A couple months ago, the pastor of my home church offered to teach me the basics of the Lutheran doctrine needed to be considered worthy of taking Communion. I kind of let the offer slide because it would be one-on-one and I find such situations quite awkward. But one thing led to another and we ended up arranging a set of three meetings, where he would teach me the proper material.
Perhaps because he saw that I already knew a lot of the stuff, he ended up going over the stuff more quickly than he would with a Confirmation class. The whole thing took about four hours over the course of three meetings. At the last meeting he gave me a small book containing the Small Catechism and expansive explanations of the various parts.
It impressed me just how much the Lutheran church wants you to know before you can take Communion. For a denomination that comes off as fideistic to me, they sure expect you to know quite a bit! When I wanted to get membership in the Assemblies of God I was simply given a small paperback book explaining their main doctrinal points. But to get into the Lutheran church you need to know the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, as well as understanding of baptism, Communion, and confession. That's pretty intense, and I daresay thoroughly Biblical. In a couple weeks I will be making an affirmation of faith, but even before then I think I'm now "qualified" to take part in Communion in the LCMS.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
Impressed
The LCMS has impressed me recently, in two ways.
First: last Sunday was the first Sunday after Independence Day (4th of July). As expected, there was some mention of America and the freedom we have therein. But our pastor started off with some pretty clear-cut words. His words were essentially, "We are blessed to be in America, although the nation has declined morally and deviated from the Constitution."
Wow. That's bold to say in this day and age. I agree on both accounts, of course, but a pastor saying that requires some real gall. It's all too easy to lose congregants for speaking truth. I value and admire any pastor who would be willing to speak an inconvenient truth such as that.
Second: I am pleased as to how thoroughly scriptural Lutheran theology is. I've seen how other denominations have needed to input their own understandings or interpretations to get their particular beliefs. Then I read instructional material given by a Lutheran church and, my goodness, the stuff is referenced and cross-referenced every which way. They also have the backing of history, a second way of validating their beliefs. All told, I can feel confident that what I'm being taught is indeed sound doctrine.
First: last Sunday was the first Sunday after Independence Day (4th of July). As expected, there was some mention of America and the freedom we have therein. But our pastor started off with some pretty clear-cut words. His words were essentially, "We are blessed to be in America, although the nation has declined morally and deviated from the Constitution."
Wow. That's bold to say in this day and age. I agree on both accounts, of course, but a pastor saying that requires some real gall. It's all too easy to lose congregants for speaking truth. I value and admire any pastor who would be willing to speak an inconvenient truth such as that.
Second: I am pleased as to how thoroughly scriptural Lutheran theology is. I've seen how other denominations have needed to input their own understandings or interpretations to get their particular beliefs. Then I read instructional material given by a Lutheran church and, my goodness, the stuff is referenced and cross-referenced every which way. They also have the backing of history, a second way of validating their beliefs. All told, I can feel confident that what I'm being taught is indeed sound doctrine.
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