Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran

Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

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The growing interest in liturgical renewal and the Christian year in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is reflected in the recent publication of a new hymnal and companion volume. These publications follow, with some adaptations, the lectionary, and calendar proposed by the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship in 1973.

Much has changed in the understanding and practice of the Christian year in the Wisconsin Synod (WELS) since the publication of its Book of Hymns in 1917. That pocket-sized book provided the text (but no music) for two forms of the “Order of Morning Service.” Form I was an outline of the service; Form II printed the text in some detail. Both of these forms provided for only one Scripture lesson. The following year one of the hymnal’s editors expressed the belief in the official magazine of the synod that “the average church-goer will thank us for not putting in more than one Scripture lesson.”

A survey taken in 1987 in preparation for the publication of a new hymnal reflects the extent to which attitudes had changed since 1917. Of the total of nearly 70,000 persons who responded to the survey, 83.6 percent judged “adding a reading from the Old Testament in addition to the New Testament Epistle and Gospel” to be desirable. Many WELS congregations regularly include three Scripture readings as part of their worship.

The ILCW and the New WELS Hymnal

The same 1987 survey showed that of the 761 pastors who responded, 78 percent were following the three-year lectionary prepared by the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW). The three-year lectionary included in Christian Worship: a Lutheran Hymnal, the book for worship published by the WELS, is based on the ILCW readings.

The WELS was not a participant in the work of the ILCW but did thoroughly study the proposed lectionary when it was published in 1973. This study was carried out by various pastoral conferences with the findings submitted to a specially appointed Lectionary Committee. The findings of this Committee, reported to the synod in 1977, declared that “no doctrinal, pastoral, or liturgical reasons were found to stand in the way of the use of this series of texts” and that “no consideration would preclude the use of this series for worship.” The synod in turn resolved that “the use of this series of texts be left to the discretion of the individual congregations of the synod.” Not only were the ILCW readings in fact used extensively in the congregations of the synod, but several volumes of sermon studies based on these texts were published in the WELS.

In preparing the three-year lectionary for the new hymnal only certain minor revisions in the suggested readings were made. The desire was to continue to make use of the many worship helps that have become available from various publishers.

WELS Variations on the Christian Year

Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal divides the Christian year into three major seasons: the Time of Christmas, the Time of Easter, the Time of Pentecost. The variations from the ILCW lectionary are primarily the result of a few changes in the calendar. The readings selected for the Sixth Sunday in Lent reflected an emphasis on Palm Sunday rather than on Passion Sunday found in ILCW. The last four Sundays of the year are named the “End Time.” Reformation Sunday is the First Sunday of the End Time, followed by the Sunday of the Last Judgment and the Sunday of the Saints Triumphant. The Last Sunday of End Time retains the name used in the ILCW calendar: Christ the King. As much as possible readings chosen for these Sundays were taken from the ILCW series. The calendar lists thirty-two minor festivals and eighteen occasions with propers provided for each of them.

The new hymnal has a table listing the readings for Years A, B, and C, but does not include the complete set of propers for the Sundays, festivals, and occasions of the year. The propers are published in a companion volume to the hymnal. Included here are the suggested Psalm of the day, the prayer of the day, verse of the day, and hymn of the day. The decision was made to publish the propers in a separate volume to allow for the inclusion of additional orders of worship and more hymns in the people’s book.

Along with the three-year lectionary, a slightly revised version of the one-year historic series is included in the hymnal. Only a few of the standard Epistles and Gospels were changed. A set of Old Testament readings were selected so that three lessons might be read in the service when the one-year series is used.

Use of the Three-Year Lectionary

Even though the three-year lectionary is receiving extensive use in the WELS, there are some who fault the selections for their lack of a central theme on some Sundays. This is especially true when on a number of consecutive Sundays in the Epiphany and Pentecost seasons the second lesson is read from one of the Epistles in a more or less continuous fashion. A careful study of the selected texts for a given Sunday will, however, often yield helpful insights which can be put to good use in preaching.

