There are a whole lot of things we need to resurrect... this is a good start...

I grew up with a large statue of Jesus on the altar (the Thorvaldsen Christ).  It was not alone.  A crucifix was also on the altar.  I grew up hearing the sound of the great bell tolling during the Words of Institution and the Our Father.  I thought I grew up in a low church congregation.  There was not even a surplice and stoles until I went away to college and brought back stories of what I had seen.  We went from black gown to surplice to alb and along the way added the stole.  We did not have hymnals in the church -- you had one at home and brought it with you to church -- but we got hymnals and racks in the 1970s and LSB sits in the pews now.

There were many things that were original to Lutheran churches but were lost over time.  Sometimes in the name of remodeling and other times because of growing sensitivity to how others saw us and the fear of things deemed too Katholische. Some brave congregations (or maybe just cheap) did not remodel or toss out the old things but many did.  Buildings built from the 1950s on seldom included crucifixes or statues or much of anything that we ornate or elegant.  We preferred simple buildings for a simple Jesus.  Thankfully we have outgrown that fad as well.  Sadly, while some are resurrecting what was once there, others are taking their cues from evangelicalism and ridding even plain Lutheran chancels of any vestiges of their past.  So it is good to hear when one congregation resurrects their past and reclaims their heritage...

Read it all here.... with a HT to Pr. Anthony R. Voltattorni the good folks he serves in Standish, MI...