Should we be doing more?

[TKA_TN]

I think Lutherans do a good job of letting us know that we are forgiven of our sins, within the Church. I don't know how we take that message outside of the Church. I feel like no branch of Christianity does as good of a job of saying "the law shows us how we fail every second of every day, but the Gospel shows us how much more we are forgiven by God through our faith." But I didn't really see that until I started actually attending a Lutheran (LCMS) church. I'm not sure how we can get that message out better as a whole.

 

[hedrick]

I'm not sure how we can get that message out better as a whole.

If we're going to participate in CF, it seems to me that we all need to pay attention to people who are in pain because people around them are pushing legalism at them.

 

[INeedGrace]

Growing up in my small Southern town, I thought of Lutherans as basically "fancy Baptists." I didn't know that there were real differences. I wonder how my life would have been different if I had known the Lutheran view of Baptismal regeneration, rather than my despair-inducing introspection where I looked within to see if I truly believed, not to mention judging my standing with God based on my fruit, or lack thereof. Personally I think the Lutheran churches haven't done a great job with getting their message out. But now with the internet, many people can be alerted to and find comfort and joy in the gospel via Lutheranism. It's how I found peace.

 

[FireDragon76]

If we're going to participate in CF, it seems to me that we all need to pay attention to people who are in pain because people around them are pushing legalism at them.

Legalism is never the loving response. It might make you feel righteous, but it hurts the other person's dignity.

 

[Daniel9v9]

I strongly sympathise with the OP as one growing up not really knowing the purity of the Gospel, as confessed in the Lutheran Church — and I grew up in Norway, mind you! I wish I could have been properly catechised at a young age, knowing Law and Gospel, the person and works of Christ, justification by faith, and the comfort of God's promise of grace through His Word and Sacraments. I always looked for assurance of faith inwardly — whether I felt saved or not. But now I take great comfort in the fact that salvation, from beginning to end, rests in Christ, that we are declared righteous in God's sight.

It's been quite eye-opening being on this forum, interacting with people of other branches of Christendom. But I do feel like the Lutheran system is not well understood at all. Not only on a lay-level but also on a scholarly. I own some Reformed theology and find that Lutheran doctrines are rather poorly represented. Not only this, but Lutheran works themselves can be difficult to find. A couple of years ago I went to one of the biggest bookshops in the UK and it has a fair selection of theology, but not much Lutheran. (It's somewhat understandable bearing in mind the Roman and Anglican heritage of the country, however) Even though there are some absolute massive bookshops in Japan (where I live), there isn't a lot of Lutheran works, but you can find Roman Catholic and Reformed.

More than this, though, I think with things like the rise of non-denominationalism and the success of YouVersion, the Lutheran system has become somewhat lost. Perhaps I haven't looked hard enough, but I can't seem to find any Lutheran plans on YouVersion, for example — which is a shame, as it's a great app in and of itself. Similarly, just yesterday I read some commentaries on biblehub.com and was taken back by the lack of Lutheran commentary.

I try to contribute with nuance and to the best of my ability, but I wish the Lutheran Church was a bit more on the forefront; her materials a little more readily available. I recently learned that in the Philippines (if I'm not mistaken), Roman Catholic priests found Luther's Small Catechism very useful in their ministry. This makes a lot of sense to me, as I think Lutherans have a tremendous wealth of wisdom, but sadly it's just not known to the world, and it's difficult to find unless you're actively looking for it. I think prayer and more effort on the individual, especially pastors and the studious, to actively reach out on different platforms, such as YouVersion. I would love it if, for example, the Catechism, the Augsburg Confession, Hutter's Compend of Lutheran Theology, A.L. Graebner's Outlines of Doctrinal Theology etc. could have been reformatted into YouVersion plans. As it stands, these great works and others are almost "locked up" in CPH and Amazon. I'd love to see this kind of stuff more readily available.

Apologies for the lengthy rant.

 

[Resha Caner]

It's been quite eye-opening being on this forum, interacting with people of other branches of Christendom.

Indeed. It confirms the brilliance of Tocqueville's musings and observations on the end result of American democracy.

More than this, though, I think with things like the rise of non-denominationalism and the success of YouVersion, the Lutheran system has become somewhat lost.

This very thing has become a major focus of my historical research. I started simply wanting to understand Lutherans in America, but that has expanded into understanding religious culture in America as a whole along with questions of why and how. I feel I'm nearing the end of that journey. My wife asked, now that I understand much of the why and how, what would I do to address it? Sadly, I don't have an answer for that. It would be interesting to discuss, though.

How we got here is a complex narrative involving the changing nature of government, institutions, technology, cultures, and families as well as how people relate to the world. However, a few scholars have done a good job of summarizing. For example:
* Robert Kolb: Martin Luther as Prophet, Teacher, and Hero: Images of the Reformer
* Jaroslav Pelikan: From Luther to Kierkegaard: A Study in the History of Theology
* A. G. Roeber: Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America
* Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America
* Carol K. Coburn: Life at Four Corners: Religion, Gender, and Education in a German-Lutheran Community
* Robert M. Crunden: Ministers of Reform: The Progressives' Achievement in American Civilization
* Robert Wuthrow: After Heaven, Spirituality in America Since the 1950s
          Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist

One struggle I have is the balance between the material and the spiritual. For example, Wuthrow's work suffers from a common problem wherein the scholar (appears) not to believe in the subject he's studying. IOW, he looks for material answers to spiritual issues. However, to deny the material has an impact is just as flawed. So, what is the right balance between our role in evangelizing and what we must trust the Spirit will do?

A further problem is the message vs. method balance. Some Lutherans will insist Word & Sacrament is the beginning, middle, end, and we need do nothing more than that. While it is true we can do nothing to make the Gospel better, we certainly can fail to reach people when we don't understand them. So, I think it is important for us to understand the culture in which we live in order to reach people. However, we don't necessarily want to adopt that culture's methods (something Wuthrow claims is ineffective). For example, have you ever read the Heliand? I tried, and couldn't make my way through it. Supposedly it's a great example of adapting the Gospel message to a new culture (Anglo-Saxon in this case).

With all that said, I do think there are some institutional and cultural changes that would help ... I just don't know how to accomplish them.