BOOK REVIEW

 

Lutherans Today:  American Lutheran Identity in the

         Twenty-First Century

 

           Richard Cimino, editor.  Grand Rapids, MI:  William      B. Eerdmans

           Publishing Company, 2003.  262 pages.  $20.00 Paperback.

 

 

This is a book of twelve essays-each of them valuable-that cover everything from the history of Lutheranism in America (the fine American church historian Mark Noll) to a survey of the attitudes and values of contemporary Lutheran youth (Eugene C. Roehlkepartain).  Along the way, experts and sympathetic observers consider life in the Missouri Synod (Mary Todd), the trials of the Lutheran left (Maria Erling), WordAlone (Mark Granquist), and Evangelical Catholics (Richard Cimino), and the dynamism of megachurches (Scott Thumma and Jim Peterson).  If you want to take the pulse of Lutheranism today, this is the book.

 

For me the most fascinating chapter was, "Goliaths in our Midst: Megachurches in the ELCA."  Most of the other essays dealt with problems and predicaments facing Lutheran churches and its various factions.  In the megachurch, Thumma and Peterson center the story on growth in membership that certain major churches are experiencing and the blessings that derive from growth.  If the idea of the megachurch intimidates you or you find it somehow theologically suspicious, this chapter should set you straight.  There are 10,816 congregations in the ELCA.  Seven worship over 2000 people per Sunday (six of these are in Minnesota).  Ten others worship between 1500 and 2000; twenty-six worship between 1000-1499.  These forty-three congregations account for only four-tenths of one percent of the total number of ELCA congregations, yet they are home to 5% (72,790 people) of its weekly worshiping membership.  Their average growth-rate between 1993 and 2000 has been 37%.  The authors delineate in considerable detail just what it is that makes these congregations so dynamic and worthy of emulation. Imagine if the ELCA in its entirety had grown 37% in seven years!  What kind of church would we be?

 

The answer is that we would be part of the great missionary growth of Christianity that has characterized modern history since 1800 and especially since the Second World War.  Instead we are a church that declared the 1990s to be the "Decade of Evangelism" a decade in which the ELCA had a net loss of 100,000 people.  This is a church of discontents in which the Lutheran left feels alienated, WordAlone fights to retain basic confessional commitments to classical Lutheran ecclesiology, and the Evangelical Catholics are seriously contemplating leaving.  It is no wonder that Robert Benne in a pivotal essay considers the question: "Can the Lutheran Center Hold?"

 

It is an important question to consider and this collection can help to make our reflections informed and responsible.  I urge you to get a hold of “Lutherans Today” and make it the focus of pastors groups and adult forums.  It is must reading for synod leadership.

 

 Reviewed by  Walter Sundberg, Professor of Church History at Luther Seminary in

St. Paul, MN and a member of the WordAlone Theological Advisory Board

 

Publisher’s

Contact info:

 

Call toll free

1-800-253-7521

 

Go to:

http://www.eerdmans.com/shop/product.asp?p_key=0802813658