RIM Pastors and Eucharistic Practice by Ted Jungkuntz

Recently I visited Immanuel Lutheran Church of Frankentrost, Michigan, younger sister of the better known congregation in Frankenmuth, just seven miles away. It was "planted" by my great-grandfather, Pastor Johann Heinrich Philipp Graebner, a protege of Wilhelm Loehe, just 150 years ago. While there, a kind church secretary shared with me an autobiography by Pastor Graebner with which I was completely unfamiliar. -- What a fascinating insight into LCMS congregational life 150 years ago!

Among many other valuable pieces of information, I read this in my great grandfather's autobiography (translated by Esther Meyer Stahlke): "In general our public worship services and also our daily Matins and Vespers followed the liturgical method as given in the Loehe agenda. According to the constitution which Rev, Loehe sent along with us, 'on all Sunday as well as all special festival services, on the first day thereof, Holy Communion shall be observed and the exclusive use of private confession shall be practiced.' During the six years that I was in Frankentrost, it was very rare that there were no communicants on Sunday or high festivals."

How does that auspicious beginning in one of the earliest LCMS congregations compare with the practice in her congregations 150 years later as we celebrate that anniversary in the Synod? And to sharpen the question even further – how has the "charismatic renewal," as represented by those congregations openly identified with RIM (Renewal in Missouri), impacted the eucharistic practice of these pastors?

This latter question came to me as I was recently being interviewed by a Finnish doctoral candidate, Pastor Markku Antola. Researching the Lutheran Charismatic Renewal, he had been doing a careful study of the book Welcome Holy Spirit, edited by Larry Christenson, and he had noticed that there was very little attempt there to speak of the impact charismatic renewal had made on the eucharistic faith and practice of Lutheran pastors. He had concluded therefore that Lutheran charismatic pastors had moved away from a strong appreciation for sacramental faith and practice to a more Pentecostal emphasis on experience. To this conclusion I responded with a strong "no," but my evidence at that moment could only be anecdotal. It was then that I resolved to conduct a survey of the RIM pastors listed in the RIM Report and at least from these LCMS pastors try to determine the impact of their charismatic experience on their sacramental (especially eucharistic) practice.

I asked my RIM brothers five simple ques-tions, seeking to determine whether their charismatic experience had undermined their Lutheran sacramental faith and practice, namely:

1. How frequently is the Lord's Supper celebrated in your congregation?

2. What liturgy do you use?

3. What preparation is required for participation in Holy Communion?

4. What effect has your charismatic involvement had on your cele- bration of the Eucharist?

5. What has happened to your appre- ciation for "sacramental baptism" since having been "baptized in the Holy Spirit?"

I sent out 42 questionnaires and received 31 responses, including three letters with helpful additional insights. And I am happy to pass this information on to Pastor Antola as well as to you, good readers, as evidence that Lutheran sacramental theology is alive, well, and growing among the pastors openly involved with RIM, for this is how they responded:

Well over half of these pastors celebrate the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day, with some of these celebrating it twice on Sundays and mid-week as well. Not one celebrates it less than every other Sunday and these usually also celebrate it on a variety of mid-week occasions. One even mentioned celebrating it in connection with all meetings of the church council. Several indicated they are moving their congregations toward weekly celebrations. – – Does anyone know whether the rest of the LCMS does any better?

In answer to the question regarding which liturgies are used, almost all use a traditional liturgy a good part of the time (LW, LBW, TLH) and a contemporary liturgy based on the traditional the rest of the time. Eleven indicated that sometimes they also use a completely nontraditional liturgy. This might bother some folks in the LCMS; but even Prof. Hermann Sasse, a much appreciated German theologian in LCMS circles, claimed that the driving force of the liturgy is the Lord's Supper itself and not vice versa. Therefore what is paramount is that the sacrament is celebrated according to Christ's institution rather than that it always be cel-ebrated according to a particular liturgical form with pipe organ and chanting.

What kind of preparation do RIM pastors require for participation in the Lord's Supper? Almost all indicated that they use the traditional catechetical instruction, although some explained that they have developed a special form of instruction (from 2 to 6 hours) for children who participate in Holy Communion before their confirmation. Thus it would seem that RIM pastors are continuing the fine catechetical tradition that has marked the Lutheran Church from its inception.

Responding to the question of what effect charismatic experience had made on their celebration of the Eucharist, all answered that it had either increased their use of it or deepened their hunger for it. One indicated in an accompanying letter that he had grown up in a LCMS congregation where the wor-ship was "lifeless" and that included the celebration (?) of the Sacrament of the Altar. He remembered being chastised as a young adult "because [he] was not somber when returning from the altar after communion." Now he writes, "there are few times of wor-ship that are more uplifting and inspiring than the times around the Lord's Table." –– From these observations I think it would be safe to conclude that at least among RIM pastors, their charismatic experience has not prompted them to depreciate the Holy Com-munion; but instead they have entered into a more robust celebration and expectation of it.

For as Luther taught us: " . . . for where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation."

Finally, almost as an afterthought, I asked the RIM pastors how being "baptized in the Holy Spirit" (that is, experiencing a special anointing or manifestation of the Holy Spirit) had affected their appreciation for "sacra-mental baptism." Eighteen responded that they had developed an increased apprecia-tion for it; ten indicated their appreciation had remained constant, that is high; only one indicated he now had a diminished apprecia-tion for it. Judging from that brother's other responses, it would appear to me that he formerly had a theologically high teaching on sacramental baptism, but an experien-tially low practice of it. In other words, he hadn't learned how to use his baptism. Now he is learning to link his subjective experi-ence to the objective promise of the sacra-ment of baptism – – that is, he is seeing the connection between promise and fulfillment as he experiences the God who does not lie making good on his promise received in faith.

As I consider all of the above, it appears to me that the leadership of the LCMS has little basis for fearing that the charismatic re-newal, as represented by the pastors of RIM, will draw the LCMS away from its theologi- cal moorings. Instead it could expect that these pastors will continue to minister out of a Lutheran, that is, biblical and confessional framework. They refuse, however, to be "Gospel reductionists" who shrink the au-thority of Holy Scripture to some traditional Gospel slogan. RIM pastors insist that the authority of Holy Scripture extends from Genesis to Revelation and includes all that is therein taught – including what is taught regarding the "charismata" (the gifts of the Holy Spirit). What is taught needs to be interpreted in such a way that Law and Gos-pel are properly distinguished. But just as Lutheran theology has been able to do that in its teaching on the sacraments, so it can also learn to do so in teaching regarding the cha-rismata.

From the reading of my great-grandfather's autobiography I believe he would agree. The 150th anniversary of the LCMS would be a wonderful time for it to submit itself to the full authority of Holy Scripture and not merely to those portions familiar to it through its tradition. Charles P. Arand and James W. Voelz put it well in their study entitled, The Lutheran Confessions as Normative Guides for Reading Scripture. They insist that "the Confessions do not exhaust the exegesis of Scripture" and "the Confessions do not deal with every topic in Scripture" (Concordia Journal, October 1995, p. 383). The pastors of RIM agree!

Dr. Ted Jungkuntz
TheoCRLC@aol.com
2624 Page Court
Ann Arbor, MI 48104