On Change in the Church

September 7, 2005 · Filed Under theology

I’ve just finished reading The Fire and the Staff by Rev. Klemet Preus. It’s an outstanding examination of the relationship between doctrine and practice. Rev. Preus lays things out in a very cogent, witty, and easy to read way, both in assessing where Lutheranism has fallen away from orthodoxy, and in showing how that orthodoxy can be reclaimed by coming “back to the ways that have characterized Lutheranism and much of Christendom for centuries.”

It’s a great book — Get it. Read it. Now.
Of particular note, at least for the purposes of this posting, is the focus of Chapter 12 - The Fire Stoked: Change in the Church - i.e., change. The meat of this chapter is encapsulated in the five fundamental principles of change in the church, as outlined by Luther in his Invocavit Sermons of March 9-16, 1522. These sermons were given by Luther upon his return to Wittenberg from his post-Diet of Worms safekeeping at the Wartburg Castle. This return to Wittenberg was necessitated by the radical, and almost anarchical, change set off and encouraged by Carlstadt. The city council of Wittenberg beseechingly invited Luther back to speak to this wave of change, which Luther accepted despite the misgivings of Duke Frederick of Saxony, Luther’s elector and protector.

In these eight sermons, Luther gives us a bold blueprint for approaching churchly change from a Gospel, theology-of-the-cross, -based perspective. He did not fan the flames of radical, anti-Romanist change. Rather, he laid out these five fundamental principals:

Change must be required by the Gospel.
The Word, not force, should effect change.
If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
Don’t let yourself get pushed around.
Always yield to the weak.

Now, I’m not going to go into an in-depth discussion of these fundamentals, at least in this posting. I hope to do so over the coming days, but I’ve got to be honest and admit that I might not get to it as quickly as I might like…

These five fundamentals, however, are quite deserving of great consideration. I must admit that, even after reading Rev. Preus’s wonderful explanations, I have have had trouble with these principles, especially #2 & #4. And I probably will continue to have trouble in the future. I’m impatient, and more than a little too confident in my own abilities.

Rev. Preus, however, has done me a great service in that his book has helped me understand where some of my weaknesses lie, and what I need to ask God to help me out with. It’s nothing the Bible doesn’t tell me, mind you, but I can be a bit thick sometimes. In any event, it certainly helps to have a framework upon which to base Scriptural studies.

There’s a lot more I’d like to say about all of this, but I think I’ll cut it short for now, and leave the rest for future posts…

-ghp

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