Week 10 - St. Andrew Lutheran Church

www.salcvan.org

This week took us back to the "High Church" side of Christian tradition. Lest one thinks this is a pejorative be at ease, it is simply a term that identifies a church or denomination that follows and practices a liturgical and ritualized form of worship. 

Like our previous Lutheran visit St. Andrew Lutheran Church follows the same structure in their service. This was nice because we had a better idea of what to expect and, hopefully, consequently had less of a bewildered look about us. We are quick learners but it did help that St. Andrew's provided a detailed guide to the morning's liturgy, including all songs, responsive readings, and instructions for communion. Speaking of communion, they practice an open communion so we were able to partake this time. 

We entered through a spacious, well-lit, lobby into the main meeting room. Plenty of natural light is available from the lobby and a large skylight located above the altar-area in the front. This Sunday the lobby was set up to display hand-crafted items that were being silent auctioned off to support the St. Andrew Preschool. The auditorium itself is a unique modern design that accentuates the beautiful pipe organ set off to one side. This might be blasphemous but, in Loren's opinion, a pipe organ beats a six piece band on any given Sunday. The use of technology was limited but provided an alternative to following along in the printed booklet. One little criticism has to do with the sound system. There were times when the ambient noise in the room made it difficult to hear the speaker even though they were mic'd. That being said the acoustics of the room allowed for the voices of congregants to be easily heard, raised in unison during the singing of hymns. 

The theme of the message was "For the sake of witness." Drawing from scripture passages in the liturgy we looked at the call of Jeremiah and the story of the prodigal son to see how when we put aside our fears we open up opportunity for being a witness. Jeremiah put aside his fear of rejection by the people and the prodigal son put aside his of rejection by the father. In doing so they demonstrated a great witness of God's loving and gracious nature. The pastor's message was short and to the point. He didn't delve much into the scriptural basis of the message but rather offered clear, everyday, examples of how it might look to put aside fear like the two biblical examples. 

Starting on this project we knew that we would encounter things that contrasted with our conservative Evangelical church upbringing. This week was probably the biggest contrast to date. St. Andrew's has an Associate Pastor and Assistant Minister, both of whom are women. Now if you're a life-long Evangelical you probably felt a shiver go down your spine right about now. We call women "Director of ..." all the time, but "Pastor," not on your life. Of course for many in the Protestant tradition women pastors are nothing new. The reality is that in the Evangelical tradition women have functioned in pastoral roles for decades we just don't acknowledge it as such.

One thing was abundantly clear about St. Andrew's; they are a vibrant community that cares about "the least of these."