Preserving Truth

There are a couple things I've noticed about how services are carried out that kind of impress me.

First, it's how Christ-centric the service is. Jesus gets seriously emphasized in the structure of a typical Sunday service. It begins with confession and absolution, which reminds us of our sinful nature and how Jesus has won forgiveness for us. Instead of just one part of Scripture being read, as I have seen to happen in the Pentecostal and Baptist churches, there are three sections read including a part of a Gospel - ensuring that Jesus will somehow be mentioned. Sermons vary in content but invariably speak of Christ. The creeds, whatever may be spoken, talk of Jesus and his actions. Communion is seen as a time where the bread and wine take on the essence of Jesus's body and blood (that's another post in and of itself right there). And it goes on. If it were of any question at first of who the service was about, a person would see quickly it's about Jesus.

Second, it's how the order of actions in the service are designed to preserve truth. There is a lot more that goes on in a Lutheran service than in, say, Pentecostal or Baptist. For those kinds of churches it seems to generally be something like: opening hymn, prayer, greeting, worship, sermon, benediction, and closing hymn. The sermon tends to take up the largest chunk of time. In the Lutheran church there are many more things which don't change - confession, absolution, the creeds, the Lord's Prayer, Communion, and the standard songs if it's a traditional service. I think these unchanging parts are pretty important, because they prevent theology from being changed wrongly. The preacher might accidentally or intentionally try to include false teachings into their sermons but the stuff that's around in every service will make sure no major doctrine is distorted.