Does this seem pretty typical?

[BabyLutheran]

Here is a link to the ELCA church I visited last Sunday. Just thought I would ask some of you cradle Lutherans if it appears to be a pretty typical ELCA church based on what you can see on the website. I am toward the conservative end of moderate, if that makes any sense. This church seemed to fit that description very well to me!

http://stmichaelvb.org/index.html

One thing kind of funny, they make a big deal about being culturally diverse on the homepage, but I saw only white folks at the service I attended.

Another funny thing is that the page opens up and your tab will say St Micheal VB Home, they misspelled Michael in their own web page...lol

I really liked my visit, and I hope to continue visiting with my family this weekend. I am going to try to take communion wine from the cup this time instead of tincture like I did last time. I am really happy that they take communion every Sunday at both services!

This was the first time I have ever been to a Lutheran service.

P.S,

I just read their newsletter. They have a ministry that bakes and delivers a loaf of bread to each guest who provides their address. I missed out because I thought signing the guest book was a waste of time on Sunday.

Serves me right.

 

[JoeCatch]

With the caveat that it's really hard to tell much of anything about a congregation based on its Web site, I'd say that this congregation looks pretty typical, whatever that means or is worth. But I really, really hate the layout of their Web site; just a design nightmare.

 

[BabyLutheran]

Yeah it looks like a 7th grader who is interested in computer science designed it!

 

[BabyLutheran]

I was thinking that. Just because I am new to Lutheranism, I had seen the threads on how "evil" the ELCA was. This church seemed pretty moderate to me, of course I don't know what to expect either, so probably my impressions were worthless.

 

[RevCowboy]

Here is a link to the ELCA church I visited last Sunday. Just thought I would ask some of you cradle Lutherans if it appears to be a pretty typical ELCA church based on what you can see on the website. I am toward the conservative end of moderate, if that makes any sense. This church seemed to fit that description very well to me!

In the grand spectrum of Christianity, I would wager that most ELCA Churches fall into the traditional and moderately conservative category.


However, the fact that it has a regularly updated website means that it might have contemporary twist (stuff like the occasional praise band service or projector screens)... or as will be the case when take my first call, pastor who is young enough to know what a computer is.

Somewhat different than the average church shopper, we pastor types have to do some really careful consideration, even going so far as to interviewing with the Church council, when considering different congregations, but at least we know that the congregation we "attend" will probably fit exactly our style of liturgy, music, theology, education, preaching and tradition.

 

[D.W.Washburn]

By the looks of the website, I'd say they are a fairly typical ELCA congregation, maybe more than typical in their wide range of active ministries.

 

[BabyLutheran]

They say they do one praise band service per quarter. And a guitar service on the 5th Sunday of a month, so again once a quarter.

I believe the pastor is fairly new to the congregation

At the service I attended, much of the liturgy was in the bulletin, but we did use the prayer book as well.

One kind of cool thing for visitors was that the bulletin had up and down arrows to help figure out when to stand and to sit, and the pastor was also very good in describing what came next before launching into it. I was very, very comfortable visiting, and the really cool thing is that they didn't make me stand and be recognized.lol

 

[BabyLutheran]

Another question, if you guys don't mind. What is a worship vespers service?

They have something on Thursdays called Thursday Encounter with Christ, and it says that it is a vespers service.

 

[RevCowboy]

They say they do one praise band service per quarter. And a guitar service on the 5th Sunday of a month, so again once a quarter.

I believe the pastor is fairly new to the congregation

At the service I attended, much of the liturgy was in the bulletin, but we did use the prayer book as well.

One kind of cool thing for visitors was that the bulletin had up and down arrows to help figure out when to stand and to sit, and the pastor was also very good in describing what came next before launching into it. I was very, very comfortable visiting, and the really cool thing is that they didn't make me stand and be recognized.lol

There are actually pretty simple guidelines for standing and sitting. We stand to pray, sing, confess the creeds and hear the Gospel. The rest of the time we sit. (There is some fancy seminary learnin' for y'all).

 

[RevCowboy]

Another question, if you guys don't mind. What is a worship vespers service?

They have something on Thursdays called Thursday Encounter with Christ, and it says that it is a vespers service.

Vespers is Evening prayer service (after supperish)
and
Matins is morning prayer service
Compline is Night prayer service (just before bed)

Matins, Vespers and Compline are the Latin names which have just stuck. The services traditionally involved a few prayers, some short readings from the daily lectionary and a few psalms. Some hymns might have been added in for kicks.

 

[BabyLutheran]

There are actually pretty simple guidelines for standing and sitting. We stand to pray, sing, confess the creeds and hear the Gospel. The rest of the time we sit. (There is some fancy seminary learnin' for y'all).

Was it a whole semester class to learn that? lol

Sounds pretty simple now that you explained it to me.

I am excited about going again, could that be a God thing?

 

[D.W.Washburn]

There are actually pretty simple guidelines for standing and sitting. We stand to pray, sing, confess the creeds and hear the Gospel. The rest of the time we sit. (There is some fancy seminary learnin' for y'all).

Of course, there are local variations to this norm.

I have some friends who visited a congregation that had a custom of sitting for most of the hymn of the day, but standing for the last verse prepartory to the Creed.

They had a supply preacher on the day that my friends visited who did not know the custom. As the hymn started after the sermon, the pastor motioned for the congregation to rise. Local tradition dies hard. They sat as if their butts were rooted to the pews...all except my friends.

They sang the first verse of the hymn, only the preacher and my friends standing. The man leaned over to his wife and said "I feel silly. I'm sitting down at the end of this verse."

They finished the second verse, and as my friends sat down, the entire congregation stood.

 

[BabyLutheran]

That's what so good about an EO church, you just stand up the whole time. Wears your back and legs out though.

 

[RevCowboy]

Was it a whole semester class to learn that? lol

Sounds pretty simple now that you explained it to me.

I am excited about going again, could that be a God thing?

One Semester!?!? I didn't figure that out until my fifth year of post-secondary studies.

Actually, our Liturgy professor explained it in about 15 seconds which made most of us feel rather sheepish for not figuring out sooner.


If you are excited about going back to a Lutheran Church, it must be a God thing! (Just kidding).

Here is a good website for some Lutheran Humour:

http://www.oldlutheran.com/humor/