About Our Worship
We at St. John's are committed to liturgical, Lutheran worship. Services are taken from the Lutheran Service Book with an occasional service based upon the theme of the day of the Church Year. The Divine Service is often supported by the adult and children's choirs.
Our understanding of worship is summarized by the following statement found in the hymnal Lutheran Worship:
"Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise. Music is drawn into this thankfulness and praise, enlarging and elevating the adoration of God, our gracious giver.
Saying back to Him what He has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. Most true and sure is His name, which He put upon us with the water of our Baptism. We are His. This we acknowledge at the beginning of the Divine Service. Where His name is, there is He.
Before Him we acknowledge that we are sinners, and we plead for forgiveness. His forgiveness is given to us, and we, freed and forgiven, acclaim Him as our great and gracious God as we apply to ourselves the words He has used to make Himself known to us.
The rhythm of our worship is from Him to us, and then from us back to Him. He gives His gifts, and together we receive and extol them. We build one another up as we speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Our Lord gives us His Body to eat and His Blood to drink. Finally His blessing moves us out into our calling, where His gifts have their fruition. How best to do this we may learn from His Word and from the way His Word has prompted His worship through the centuries. We are heirs of an astonishingly rich tradition. Each generation receives from those who went before and, in making that tradition of the Divine Service its own, adds what best may serve in its own day - the living heritage and something new."
Communion Practice
The Lord’s Supper is celebrated every Lord’s Day. Those who gather at the Lord’s Table publicly confess that they are in doctrinal unity with one another. According to God’s Word, the entire congregation declares the central truth of our faith, that Christ gave His body and blood to redeem us from our sins.
We acknowledge what His promise that He is actually present, not just spiritually present, with His true body and blood in the bread and wine to forgive our sins. From 1 Cor 11:29 we learn, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
Therefore, out of Christian love and concern for all who desire to come to the Lord’s Table, and as doctrinal unity is central to this common proclamation of Christ’s saving work on our behalf, the churches of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod have pledge to practice close(d) communion. Those who are confirmed members, in good standing, of an LC-MS congregation are invited to come to the LOrd’s Table. Visitors are asked to speak with to the pastor to learn about receiving instruction in our doctrine before partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
