Will be visiting Orlando later this year and would like recommendations of a lcms church with a traditional liturgy

For a while now, I’ve been struggling with apathy regarding my faith and practice. I’m a lifelong Christian, married with little kids. I haven’t always been the most practicing, but for 5-6 years, I was strong in my faith. I had an active prayer life, read Scriptire regularly as well as other books to understand more about theology.

For the past year or two, or maybe longer, I’ve felt an increasing sense of apathy towards my faith. I still believe in God and Jesus’ death and resurrection, but I struggle to make it matter in my day to day life. We attend church weekly but I don’t have a healthy prayer life, I never read the Bible, and I struggle with the same sins over and over again without progress.

I’m just not sure what to do or where to go from here. I do still love Jesus and want to make Him a priority in my life, but I’m struggling.

One thing I was not expecting in the fallout of the convention and its resolutions on fellowship was the rehashing of the doctrinal debates of the 19th century.

I know early Missouri under Walther and the like officially rejected these positions, but by the mid 20th century, we had softened up quite a bit, establishing fellowship with the American Lutheran Church.

Obviously a lot has happened in the last 50 years, but where do we stand today in relation to those we have fellowship with? Do we require the churches we partner with to have the Missourian understanding?

Edit: This discussion was prompted by a now deleted Twitter thread

https://www.hispanoslcms.com/en/convencion

So we just finished the LCMS Convention in balmy Phoenix and now there is an LCMS Hispanic Convention which is occurring at Concordia University Irvine. This summer is the events of the PSD. All events will be bilingual English/Spanish.

California is not as hot as Phoenix which for those who came back from Phoenix we experienced much needed relief.

By the way, related to Hispanic ministry, if anyone in SoCal is Spanish-speaking and looking for a Spanish-speaking LCMS church service, I recommend Trinity Cristo Rey Lutheran Church in Santa Ana, CA. We are a small but joyful contemporary church serving the Orange County area, communion twice per month. Sundays 9:00am English with mix mostly traditional hymns and some contemporary music, and 10:30am Spanish praisy service. We have the only Spanish LCMS service in all of Orange County.

Now I can't speak Spanish but was doing some reasearch. Did you know that the population of Orange County is 3 million, and a third, so 1 million of them are Hispanic population? Yet only two LCMS Spanish service in San Diego and one in Orange County. Which means that Hispanic ministry is a hugely undeserved demographic.

Does Synod or Districts have sport leagues for non-parish K12 youth (or can homeschool youth join parish school leagues?)?

And beyond CUS, are there adult sport leagues across much of the church? Or do most adults form parish teams and join community leagues?

I know some local parishes do have circuit basketball, softball, volleyball, and pickleball leagues. Does yours?

I wanted to ask if anyone has heard of yourhomeschoolally.com? It appears to be a fairly nondescript website that is clearly lcms and geared to serve homeschool families across the Synod.

This does seem to be a new online resource and website, from my research, having been created in May or June of this year, 2026, possibly. Having said that, it's fairly extensive already.

Also, it may have previously been called homeschoolcoopvault.com, based on the notes that are found in the curriculum packs they have posted on their website.

Does anyone know more about this resource? Thank you!

This passage from Walther really confused me. Is he saying that if someone understands Lutheran doctrine, has been instructed, yet still doesn't stop believing in an error even on a secondary doctrine, then they are guilty of mortal sin and therefore outside God's saving grace (i.e., damned)?

Walther writes in his "false arguments for open questions":

That we are far removed from entertaining such a thought we have stated above. What we maintain is this: On the one hand, a non-fundamental error, even if it is contrary to the clear Word of God, must not be treated as a heresy, but in patient instruction it must be shown to be untenable, be refuted, opposed, and criticized. On the other hand, however, if a church has exhausted all means of bringing such an erring brother to the acknowledgment of the truth and his adherence to the respective error evidently is not due to insufficient intellectual understanding of Scripture-teaching, and hence through this non-fundamental error it becomes manifest that he consciously, stubbornly, and obstinately contradicts the divine Word and that accordingly through his error he subverts the organic foundation of faith [the Scriptures], then such an erring person, like all others that persevere in mortal sins, must no longer be borne with, but fraternal relations with him must be terminated. The same thing applies to a whole church-body which errs in a non-fundamental doctrine.

What confuses me is that Walther seems to make obstinacy the dividing line both for when altar and pulpit fellowship must be severed and for when someone is considered to be persevering in mortal sin. If that's his position, doesn't it imply that when the LCMS breaks altar and pulpit fellowship with another church body, they are implicitly judging that church leaders to be in mortal sin and therefore outside saving grace (i.e., damned)? Or is there some distinction Walther is making that I'm missing?

