My Visit With St. Luke’s

After doing a good bit of research, I choose St. Luke’s Lutheran Church over in Oviedo to visit this weekend while staying in Orlando for my metrology conference.

When I left the St. Luke's sanctuary I knew that I had been fed God’s Word. I found myself struggling to find any criticisms at all where I could back up an argument on theological grounds.

There were differences in style that I feel might take me some time to get used to. The method of singing the versified psalms and the choir’s anthem did contrast a bit with the historic hymnody which was exceptionally good.

My Southern Baptist coworker who joined me this morning thought there was an awful lot of sitting, and I would tend to agree. We did stand for the corporate confession and absolution of sins and the reading of the Gospel but remained seated for the opening hymn and prayers. I’m used to kneeling for prayer but I also understand that many sanctuaries simply don’t have kneelers.

There was an inclusion of the reading of the Small Catechism’s explanation of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism between the sermon and the offering that seemed out of place. St Luke’s is placing special emphasis this year on growing spiritually and catechetical instruction during the worship service is just one of the ways they are accomplishing this. In an age where so many churches are reducing their theological teachings to the lowest common denominator to become more seeker sensitive, I’m hard pressed to argue against this practice.

The highest compliment I can bestow on any congregation is that I heard Christ preached purely and received his Holy Supper rightly. St. Luke’s met all the previously mentioned criteria in spades.

The sermon was delivered by St. Luke’s brand new vicar. If this morning’s homily was any indication, this vicar is well on his way to becoming a fine proclaimer of God’s word.

Again, I enjoyed my visit to St. Luke’s and I left knowing that I was fed God’s Word. If I was required to move to the Orlando area, I could see myself becoming a member without any reservations whatsoever.

Thanks to everybody that commented and emailed me suggestions for my visit this week.