Although the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is deeply rooted in the Lutheran tradition and continues to use the music and arts from its heritage, it is increasingly affected by the contemporary developments in the various arts. This innovation, however, is most often proposed in order to recapture traditional practice and to complement the historic Lutheran liturgy.
Lutherans possess a rich and varied heritage of music for worship. Each era, guided by values first articulated by Martin Luther, searches for new expressions. Luther saw music as a gift of God to be used in the service of the gospel. He appreciated well-crafted music and gave music a high place, next to theology. While the nineteenth-century Lutheran immigrants to America especially valued hymns, their mid-twentieth century descendants rediscovered and explored the choral and instrumental music from earlier centuries of the church. After the wave of “folk” hymns in the 1960s, congregations often operated with official hymnals and with local selections of hymnody and spiritual songs outside their hymnal. Today they are aided by the photocopier and the personal computer. Any text (hymn, prayer, Scripture) can be customized and printed. Worshipers may never suspect the actual sources. Copyright law, however, puts limits on the use of recently published material. This choosing and editing require skills not previously envisioned in the training of worship leaders. As more people are drawn into this kind of leadership, the need for careful, pastoral control becomes more and more apparent. The publication of a series like Creative Worship for the Lutheran Parish offers resources that reduce some of the editing formerly needed.
Up to now, hymnody has been drawn from the last five to ten centuries of the church. Many congregations now expand this repertory at the local level to include the folk hymn tradition of the 1960s, current “Christian pop” songs, and praise songs. The reprinting is arranged through license clearinghouses and annual fees. Liturgical melodies, even recent ones with refrain features, sometimes are shunned, and nonofficial texts of services are created by musicians who find their own musical considerations more important than the words. In the new hymnal Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1982), the singing of psalms was encouraged by providing a variety of melodic formulas to fit any of the texts. Psalms and liturgical texts may be sung by a solo voice, choral groups, or subdivisions of the congregation to lighten the task of singing prose texts.
Choir anthems continue to be used, with special arrangements of hymns (called concertatos) becoming most common. Such concertatos often call for instruments, organs, and choir to support and to alternate with the congregation. Many congregations have established handbell choirs in the last decade. Some congregations use hand and orchestral instruments in small ensembles on special occasions. Some have contemporary ensembles with guitar, bass, drums, and electric keyboard. Synthesizers are increasingly part of instrumental ensembles and sometimes replace the organ in leading the congregation. In some places, both piano and organ accompany the singing. Instrumental soloists often draw on music from the Baroque period.
A few parishes find ways to use drama to illustrate teachings, to show the dynamics of faith in action, or to act out a scriptural event, frequently in conjunction with a homily. Ceremonies like removing the altar paraments on Maundy Thursday or a procession of children singing on Palm Sunday provide effective elements which distinguish one service from another. Decorative plants are used at Christmas and Easter, and palms are used on Palm Sunday. A Tenebrae service may include the extinguishing of a series of candles. Successive Sundays of Advent may see a new candle lit on a wreath. The processional cross and candles moving into the nave at the reading of the gospel have become a regular part of high festivals in some churches. Entrance processions are also often used at festival services.
The traditional architecture of a long nave with fixed seating and a center aisle frequently is replaced in new structures by an altar on a platform (one or two steps above the main floor) with pews or chairs on three sides. This puts the people in closer proximity to the action of worship, but may also make it difficult for a preacher to face everyone during the sermon. Seasonal colored hangings are placed on the altar, pulpit, and lectern. The 1982 hymnal permits blue for Advent, scarlet for Holy Week, and gold for Easter, colors not previously used. The alb has become the normal vestment for worship leaders in the chancel whether clergy or layperson. The clergy usually wear stoles, and a few wear a chasuble at the Eucharist. Acolytes and banners are widely accepted.