Concordia Irvine Offers New Worship Drama Degree

In the inbox this morning was a story in the Reporter, the official LCMS newspaper that Concordia University, Irvine, Calif., has approved a minor in worship arts leadership. From the story;

The minor includes courses in music, theology, song selection, how to put a service together, and how to select a worship team. It is designed to provide training in various worship styles, the use of technology and media in worship, service planning, and the use of drama and visual arts.

I thought I remember President Kieschnick saying sometime last year that we were a united bunch. Didn’t I read that somewhere? I’m sure I did, somewhere...

Now at first I thought President Kieschnick was just holding to the Lutheran confessions which I know he holds most dear which state in Article XXIV: Of the Mass.

Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught [what they need to know of Christ].

But after reading President Kieschnick’s piece I now realize that he meant that we are unified not by our confession of what Scripture teaches, (he later said we do indeed have “disagreements”) or our worship but rather we are unified by the passing of the synod’s marketing campaign in convention and election of synodical bureaurocrats. Sorry, I’m really getting off topic here (although the two issues are joined at the hip), anyhoo...

So, to further buttress our stated unity the Concordia system is now offering courses on how to create new worship services? Really? Do we now need to modify ACXXIV to say we have indeed abolished the Divine Service for some new fangled thing(s) that we trained people to create so as to be relevant? Do we also need to say that we no longer sing the historic hymnody that has been sung and confessed for millennia instead we look for songs to sing and that we no longer consider a pastor as an undershepherd who leads us in worship but rather that we now use teams to lead us? Are we so incompetent at preaching Christ and Him crucified that we need to resort to drama teams to entertain us on a Sunday morning?

Yes sirree buddy, all we need in the LCMS is more drama…