Baptist here, hoping to visit an LCMS church this Sunday.

No you pretty much nailed it. Other than not partaking of the Eucharist it’s fairly casual. Although usually either the pastor will instruct or it will be outlined in the service bulletin that non-members may come forward during communion with their arms crossed to receive a blessing from the pastor.

You can participate in every other part of the service other than the Lord's Supper. The pastor will probably approach you first to find out your affiliation (meaning are you Lutheran) to avoid any surprises at the communion rail. I would allow a few minutes to before the service to speak with the pastor and to page through the Lutheran Service Book. It's our hymnal and contains the order of service in the front part of the book. We sing a lot. I mean a lot. You will probably recognize at least some of the hymns too. I have been to services where the entire service was chanted and sung.

If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask someone in the congregation either. You will find that we as Lutherans take Christian education very seriously and even our lay folk are quite knowledgeable. And of course you can always ask questions here as well. And if you want to know what we believe, teach and confess you can always find out yourself by going to the Book of Concord Online. Especially the Augsburg Confession is a basic statement of faith.

God Bless,

I might as well ask here rather than making a new thread. LCMS believes in the Real Presence, yes? (Would explain the doctrine of closed communion.)

Ecclesiastian said:

I can actually answer that one; the answer is yes.

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In other words they're essentially classic Lutherans. From what I understand the more conservative Lutherans try to practice the faith as Martin Luther himself did.

Ecclesiastian said:

Aye, that's my understanding as well. At the service I went to, a lot of it felt slightly like what I imagine a Roman Catholic service to be like except for the fact that the Pastor proclaimed the doctrine of Grace Alone through Faith Alone. And I guess that's the primary theological reason for the Reformation. Nobody said you had to change everything else too.

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You will find the more confessional Lutheran a church is the more liturgical they tend to be. The order of service you saw was basically the classic western rite of worship so the basic layout is very similar. We share this similarity with classical Anglicans as well. Fun fact, there are Eastern rite Lutherans too.

Ecclesiastian said:

I visited! I must say I enjoyed the service and the pastor's teaching. The pastor was very gracious to me and didn't make me feel like an outsider at all. He immediately came over and thanked me for visiting and asked where I was from, what brought me to the church, etc. and at a few points in the service where he didn't have to speak he'd come over and whisper to me what was going on and the like. He gave me a little booklet on Lutheran services before I left and offered that I take some refreshments (they were having a meeting after church) and even listen in on the meeting if I wouldn't find it too boring.

I was impressed with his reverent behavior also. It was, bluntly speaking, my first time seeing a pastor who didn't behave as little more than a trained layperson. The congregation was all very kind and gave me many a blessing.

I would love to attend services like this more often, but I must say it was almost painful to see the amount of members. Not counting me and the pastor, there were only 7 fulltime members in the whole building. I admit I felt sorrow at seeing so few people in this church while every Baptist church around them was overflowing. I will be sure to pray that they gain members and that the church will escape the death that I fear will come when the members pass away, which will possibly be soon given that all of them were elderly.

The pastor of course asked that I visit again, and I probably will at least a few times when time allows (their services are in the middle of the afternoon), but I'm not absolutely certain whether or not I will continue visiting there in the immediate future or return my focus to my own church for now.

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Hate to hear of the size of the church but glad you attended. I pray all churches take the sacraments more seriously. Jesus did institute them afterall...

Ecclesiastian said:

By the way, I wish to ask a question regarding one of the things I saw at the service. I witnessed the Confession & Absolution, now, I do not have problems with the way it's conducted (as opposed to how the RC's do it), but it raised a question in my mind. In the booklet on Lutheran services it almost made it sound like this is the point in a Lutheran's week where they are forgiven of their sins, without any mention of private confession and forgiveness. So it raised a question, and one that probably appears silly to you more learned folk, but do Lutherans believe that a Christian can be forgiven at any place and time through private prayer and confession to God, or do they think that they can only be forgiven by way of the Pastor?

