Greater Than Putting Flowers on a Grave

From the Ekklesia Project: And while a decoration of a grave may dwell on our loss, All Saints’ Day sharpens our focus on the resurrection. A death date on a gravestone may remind us of the day someone “left us.” The tradition of lifting up the death dates of historic Christian martyrs calls us to [...]

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Reformation Day Resources

Reformation Day is October 25. Here is an order of worship from Reformed Worship that contains a lot of Reformation-era texts: This order of service was prepared for Reformation Sunday 2003 at First Presbyterian Church, Royal Oak, Michigan. It includes several liturgical elements from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, including contributions from Luther [...]

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Contemporary Worship = Higher Attendance?

Article from The Lutheran Staff Blog: Almost two-thirds -64 percent- of congregations that switched to contemporary worship in the last five years saw an increase in worship attendance of 2 percent or more… Robert Schaefer responds: When thinking about worship, first I would propose Lutherans need to start with the center — namely it is [...]

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Worship – All Things Alternative

This weekend I taught a workshop for the Fall Leadership Summit of the TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod of the ELCA. The session was titled “Worship – All Things Alternative.” Here is a brief overview of what I talked about: Definition of worship Attempt to define differences between worship styles Problems with trying to define worship [...]

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Worship as Counter-cultural

From the Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture… 4.1. Jesus Christ came to transform all people and all cultures, and calls us not to conform to the world, but to be transformed with it (Romans 12:2). In the mystery of his passage from death to eternal life is the model for transformation, and thus for [...]

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Young Lutheran Musicians Learn the Music of the Global Church

ELCA News Release: In an effort to incorporate music from around the world into a singing assembly, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is training young adult musicians like Ernst to use and teach global music. Music offers the opportunity to create partnerships and share stories of how God works in the lives of [...]

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