Strong encouragement is given at the synod’s Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary to use one of the lectionary selections as the text for the sermon. Following this practice will mean that all of the biblical doctrines are adequately presented by the preacher in a given year, and the danger of dwelling on certain pet subjects will be lessened. It is also emphasized that the Gospel is the main lesson for the day and should suggest the basic theme for worship planning.

The present emphasis on the Christian year and the lectionary is the result of several factors: the publication of The Lutheran Hymnal in 1941 in which the WELS was an active participant; the general emphasis on liturgical renewal found among other Lutheran church bodies and in the church at large; and the efforts of several individuals within the WELS who urged a greater appreciation of the Christian year. All of this has had a most salutary effect on the work of the WELS and helped to bring about the publication of a new hymnal.

The Arts in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

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The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church has remained quite traditional in its approach to music and the arts. Recent changes include the recovery of psalm-singing and, in some churches on particular occasions, the use of choruses. Little use is made of the arts.

Two events, the publication of a new hymnal in 1993 and the installation of an organ in 1991, illustrate the renewal of music in WELS worship.

The New Hymnal

The publication of Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal illustrates not only where we are headed but also where we have been. The WELS is often stereotyped as rigidly conservative, painfully slow to change, and little interested in how anyone else is changing. But the new hymnal belies this stereotype. By convention decision, it is a “new/revised” hymnal. It includes an adaptation of the main service from The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941. Another Service of Word and Sacrament offers two composite canticles that have not appeared elsewhere. The music is good, solid writing for the liturgy that is intended to wear well even though it can’t be learned in one experience.

More significant are psalm-singing and encouragement of a heightened “liturgical” use of the choir. The psalm tones are similar to those in the other newer Lutheran hymnals, but with the addition of refrains (antiphons). The ecumenical excitement over responsorial psalm singing had become established enough during the hymnal planning stage that the use of refrains seemed automatic. The psalms do not include verses according to any existing lectionary. They are “psalms for singing,” a comfortable length, often condensed from a complete psalm, and a springboard to other ways of singing the Psalms. Twenty years ago sung psalms would have had less chance of success: “too Catholic!” Now, even before the hymnal is published, many congregations, as well as worker training schools, are using them. A parochial school teacher tells of sixth-graders asking with enthusiasm, “Can we sing (i.e., chant) Psalm 16?” At the other extreme, some congregations rarely hear children’s choirs singing hymns, even in creative arrangements, as their “choir” piece for worship.

The hymns show a desire to conserve and share the Lutheran heritage and even to bring out more old treasures from the storehouse as did the Lutheran Book of Worship and Lutheran Worship. This new hymnal includes: “The Only Son from Heaven” (“Herr Christ, der einig Gottes Sohn”); “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light” (the Bach setting from the Christmas Oratorio); “O Lord of Light, Who Made the Stars” (“Conditor alme siderum”). The hymnal also welcomes treasures of recent vintage: “Sing a New Song to the Lord” (“Cantate Domino”); “Now” (Carl Schalk and Jaroslav Vajda); “Have No Fear, Little Flock” (Heinz Werner Zimmermann). The newer treasures, though not particularly bold, are a refreshing addition to the repertoire built on the 1941 hymnal.

A few churches here and there are using praise choruses and Christian contemporary music, mostly in youth-oriented alternative services and Sunday evening services, although sometimes also in Sunday morning services. The use of this music is restricted because of WELS Lutherans want to avoid worship that resembles entertainment. They are cautious about both overly subjective elements in worship and the use of music not quite worthy of divine worship. The musical arguments generated, in part, by the church growth movement have not been as painful for the WELS as for other Lutherans. But at least we thank the church growth movement for reinforcing the common-sense insight that we must offer quality worship planned with care.

Instruments in Worship Renewal

A new tracker pipe organ was installed at the synod’s only seminary near Milwaukee (Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon). The seminary’s gymnasium/mass assembly hall already had a large electronic organ. Some might have been content to let this serve as the only instrument for the seminary. But the quality pipe organ just installed will help shape worship renewal for decades as future pastors worship with the present leadership in daily chapel services. The educational impact of a good instrument will be a refreshing change from recent decades when a woefully defective instrument shaped the ears and expectations of the synod’s ministerium. The new seminary organ speaks to the future role of the organ in WELS worship renewal.

