What is your church story? 

What’s your Church background and experience?

Today, I am going to give you my church story and experience growing up and into my adult life. Tomorrow, I will tell you about where we have been as a couple and fmaily since moving away from my hometown over ten years ago.

Growing up, my wife and I both attended Lutheran Churches. Lutheranism is fundamentally considered Evangelical. My church was in the Evangelical Synod and my wife’s was in the Missouri Synod. There is also a Minnesota Synod. The primary difference between Evangelical vrs Missouri Synods that I understood growing up that I was always told, was at that time, the Missouri Synod did not allow women to be Pastors. I always thought that was stupid. I won’t go into the differences in the Lutheran Synods today, as I am honestly removed at this point. My brother, who is an Ordained Lutheran Minister and Army and Prison Chaplain, keeps me posted on the important changes. I just know that things are quite the mess.

The Lutheran Church I grew up in followed a heavy catholic tradition. This might make sense, since the area we lived in is also very heavily populated by the catholic church population. Besides the tradition of the church itself, there were some cultural influences that I grew up with, that I learned over time, was not true in all churches. First and foremost, you always dress with respect and honor for God by wearing nice dress pants and a nice shirt and shoes at a minimum. You never saw jeans and sneakers. It just was not acceptable. I don’t recall anyone from my church ever telling me such things. It was something that came from your parents is my best guess. The biggest “rule” that I do recall and was covertly enforced was, once you entered the nave of the church, you didn’t talk. It was frowned upon to talk before church. It was like a court room. They tell you not to talk, but then all the lawyers stand around and whisper. 

The Lutheran Church has 3 liturgical years they follow. Each week there was the First lesson, the Second lesson and then the Gospel. I would need to go reference my Lutheran Book of Worship, but I would be willing to bet that the First Lesson and Second Lesson have connectional meaning to the Gospel reading of the day. The Lessons were always read by a lay person. The Gospel was read by the Pastor. We always stood for the Gospel. The Pastors’ sermon was usually on the Gospel. Sometimes they included the lessons, sometimes they did not. Sometimes they would actually just preach on the lesson. The Lord’s Prayer was always part of every service. Communion was once a month. It was always at the altar where we knelt and received the body and blood. Real wine too! And in the case of Lutheranism, we believe the bread(thin flour wafer) and wine were transformed to the body and blood. ( This follows Catholic belief) As a kid I hated communion. I wasn’t allowed. The Pastor would put their hand on your head and give you a blessing instead. I often sat in my seat in protest. I hated that I could not receive communion and got “called out” as being too young and was given a blessing instead. You had to be confirmed before you could receive communion. I still think this is dumb. We had to attend Catechism class for 2 years. When you entered 7th and 8th grade you would attend Catechism every Wednesday night during the school year to learn about your Lutheran Faith. When that was over, there was a special Catechism Service with communion where all participants, along with the rest of the congregation , would have communion together. 

During the communion service there was a formal Service we followed that was different from the typical every Sunday routine. By the way, all the services in a Lutheran church are in the front of the book for each church season as well. As part of  Communion Service, the ceremony included responsive readings, music and the Apostles Creed. 

The Church Seasons were always acknowledged and celebrated. The Pastor always wore a white robe and their sash colors reflected the Church season as well. The church lectern and pulpit were also always decorated to be reflective of the church season. The Choir wore white robes and they always had processional in during the first hymn and processional out of the nave during the last hymn. These are some of the main concepts of the church I grew up in. A summarization of my church growing up might be, QUITE FORMAL. My wife’s church was quite similar with a bit of a more relaxed atmosphere. 

My wife and I were married in my home church. The church is quite beautiful and similar in concept to the primary post AI generated picture. The church is somewhere approaching 300 years in existence at this point. The additions and significant modifications to the church are deep into double digits, possibly even 3 digits at this point. High ceilings with the reverse ARK ceiling shape are one of the churches biggest amenities. The high ceilings allow the the organ and the two pipe galleries to throw music through the church at high decibels. Special Sundays included the church brass band with the kettle drums that would rumble through you. The population of the church at that time was about 1200 members with a typical 400 a week turnout over 3 services. Not much changed in my church on the formality topic, although the talking before church thing gravitated towards acceptance and the dress of people, including myself, was more business casual style. Intinction for communion became the norm for “speed”, with formal kneeling once a month.  A Saturday evening church service had been added to accommodate the members and as I recall growing up, Lutherans didn’t have a worship service on Saturday. That was too catholic. One of the biggest theological changes I have witnessed in the church today, is allowing young confirmands to have communion at the beginning of their confirmation class education rather than having to wait for the “graduation”. It was quite typical for the confirmands to “graduate”, get communion and then never see them ever again. So maybe I say celebration of growth to my home church in those areas?

Today, my home church is led by a former Assistant Pastor and his wife. Yes, his wife is the Assistant Pastor. It adds in an interesting mix and for me questions about the Pastoral leadership in the church. We still attend when we go back to the area. The atmosphere, and music are main drivers for us to “relive history”. The husband, wife Pastor team adds in an interesting dynamic. We can and do certainly get a good message from their sermons and presentations. However, for me, at this point it is just a building I grew up in where I now go to get my cup filled when we are back in our hometown. 

Tomorrow, I will give you the next part of my church story…