Lutheran identity crisis 1

I went to Edmonton over the weekend. Saw some friends and had some great visits. It was interesting though, because it turned into quite the Lutheran-fest. I knew I was going to a worship service on Friday night with my friend. What I found out later, was that Marty Haugen - the Lutheran contemporary liturgy writer- was going to be the worship leader. Hmmm. Well that's really cool. He's done many different services and settings (e.g. Holden evening prayer, Now The Feast and Celebration) and has been writing new ones. The worship service was kind of like Lent over the course of an evening. We started with ashes and brokenness, moved through healing, and ended with joy. I enjoyed it a lot.

The next evening was the Lutheran Campus Ministry (LCM) banquet. I was part of the Lutheran Student Movement (LSM) on the University of Alberta (U of A) campus for many years so the banquet was a reunion of sorts. Wow, lots of abbreviations! Anyway, LCM was celebrating 50 years of existence this year and as part of the celebrations had Marty Haugen and his writing partner Susan Briehl come and do a two-day worship conference. Apparently it was very good. But man, I realized sitting there, I have spent a lot of time in the last two days hanging out with Lutherans. To quote Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Now we come to Sunday where I attend church with my friend Kristine. First, we almost didn't get there and we were late because of heavy snowfall and frequent occasions being stuck in the middle of the road or intersections. Fun. We always managed to get out, thankfully. Well, we get to church and there is a guest pastor. Kristine's pastor was there, of course, but the congregation had apparently asked Bishop Steve Kristenson to preach that Sunday and give a presentation after the service. What was the presentation about you ask? "What does it mean to be a Lutheran?" Too weird because as many of you know, I'm married to a Lutheran pastor.

But more on this later.