Within the WELS as elsewhere, overuse of the organ (often a musical monopoly) has contributed to its decline. The first five minutes of pre-service music can use up a great deal of talent and preparation for very few listeners. Few seem to listen in a meaningful way. (Few seem to want to learn how to play in a meaningful way.) Yet in recent years we have used more and more instruments in ways that show continuity with historic liturgical worship. Even the synthesizer (used here and there) has found a place in rather traditional worship, adding special “spice” to the old meat-and-potatoes routine of organ music in worship. This is quite a change from the day when some churches passed resolutions limiting “permissible” instruments. Handbells are used only sporadically; their liturgical uses (e.g., cadences in psalm tones) aren’t as well known.

The recently installed seminary organ says something about quality in worship renewal. In the current climate, the old false dichotomy that pits “missions vs. worship,” or “missions vs. organs” is no longer advanced. One respected pastor said, “What evangelism was to our Synod in the 70s (in the sense of attention, discovery, and energy), worship will be in the 90s.” With a rediscovered sense that worship is the heart and core of our lives together before the Lord, attention to quality in worship will not be viewed as a self-centered extravagance. The “old” outlook focused too much on one axiom: “It’s offered to God’s glory, and I did the best I can. So it’s good enough. Accept the mistakes in Christian charity.” The growing balance to that view recognizes, “It’s offered for my neighbor’s edification (and delight!), so it must be as good as possible.” The growing outlook recognizes that music must be of high quality to meet the potential that God put into his gift of music.

The WELS is rediscovering that musical quality isn’t a function of quality instruments only. Other quality factors include: (1) the use of hymns; (2) pay and time for musicians; (3) worship planning that deserves more of a pastor’s time and of the congregation’s budget.

The vast majority of WELS churches are committed to mainstream hymnody. This presents a challenge when many people judge traditional hymns to be boring. Some new musical vigor is growing out of an awareness that for years we’ve used hymns in an unimaginative fashion. Hymns have a chance to live and sparkle, to burrow more deeply into our consciousness when accompanied by grand or even modest resources. This can’t happen when six stanzas are sung by the same people, to the same harmony and (almost) the same organ registration. (The faithful enjoy singing not only out of piety but also because of its art and fun and variety.)

Quality music requires time; quality music is a labor-intensive product. Historically, teachers in WELS parochial schools have had most of the responsibility for church music. Though overworked, many have served as choir directors and organists, squeezing practice and preparation in between coaching, correcting, and family. That may be changing—slightly. But another prospective trend offers encouragement. Two churches have recently called pastors to positions with extensive responsibilities for music and worship planning and leadership. In earlier days that would have been judged unnecessary, a waste of pastoral training and ability. Such calls may be common in other church bodies, but they are not in the WELS, where overworked parochial schoolteachers or marginally capable volunteers have often lead the music.

One more comment related to quality. In the nineteenth century William Schuelke, a WELS member, built respected pipe organs in the upper Midwest. The WELS again has a quality organ builder. Bruce Case completed his Opus 1 in 1991. An engineer by training and with organ-building apprentice experience in England, he has set up shop near Madison, Wisconsin.

The Arts

The arts are not widely used in WELS churches, except for some of the following examples.

  • Banners have been used for decades. There is no discernible trend regarding their use unless it is scattered graduation from felt and glue to more worthy materials.
  • Regarding environmental art, design and placement of baptismal fonts have received only some of the attention they deserve. More new churches are including a free-standing altar or Table, especially if encouraged to think through a theology of design.
  • Regarding vestments, perhaps the broadest trend, if one can call it that, is the switch from black Geneva gowns to while albs (and stoles) for pastors. This has not happened out of concern for “historical liturgical correctness,” but simply because it seems so much more appropriate to the joy of worship. We do not need to stress penitence quite as much as the black gown would seem to suggest. But the black gown could reappear each year during Lent.
  • Chancel drama is quite rare, except for children’s Christmas services and dramatic readings of the Passion on Palm Sunday or Good Friday.