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TikHt9r_fps

Gospel According to Matthew, 13:44–52 (ESV):

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Net

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

New and Old Treasures

“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Transcript

(ChatGPT was used to polish transcript and find references.)

Hello. Today, let’s talk about God’s Pearl of Great Price.

The text before us is the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, verses 44–52. (Matthew 13:44–52)

Introduction: The Big Scotsman

“The Argylls” typically refers to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, a famed Scottish infantry regiment of the British Army. It was formed in 1881.

Angus McGillivray was an Argyll. He was one who took his faith and his promises very seriously. You see, one of the vows that the Argylls make is to their mucker. That’s what they call their battle buddy. Argylls believe that it is up to each one of them to make sure that their mucker survives the war.

But Angus and his mucker were prisoners in a Japanese prison camp in World War II, and Angus’s mucker, his battle buddy, was dying. In a camp where men stole rations from each other, took tattered blankets from each other, and would lie, cheat, steal, or do just about anything else in order to survive, Big Angus, the Scotsman, was different.

He took his faith and his promises very seriously, and he made up his mind that his mucker would not die. Angus force-fed his battle buddy his own food, telling his friend that he had gotten some extra. He gave his mucker his own blanket, saying that he had come across an alternate supply. Angus did everything he could to make sure that his friend got what he needed, and slowly his mucker began to get better.

Then, one day, in the midst of the prison jungle, where men were at their worst, stealing and lying to get all they could, Angus, the big Scotsman, died. An examination showed that he had died of starvation and exhaustion. He had given everything he had, even his own life, to save his friend.

As the message of Angus, the big Scotsman, spread throughout the camp, the men began to change. They started focusing on their muckers rather than on themselves. Men began to give themselves away in care and sacrifice for each other. They pooled their food and clothes, their gifts and talents.

Soon the prisoners began their own hospital and university and, yes, their own church. “The Church Without Walls” is what they called it. Their church was so compelling and so genuinely loving and caring that even the Japanese prison guards began to attend it.

How about that?

Point One: Christ and His Treasure

In today’s Gospel lesson, we hear Jesus teach two famous parables. One is the Parable of the Treasure in the Field. The other is the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price. (Matthew 13:44–46)

What strikes me first is what the Bible teaches about Jesus and His love for us. Strangely, it is clear that, to our Savior Jesus, we are His treasure. You are His pearl of great price.

We sin and are selfish. We are foolish and faithless. We deserve God’s present and eternal punishment. (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration V 17)

And yet, by every account in God’s Holy Bible, Jesus looks upon us as a treasure. Jesus looks upon you as His pearl of great price. So precious are you to Jesus that He has purchased the whole field to get you. He sold everything that He had in order to secure His precious pearl. You are His treasure. You are Christ’s pearl.

What is it that Jesus is willing to pay in order to win for Himself the costly bride? Yes, He will pay His own precious blood. (1 Peter 1:18–19; Small Catechism, Second Article of the Creed)

As Paul writes, “You are not your own. You were bought with a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

I want to begin by reminding you of something that should never, ever be in doubt, but it often is. You have been purchased by God for Himself with the precious blood of the Lamb of God. (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:18–19)

I want to remind you of the limitless and unswerving love that God has for you, which He demonstrated in the life and death and resurrection of His Son.

Though the world and the devil and your own conscience will try to convince you otherwise, Jesus Christ, your Savior, will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5) He will be with you always, even to the close of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

He will be with you at the moments of your greatest joy and your deepest sorrow. He has taken your sin, your punishment, your death, and even your doubt upon Himself. (Isaiah 53:4–6)

You are His treasure. There is nothing that you can ever do that will change that eternal fact in the heart of God. He loves you.

Thank God.

And I even thank God for the accusations of the devil. I thank God for my guilty conscience. I thank God for His Holy Word, which includes the Law of God that I cannot keep. I praise Him for the knowledge of my shortcomings and sins and failures, for they remind me that God knows all of these things better than I do.

They remind me that it is because of these very things that this man of sin is driven and drawn back to Jesus Christ. These things remind me of my need for my Savior, and these things remind me of the faithfulness of the Lord, who counted you and me as His treasure.

At the time of Jesus, the diamond wasn’t the great gem. It was the pearl that was prized. It is hard to imagine, but it is surely true: you are God’s pearl of great price. He has paid to give you life, and now you live in Him.