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Hardly a silly question. We believe that repentance and forgiveness is a daily matter and a lifelong endeavor. What you saw was corporate confession and the announcement of the forgiveness of sins. We also believe that one repents and is forgiven apart from the pastor. Jesus grants forgiveness both through the means of a pastor as a function of his office and apart from the same. Furthermore we believe those that are burdened by sin can also speak with a pastor in private and receive the forgiveness of sins as well. In fact the Divine service is in a real way the gift of God announcing the forgiveness of sins both by the confession and The Sacrement of the Altar. There’s so much more I could say here but I think you get the idea.

Welcome! I followed the same road as you last year. I left an IFB church I'd been attending for half a year for an LCMS one. However, the LCMS one is considerably larger than the IFB one I'd been attending, whereas it sounds your experience is the opposite. I wonder about your location; I'm in Missouri, so obviously the LCMS has a bigger presence here than in other areas of the US.

I believe the LCMS is much better about taking Christian history, and the Bible itself, into proper context. While I don't want to completely disparage the IFB church I went to (they were very kind people, and contrary to popular stereotypes, I wasn't demanded to wear long skirts -- they were fine with my modest women's pants), I do think they erred on some clear points of doctrine. They were obsessed with wanting to create a large church of many converts as opposed to properly discipling them in theology and good hermeneutics (the fact that they wanted a large church above all else, in a world where many Westerners are increasingly hostile to Christianity, also wasn't wise -- they ignore context in both historical and contemporary matters, in efforts to "win souls" who may not be truly won even when they appear to be). Like you, Calvinism may seem appealing to the "mind" or "head" in such a case, but I'd already had some very bad experiences with them (in contrast to most evangelical trends, Calvinism would stomp you on your throat in theology rather than show God's love, whereas most other groups have the opposite balance -- they'd show God's supposed love and yet compromise the law in process!), so Confessional Lutheranism (which I was raised in during my family's most productive and stable time) seemed the most proper of what was left.

I do think they have the best balance of theology/doctrine/hermeneutics and love. They don't go far beyond what the Bible asks in these important questions.

Ecclesiastian said:

Hello, folks! As the title suggests, I'm a Baptist. Specifically, I grew up Southern Baptist and now attend an Independent Baptist church. However I have grown somewhat disillusioned with the barebones doctrine that makes up most Baptist churches. I find myself concerned that the sacraments are so watered down, and have seen so many Baptist ministers claim to be led by the Holy Spirit yet they say things which are clearly false to anyone who looks with discernment. So I'm deciding to take a little detour in the older branches of Protestantism. I was going to go for Presbyterianism but I have criticisms about the extent to which they take Calvinism. So, I feel that a better option is Lutheranism, and will be visiting the small, local LCMS congregation in my hometown.

Basically I just want to ask about what I should keep in mind as a Low Churcher attending a conservative Lutheran congregation. Is there anything apart from the Eucharist which I am forbidden from participating in during my visitation as a nonmember, do Lutheran churches usually have a set arrangement of where the congregation sits, anything along those lines. Basically, how do I show good manners as a visitor to a Lutheran church who has never been to one before. Thanks, and God bless you all!

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Hey, come on in - the water is fine. Former SBC myself. I agree with your above comments when looking at the rest of protestantism and think you'll find the LCMS to be what you're looking for. It certainly was for me. Aside from abstaining from the (closed) communion until you've been received as a member, you can participate in all other aspects of the worship service. As a Baptist who was baptized in the name of the Trinity, you won't need to be rebaptized, only received through a profession of faith.

EDIT: Sounds like you visited. Are you still going? Losing members is a problem that crosses denominational lines in America as the country enters a post-Chrisitan phase in its history. Perhaps the only exception to that are the Orthodox churches not named "Greek".

Where do you live in Georgia? There are a few really excellent WELS Churches there that I could recommend and strongly suggest you check out.
Unfortunately, any Church with only a few members left has had issues you probably don't want to deal with for the long term...