Lutheran Worship: What Now? —Further Conversation

This conference’s plenary address, to be presented after the opening service on Wednesday, explores the following themes and questions. In 2024, Lutheran worship celebrates its 500th birthday. Within the next few years, Christian worship will enter its third millennium. These milestone anniversaries happen at a time when nearly everyone agrees that our world is experiencing unprecedented changes. Whether it’s advances in technology, shifts in spirituality, or instability in institutions, the dramatic ways in which our world is changing have given us a world we would not have recognized a decade ago (much less a world Lutherans in 1524 or the apostles in first-century Jerusalem would have recognized). So what now? How do Christian congregations meet the unique challenges presented by our late-modern world as they gather weekly in Jesus’ name? This presentation aims to demonstrate how, as confessional Lutherans, we are fully equipped to answer this crucial question about our worship: What now?

Those interested in further conversation about this plenary address may select this breakout session. The plenary address builds off of Jon Bauer’s 2023 keynote at the WELS National Conference on Lutheran Leadership with specific application to worship. After he expands on the thoughts of his address, participants will have an opportunity for further discussion.  View Pastor Bauer’s keynote address from the leadership conference.

Bio | Jon Bauer

Pastor Bauer graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2008. His first call was to Emmanuel in Tempe, Ariz. In 2014 he accepted the call to Good News in Mount Horeb, Wis., a mission church that dedicated its first building project in 2023. Jon serves on the WELS Commission on Congregational Counseling and the Institute for Worship and Outreach. He served on the executive committee of the WELS Hymnal Project.