Worship
The Divine Service
The center of our life together at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church is worship—or as we Lutherans call it, the “Divine Service.” The Introduction to our hymnal explains:
“Our Lord is the Lord who serves. Jesus Christ came into the flesh not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many….Our Lord serves us today through his holy Word and Sacraments. Through these means He comes among us to deliver His forgiveness and salvation, freeing us from our sins and strengthening us for service to one another and to the world.”
Lutheran Service Book, page viii
Worship at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church reflects the convictions of our Lutheran confession and so is Christ-centered, biblical, and sacramental:
Sacramental – nourished by God’s gifts of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Christ-centered – rooted in the redemptive work of Jesus
Biblical – grounded in the Holy Scriptures: read, sung and preached
The Liturgy
We value the ancient forms of the Church’s worship, which are saturated with the Word of God and faithfully present Christ to His people. Insofar as worship is also formative of our faith, the liturgy provides us with an orientation toward God’s good creation as receivers—those who live solely by His grace.
We use the orders of service from the Lutheran Service Book, alternating with the seasons of the Church Year. The music is generally organ-led (with a variety of accompaniment), and (most of) the liturgy is chanted.
To learn more about the different elements of our liturgy, click here.
Lectionary
A lectionary is an ordered pattern of readings from Holy Scripture that correspond to the Church Year. Each Lord’s Day a reading from the Old Testament, the New Testament Epistles, and the Gospels, are woven together to convey a particular theme. In the so-called “festival” half of the Church Year, from Advent through Pentecost, the focus is on the story of salvation. The latter half of the year, from the Feast of Holy Trinity to the Last Sunday of the Church Year, focuses on the various teachings of the faith.
Beautiful Savior Lutheran uses the Three-Year Lectionary from Lutheran Service Book.
Special Seasonal Services
We have Advent and Lenten services, preceded by soup suppers. These services differ from year to year, although we often use Holden Evening Prayer for Advent and Vespers for Lent.
