Our Savior Spenerian Church

The leader of a Lutheran church looked at the old way of doing things and thought it was time for a new reformation. He looked at a church in which the people went out of duty, rather than for the love of God. He saw a church in which the congregation was entirely dependent on "Herr Pastor"; it took no responsibility for its own spirituality. It met once a week, and they confessed their sins and went through the formula of the liturgy, and sang the same old hymns without joy. He saw a church that was satisfied with gaining new believers by opening its doors on Sunday and expecting people to just walk in. But most of all, the pastor looked at the Lutherans as having head knowledge about Christianity - they were all good catechumens, after all - but that the love of Christ didn't affect their heart in any way, shape or form.
He proposed radical changes in church, by first of all starting Bible studies in people's homes. After all, we are a priesthood of ALL believers, are we not? The leader sought to enliven the worship by not doing things the old way, but to bring in new ideas. He suggested that we could gain more converts to Christianity if we engaged those in the culture, befriending them, rather than lecturing them about what is right. Out of these holy huddles would form new missional communities, pockets of Christians who were attracted by the way we live, not just what we teach. He wanted a church that would live out the principals of Christianity on a daily basis, not just on Sunday. He wanted our schools and seminaries not just to teach the seminarians about Christianity, but to transform their lives, so that they would BE the City on a Hill, not just to talk about it.
He lived 300 years ago.
He is Philipp Jakob Spener (pro. SPAIN-er), the father of Pietism, and the true source of Our Savior Lutheran's heritage. It is my contention that our church follows more closely in the footsteps of Spener than Luther, and that this is not necessarily a bad thing.

We'll get to the bad thing next week.
The good news is that Spener was right - the Lutheran Church 120 years after Luther was in need of reform - and it remains so to this day. We are continually reforming as a church, as needs be. If Vatican II taught us anything, it's that a church needs a good enema every 300 years or so. The church during Spener's time (1635-1705) was rather fusty, just as our Missouri Synod churches were (are) fusty today. Our Savior blew some wind up Missouri's sails 15 years ago as it became the first LCMS church to worship exclusively in a contemporary manner. It is a point of pride in our church; I think it's interesting and has led to my nascent career (in my role as consummate contrarian) to lead a traditional worship service these past three years.
We'll be adding to this post next Tuesday, but for now, let's celebrate the wonder that is Spener, and the changes he wrought in the Lutheran Church, then and now.