Can Lutherans help me with this?

Question

I'd like to know more about your denomination--not the party line from pamphlets or web sites, but what it's like to be Lutheran. All I know is what I hear from Garrison Keillor. Anyone care to share?

Answer 1

The Lutheran Chruch Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and Lutheran Chruch Canada are the remaining "Confessional Chruches in North America, that is they have retained their Lutheran doctrine and practice and follow the Bible completely.

Paul H gave you a link to WELS, here is one for LCMS and LCC.

As Starlight stated, our Chruches tend to be Liturgical (some more so, some less), that is we use the historic form of worship that has been handed down, and evolved since the first century. For any one from a non liturgical background the Lutheran Mass, will seem very Catholic for this reason, but on closer examination you will find that any thing that is non-Biblical has been removed.

I hope this helps.
and get Vieths book.

Your friend in Christ,
Mark

http://lcms.org
http://www.lutheranchurch.ca/lutheran.html
Lutheran Church–Canada

Also, get a copy of Gene Edward Vieth's book "Spirituality of the Cross". It is Vieths own spiritual journey, and how he grew into Lutheranism. It's a great book, with a fair bit of humor. I have loaned it to many friends, not all of them Lutheran, and they have all told me that it has made them more aware of Scripture, and has strengthend their faith.

Answer 2

I was confirmed in the Lutheran Church about 2 1/2 years ago. Before that I had attended a Baptist church for several years. I was raised Pentecostal.

I should mention that there are three major Lutheran denominations in the US, only two of which are conservative, traditional Christian bodies. I am in the Missouri Synod, or "LCMS," which is the larger of those two.

I think the thing that has been most striking to me about the Lutheran Church is the stability. Let me give you a little background to help you understand what I mean. This is not meant to criticize other churches, but merely to observe my own experiences and draw contrasts.

My whole experience with other churches was one of uncertainty from week to week. It seems like I never knew what "new teaching" was going to be brought into the church, and I was having to constantly be on the lookout. Whether it was "Holy Laughter" in a Pentecostal church or "The Purpose Driven Life" in a Baptist one, the churches I attended were constantly bombarded with theologically dubious fads that often had the potential to cause great damage to the people in them.

In a conservative Lutheran church, fads like this simply do not exist. The teaching of the Church is what it is. With the difficulties I've had in my personal and family life in the past couple of years, the rock-solid stability of my church is without a doubt a great blessing from God, giving me an immovable anchor through this time of personal chaos.

Another thing that's striking to me is how secure Lutherans are in their faith. A lot of people don't realize that Lutherans agree with Catholics that the Church has the power to forgive sins. A common misconception about this is that it means you "have to" go through a pastor or priest; what it actually means is that God has given us the great gift of *verbal* forgiveness. And so we see none of that evangelical angst over whether our decision to follow Christ was "genuine." We know we are forgiven because our pastor, God's ambassador, says so, and Jesus promised us that if the pastor forgives our sins, God forgives our sins too. (John 20:21-23)

There are lot of other things I could say, but I figured I'd just hit on a couple of the major things that I see as someone who's been on both sides. =)

Answer 3

What would you like to know? My dad was a Lutheran minister for 40 years...WELS denomination. Our family comes from Minnesota...Twin Cities area and south-eastern but am currently in Milwaukee. Garrison Keillor is pretty funny and right on in many aspects of Lutheran life in Minnesota and Wisconsin and others. You can learn about WELS Lutheran dogma and teachings from their website...http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?
A brief history of the Lutheran churches---
http://www.stjohnlutheran.org/history_of_lutheran_church.htm
We socialize with sports and other activities, we encourage people to be involved in church activites like being an elder or usher or a ladies aid member, have an Arbor Day each year to volunteer to maintain the church with painting and whatnot, some have youth programs like Boys or Girls Pioneers, we have potluck suppers or lunches, hold Bible study groups and Sunday school for kids...some churches have vacation Bible school in summer, we have various charitable donation centers and retirement homes, health care programs, family problem centers, encourage and support world missions and in our country to spread the Gospel, We have our own schools, high schools, colleges and seminaries. Our local high school in Milwaukee just won a 3rd straight football championship. WLHS Vikings. Hope this helps. Maybe check out some local churches and talk to the pastors.

Answer 4

If you're interested, this is a popular forum for Lutheran Christians, you may find more answers here...

http://foru.ms/f367-theologia-crucis-lutherans.html

Answer 5

Lutheran was a seperation from the Catholics!

Answer 6

theyre beautiful churches...ive been to one before but im methodist...they do alot of responsive reading but the meaning was great and ppl were nice...look up in encyclopedia too