This is our final installment of mission statements submitted by congregations. We thank all who participated. We noted at the outset that the “winners” would be published, and we have published them all. In our next issue we will seek to address the use and abuse of congregational statements and examine our Synod’s new mission […]

We gathered a list of worship resources. Here are some resources that have proved valuable to them in preparing the Liturgy and in adult education. Do you have resources you would recommend? Fax to me at 773-935-0414 or mail to Nicholas Zook, Concordia Lutheran Church, 3855 N. Seeley Ave., Chicago, IL 60618 Commentaries on Liturgy […]

This August, the ELCA Assembly in Philadelphia will consider adopting the latest document on worship in the ELCA, The Use of the Means of Grace: a Proposed Statement on the Practice of Word and Sacrament. The Preamble states the purpose of the document: This statement seeks to root common sacramental practice in the Lutheran Confessions […]

Have you ever sat in your church building and day-dreamed about how you would redesign the layout, if money was no object? Okay; maybe you haven’t, but I have. The proposed statement on the practice of Word and Sacrament stirred my imagination sitting in church one day. I began to imagine what the house of […]

I had the pleasure of serving Lutheran churches of different synods as a church musician for nearly a decade. I came to admire the centrality of the Word, baptism, and the eucharist in their individual and congregational lives. Roman Catholics easily find our eyes of faith distracted by less central features of the Christian landscape. […]

Along with my ordained colleagues, fellow Associates in Ministry, and many lay members of my congregation, I awaited the publication and revision of The Use of the Means of Grace: A Proposed Statement on the Practice of Word and Sacrament, with great anticipation. As Chair of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod Worship Committee, I was hoping […]

“Mirror, mirror on the wall—who is the most Lutheran of us all?” That was the question raised at a recent Conference of Bishops gathering as we discussed worship practices among our congregations. Now we are presented with a document, The Use of the Means of Grace, that effectively gives us a standard to understand what […]

In considering The Use of the Means of Grace: A Proposed Statement on the Practice of Word and Sacrament, the voting members of the 1997 Churchwide Assembly will do nothing less than consider the very essence of what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ. [This issue of Let’s Talk was put together […]