In reply to Randy Yovanovich.

I think that LCMS pastors are able to "do it right" regardless of the style of worship that is used. God can speak to all cultures in all contexts. What worked when the original Liturgy was written does not necessarily work with all people today. If I were to reach out to youth with the Divine Service, they would not be interested and respond. Especially the youth at the correctional facility I work with. If I were to come at them with Liturgy, they would not listen and not want any part of it. Moreover, if I went in the facility as a Lutheran, I would not be able to speak to any of the youth. By going in as just a Christian, I'm able to speak to all of them and reach out to them. God calls us to stand beside the broken, feed the hungry, make disciples of all nations. I understand that people could teach them the significance of it, however, it is not their culture or context. Just because a pastor or a church is successfully growing and communicating the love of Christ to a culture in a completely new way does not make them heretical. They are just being missional.

In an interview I read on http://www.rjgrune.com/bill-woolsey/. Here are a few points that highlight the significance of reaching out:
"I’ve gotta love you, and it’s my love for you and my respect for you even if you never love Jesus, even if you never come to faith, even if you never agree with me, it’s my love for you that leads me to jettison certain values that I used to hold dear in order to adopt your values that you hold dear so that I can earn the right to bring you the ultimate value that I hold dear, namely Jesus. So, it’s a true missionary approach to life, but it flows from this wonderful, deep love for people who are not like you, who don’t know Jesus and who live outside the kingdom. And so, I will change my music, and I will look for the beauty that God has put into the culture in which I live. Now, one of the questions I ask guys is, “So, do you love the culture or do you hate the culture?” Now, there are things about it you may not agree with, but it’s hard to reach a culture if you hate a culture, okay. would purport to you that one of the biggest struggles right now in our denomination and in all mainline denominations is that while some people give lip service to loving lost people, their value for the way they’ve always done it or their value for how that particular kind of worship expression speaks to their heart trumps their changing that and repositioning it into the language, the cultural language of that person. So, it really is, it’s gonna look like some basic stuff. This is not rocket science, but it’s a heart science, and so it really is positioning my heart or positioning my heart to embrace the things that are loved by others so that I can bring Jesus to them and get into their lives.

I can do life with them. I can listen to their music. I could even utilize their music. I can speak their language in illustrations or the way I dress or whatever. I’m earning the right to be invited to the table, and I can do that in large settings. I can do that in small settings.   If I’m gonna do it in large settings, i.e., a congregation setting, then I’ve got to have enough leadership chutzpah to convince the people to go there with me. We need to create a worship environment that speaks the language of what we call “lawnmower guy,” the guy who would rather be at home mowing his lawn than sitting there in Sunday morning or in a worship expression."

It is time for a change and a time to be willing to speak to the people we are ministering to, rather than ignore them for the sake of tradition. If we are truly desiring to be missional and reach out to ALL people in the entire world and the United States, there needs to be a time of evaluation that takes place. We cannot put up any more barriers and start realizing that we can be in partnership with other churches and we can, in fact, sit with sinners and people who are Christians. We are all here for the same mission: to reach people and tell them the good news of Jesus.