I attended my first LCMS service last week. It went well. Good sermon, solid doctrine, and some aside comments by the pastor were conservative, once politically and primarily theologically. What I liked most was he was simply expositing scripture.
Communion service was closed to us until we get with the pastor and discuss communion theology. That might be a bit. We live about an hour and 15 minutes away. If we move closer to the big city, we could well make that our church home.
My only hesitation was that my wife is a great lover of a praise time in the service. I don’t think the LCMS goes there too often. At least it didn’t seem that this church would.
Lutherans by-and-large are not revival tent-type folks, many of them like myself being of independent, no-frills, solid, stolid minds, LOL.....with lots and lots of them being of German-Lutheran/Scandinavian-Lutheran descent.
However, there are many programs for youth and adults offered inside the church premises during the week....you should find something you'd enjoy very much in every LCMS church across the fruited plain.......especially if you like good music of praise.
Lutherans hymnals have the best, most-loved hymns in the world, many written by Martin Luther himself. Music is and always has been key in this denomination.....I went to Lutheran grade school and Sunday School...and in first grade we were singing the complicated, multi-part "Hallelujah Chorus" with the adult choir in all the church's Christmas services....and we knew all the words by heart, also !
"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" (my favorite hymn in these troubled times)....by Martin Luther, 1527
Leni
Great report!
Yes, expositing scripture is what you can expect. It is really soul-nourishing.
Some LCMS congregations have a formal Divine Worship service with the classical liturgy, and also a praise and worship service, with not as much of the liturgy and no old hymn,s but a lot of praise songs. See if the church you tried out has a web site.
Welcome aboard. I was raised in the old American Lutheran Church that abandoned solid doctrine when the merged to become the extremely liberal ELCA. We escaped in the early 90s to the LCMS. I highly recommend it. Our SS classes are the best and the the Divine Worship is a blessing, as well.