Traditional service is far more in demand with my generation and the young they get the more they are. That's why you see Catholic and Orthodox seeing a lot of growth right now.

Member of an East Valley WELS church in the Phoenix metro area. We do strictly traditional services. We are seeing an uptick in pre 30's couples, disgruntled Evangelicals, and one or two LCMS members becoming members of our congregation. All said biggest reason was traditional confessional Lutheran services with male/female roles delineated as described by scripture. It's wonderful to see children eagerly hearing the pastor's children's message in services and singing bible-based songs as group in front of the congregation. Gives me hope for the upcoming generations.

As a strong liturgy guy I find that too many in this "war" have forgotten what sort of conduct is befitting the Church.

The reason the younger Lutherans prefer traditional rather than contemporary liturgy is:
Many of those young people have been leaving, disillusioned with the dispensationalistseeker friendly,
evangelical American zonist denominations.
 They are leaving  these for traditional, non dispensationalistliturgical demominations.
 Roman Catholic, conservative Lutheran and other alternatives .
  In my own family, this has been the case with the younger people...

Please believe the data. You've done excellent work in gathering it. Younger people are drawn to the authentic and sacramental expressions of Christianity today. Not their parents' cowo so much. Your comments about method were spot on. Let's make LCMS worship authentic by practicing our ancient ordo. This traditional style is drawing young people and converts to Rome, EO, and Anglicanism. Let's make sure the LCMS is in the consideration set among this key group who are seeking authentic Christianity and its church.

Well, we’re definitely not walking in Concord. It's baffling to me why contemporary churches keep wanting to act like big-box American evangelicals. Having been a part of them myself, I’m honestly just dumbfounded. There is a stark contrast between intellectually agreeing with historic confessions and living them out, particularly when a church's worship practices directly contradict its stated theology.

This survey provided excellent information.  Thank you to Zach for doing this.

I fall on the traditional side of the worship style debate (specifically "traditional" as expressed in Joel Biermann's "Low Church Missouri" video), but decisions about worship style are solely the domain of the local congregation and not subject to synodical edict, per the LCMS's congregational (not episcopal) polity.  The accusations on the "high-church" side about "lack of unity" or "we're not walking together" are rooted in a conflation of the terms "unity" and "uniformity."  (Other viewers:  please look up those definitions if you're not familiar with them.)  

There has never been a single, uniform order of worship used by the LCMS, or the LCMS's predecessor Lutheran churches in Germany, as uniformity in worship is not necessary.  Scandinavian Lutheranism was a bit different, but that's because Lutheranism was the state church in those countries, not because Scandinavian worship practices were inherently better or worse than the German churches.  Germany was also religiously divided between Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism post-Reformation, while Scandinavian countries were nearly exclusively Lutheran.  That caused "Lutheran distinctives" to look different in Germany than Scandinavia, as German Lutheranism was more "low-church" to distinguish itself from the ritualistic false teachings and ceremonies of Roman Catholicism, while Scandinavian Lutheranism was more "high-church" because of its only-game-in-town context.  This tension is still showing up today in groups who claim that historic Lutheranism was "high-church," even though there were far more "low-church" German Lutherans than "high-church" Scandinavian Lutherans.  Lutheranism has always had a variety of worship practices, and those who would deny this need to do some historical research and seriously examine their motivations.

Regarding the survey respondent groups, I do think the 18 to 29 year old group was skewed to the "high-church" side.  However, I will say that I have witnessed some LCMS pastors (primarily Fort Wayne graduates) pushing propaganda about Lutheran worship practices on their congregations, and especially young converts.  These pastors present "high-church" liturgical practices (crucifixes, chasubles, processions, etc.) as the way Lutheran worship should be done, and they disparage other LCMS Lutherans who don't support "high-church" worship.  That is not acceptable behavior, and it needs to stop.