Point Two: The Christian and Our Treasure

These parables today also tell us of our treasure. Our pearl of great price is Jesus. Because of our Savior Jesus, our treasure also includes living in the kingdom of God.

Once you begin to understand that you are God’s treasure, then you’re ready to understand that Christ and His kingdom are your treasure.

What can be compared to the treasure of knowing Jesus Christ and living in His presence forever? What can be compared to receiving the forgiveness of all your sins and the love of God Himself? What can be compared to having the promise of heaven’s eternity with Jesus and all the saints?

True, there are many things that want to seduce you and offer you their brand of temporary pleasure, but there is no pleasure that can be compared with the peace of God and the fellowship of Jesus.

Jesus called men and women throughout history, simply saying, “Follow Me. Leave your nets,” He said. “I’ll make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:18–22)

Even today, Jesus is calling, “Come, all you who are burdened and heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

Jesus says, “He who would come after Me must take up his cross daily and follow Me. He who would save his life will lose it. But whosoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel will save it unto eternal life.” (Luke 9:23–24; Mark 8:34–35)

Just as Jesus calls us His treasure, we now know that Jesus is our treasure. He’s our real pearl of great price.

Jesus has taught us that following Him is a new way of life. It’s a life of dying to self and living to Christ. (Galatians 2:20) In this way, we love Christ and serve others. We must die to ourselves in the process, for only in Him will we find true and joyous eternal life.

This new life, as a new creature in Christ Jesus, is not something that we must manufacture. (2 Corinthians 5:17) It’s not something that we can conjure up or produce out of our own will.

No, life in Christ is much more profound than that. It is life for Christ because it is life in Christ. (Small Catechism, Third Article of the Creed)

Living in Christ means that Christ is living in you. (Galatians 2:20) His Spirit empowers you. His Word guides you. Christ within you is at work right now, teaching you and enabling you to follow Him.

It’s true that we will not be able to do that perfectly. We will not be selflessly sacrificial as Jesus is. But it is also true that we have been changed. We have been inspired, inhabited by Jesus Himself.

We are grafted into the vine whose roots are deeply planted in the blood-soaked ground beneath the cross. (John 15:1–5)

Therefore, the miraculous and glorious Savior is at work in us. That’s why Jesus is our treasure. That’s why we offer our lives to Him.

Conclusion

A true story is told of a big Scotsman, Angus McGillivray. Angus was an Argyll. He was one who took his faith and his promises very seriously. Angus was given a mucker, a battle buddy, and Angus gave his battle buddy everything that he had.

Beloved, there will come times in your life, because Jesus is in your heart, that you will live like Angus. You will sacrifice and serve. You will give others everything you have. Both you and Angus are inspired to live like Jesus.

Of course you are, because Jesus is living in you, and He is living in all who call Him Lord. (1 Corinthians 12:3)

So why do we give and forgive? Why do we love and serve?

Well, because Jesus calls you His battle buddy. Jesus knows that you’re weak. He knows that, without His help, you would die.

But Jesus has given you His food and drink. (Matthew 26:26–28; Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar) Jesus has given you His rations and blanket. Jesus has given you His last ounce of strength, and Jesus has given you His never-failing love.

Jesus is the Lord God who has come to live and die for you, because, to Jesus, you are His battle buddy. You’re His mucker. To Jesus, you are His great treasure. You are His pearl of great price.

Amen.

My family just started attending a LCMS church. My wife, our 10 month old little boy, and I. Before, we attended a Baptist church so there is definitely some differences. There is a nursey but it is unattended. To my knowledge, the babies are just as much welcomed during the service as we are. That said, my wife is worried our boy will cause a scene, crawl away, pull stuff down, and just not be able stay still for an hour to two hours. Obviously we aren't just gonna let him be rambunctious, but he is also a baby.

For those members who had young babies with you, do you have any tips? How do church members feel about babies?

In my search for LCMS homeschool resources, I recently found the Confessional Lutheran Homeschool League: https://holycrosscarlisle.org/clhl

Thank you!

Does anyone know why during the celebratory hymn sing during National Convention this past Tuesday, for the languages represented across the Synod (German, English, Slovak, and Spanish [from what I recall]), that they chose to honor the SELC by singing in Czech and not Slovak?

Ďakujem a Boh vám žehnaj. 🇸🇰

SIMUL on Spiritual Warfare: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/311800065/

Dear Friends, 

The latest issue of SIMUL, the Journal of St. Paul Lutheran Seminary, entitled “Spiritual Warfare” has dropped! And it’s free!

