church visits

I got the privilege to attend both the German and the English services at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Calgary, AB. St. Matthew’s is a member of the Lutheran Church-Canada, which is in fellowship with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Both services were led by Pr. Markus Zeuch, who speaks German, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Pr. Zeuch is from Brazil.

Portion of German order of service

The Gesangbuch surprised me; there’s no music to go with the hymns. The old-world typography was another challenge. The two orders of service were in the back of the hymnal. Some parts of the service were similar musically to LSB Divine Service 3/TLH p.15, such as the Sanctus, the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, and the Agnus Dei. Unlike LSB, the German hymnal doesn’t write out the “Vaterunser” (the Lord’s Prayer) in the order of service; I had to find that elsewhere. The Apostles’ Creed is used instead of the Nicene Creed, which we normally use in our services of Holy Communion.

If you visit the Google+ album, you’ll see a picture of the organ, which is known throughout town as “The Beast.” Jenny Jordan, all I was told was that it had a tracker action.

I also attended the English service afterwards, Divine Service 3 out of LSB.

I had the privilege of attending Gethsemane-Marion’s 4^th Annual Conference of the Augsburg Confession. The conference was Friday evening and Saturday, but I could only make the Saturday activities.

After Divine Service the Rev. Dr. Larry Rast, President of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN, spoke all morning on “The Impact of the German Confessional Revival on the Origins of the LCMS.”  The title may cause some eyes to glaze over, but Dr. Rast did an excellent job with the presentation. Some of the more significant (and highly condensed) points included:

• The first Lutherans to hit the North American continent didn’t follow the Lutheran confessions. They used Luther’s Small Catechism until they could write one they thought was better. Many of these formed the General Synod of 1820 and founded the first Lutheran seminary in Gettysburg, PA.
• Due to geography and difficulties in transportation, 58 Lutheran church bodies formed in the span of 35 years, and by 1900 there were over 100.  German Lutherans formerly under state church were highly fragmented in no-state-church America.
• David Henkel, son of the Rev. Paul Henkel, founded the Tennessee Synod, which was the first synod in America to subscribe to the Augsburg Confession. Henkel would begin printing the entire Book of Concord in English in 1851 — four years after the founding of what would now be the LCMS. The Works of David Henkel are a fascinating read, according to Rast, who wrote the forward.
• Charles Porterfield Krauth studied at Gettysburg but felt the entire Book of Concord needed to be retained.  What was truth in 1580 is still truth today. Rast summarized The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology by saying Krauth felt that it was more important to know what of the Christian faith has been retained than to know what whas overthrown.

During lunch I asked Dr. Rast if the LCMS was the first synod to subscribe to the entire Book of Concord. Two years prior to the LCMS founding, the “Buffalo Synod” also subscribed to the entire Book of Concord, but a personality dispute between C. F. W. Walther and the Buffalo Synod’s J. A. A. Grabau caused the Buffalo Synod to join the old American Lutheran Church which eventually became part of what is now the ELCA.

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We arrived for our second visit to a dark Zion Lutheran Church in Columbus. AEP reported that power had been cut to 14,000 buildings in the downtown area around 9:30am. Power was restored around 10:55am.

Two fluorescent lamps lit the lectern and the pulpit. The organist played piano off to the side of the congregation with a flashlight attached to what looked like a mic stand. The only natural light came through the stained glass windows on the south side.

Pastor Kudart calmly announced to everyone that the normal confession and absolution would be replaced by the Order of the Confessional Service from The Lutheran Hymnal. This was cool because that the pastor with the light asked questions that covered C & A and everyone could respond with a prompted “Yes, we believe…” or whatever was appropriate.

The communion hymns were played as a piano interlude. We sang the first stanza of Amazing Grace and another hymn in its entirety. The liturgy, being Divine Service III, could be sung from the congregation’s memory. Yeah, that was cool, too. The kids are even starting to pick it up.

The played-but-not-sung communion hymns got on Twin Two’s nerves, but she held on pretty well. At the end, the pastor asked why she was upset, and I said, “It seems she really is a member of the ‘singing church’ — she doesn’t like music that isn’t sung.”

This time, we made it to Schmidt’s.

About a month ago we had some business in downtown Columbus which took us past Zion Lutheran Church. We noted that it took us less time to get there that it does to get to our current church, 35 miles away. Today was contemporary worship at our church, so I suggested we go downtown.

We worry about Twin Two whenever we do anything new. She accepted that we were going to another Lutheran church, but she was a little worried when we got out of the car and walked two blocks down the brick sidewalk. The long organ prelude overwhelmed her a little bit, but once we got into Divine Service 3, things were OK. We sat toward the back, so she didn’t get a long postlude before we exited.

The Rev. Larry Kudart, interim pastor, officiated the service and preached a decent sermon on the Epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. While he did tell us that we needed to go out and tell others what has been done, it was nice to have it told to us first, without any church politics.

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I was somewhat concerned that I wouldn’t be able to attend church this morning because of the snow, but thankfully the snow never collected on the roads.

I actually made good time to Our Savior Lutheran Church in Morristown, TN. I got there early enough for Bible class; they were studying 1 John 4:7-5:5. Pastor John Freitag noted that 1 John was written in part to address some gnosticism that had already began to creep into the church.

The liturgy was Divine Service I with Holy Communion. Prior to the sermon, Pastor asked a young girl to help him hide paper signs of “Alleluia” behind the altar, not to be retrieved until Easter. It was cute.

I had the privilege of meeting the organist, Dale Stanton. He was kind enough to record some pipe organ tracks that I will likely use in future Time Out podcasts. You can hear the church creak when doors were opened, but it’s a sound you can’t get with a synthesizer.

Finally, the Pastor and his wife took me to lunch at a local diner. Pastor told me of his involvement as a police chaplain and as part of the local disaster team. He told me some history regarding the construction of the Buddhist temple near Holy Trinity in Hacienda Heights, CA. Good stuff.

It was a lot of fun.  I doubt that I’ll get to go back, but if I’m in the area again I will.