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Heck,
I don't even like taking communion at a church I am not familiar with! When I was on the road alot, I would make sure I went to the local LCMS parish at least a few times before taking communion. "Open" communion is a very bad idea.

I wholeheartedly agree. Communion is too important a sacrament for it to be given freely. We Lutherans believe the elements are consubstantiated; it becomes the Body and Blood but also remain bread and wine. Obviously we cannot share communion with other churches on this matter. However, I find that visitors may not understand this and we don't make the point clearly enough about Communion. This is something I'll bring up with our pastor.

I agree.

In college I was (technically still am) an ELCA member. The only Lutheran church within walking distance of campus was LCMS. Fortunately since my mother was raised WELS/LCMS she reminded me to not even THINK about taking communion until I'd spoken to the pastor. After I had attended for a few weeks we had a chat and he invited me to join in communion even though I was an ELCA member.

Now that my husband and I are looking for our own church home, we notice how blatant many ELCA congregations are about open communion. Some of them encourage babies and young children to take communion and I was raised in a congregation where that would be unthinkable! The LCMS practice of closed communion seems to be more reasonable IMO given that open communion has gotten so out of hand in places.