The Status Quo and Hope for the Future

This picture of music (and the arts) in the WELS has described what one might experience in churches giving renewed attention to worship and music. Perhaps most churches are rather content in various ruts, some comfortable, some complacent. That may not harm their salvation, but neither will their worship have the impact it could. In far too many churches the music is just sort of there, resembling neglected landscaping or well-worn carpet. The music with its mistakes and lack of vigor is neither strongly offensive nor highly inspiring. The choir may fail to approach anything transcendent or even mildly moving, but at least it is a good small-group activity for the nineteen regulars.

And the music from the pews, congregational song? In most places, we will have to work to encourage participation that is intentional. Bland acclamations of the gospel and vacant stares during the Communion distribution hymn indicate the work we have ahead of us in worship renewal.

Nevertheless, many amateur musicians are quite eager to improve their skills. Their willingness to spend a Saturday at a workshop bodes well for the renewal that comes from the heightened vision and new ideas. Participants in these workshops, even those with the lowest level of skill, seem eager for more. “Do this again every year,” they say.

Resources

WELS resources are limited. We have tended to rely on others. A Worship Leader’s Manual will accompany the new hymnal. It will include four sections on the following topics: worship in theology and practice; the services in detail and use; planning for worship (church year and propers); and music in worship.

Focus on Worship, published for many years by the Commission on Worship, ceased publication in 1992. Several other “parish service” publications also ceased when the Board for Parish Services introduced a new journal. This publication, Parish Leadership, will address worship concerns along with five other areas of “parish service.”

The twelve geographic districts of the WELS have elected “Worship Coordinators.” Some of these are assisted by a committee. Some districts organize workshops, some have sporadically published newsletters. Underfunding, lack of training or time, and inadequate direction limit the assistance these coordinators can offer.

The synod convention has approved a worship administrator at the national level. Staffing now awaits funding. This position would be concerned with music and the arts, architecture, and even preaching. Guidance and resources for work at the district level should increase.

Laudate, a relatively new organization within the WELS, consciously addresses the arts beyond music in its newsletter. Though music has been its strongest focus, the first issues have also given attention to architecture and watercolors.

The arts in the broadest sense are part of another newer journal from Wisconsin Lutheran College. Glory has addressed visual and graphic arts, literature, jazz, CCM, and film criticism. The second issue, published in March 1992, featured articles on sacred dance and worship renewal. Faculty members of Wisconsin Lutheran College also coordinate the WELS Art Guild.

The WELS elementary school system is not a resource, strictly speaking, but is rather unique in its musical impact. A similar “resource” exists in many Catholic churches and in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. One-third of WELS congregations operate a parochial school. These schools often exert a profound (though not always imaginative or energetic) impact on music for worship.

Sunday Worship in Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Churches

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The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), numbering some 400,000 members, has congregations in every state of the U.S. and several provinces of Canada. The church body conducts foreign mission work and supports its own worker-training system. Local congregations carry out parochial education on both the elementary and secondary level. The synod requires all its pastors to subscribe without reservation to the doctrines of the inspired Scriptures and to the Lutheran Confessions of the sixteenth century.

Pietistic and Confessional

Founded in 1850, the Wisconsin Synod has its roots in the pietistic mission societies of nineteenth-century Germany. During its first quarter century, however, the synod enthusiastically embraced the Lutheran orthodoxy championed in America by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Although the Missouri Synod exerted a strong influence on its smaller sister in a variety of ways, WELS’s attitudes toward worship continued to be influenced by the synod’s pietistic roots for many years. Unlike Missouri, Wisconsin had no strong leader with the interest or desire to prepare and standardize a common liturgical rite. The synod did publish several German hymnals, but none contained an order of worship. Congregations continued to use the rites (in German or in translation) they had brought from their homeland. An English hymnal produced in 1920 included only a sampling of the Reformation chorales and a scant twenty pages of liturgical material.

