tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post3144760711000674354..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: The Technology of Change...Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-1556737116266341492009-10-15T20:01:32.182-05:002009-10-15T20:01:32.182-05:00Rev. Masinelli: To your post on Oct. 8; I have a t...Rev. Masinelli: To your post on Oct. 8; I have a theory that unfortunately the church is moving in a more "Let's do it to please humans, not please God" type of service, Lutheranism included. Our church does two and two services, two traditional, two contemporary each month. This past Sunday, while sitting in church and participating in the contemporary services, I started noticing the years the contemporary songs we were singing were written. The earliest song we sang was from 1978. What are the 80s and 90s generations known as? The ME generation. If you look at the songs written after the late 1970s, early 1980s, you're going to find the majority sing about what it feels like to worship God and what the individual can do for God and what God can do for the individual. After thinking on this for a couple of days and looking at other contemporary Christian songs during this time, it became more and more evident that the church is swinging to focusing on what the individual does to worship God instead of God sending his Son and Grace to us to save us. Go back and look at the 1942 Lutheran Hymnal and you are going to find very, very few songs with this theme. The majority, I dare say, are of us praising God for sending his Son to redeem us and God's everlasting love for us as sinners! I use these songs and traditional services to edify my faith and my belief. Believe it or not, the old, stogy songs of yesteryear are the ones that gratify my soul the most! The songs of today leave me feeling empty with a smile on my face. They're upbeat, but they do nothing to feed my soul. We as a church should be worried about the edifying of a member's soul and not if a song makes us feel good about worshiping God! I don't need to be entertained when I go to church. That's what the secular world (i.e. movies, music, etc.) is for ...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-18339854648759010812009-10-09T16:16:14.876-05:002009-10-09T16:16:14.876-05:00To pastor Masinelli,
I am the 'half-baked'...To pastor Masinelli,<br /><br />I am the 'half-baked' (yes, that is scriptural) Baptist who came from the 'happy-clappy' type worship. I'm sorry, but style is NOT neutral. <br /><br />I don't doubt that you are reaching folk in your ministry. I just wanted to say that there are people out there who are tired of the type of worship 'everyone wants.' <br /><br />You asked for scriptural proof. Of course proof texting is a big thing with Baptists. I don't have one. But if Jesus saw fit to remain within a Jewish liturgical tradition throughout His ministry... I would guess the rabble weren't traditionalists like the Pharisees (of course I can't KNOW), yet Jesus didn't cater to them. He ate with them, ministered to their needs, but He attended synagogue, and even participated in that traditional worship. Jesus din't give His listeners what they wanted; He gave them what they needed. Yes, the Gospel of the Kingdom was given, but did He adapt it for them? I think not.<br /><br />Of course, they didn't have mP3's...Janis Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02947508427040251166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-73094175823488501452009-10-08T14:46:18.955-05:002009-10-08T14:46:18.955-05:00I thought you were in good shape at first, brother...I thought you were in good shape at first, brother, describing our culture well, but then worship bias began to seep into the article. I'm saddened by your use of disparaging references like "happy clappy." That's more than just flippant; it's hugely disrespectful - not to mention factional - toward those who are using Lutheran praise worship as a vehicle for communicating Law/Gospel to the lost and bringing them to the cross of Jesus Christ. (After all, we're called to be fishers of men, not swappers of fish between aquariums.)<br /><br />Bottom line: We live in an mp3 world, yet some people are still pushing vinyl records as the only "authentic" way. That assertion isn't true, and the market (just carrying the metaphor) is responding accordingly: "See ya'!" Note that I'm talking about the vehicle itself, not the content. <br /><br />As a denomination, we're in decline, and it's not by accident. We bear a degree of responsibility for putting an idol of cultural Lutheranism before the Gospel. Now, I'm not saying we should do away with the older form. We should use what communicates the Gospel clearly to given audiences. At my church, that means services are 9 a.m. traditional, 10:30 praise, and 12:30 bilingual praise (Spanish/English). Want to guess where all the growth (640%) is, and which service is declining as the people who like it grow older and pass into the arms of the Lord? <br /><br />Reaching the lost must be a higher priority that merely being comfortable. The command we received is to gospel all nations, not create churchy country clubs where you or I merely feel affirmed. In some places, traditional worship will work. In others, praise worship will. In still others, more than one form will be needed. As a vehicle for communicating the Gospel, no one form is always more "right" than another, any more than speaking German is more "right" than speaking American English. The speaker has to know who the listener really is and communicate accordingly.<br /><br />If anyone can show me in the Bible where more than the core elements of worship are delineated - or where an exact form is commanded - I'll agree that there's only one way to do church. Until then, I'm going to advocate that we should not shackle the Gospel to any one form. It's not biblical.<br /><br />Traditionalists need to remember that the things they regard as standard practice (including organ music) once had a beginning...and there were people who at that time termed these things "fads" and empty innovations, too. They mocked what they didn't understand. Please, don't make the same mistake today.<br /><br />Rev. Tony Masinelli<br />Senior Pastor<br />Messiah Lutheran Church, LCMS<br />Naples, FloridaRev. Tony Masinelli (LCMS)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-9438821679407198872009-10-08T12:04:17.909-05:002009-10-08T12:04:17.909-05:00Great post. Wow.
BenGreat post. Wow. <br />BenUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03424849319379452507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-29037202071459500442009-10-06T11:13:59.240-05:002009-10-06T11:13:59.240-05:00Thank you for this, Pastor Peters. It is refreshi...Thank you for this, Pastor Peters. It is refreshing to hear such things.<br /><br />As Janis said, Amen!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-38714891037099599152009-10-06T10:14:13.237-05:002009-10-06T10:14:13.237-05:00AMEN AND AMEN!!
From a former half-baked Baptist!...AMEN AND AMEN!!<br /><br />From a former half-baked Baptist!Janis Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02947508427040251166noreply@blogger.com