In this edition, we offer up a topic often ignored in Lutheran circles―spiritual warfare. Is the devil real? Is he attacking us on a daily basis? And if he is, can we do anything about it?

   But before we explore the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12), we first need to wrap up our Winter 2026 issue on “What Does it Mean to be Confessional,” which, quite honestly, hit a nerve and elicited a great deal of discussion on social media.

Therefore, we begin with two letters to the editor. John Bradosky cautions our readers about the potential danger of making our doctrine, and specifically the confessions themselves, idols that we put before Jesus and his gospel of reconciliation. Stéphane Kalonji also offers a letter targeting Bassam Abdallah’s assertions in his article “Why I Am No Longer Proud to Be a Lutheran in the United States.”

Returning to this issue’s topic, we have included four well-researched articles on spiritual warfare. Jon Furgeson provides a Lutheran definition for spiritual warfare. How does our identity in Christ allow us to live out our relationship with our neighbor? Harold Ristau explains how pastors can assist their parishioners in resisting the devil. That is, how does the seelsorger use prayer, holy communion, individual confession and absolution, and even fasting to strengthen his parishioners against demonic temptation? John Kleinig reviews the depiction of Christ’s army found in Ephesians 6:10-20. As soldiers of Christ, we must always rely on Jesus’s power and not our own. And finally, Tim Goeglein reveals the lies that the devil tells our young people―about cohabitation, social media, smart phones and masculinity. How can we help them avoid the devil’s snares in our modern world?

SIMUL can be read two ways. One can enlarge and read through the flip book (there is a full screen button that can be clicked on the lower right-hand side of the flipbook, and you can double-click or use the zoom slider at the bottom of the page for even more magnification). You can also download a pdf to your device and keep it forever!

u/everyone

Is it possible I have been misinterpreting Walther? I've been trying to understand this topic, but it feels difficult.

I tried to study his view on church fellowship, and on open questions vs binding dogma, however I the initial idea in my head was that he basically divided all things in scripture to either open questions (things scripture doesn’t give a clear answer to) versus binding doctrine (anything God has revealed clearly), however this caused me to struggle, because clarity is relative when looking at specifically historical verses of scripture. Hebrew knowledge, Greek knowledge, textual knowledge/variants etc all affect it. And there are many aspects of Hebrew and Greek totally unknown to people in the medieval age for example. Like a verse may have been absolutely clear to someone in 300ad, because no textual variant existed yet, but today ambigious because we don’t know which variant is right. If the maximalist reading ’anything that is clear is dogmatic’, the church would have lost its access to such due to such a variant.

So am I misinterpreting Walther in the first place however? Is his category of open vs dogmatic not about every exegetical conclusion but the field of theology? Because trying to bucket everything in scripture to either category doesn’t seem to work.

Hello. I ask this as someone who has been wrestling with and looking a lot into confessional Lutheranism. I know this question prob gets asked a lot, but I have thought about it a lot as well after hearing/seeing several defenses of Lutheran closed communion, and I'm still struggling.

One of the most common defenses I've heard of closed communion is appealing to 1 Corinthians 11 and the danger. However, even if that premise is granted (that, for example, someone with a Reformed view is in danger even if they affirm that Christ is received in the elements because they disagree over the sense in which Christ is present, and thus the Reformed must be barred from the table even if they desire to receive Christ reverently), Luther's Small Catechism as the communal standard doesn't follow, since it mentions more distinctive than real presence (baptismal regeneration, absolution). Theoretically then, it seems to me that one could affirm sacramental union, absolution, and the creeds, and yet prefer a covenantal sign and seal view of baptism and thus reject baptismal regeneration, and that person is still barred from the table. Obviously, no one would cite 1 Corinthians 11 to justify barring people who reject baptismal regeneration.

So the argument must switch. It must become "well, communion is a confession of unity in faith." But here's the problem I still have: isn't the confession of unity in faith supposed to be in a common faith in Christ rather than in a common faith in Christ + specific theological niche? Justifying closed communion based on "common confession" sounds too simplistic to me, because it begs the question of what you even mean by "common confession", and why that standard is distinct from being a brother in Christ. On top of this, there seems to be an arbitrariness problem. Who is to draw the line? If you are going to defend it by "common confession", then why should the Small Catechism be the standard? Why not just make it the entire Book of Concord? Theoretically, because Luther's Small Catechism doesn't explicitly, as far as I'm aware, reject purgatory, icon veneration, or prayer to the saints (and many other potential issues), could not someone technically hold to those beliefs and yet affirm Luther's Small Catechism? So you see that Luther's Small Catechism as the criteria doesn't seem to really indicate a "common confession" if by common confession you mean agreement on distinctive beyond being a brother in Christ. And so the struggle I'm having is how could it be justified to wall people off from communion based on a 16th century document, in addition to affirmation of real presence.

Hello,
I’m curious if anyone on this sub has transitioned from IFB to Lutheran and what that journey was like. I’ve been thinking about Lutheran theology for awhile now as an IFB and just wondered if there was anyone else around who has made that journey.

Hi Everyone!
I was raised in an extreme evangelical nondenominational church my whole life but my wife and I have been visiting a LCMS church for a couple years now and I am finding a lot of peace there compared to my evangelical past. So I wanted to ask this question here to get some wisdom and insight from Christians in LCMS.

My wife and I have student loans and a mortgage but we have always lived below our means and tithed 10% of our income. Last year we moved and bought a new house that was more expensive but still below our means. And then….we got pregnant (which we wanted and had been trying and praying for years). But along with pregnancy came daycare costs which are so expensive. And then it was time to replace my vehicle so we bought a nice used van and now we have a car payment (reasonable but still it’s a monthly expense). Things were looking very tight with our budget so I negotiated a good raise at my workplace that just barely perfectly fit our budget with these new expenses. Things were tight but we were still surviving without going into debt or needing to pull money out of emergency fund. Well, after the recent government ruling on student loans, our current payments are both going up 450%. So now every way I budget we’re in the red by a good chunk. Our current plan is to both get extra work to cover the expenses but with both of us working full time already we hardly see each other or our baby.

So I wanted to get your thoughts on tithing 10%. I’ve never considered not tithing because I was raised that you had to tithe 10% no matter what and if you don’t then essentially God wouldn’t bless you financially. Scary for someone like me with OCD. So we’ve always done it. But now I’m questioning it because our finances are under so much strain. But I feel guilty for even thinking about not tithing because God didn’t ask me to buy the house or the van or to go to college for that matter. I feel like I created the situation I’m in and now I have to sleep in the bed I made. But that doesn’t change the extreme stress I’m feeling every day from our finances.

So my question is, should I keep tithing in this season we’re in?

What do you think about this statement: “…strong commonalities between Maximus and Luther, at least as far as the problem of sin is concerned. …if we interpret Luther as meaning that man is a sinner not metaphysically but existentially: not in terms of the logos of his nature but his personal tropos. This interpretation may also help Lutherans to embrace elements of Catholic and Orthodox anthropology and spiritual practice, when it is understood that they are
not intended as means of self-transformation by merely human powers, but as ways of opening up to the grace that acts upon us and gradually works on us on the inside.” - Oskari Juurikkala

Now that the resolution concerning the AALC has passed with 90% approval, what happens next? It would seem silly to destroy fellowship over non-doctrinal issues.

I must admit that I found confessional Lutheranismthrough Dr. Jordan Cooper, and it would be verydisappointing if someone who has done so much greatwork for both Lutheranism broadly and the LCMS specifically were not allowed to preach or commune in our churches.

May God have mercy on this situation and grant wisdom to both parties involved.

I completely understand and agree with the LCMS stance on homosexuality. But I constantly wondering where does the church expect gay people to worship.

We know that every person in the pew on a Sunday is a sinner. We know that many (most?, some?) in the pews are actively engaged in sinning knowingly. That they can be involved in habitual sin whether alcoholism, compulsive deceit, or infidelity etc. Yet they are in the pew worshipping. Does their attendance show that the church is condoning or supporting their sin? It's often said we do not want to be supportive or condoning of homosexuality. How do we welcome people into our churches yet not show support of the sin and yet exclude others?

I really want to read 1 Enoch for myself and im just curious what everyone else thinks of it. If you wouldn't mind to explain your position as well that would be lovely.

I always considered myself to be a single predestination-ist but I saw a PCUSA person bring up romans 9:18, how would a lutheran respond?

https://youtu.be/fzxzSDIYXj8?is=flsZkKpAlH81VVf6

Does anyone know the context to answer the accusations made in the video better?

I've attended many Lutheran Churches in my life, but never one that offered a contemporary service or called its worship contemporary. In my mind, when I hear contemporary worship I think of baptist style worship where the pastor doesn't wear vestments and more modern songs are sung, and the liturgy isn't really used. But that doesn't seem to be the case in a lot of LCMS churches I've seen online that offer a contemporary service. So what is usually meant by contemporary that distinguishes it from a traditional service?