Several years ago, after a lively discussion about worship, a friend and mentor gave me a copy of Volume 53 of the American edition of Luther’s Works entitled “Hymns and Liturgy.” It makes for some fascinating reading.
In the preface to his 1523 treatise “The German Mass and Order of Service,” Luther discusses three types of worship services.
First, the Latin Mass, to keep the laity sharp with their Latin and to maintain continuity and good order. He goes so far as to suggest the inclusion of the Greek and Hebrew languages, if suitable hymns and musical arrangements can be written.
Second, he urges the use of a German Mass for the unlearned and simple folk so that they might hear and more fully understand. This would, he says, provide an opportunity to evangelize those who “stand around and gape, hoping to see something new, just as if we were holding a service among the Turks or the heathen in a public square or out in a field.” (You gotta love Luther, no one talks like this nowadays. You are never in doubt about what he really thought. He would never make it through seminary today.)
The third type of service was a shock to me. I had never heard that Luther addressed the subject of house churches.
I will quote at length.
“But those who want to be Christians in earnest and who profess the gospel with hand and mouth should sign their names and meet alone in a house somwhere to pray, to read, to baptize, to receive the sacrament, and to do other good works. According to this order, those who do not lead Christian lives could be known, reproved, corrected, cast out, or excommunicated, according to the rule of Christ, Matt. 18 [:15-17]. Here one could also solicit benevolent gifts to be willingly given and distributed to the poor according to St.Paul’s example, II Corinthians 9. Here would be no need for much and elaborate singing. Here one could set up a brief and neat order for baptism and the sacrament and center everything on the Word, prayer, and love. Here one would need a good short catechism on the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Our Father.”
Luther’s Works Vol. 53, p. 64
He goes on to explain that he had neither the time nor the people to start such churches, nor did there seem to be a demand for such services. However, if the demand arose he said he could not in good conscience fail to implement them.
To my knowledge such worship services were never implemented in Luther’s time, though my grasp of that period of time is far from complete.
At the time I first read this, I started to formulate some ideas as to what a house church from a liturgical tradition would look like, and how you could start these types of churches. Over the last few years I have continued to meditate on the subject, and recently when another friend, Pastor Craig D’Onofrio of God Whisperers fame, told me he was considering planting a church, I shared some of my ideas with him. He urged me to put them on paper and email him a copy. After reading the outline I sent him, he showed it to some other pastors who thought it might have some real value for planting new liturgical churches or revitalizing existing congregations.
In another post I’ll throw these ideas out there and see what our readers think.
By Pat K
