Perspectives on the Common Service. . .

Though not nearly as long in history and a composite of liturgies instead of any one pure form, the Common Service of 1888 (down to our time in LSB Divine Service 3) has taken on some of the same cache as the Latin Mass to Roman Catholics.  It has provoked loyalties and become a dividing line well beyond simple liturgical preference.  In fact, the rhetoric and hype that lives in the worship wars of Rome in Vetus Ordo vs Novus Ordo also live in the Missouri Synod with respect to the liturgies of many choices in LSB.  They carry freight well beyond the order itself.

1)     Liberals do not want to use DS 3/Common Service. What is interesting here is that when the Common Service came out, it was accused by some as itself a liberal invention.  In the mythology of Missouri, now that same liturgy has become the gold standard for those on the conservative side and it is presumed that liberals want to use anything but the Common Service (but most especially DS 1 & 2).  This is not about liturgical liberalism or conservatism but an overall theological perspective and stance.  Sometimes you find people judging an LCMS congregation and pastor by whether or not they use the DS 3 -- some will warn you that they are conservative if they do and others will warn that they are liberal if they do not use this order exclusively.

2.      Neoconservatives will tolerate the newer orders (DS 1 & 2 in particular) but have a distinct preference for DS 3.  They will grant that it is certainly possible to use DS 1 & 2 in an orthodox and confessional manner but who would want to when you have DS 3?  They will not automatically rule out the usage of the other DS settings but admit that DS 3 is the gold standard and if it is not being used exclusively it ought to be used primarily.  They would instinctively say it is the superior choice.  At least that is how some of them sound in the way they speak of the liturgies in our hymnal.

 3.    A goodly number of folks in the LCMS know only one Divine Service and, no matter which one that is, presume that every LCMS uses what they are accustomed to using.  They are often surprised to find a DS different from their ordinary DS used when they go to visit relatives or on vacation.  They may not be automatically disposed against it but it shows that most LCMS folks live within the relative norm of one or possibly two settings from the hymnal.  This is not bad but it does reveal the importance of consistency and this is a key to the growth and stability of any congregation.

4.    Some congregations use the Divine Services as a buffet of liturgical choices and rotate through them.  I know of one that uses DS 1 on the first Sunday of the month, DS 2 on the second, DS3 on the third, DS 4 on the fourth, and DS 5 on the occasional fifth Sunday.  In such congregations you find folks gravitating toward the Sunday that offers their preferred liturgical setting -- especially in a world in which once a month has become normal worship attendance.  They see any choice as personal preference and probably do not attach much to the theological baggage others associate with the choice of DS.

5.    A few would go so far as to say that the newer Divine Services are simply not Lutheran.  They would challenge Lutherans to stick with what is distinctly Lutheran and for them it is DS 3.  Whether they are liturgically low church or high church, they find it appalling that such non-Lutheran orders would be found in a Lutheran hymnal or church and deride those who use them as blind followers of Rome's experiment with the Mass in the post-Vatican II years.  The same goes with the three year lectionary.  For these folks it is never preference at all but always confessional.  Some would almost insist that you cannot use DS 1 or 2 or 4 and be confessionally Lutheran.  At least that is how they sound.

6.    Divine Service 4 is sort of an oddity.  Crafted in the 1998 Hymnal Supplement, it was a more modern version of Luther's DS, what we call DS 5.  It uses hymns for the ordinary.  But it does not only do that.  It has a form of an Eucharistic Prayer with a changeable seasonal petition.  Its confession is abbreviated.   It was, in the minds of those who put it together, a perfect tool to use to gently restore to a liturgical life a congregation accustomed to no hymnal and to contemporary Christian music and seeker services.  Whether it has been successful in that regard is more anecdotal than statistical.  It has also worked well in areas where there are limited musical resources available to a congregation -- AKA organist.  Many see this as an outlier and not within the mainstream of Lutheran liturgical identity.

Some folks have moved from one opinion to another along the way.  Others have remained pretty much within their original stance toward the variety of DS options in LSB and its predecessors.  Since there are few left who can recall the introduction of The Lutheran Hymnal 1941, it is often presumed that it was seamlessly integrated into Missourian life.  It was not.  It had its own baggage and some of it was tied up with the unpleasant and rather sudden movement from a German speaking church to an English speaking one (not unlike the baggage that Lutheran Worship suffered).  Nonetheless, it was around for 41 years and much longer in some places.  It has gained the mythical status among Missourians that the Latin Mass enjoyed for its much longer history.  In any case, you can figure out where I fit in all of this although I am not sure than any of the six generalities fits my peculiarity.  Nonetheless, it is interesting to talk about.