Can Become a More Hospitable Community [1990]; Patrick Keifert, Welcoming the Stranger: A Public Theology of Worship and Evangelism [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991]). The other approach to moving the unchurched into the liturgy of the faithful by careful stages is through the catechumenal process embodied in the Christian initiation of adults. The Roman Catholic Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is a ritual process which is only beginning to make an impact on Roman Catholic and non–Roman Catholic Churches alike. The ELCA has cooperated with the Evangelism Office of the Episcopal Church in the USA on an adaptation of the Roman Catholic rite called The Catechumenal Process. Professor Walter Huffman (Trinity Seminary, Columbus, Ohio) has been preparing catechumenal rites for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Several joint Lutheran-Episcopal training sessions for catechists have taken place. (See also The Catechumenal Process: Adult Initiation and Formation for Christian Life and Ministry, ed. by E. P. McElligott [1990]; and Frank C. Senn, The Witness of the Worshipping Community [New York: Paulist Press, 1993].) The advantage of this catechumenal process for Lutherans is that it includes the preparation of adults for holy baptism, the preparation of baptized persons for the affirmation of baptism (restoration to membership), and the preparation of parents for the baptism of infants and young children, all during the initiatory seasons of Lent and Easter. This practices takes into account the pastoral reality of the actual candidates for Christian initiation in Lutheran parishes. Other Issues Worship and Social Concern. Social concern is expressed in three elements of Lutheran worship: in hymns, in sermons, and in prayers. In hymns, social concern is expressed by the singing of the "?church and society?" hymns. More of these hymns are in the Lutheran Book of Worship than in previous Lutheran hymnals. Sermons are an opportunity for preachers to explore the social consequences of Christian life and witness, as this unfolds in the lectionary readings. The prayers of the church (intercessions) routinely include petitions for "?the whole church, the nations, those in need, the parish, and special concerns.?" Synodical committees and churchwide departments occasionally send to parishes suggested prayer concerns and to pastors homiletical ideas concerning social issues. Rarely, however, would the regular liturgy of Word and sacrament be replaced by a "?creative liturgy?" which develops a "?theme?" and manipulates a "?response.?" Worship and Spiritual Formation. The liturgy itself is a school of spirituality. Much spiritual teaching on the parish level is geared toward a greater appreciation and understanding of the liturgy. Home devotions, especially during Advent and Lent, are related to these seasons of the church year. The church year is viewed as a way of reflecting on the life of Christ and life under God's reign. From time to time, attempts have been made to encourage a regular use of the morning and evening prayer offices (matins, vespers, compline) in parishes, retreat settings, and family devotions. The two-year lectionary and table of psalms in the Lutheran Book of Worship provides the propers for the prayer offices. Worship and Education. The historic liturgy itself has a certain educational value in the ways in which it uses Scripture and conveys Christian doctrine. At the same time, parish education in Lutheran congregations often relates to the liturgy, especially the church year calendar and lectionary. Church school curricula take into account the major festivals of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and the preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent. Some pastors use the Sunday pericopes (Scripture readings) as the texts for adult Bible study groups. In many locations, pastors gather in ecumenical groups to study the readings in the Common Lectionary. This is a practice that might be extended to ecumenical lay groups (see the Liturgical Conference's Passage to the Paschal Feast, Weeks of Lent: Year C [Washington, D.C., 1992]). Children and Worship. The trend in recent years in Lutheran congregations has been to integrate children into the liturgy, rather than to segregate them into a Sunday school or a children's church during the service. Children's homilies have been one approach (usually appreciated by the adults as well because they understand the point and find these homilies entertaining). One would expect Lutheran pastors to avoid moralism in children's homilies as much as in their sermons (that is, directives on "?what we should do?"). The most effective children's homilies are those that provide the children with instruction on the Scripture readings, the day's observance, the parts of the liturgy, symbols, or ritual actions. Children and youth also participate in worship by exercising liturgical roles as acolytes, members of children's or youth choirs, ushers, and offering bearers. Confirmed youth might also serve as assisting ministers to read lessons, lead intercessions, and administer Communion. Worship and Pastoral Care. The needs of worshipers are knowingly and unknowingly addressed by the reading and preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the sacraments. Some parishes make provision for personal needs to be explicitly included in the intercessions. One approach is to have a page in the narthex on which worshipers may write their prayer requests as they enter the sanctuary. In some smaller congregations, worshipers are invited to offer their own petitions and thanksgivings at the appropriate time in the prayers. Pastors may handle sensitive issues such as divorce in public announcements before the prayers. Pastoral counseling can lead to the use of the rite for "?individual confession and forgiveness?" in the Lutheran Book of Worship. Additional resources—such as rites for baptism in emergency, blessing of a civil marriage, celebration or distribution of Communion with people in special circumstances, laying on of hands and anointing of the sick, and commendation of the dying—are found in Occasional Services: A Companion to The Lutheran Book of Worship [1982].