The Nihil Rule

  An Explanation of Lutheran Worship: For the Lutheran who asks the Meaning of the Beautiful Liturgy of His church

A really great article at Gottesdienst  by Pr Beane with several excellent follow up comments related to decorum in general and the childrens' sermon in specific: "It is little surprise, given that our grandfathers and grandmothers went to dinner, sports events, the airport, and even to church as gentlemen wearing coats and ties and as ladies clad in dress, hat, and gloves, whereas people of all generations now regularly go out in public in sweats, yoga pants, pajamas, sports bras, hair curlers, clothing with intentional rips, tears, and holes, and with underwear and abdomen visible - it is little wonder that we are culturally bereft of distinction and contextual propriety, even within the sacred spaces of worship." "Multiple sermons for different demographics has never been done until very recently in church history. That said, I might consider special boomer sermons, where we invite them all to take their places up front, and we can use age-appropriate props to tea...

 " This the exercise of the royal priesthood.  Not all the foolishness about everyone a minister or others having a right to their place in the spotlight of Sunday morning or voting on this or that.  No, the real exercise of the spiritual priesthood spoken about by St. Paul is the simple and yet very profound  amen  that affirms what is prayed and the rest of the liturgy whose parts belong to the people and not to the pastor.  From from being merely symbolic, I cannot think of a more meaningful role for the people of God that to give their  amen  to the prayers and praises spoken by the pastor.  Either that or we are back to private masses in which people are extraneous or merely spectators of things not meant for them." -Pr. Peters at Pastoral Meanderings

  I had been looking for God inside myself, in my feelings, my experiences, my spiritual faithfulness, and works of obedience. I’d come up empty. I had nothing. The game was over. The God I had been seeking was turning out to be an imaginary best friend whom I was outgrowing. I finally reached the point where I couldn’t fake it anymore. It was tearing me apart to the point that atheism seemed preferable. I felt like such a hypocrite standing before the congregation every Sunday to lead them in the kind of “worship” that felt like leveraging commercial subculture to manufacture experiences that would hopefully be misconstrued as spiritual. I threw in the towel. Five days after giving my two weeks, I received a phone call from a Lutheran church on the other side of the country. They wound up taking this religious refugee in and teaching me to worship God in a more emotionally and spiritually healthy way. A much older way. Rather than pushing me deeper into myself to find my connectio...

"I've got to do some presentations coming up where I need a powerpoint so it automatically makes it for you but anyways you don't necessarily need that for the sermon. You guys shouldn't be preaching with screens anyways"

Exodus 28 describes the fabrication of the priestly garments and multiple times echoes the phrase "for glory and for beauty."  This is in stark contrast to modern worship tendencies to downplay vestments, ritual and ceremony. The modern church - including swaths of confessional Lutheranism - downplay the ritual and ceremony of worship.  C.S. Lewis in the Preface to Paradise Lost, Oxford, 1942, pg. 17 "A celebrant approaching the altar, a princess led out by a king to dance a minuet, a general officer on a ceremonial parade, a major domo preceding the boar's head at the Christmas feast - all these wear unusual clothes and move with calculated dignity. This does not mean that they are vain, but that they are obedient; they are obeying the hoc age which presides over every solemnity. The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil ...