About the Divine Service

Worship at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, is formal, reverent, and distinctively Lutheran. It is our hope that this website’s text and numerous photos convey that clearly. We want to make a clear confession that worship is this congregation’s central feature. God’s love is most clearly demonstrated when He distributes His gifts of Word and Sacrament to the body of Christ in the Divine Service.

Formal  (the liturgy not the clothing)

Most men wear suits or at least ties to our Sunday Morning Divine Service. Many women wear dresses and some wear beautiful hats. But the liturgy is not dependent upon what the people wear. Some people dress for our worship services in casual clothing (especially for the weekday services). Whatever the attire of those gathered, the liturgy itself is formal. That means that it is planned and deliberate. It is not spontaneous. So also that means that it is formal in its tone rather than chatty, and that it takes up topics of the utmost importance and eternal consequence.

The sermons tend toward formality also. The Word of God is preached through Law and Gospel. The pastors prepare all week for the sermons with deliberate study. The preachers always seek to be relevant and preach sermons that are always contemporary to the needs of the people taking note of what is going on in the culture around us.

Reverent

Our worship is not a show to be done in the sight of men. The point is not pomp and circumstance. Rather our ceremonies, standing, bowing, kneeling, and the like, are driven directly by our conviction that God Himself is present in His risen Body and Blood for us, that He speaks in His Word and the Absolution, and that He is paying close attention to our prayers.

Distinctively Lutheran

Some Lutherans in America have taken up the trappings of the dominant Protestant culture in America, or worse, the entertainment industry. We have resisted–not because we are just conservative and reject change for the sake of doing things the way they “have always been done.” But rather, we are fully committed to the Holy Scriptures, the Book of Concord, the study of the historic liturgy, and therefore receive our Lutheran heritage, including ceremonies, as grateful recipients.

Please read here for an explanation of the musical setting of our Divine Service and for our practice of closed communion.

If you have any questions or concerns about our worship, the pictures you see on this website or anything else regarding our congregation, feel free to  contact Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne and we will do our best to answer your questions.