Welcome to

Lord of Life

Lutheran Church

What can you expect when you come to our worship services at Lord of Life?

We use a traditional style of worship.

When it comes to the music that we use, there are several things that we consider.

Is it: 1)biblical; 2)clear; 3)transcendent; 4)emotional; 5)simple?

1)Biblical - What we sing in church must present truths that come from God’s Word. On the top of that list is the truth of the Gospel—the message of our Savior Jesus Christ who sacrificed Himself as the payment for the sins of the world, and rose from the dead as victor over sin and death. For it is only through that message that the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith in the hearts of the hearers. If the music is not biblical, it does not belong in a service.

2)Clear - Since the words, not the melody, are the most important part in church music, it must also be clear. Clarity of words is assisted by repetition. Therefore, our services have music that is repeated each Sunday. Clarity is also assisted when you do not have to build music around a certain rhythm and rhyming. Therefore, our services use music that is unforced by rhythm and rhyming. Clarity is also assisted when words are not rushed. Therefore, our services also use music to slow down the rushing of spoken words. In each of these ways—repeated, unforced, and unrushed—in order to promote the clarity of words, we use chanting. Sunday after Sunday, we emphasize the importance of the words by using the clarity of chanting. The chanting we do is more melodic than it is Gregorian, but it still meets the requirements for clarity—repeated, unforced, and unrushed.

3)Transcendent - Music that we hear on the radio can be enjoyable to listen to. People have different tastes in music. Some like a country style of music, others a rock-and-roll style of music, still others a big band style of music, etc. And we can use such kind of music in church as long as it is biblical. At the same time, though, the church is not of this world. So we also want to differentiate ourselves from the world. And music can do that in a very vivid way. When music is sung that promotes the clarity of the Word, this becomes what some may call “church music.” It is a music whose emphasis is to speak the Word of God through which the Spirit can work in our hearts. It’s a music that is aimed at the intellect and soul.

4)Emotional - In addition to the “church music” that we do in church, we also use hymns and songs that the congregation sings. We want our people to sing loud and proud, with the emotions of forgiven souls by a gracious God. Hymns have rhythm and rhyming. Hymns are not repeated weekly or monthly. Hymns may be fast or slow. While this can affect clarity, it can also enhance emotion. Songs performed by choirs or soloists; or played by instrumentalists, can also have this effect; so we use these in our worship services as well.

5)Simple - When the congregation participates in the service, we don’t want the music to be so difficult that we are unable to think about the words we are speaking. By keeping the music simple, this emphasizes the importance of the message.

When it comes to the order of worship that we use, we do things that are meant to train the members in their spiritual journey:

Hymn – The opening hymn is kind of like the music being played before the introduction of the teams that are about to play in a championship game. The opening hymn can serve as a general intro to what the service will be about. It can also serve as a call to God, or Christ, to come to His people.