Gottesdienst Needs Your Help
Every year about this
time we send to all the friends of the Lutheran Liturgy we know to consider
seriously whether you can help us out. We simply cannot produce Gottesdienst, something we have
been publishing since 1992, without significant donations. We really do depend
on them. And right about now reservoir is running pretty low, frankly.
Think about this, if
you would: Gottesdienst exists because liturgical worship
is under assault, and we are persuaded that the reason this is so is that, to
put it simply, the devil doesn’t like liturgical worship. C. S. Lewis’s Uncle
Screwtape would be as pleased as could be if he could convince unsuspecting
churchgoers that they are “getting God” by being entertained and wooed by the
pleasant sounds of praise bands as they are called to worship. When this
happens, when people “just praise God” in their own way―which is generally shallow and devoid of much of the Gospel,
except for perhaps an occasional nod to Jesus’ name―they are really being mesmerized and lulled into
thinking that God is thus pleased with their praise. So Screwtape has
fooled them: “See what fine Christians you are, as you ‘groove on’ in your
worship ways,” grinning inwardly because he knows he has stolen from them the
one thing needful, Mary’s part, that was not taken from her.
Christian worship―Gottesdienst―is first and foremost
about receiving God’s gifts, which are the Gospel and the Sacraments, and not
about “just praising Him.” And Christian people meet Christ in the way
of Jacob, who awoke from his dream and exclaimed, “Truly God was in this
place and I did not know it!” Christian people rejoice that Jesus receives
sinners and eats with them. And their true and holy joy is not fooled by
the follies of ‘contemporary’ settings that distract and pull the heart and
mind away from the Gospel, however subtly.
Do you know what we
mean? If you do, then you must also know why we exist, both in this
online form and in print. And
then you will understand why we unabashedly ask for your help.
Will you support Gottesdienst? Become a
part of who we are. When we say lightly that our subscribers are “Gottesdiensters,”
we actually mean something serious: you are with us in our desire to reach the
world with Christ, and to worship Him in Spirit and truth.
Our pledge to our
donors is to make the most of donations in every way we can.
To donate, click here. You can use PayPal account or else simply with MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or American Express. Or send
a check to Gottesdienst,
c/o St. Paul ’s Lutheran Church 109 South Elm Street ,
Kewanee , IL 61443
With a donation of
$50 or more we’ll even send you a complementary copy of our new Gottesdienst book The
Lutheran Propers. This volume contains
the musical settings of all the Sunday propers edited by Walter Buszin in the
early 1940s, intended for use with the settings of the common service with
which so many of us a very familiar (TLH page 15; LSB setting 3), as well as
suggested hymns, and an order of service containing brief rubrics for the laity.
And incidentally a $1,000 donation, if you’re up to
it, comes with a lifetime subscription. But whatever you’re able to
give, we’ll appreciate, and all the readership of Gottesdienst will reap the rewards.
Sincerely,
+ Burnell F Eckardt,
Jr.
Editor-in-chief