FROM THE PASTOR

Lutheran Dimensions of Faith

Some Lutheran Dimensions of the Faith  

1. Vocation is sacred.  Being a student, a friend, one’s job, an adult member of a congregation, are all vocations.  The “priesthood of all believers” strengthens the fundamental dignity of the rhythms of our lives as our arena to praise God and love our neighbor.  To help “flesh out” the vocation of church membership I stressed five tangible things when I taught confirmation:
   1. Regular worship and reception of the sacrament.
   2. A regular money offering.
   3. A piece of ministry all their own (taking an elderly neighbor shopping, teaching Sunday School, etc.)
   4. Some form of continued growth in the word (at home, Bible class, etc.)
   5. Daily prayer for the ministry of the church and those in need.

2. Lutherans are Ecumenical.  Lutheranism was initially a pastoral care movement to restore the faith, worship and scripture to the people within the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church.  We share common ground with the whole body of Christ.  Every community of believers is a microcosm of the whole.  Lutheranism is a reform movement within the one Body of Christ.  In his heart Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic all his life.

3. Lutherans are Evangelical.  Our life together is grounded in grace.  Our heartbeat is the Gospel: that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God.  Catechesis is a part of God’s gracious invitation to encircle each human with unconditional love and acceptance.  Because of Christ, a person does not have to earn her existence as a part of the parish.  This ministry includes credible invitations to deeper ties in the parish or to join in its life.

4. Lutherans are Apostolic.  We stand on the faith of the ages (“the democracy of the dead,” in Barth’s term).  The Story of Israel, the Story of Jesus, and the Story of the Church is our story.  We teach it as we have received it.

5. Our identity is Communal.  We see the church as the community gathered around and by the Word and the Sacraments.  Luther’s sense of nurture in the family and home translates well into this ministry.  For many people (especially children) in our atomized society the only sense of family they may ever get is among us in our parishes and its programs.  We will continually find ways to ritualize the growth in faith of our people, and root their rites of passage in the liturgical life of the church.

6. Lutherans are Sacramental.  The things of this world convey the presence of Christ.  Water, Bread, Wine, the poor, children, a teacher become signs of God’s ubiquitous grace.  Teaching the faith means being stewards of these mysteries of grace, and enabling baptismal and eucharistic communities and insights to be born.

7. Lutherans are serious about Education.  Luther’s catechetical pedagogy, rooted in Jesus’ rabbinic (question and answer) style of  teaching, is a foundation for our own efforts.  We teach because we baptize.

8. Lutherans are rooted in the proper distinction of Law and Gospel.  We are not naive about sin and its consequences.  We teach and embody a theology of the Cross as opposed to a theology of glory.  We are communities of forgiveness.

Three great Reformation slogans:  

Sola Gratia: Grace alone  

Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone 

Sola Fides: Faith alone  

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God— 9 not because of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 

 Some Reformation Verbs: 

 To teach 

 To reform  

 To serve  

 To confess    

 To sing 

The Structure of Lutheran Mission in America

Global Lutheranism

Pastor Stephen Paul Bouman
Saint Luke’s, Park Ridge
Reformation 2022