Liturgy as Idolatry?
A Response to the Unite Leadership Collective
The Rev. Tim Ahlman interviewed the Rev. Paul Dickerson and published it under the provocative title: “Liturgy or Idol? The Hidden Danger in LCMS Worship.”
You can watch it here:
Rather than reply with a blogpost, I decided to shoot a video response. You can watch it here at my Rumble channel, or here:
Interesting take on the subject! To be fair, I didn't listen to the other recorded 'interview', as I've heard a good amount of advocacy for non-trad Lutheran worship. Still, I enjoyed the comparison of what Biblical beautiful worship is and isn't and what God-displeasing idolatry can be... in a church setting [Lutheran or non-'Lute']. The Demographic points are all well made, as to why a church may grow or not grow. In a growing suburb of Northern Idaho where new family home building citing to increase, we're not seeing growth and we're enjoy the traditional 'high church' Mass with bells, incense, and icons. I think you last few point in your video may be for us and key to apply [e.g. read and the wisdom of contemporary leadership principles, harness the talents of the congregation to let outside population know we exist, capture the brief opportunity of a visitir to warmly educate them ofour idenity, practice, and theology.]
One last 'tongue-in-cheek' thought: some of confessional and practicing our traditional Lutheran liturgy can sound a bit 'Pentecostal' when we simply say, "God alone grows the His Church (and individual congregations)."; though true, we can wisely apply Paul's missionsal tactics to know and engage those God send to us to investigate our church and from various other regions into our 'suburban' community. Again, thank you Fr. Beane for your warm thought provoking insights.
Thank you for the info on demographics! This is something to keep in mind as our tiny East Texas congregation discusses outreach.