While several synod leaders worked faithfully with Missouri’s representatives in the production of The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), and while the book’s confessional hymnody and the Common Service found quick acceptance in most congregations, there were voices still sounding in the 1950s against the new liturgy’s “high church” forms. The increase in liturgical appreciation that might have accompanied the use of The Lutheran Hymnal was hindered as Wisconsin’s pastors became convinced that the Missourians who were most interested in liturgical studies were also interested in fostering ecumenical discussions with Lutherans who were, from Wisconsin’s point of view, decidedly nonconfessional.

Although the synod’s colleges and preparatory schools placed a strong emphasis on church music of good quality, there was, even into the 1980s, little interest in liturgics, ecclesiastical art, or liturgical architecture. When the larger Lutheran church bodies produced new hymnals, the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) and Lutheran Worship (LW), neither WELS pastors nor congregations showed much enthusiasm.

Outreach and the New Hymnal

What did encourage an interest in worship renewal was a growing determination to attract and retain church members. Many argued that the Elizabethan language and the Germanic hymnody of The Lutheran Hymnal diminished the church’s appeal in contemporary society. The synod’s 1983 delegate convention authorized the production of a new hymnal. By 1985 a project director, a music editor, and a twelve-member hymnal committee were in place and working. Final manuscripts for the new book were completed seven years later. The hymnal, published in 1993, appeared as Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal (CW).

The synod’s hymnal committee did not approach its task with the kind of pragmatism that initially had encouraged the project. The Lutheran Hymnal, in the committee’s opinion, had been built on sound theological and liturgical presuppositions and deserved to set the standard for a new hymnal. While it was determined to contemporize language and incorporate new musical styles, the committee felt no desire to abandon the tradition of Lutheran liturgical worship. It hoped instead to build on the synod’s experience with the “Common Service” and actually to encourage a stronger commitment to the liturgy, the church year, and the Supper. CW’s liturgical section includes, besides a revision of the “Common Service,” a new liturgical order, “Service of Word and Sacrament,” a service of the Word, and new settings of Matins and Vespers. All were formed with a deep respect for the historic Christian forms.

With an eye toward encouraging more congregational participation, CW, in accordance Luther’s teaching that “confession and absolution are nothing more than a reliving of one’s baptism,” CW attached the rite of Baptism to corporate confession in all the major services. The orders for Christian marriage and Christian funerals also involve the worshipers.

As the committee prepared the new book, it hoped to encourage a new understanding of the catholicity of the church’s worship. Therefore, the book’s hymn corpus includes a representation of hymns not only from sixteenth-century Germany and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England, but also from the African-American heritage, the Southern harmony tradition, and the contemporary folk contributions. The translation of the Nicene Creed and of most of the liturgical canticles are those of the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC). Settings of the canticles that appeared to be of enduring value were borrowed from other Lutheran worship books.

Given the liturgical history of the church body, the hymnal committee did not expect that the synod’s willingness to accept new forms would be unlimited. A eucharistic prayer was considered but not included. The committee was impressed by the liturgical services of LBW and LW, but concluded that they were too sophisticated for the average WELS congregation. None of the hymnal’s services encourage or even provide opportunities for the kiss of peace, lay readers, or processions.

Many of the synod’s congregations received and used the new services and hymns with enthusiasm. The refrain/chant line settings of the Psalms (sixty psalms for worship appear in the book) became popular. A good number of pastors chose to chant the new Matins and Vesper services, both of which included the pastor’s chant lines in the pew edition.

More than any other factor in recent history, Christian Worship is exerting a strong influence on the worship life of the Wisconsin Synod. However, the hymnal will have to overcome long-held fears of “Romanizing” and lingering suspicions that all changes in form signal changes in doctrine.

With its long history of confessionalism and its loyalty to the Scriptures, the WELS is not likely to move too far away from its present worship practices. However, more than a few of the synod’s pastors, influenced by the times, contemplate worship from a pragmatic viewpoint. This is especially true of some who have become deeply committed to outreach. A feeling is spreading that the key to continued growth, both spiritual and numerical, is a renewed worship life that stands to be encouraged by the church’s new hymnal.