For the sake of beauty. . .

As soon as I bring up this subject, people will bring up the Danish Modern model of simplicity and remind me that you do not have to have much of anything for worship.  What is not essential is not necessarily an adversary of the liturgy and the worship life of God's people.  The sad reality is that we have for too long erred on the side of simplicity which is really nothing more and nothing less than an Amish principle of architecture and liturgy.  We Lutherans seems to think that being plain people on Sunday morning honors the Lord more than the richness of art, music, architecture, and such.  Well, let me suggest that one way to renew the worship life of God's people is to do just the opposite -- to enhance the liturgy and its setting with excellence in art, music, architecture, and ceremony.  Yes, I would prefer that we put some bucks where our mouths are but it is not necessary to bankrupt the congregation for the sake of beauty.  There are other means.

Let us begin with reverence.  Reverence is not doing things in a fancy way but doing things with a view toward what it is that is being done.  Because we honor God's Word and Sacraments we will honor the setting of and the doing of this within the liturgy.  It is not for the sake of ceremony but for the sake of Christ that we do things deliberately, with a sense of decorum, and to keep the attention on Christ and not on the personality or preference of the people on either side of the altar rail.  Reverence costs nothing but your attention and your attention to rubrics which give direction and weight to what we are doing.

The second thing you can do is to stop with the constant directions from the chancel.  Give the people of God some credit and put the information in the bulletin and be consistent with things.  Why do you deviate from the norm of when to stand or sit or kneel?  The discipline and habit allows those worshiping to lose themselves in the liturgy.  The directions given from the chancel not only interrupt the flow but keep drawing people out of the liturgy and treat them as children -- as if they had no idea what they were doing.  Honor them as the adults most of them are and you do your part as pastors so that they can do their part as the people of God.

Keep announcements out of the liturgy.  Don't explain the prayer intentions during the liturgy or just before the Prayer of the Church.  Print them out and speak of them very briefly before the liturgy begins.  If you treat the silent moments as opportunities to be an MC or to do a monologue, the people will catch on and they will fill the quiet moments with their own comments and conversations.  Keep the time from the Introit to the Benediction and dismissal about the liturgy.

Don't treat different liturgical settings as if they were seasonal menu items at a diner.  Stick with a setting long enough so that it becomes second nature to the people.  My parish was, as I learned very soon, not a DS 3 parish.  The majority grew up with LW if they were Lutheran and did not use DS 3.  Okay, so use DS 3 during special times (heritage kind of times like around Reformation or the congregation's anniversary of founding) but stick to the words and music of one setting for the year.  If you change it, explain it and when you change it make sure it is not simply fruit basket upset.  This means keeping to one place for the creed, Offertory, and the Our Father and skipping the oddities of placement typical of the different settings in LSB.  It was a wrong idea to have different placements of the creed, Offertory, and Our Father and a foolish one.  I have already made known why an evangelical Eucharistic Prayer is not only possible but salutary.  Furthermore, stick to one -- And also with you or And with your spirit.  One of the things I dislike about LSB is the different words for the the response to the salutation but also the back and forth between thees/thous and you/yours.  It is strange to sing one and speak the other.  By the way, why do we have two different wordings for the absolution and benediction in the Divine Services?  Goofy.

Don't fill every moment with words or music.  Silence is okay.  It is better than okay.  It is good.  And, while I am at it, don't explain what is happening or going to happen or what just did happen.  The Divine Service is kind of like a mystery.  It is what it is and explaining everything obscures the focus from who we are there for -- for Christ.

Keep things clean and orderly.  Keep it painted and in good condition.  Get rid of yesterdays worn out felt banners.  When things are shot or no longer useful, fix them or ditch them.  Don't put up wordy stuff or cheap kitschy kind of religious junk.  Honor the style of the rest of the building or furnishings.  Replace them as needed with good stuff (there are plenty of used options).  Keep the focus on the altar, pulpit, and font.  Don't carry a water bottle around with you in the chancel.  Head out to the sacristy or vestry if you need a drink of water and we can all go an hour or so without taking a swig of coffee or water or soda.   Okay, I guess I have offended enough folks for one day.   You did not pay for heaven but that does not meant it came cheap and the same is true for the heaven on earth of the liturgy.