Regarding the pastoral formation debate, this year's synodical convention voters clearly do not represent the overall views of LCMS membership, and that's because there is intense selection bias in who gets to attend the convention.  The seminary presidents have also created a tremendous amount of controversy and conflict around pastoral formation, as both of them overstate the importance of residential seminary education, such as when Pastor Bruss recently claimed "the Gospel will die" without residential seminaries.  Residential seminaries were never the norm in the 300 years of pre-LCMS German Lutheranism, as pastors went to public universities for their theology degrees and then were trained at a local church for their pastoral work.  The Gospel certainly didn't die in those 300 years, and we need rational leadership in this area.

The current divide in the LCMS is largely artificial, as the differences involve worship practice, not theology.  This is because many on the "high-church" side mindlessly repeat the Roman Catholic maxim "Lex orandi, lex credendi," while ignoring the fact that nearly all "high-church" denominations (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicans, the Lutheran state churches of Scandinavia, Episcopalians, etc.) have maintained rigid liturgical practices while abandoning faithful Biblical theology.  Lex orandi non lex credendi est (the law of prayer is not the law of belief), and people need to stop pushing that false Roman Catholic narrative.  We need leaders who are able to accept and handle variations in worship practice, while still maintaining pure Biblical theology.  That's not particularly difficult to do, as Lutheranism has always done it.  We just need leaders who will continue to do it.

My church is one of those few who are once a month because we’re in vacancy. I’m awaiting my application to the SMP program to be accepted, and the first chance I get once I’m ordained we’ll be going right back to once a week.

How many times can you change before you’re not what you once were.

Are you ever even that which was first established anymore?

Can someone please explain to me why a common service and service book is a bad thing?

The church has no business having "visions" of anything. The Lord himself makes it very simple. "This do." You need no vision for that, but only humility and faithfulness.

41:30 sounds like Matthew 18: Pray with helpers, talk, ask, reconcile. People usually have reasons for thinking differently, but our reasoning  shouldn’t lead — empathy should.

Defense follows offense.

May the Holy Spirit illuminate the pride of man, for hearts to soften, for unity in the church.

As a general rule we need to be less judgmental of each other and stop assigning evil motives to people who have different preferences than us. And before I’m labeled a lib or something, I’m extremely pro liturgy, but the mud slinging from people who agree with me has passed over into pure hatred and we need to repent of the way we’ve treated our brothers

The medium is the message. If you cant keep a common liturgy, you will not maintain common Lutheran distinctives and will essentially become two separate denominations.

There is no need for a split, necessarily. You will find that your more conservative youth will simply go catholic or eastern orthodoxy.

🎉we are conservative Lutheran church   what does the survey said about communion

I have a proposal:  The LCMS form 2 Non-geographical Districts: Confessional and Missional.  Get rid of geographical Districts…choose your preference and then get great at doing what you do….no more mediocre Pastors on either side but promote excellence!

I answered the survey and was one of the 20% or percent that said they are not concerned about a pastor shortage. I am invested in my church body and answered that way based on my careful consideration of the hard data, and based on what I see as the greatest danger for ALL of our methods of pastoral formation. I do not appreciate the way those responses were laughingly dismissed around minutes 46-47. In one of the immediately preceding segments, you asked that people be more willing to listen to your perspective on issues where you are in the minority - well and good. Please extend the same courtesy when you happen to be in the majority.

Why is the Synod Convention disproportionately conservative? Because the engaged laity are by and large confessionally and liturgically minded.

To really see the surge in membership that Catholics Orthodox and even Anglican to some degree have enjoyed. The public must be made aware that traditional Lutheranism offers the same liturgical and similar mass that Catholicism and Orthodoxy offers. Promoting videos or live streams  of high church in Germany or Sweden or N.America. There is no live stream for Luthers 2 Churches in Whittenberg Germany. Promoting heavily on YouTube Live Stream of Sunday Service from Whittenberg may give non Lutherans a taste of Traditional Lutheran Divine Service and the beauty of it. We should be Live Streaming Sunday Service from Whittenberg each week anyway.