July 4 - Part 1

On Sunday, July 4^th a friend of mine and I attended worship with a large ELCA congregation located more than 100 miles from Adel. The congregation has more than 1,500 baptized members. We attended the 11 o’clock praise service.

We got a little lost on our way to the church, so we were a few minutes late. Fortunately there was space for us in a back pew, so we didn’t have to disturbed those who had already gathered. These back pews were for us a very gracious kind of hospitality. It’s hard enough to visit a church for the first time, and harder still if you have to find a place to sit in the middle or worst of all, up front. I think perhaps we at Grace could do a better job of saving the back pews for visitors and late-comers.

This is how I remember the hour-long service: 3 praise songs, a prayer, a lesson, a long sermon (more than 20 minutes), another prayer, and 3 more praise songs.

The music was fine with a large number of vocalists up front and the usual instrumentation: piano, guitars, drums, etc. While the service was not well attended, it was the fourth of July after all, I gradually became aware of the fact that the congregation was not singing. Instead, we were listening to a performance.

The sermon will be Part 2 of this blog, so more about that later.

In addition to a lack of congregational singing, here’s what was missing from the service: the confession and absolution, the prayer of the day and the prayers of the church, the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Holy Communion, the children’s sermon, and the sharing of the peace. I don’t even think an offering was collected, which all joking aside meant that I wasn’t given a chance to share in this congregation’s ministry.

While it felt like a typical “praise service,” I don’t honestly think that a praise service needs to be so devoid of the more traditional elements of Christian worship. With one or two fewer songs and a slightly shorter sermon, there would have been ample time for the creed and the Lord’s Prayer and a few minutes with the children. More importantly, I wanted to hear that my sins were forgiven; that is the good news, after all. And while I didn’t grow up with weekly communion, it has become an important part of my faith, so that it would be hard for me to attend a church or service that didn’t have that on an every Sunday basis.

It was a strange service and I didn’t like it. It didn’t feel like “church” to me; but as the saying goes, ‘different strokes for different folks.’ I should point out that this congregation’s other services are advertised as more traditional, so my reaction to this service shouldn’t be confused with a critique of this congregation’s whole life and ministry.

…more in part 2.

Peace,

Pastor