{"id":58376,"date":"2021-12-20T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=58376"},"modified":"2021-12-17T14:51:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T19:51:39","slug":"the-ecosystem-of-the-lutheran-church-missouri-synod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2021\/12\/the-ecosystem-of-the-lutheran-church-missouri-synod\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Ecosystem” of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cinstitutional church\u201d is derided by just about everybody, from spiritual-but-not-religious Nones to non-denominational evangelicals.\u00a0 Indeed, many church \u201cinstitutions\u201d have become floundering and unfaithful.\u00a0 But few people have encountered a church that has actually functioned as an institution is supposed to, retaining its identity through the generations despite all the challenges and giving its people the Christian formation they need.<\/p>\n

One such successful Christian institution is the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So says Rebekah Curtis in a rather remarkable piece for the American Reformer entitled \u201cThe Lutheran Option:\u00a0 Stewarding a Legacy of Institution-Building<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

She\u2019s talking not so much about doctrine but about church culture<\/em> and the benefits of being a part of a local congregation that forthrightly and as part of a larger institution believes, teaches, and lives out Christian doctrine.\u00a0 She is also interacting with the \u201cBenedict Option<\/a>\u201c:\u00a0 In looking for a haven for themselves and their families from the increasing assaults of secularism, many Christians are trying to build new institutions; she suggests trying some that are already functioning.\u00a0 Other Christians are\u2013like the religious migrants of old\u2013moving their whole households, not in search of a job, but in search of a good church, preferably with a good school.\u00a0 She mentions several specific Lutheran congregations that have become magnets for this kind of migration.<\/p>\n

Her article defies excerpting, so let me get your started and you can click \u201cKeep reading\u201d to read it all.\u00a0 From Rebekah Curtis,\u00a0 \u201cThe Lutheran Option:\u00a0 Stewarding a Legacy of Institution-Building<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

\n

In 1817, Prussia\u2019s Frederick William III sought to solve religious tensions by making one nice, big Protestant church. There were no memes yet, so the Lutherans (i.e. \u201cSaxons\u201d) didn\u2019t have\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0to post by way of explanation. Instead, they took a couple of decades to get organized, boarded five boats and sailed to America. One of the boats sank, and when the rest of them got here everything\u00a0went really sideways<\/a>. Devastating moral failure in their leader ended with the migrants living in horrible conditions mismatched to their skill sets. Somehow, enough of them made it to make it, and that\u2019s how we got The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.<\/p>\n

But in making the LCMS, as it is affectionately known, what did the Saxons make? The church body occupies a peculiar place in American Christianity. Lutherans are sacerdotal softies; doctrinaire Jesus freaks; acerbic jerks who love you so hecking much because they know God does. They can\u2019t deal with Calvinists\u2019 allergy to mystery, or the pope\u2019s allergy to claiming primacy only by human right. Lutherans have been known to laugh at Baptists and cry at baptisms. Lutherans also punch as much below their weight socially and politically as Presbyterians punch above theirs.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a theory for this latter phenomenon that accounts for what the Saxons made. The LCMS has historically been a major\u00a0operator of schools<\/a>. This necessarily means that its\u00a0body is composed<\/a>\u00a0of a great number of teachers, which has consequences. First, that Lutheran teachers have been less involved in other aspects of public life because the life of the Lutheran teacher has a \u201cpublic servant\u201d feeling and function built into it, even if its service is not broadly public. Second, that many young Lutherans have turned into Lutheran teachers, so the cycle continues. With so much institutional energy invested internally in education, a smaller external presence and recognition cannot be helped. Furthermore, the development of Lutheran schools both occasioned and supported the simultaneous growth of related structures, particularly financial and media institutions and complex internal social connections. The Saxons made not just a community, but an ecosystem.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She goes on to discuss the \u201cecosystem\u201d of the LCMS, not minimizing its problems, but pointing out what it continues to do right.<\/p>\n

I suspect that many of us who are members of the LCMS will be surprised and somewhat embarrassed to hear their church body praised so much\u2013one of the many quirks she records is an aversion to \u201cglory\u201d and an awareness of how, as we confess every Sunday, \u201cwe are sinful and unclean.\u201d\u00a0 But, all the same, the article helps us to notice and to appreciate what we take for granted.<\/p>\n

Her lesson, though, goes beyond the LCMS.\u00a0 She concludes, \u201cA congregation with solid dogmatics, real connections to a whole lot of other deep-rooted congregations, and over a century of life is worthy of serious consideration. It has survived complete turnovers of its leadership and membership, while surrounded by external cultural convulsion.\u201d\u00a0 And she notes, \u201cHistorically rooted church bodies with advantages of material and social infrastructure, a culture of commitment to the church, and generations of survival without loss of identity have an opportunity here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Headquarters of the LCMS, St. Louis, via Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “institutional church” is derided by just about everybody. But few people have encountered a church that actually functions as an institution is supposed to. An example heralded by one writer is the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":58415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[3751,5917,1340,1984],"class_list":["post-58376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-culture","tag-benedict-option","tag-institutional-church","tag-lutheran-church-missouri-synod","tag-secularism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe "Ecosystem" of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The "institutional church" is derided by just about everybody. But few people have encountered a church that actually functions as an institution is supposed to. 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