“Lutheran Worship for the Not-Yet Christian:
Can We Reclaim the Missa Catechumenorum?”
Published in a peer-reviewed journal: Lutheran Mission Matters.
Abstract: In the face of post-Christendom, many North American churches have chosen to either integrate with culture or isolate from it. Both choices often blur the connection between evangelism and faithful liturgical form. As a synod which values the historical practices of the Christian Church, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) is in a unique position to revive Missa Catechumenorum, or service of the learners. Unfortunately, a common practice of general confession and absolution at the outset of a liturgical gathering can be seen as a problem for using Missa Catechumenorum. A deep understanding of Lutheran liturgical heritage, however, reassures that reshaping liturgy around the Missa Catechumenorum is not only a faithful Lutheran option but it reflects the practice of the very first LCMS liturgy.
“Reckless Love” and the Different Things
People Mean When They Sing
Published on the Center for Worship Leadership Blog at Concordia University Irvine.
It seems like every couple of years a new worship song reignites the debate over which songs are appropriate for congregational worship. Of course, there are the chosen few that make it on everyone’s list, like “In Christ Alone,” or “Cornerstone,” but these tend to be exceptions to the rule. Debates about songs like “How He Loves,” “Good Good Father,” or “Reckless Love” seem to be more commonplace. While many of these disagreements are unavoidable and reflect clashing theological traditions, there is another force at work in the way songs are appropriated in the church...
Book Review: In Defense of Christian Ritual: The Case for a Biblical Pattern of Worship
Published on the Center for Worship Leadership Blog at Concordia University Irvine.
In his book In Defense of Christian Ritual: The Case for a Biblical Pattern of Worship, David Andersen made two significant arguments. First, he argued that worship practices deeply and stubbornly form the beliefs and culture of the church — both institutionally and individually. As a specialist in Christian apologetics, Andersen made this argument with the same methods he used to defend the historical resurrection of Jesus, namely, the collective insights of anthropology, psychology, neurology, epistemology and the social sciences…
“Preaching the Law through Horatian Satire”
Published in a peer-reviewed journal: Concordia Journal.
Abstract: The use of the theory of satire to analyze Banksy's Girl with Balloon reveals that the law can, within the Lutheran framework of the distinction of Law and Gospel, be winsomely preached as a type of Horatian satire. In particular, the ability of visual art to engage its viewer in self-reflection can be incorporated into Walter Brueggemann's poetic approach to preaching, supplementing his Old Testament rootedness with a method to direct 21st-century practice. This is theologically significant because as culture has become fractured and entrenched along ideological lines, preachers need additional techniques and tones with which they can express applications of God’s law in the context of Law/Gospel preaching.
COMING SOON - Book Review: On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service
Approved for publication in a peer-reviewed journal: Concordia Journal.
Michael Berg—an assistant professor of theology at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee, WI—has written a new apologetic for the “Divine Service” entitled On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service.
Concerned that the beauty, formative power and pastoral impact of this particular service have been repressed in what he characterizes as scrums over worship forms, Berg sets out to exhibit the service setting as a relevant, radiant jewel of Christian heritage. In his short book, he seeks to demonstrate these particular characteristics within the “Divine Service” in three ways: first, through a narrative fiction in which…
During a time when some conflate church music with entertainment and others do not distinguish it from a particular musical genre or historical collection of songs, Magness calls the whole Church back to the fundamentals. Neither the sound of the organ nor the impact of a worship team constitute church music for the author, but rather the sound of God’s people singing as they are given songs to express their faith and through which they are engaged by God’s Word. For Magness, it is important that the ability of an instrument — or set of instruments — to effectively facilitate the singing of the Lord’s Song within a given community become the ultimate litmus test for questions of church music. Delightfully practical and personal, but not without theological substance, this winsome work will challenge and stimulate readers of every Christian tradition…