Modern(er) Service

I'm not sure how old the Liturgy is in the normal Lutheran Church. I'm guessing it's about the same as some of the songs which we sing regularly and those date from the 1500’s, so it's always good to have a change and to be able to attend our monthly "modern" service. The preacher was a former student who had completed his practical training in our church and had a reputation for trying new ideas. One time he brought in a three-piece rock band, which rather shocked some of the old dears and did not integrate well with the ancient service surrounding it.

Since then we’ve moved on quite a bit: Yesterday we had a five-piece band made up of our own young people, and modern songs on a video beamer (with pictures on the background). And it seems to be having an effect: the band is getting more confident, and to this non-musician, more professional; there are new people coming along, one or two have started coming every now and again and it’s clear that some come just to the more modern services, and many stay afterwards and talk. Some trappings of the older church remain, however. For some reason it’s not permitted for a pastor to take the service unless wearing a preaching gown, and there are some bits of the liturgy that are holding doggedly on, so every now and then we’d return to the 16^th century for a minute or two.

Thing is, it’s reversed now. The modern service is becoming more accepted and is more relevant to a younger generation of worshipers, (there’s a clear age difference between those at the front half of the church, who stand up and sing and those at the back, who wait for it to be over). Now the old liturgy sounds more and more like an anachronism, badly integrated with the rest of the service.

It’s a start.