Spring Pastor’s Conference,
South Dakota District, Dakota Dunes, SD

Our speaker, Rev. James Waddell (author of The Struggle to Reclaim the Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in Historical, Theological and Practical Perspective) gave us much to think about. His topic “Clearly Communicating the Good News: Moving beyond Worship Wars,” was insightful. I still have many questions in my mind and yet, much of what he said makes a lot of sense. Now is the time to digest (and re-read the book). He has done an extensive amount of research and much of it very enlightening, indeed the basis for good discussion.

Here is my understanding of several points from Pr. Waddell that I found interesting:

• We do not serve the church well by confessing the opposite of an error in order to correct an error. As my seminary professor Dr. Paul Raabe used to say, “that’s falling in the other ditch.” (Many “confessionals” are guilty of this practice… me included.)
• The Confessions do not prescribe what form worship is to take. i.e. , “The Historic Liturgy” is not a “Confession” of the church in the sense that the Book of Concord is a confession of the church. Scripture (Norma Normans) is the only rule and norm for faith and life in the church. The Confessions (norma normata) are the standard that is “normed” by scripture. They accurately reflect the teaching of scripture, but are subject to scripture none the less. Liturgy is normed both by scripture and the confessions. No teaching or practice of the church is “normed” by liturgy.
• The church cannot pre-scribe a particular form of worship. Waddell believes that some practices and content can be rejected when they fall outside of our confession. (i.e. we don’t sing hymns (songs, etc) that confess false doctrine.) He gave us a useful tool to help evaluate lyrics for use in worship.
• The Lex orandi / Lex Crendi principal isn’t found in the confessions.
• Worship Style and substance must be guided by the principal “Lutheran Theology for Lutheran Worship”

Some critique: Waddell claims to be standing on the middle ground and I have great respect for the positions he has brought to the floor. Much of his criticism is leveled at the “confessional” side of the isle and very little at the other. Since Waddell spends little time speaking against the arguments of the “Contemporary Worship” crowd, many “Confessionals” will simply see this as an attack leveled against them. While much of his criticism is in many ways valid it would stand in better stead to have some balancing arguments.

While I may not completely agree with all that pr. Waddell has given us he has sparked a good conversation and thought process. I’ll be processing the presentation for quite some time to come.

Pastor Watt.