A pair of responders followed Tuesday’s first presentation of the day, “Missional and Vocational (One Approach),”: Paul Grime and Steve Arnold. Grime agreed with Pr. Beecroft that worship is a matter of reverence and asked who decides? Noone has all the answers. Christ is to be delivered fully and faithfully. Grime, being dean of the chapel and associate professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, noted that the Fort Wayne seminary is in talks of revising its curriculum on religious practices, to give new pastors more instruction and practice in baptism, why we preach Christ, and the Lord’s Supper.
Arnold, a professor emeritus and chaplain at Concordia University, St. Paul, stressed “hospitality”, making worship a safe place for the world. He called for more sensitive gender language to make women feel more comfortable. He also asked for authenticity in our worship, stating that our spirituality is authentic, therefor our worship is authentic. Most of our members find what we do to be incomprehensible. We need to be conversational to help with wounds visited upon people by the church, such as the priest scandals in the Roman Catholic church. The church has one thing to offer: forgiveness of sins in proclamation of the Gospel.
Grime and Arnold also followed Tuesday’s last presentation of the day, “Missional and Vocational (Another Approach).” Looking back at my notes and tweets, I guess I really didn’t find anything groundbreaking. Grime did quote Korby concerning our preaching: in our preaching, we have defanged the law so it will merely gum us to death.
A panel discussion with moderated questions from the floor followed. One person tried to discuss with Pr. Beecroft which form of the Mass he preferred we use, and Beecroft said he would be content if we just followed the Divine Services in the LSB, for the sake of catholicity and good order. One questioner read a John Piper quote about worship and asked if people agreed. Pr. Ben Ball asked a question about how religious practices inform people what we believe, using the Eucharist later that day as an example. That turned into a bit of a scandal, which I will cover later in its own section.
Another question was asked regarding Pr. Cloeter’s illustration of Christians living among the teepees of the unchurched, which led to a comparison by Steve Arnold with Dances with Wolves. There was a small problem with Arnold’s comparison: in Costner’s movie, the soldier became an Indian, rather than the soldier converting Indians to his way of thinking.
A pair of responders followed Wednesday’s presentation by Charles Arand, “Practical and Theological.” Dr. James Waddell was the first, a graduate instructor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. I put a couple of posts on Twitter from him. My general impression of his response was that he was trying to agree with everyone.
Dr. Arthur A. Just, Jr., Professor of Exegetical Theology, among other things, at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, delivered an amazing response. Like Professor Gibbs, it will be worth your time to download and listen to his response. I could not post fast enough on Twitter. Some samples:
- Theology is in body, is fleshly. How should we act based on who we are.
- Our Protestant religious culture treats Christ as if he is not here, as if the finite cannot contain the infinite.
- Within the historical liturgy we believe, teach, and confess Christ given to us for the forgiveness of sins.
- We lost sight of the miracles our liturgical worship contains. We are settling for less than heaven itself.
Amazing stuff. I also had the privilege of having Dr. Just at my table during the Table Talks. What a wise, patient, and listening person. Would that we all have his demeanor and insight. I am now an Arthur Just fan. Someone start an Art Just facebook page, please.
I don’t have many notes on the final open microphone question and answer session from Friday morning, but I will note that Cantor Phillip Magness asked a couple of questions. First he asked about the LCMS brand: are we to use LCMS as a seal of approval that everything no matter what is good in a church, and we should just swallow it? Or should LCMS mean that there are certain expectations of what you will find inside?
Secondly he asked if and how we could ensure that there were common elements in our contemporary services, for example, the creeds? Can we keep from writing our own creeds and inadvertently introducing heresies? Pr. Taylor, one of the advocates of diverse worship, said he would be just fine with keeping the ecumenical creeds in worship.
My district president, Pr. Terry Cripe, asked Pr. Beecroft on the panel, “What practices in contemporary worship militate against the Gospel?” Beecroft gave anecdotal examples such as plastic and styrofoam individual cups in communion, pastors who don’t wear vestments, and pastors who draw attention to themselves through personality and make themselves the show, rather than focusing on Christ.
Pr. Beecroft did score some amicable points with those who favor alternative worship. He said during the second panel that he could recognize the contemporary services at Concordia-Kirkwood as Lutheran overall. That drew a relief from some people.
Ohio District Response
According to the rules of the convention, I cannot mention anything specific of anybody at the table talks or the district talks without gaining permission, so I won’t discuss much. I will say that Pr. Beecroft’s presentation got the most visceral response.
There was a situation where one person discussed a belief that people who use the liturgy go through their weekly life without any real sanctification, trusting in their General Absolution the next Sunday. I responded by borrowing from Rosebrough, et. al., that “we do what we do because we are what we are.” We are washed (1 Cor 6:9-11). Paul didn’t stop writing Romans at chapter 5. Therefore in our gratitude we try to align our lives with what God intended. If there is a member who does not seem to be doing this, he needs to be hit with the Law, not threatened with hell, but Bo Giertz style: “You are a Christian. Do you think a Christian should be acting this way?” That drew some satisfaction across the table. Likewise, I said it was possible to rock out at the Sunday contemporary worship service and still act like a heathen the rest of the week. That got agreement.
He also asked for authenticity in our worship, stating that our spirituality is authentic, therefor our worship is authentic.
Our worship is only “authentic” because it is centered Christ Himself as he comes to us in the “Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments” (AC V).
This has nothing to do with any vague sense of authentic spirituality. What does one mean by “spirituality”? Let’s ask Oprah! How about Deepak Chopra? He has a lot to say about spirituality, some of which lies squarely in Gnosticism. He talks about the “spark” within us.
No, authentic worship flows out of the Word as it is rightly proclaimed and administered via preaching and the Sacraments.