Liturgy and Missions
“Does/did LCMS missionaries use our liturgy when evangelizing in foreign lands such as Africa, Phillipines and India?”
Our reader who posed this question - who is an advocate for non-liturgical worship - seems to be asking the question from the point of view that the activity of “LCMS missionaries” in non-white areas of the world, establish, or have established, the norm of non-liturgical worship practices for confessors of the Augsburg Confession.
Of course, we know that LCMS practice - not only abroad but domestically - is a confused hash of practices. This is especially true regarding past paternalistic approaches to mission work that seemed to operate under the “racism of low expectations,” assuming that benighted races of people required worship practices that catered to their more simple, childlike qualities.
Interestingly, though it is a huge continent, parts of Africa were evangelized in apostolic times (Northern Africa was under the governance of Rome, and the Empire had friendly trade with African nations to the south, such as Ethiopia). All we have to do is look to the long history of the Coptic Christians to see that Africans were worshiping in elaborate settings of liturgy centuries before our Germanic ancestors ceased worshiping trees. Here is an example of a modern-day Coptic service, which has changed little over the centuries:
Roman Catholics evangelized Ethiopia and had a presence there in 1839. Here is a modern-day service at the Nativity Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin in Addis Ababa:
Similarly, India - a vast subcontinent - seems to have been evangelized by St. Thomas the apostle. Historic Indian churches (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran) have been using liturgical worship forms for centuries. Missionaries were at work in India as early as the thirteenth century, when liturgical worship was the only option. It is only the baby-boomers - whose historical ecclesiastical moorings date only to the 1960s - that have come along questioning the ability of non-whites to be able to worship liturgically. Here is a recent ordination service held in Siloam Lutheran Church in Tirukkoilur, India:
As a side note, I recently scanned a book that popped up as a free download. It is called Next Wave by a charismatic author named Bob Sorge. He analyzes the history of worship, and compares the evolution of worship forms to be akin to “waves” in the ocean. His historical analysis begins with his own childhood in the 1960s - which moved away from hymns and tradition. As with many in his generation, “Year Zero” is sometime between the Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan and Jimi Hendrix playing The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock. Sorge ignores the fact that we Christians have a long and rich history of liturgical worship and hymnody that spans nearly two millennia before his idyll of the Age of Aquarius. His analysis grants no leeway for liturgical forms. He mentions the LCMS in the book: a particular parish that embraced the charismatic movement and “contemporary worship” (so-called), gleeful that this congregation forsook its treasure of liturgical heritage and was more open to charismatic (so-called) worship forms.
As for the Philippines, I know nothing about evangelism - other than the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has been in that country since 1521 - when the only forms of Christian worship were liturgical. The Lutheran Church of the Philippines grew out of LCMS mission work in that country beginning in 1946. It is safe to say that in the year after World War II ended, there were no entertainment-based Lutheran worship forms, that the Lutheran liturgy was being used exclusively. The Philippine Lutherans became an independent church body in 1956 - again years before the worship-style revolution of the 1960s. Here is a video of a recent service of the LCP:
I have never been to Africa, but many of my colleagues have taught there and planted churches and seminaries there. In many places, our Lutheran tradition thrives thanks to Scandinavian missionary endeavors from a century ago or more. Pictures of Lutheran churches in African nations often show a commitment to traditional forms, such as the clergy wearing traditional vestments (even in very hot weather and lacking air conditioning), even cope- and miter-clad bishops. Swedish missionaries exported the Lutheran liturgy to African churches, which accounts for that same liturgy being sung in four part harmony to this very day.
Here is a video highlighting Kenyan worship making use of the 2013 hymnal:
I think there is a stereotype at work - especially among older Lutherans - that presumes the darker the skin, the less liturgical the culture - and thus, our missionary endeavors will be more fruitful if we ditch the liturgy and go for more emotional and entertaining settings for the Divine Service.
I believe this reflects a generational bias and a closed mind toward the way Lutherans worship in nations far from the original locations of the Reformation. As do all Lutherans, these brothers and sisters in Christ believe that our Lord is miraculously present in Word and Sacrament. And that separates us from various streams of Protestantism that have opened themselves up to non-liturgical and even entertainment-based worship styles.