Having joined and left a Missouri-Synod Lutheran Church in a college town of Texas with over 150,000 young adults at any given time and a constant influx of over 20,000 college kids every year, I can tell you the problem with retention...and it is not theology. It is the Worship. It is a hard balance to keep the staunch traditionalists happy as well as attracting younger and newer members to a congregation. This brings up another point of contention (in my opinion) about the worship/sermon dichotomy of a "contemporary" Lutheran service in the year 2018...but I digress. I think it is well known that Worship is intended to be an experience that brings the church together; sound catechisis combined with regular liturgy (as stated above by Brian West) is the foundation that holds the church together. But, can that be accomplished all in one service?....for a first time visitor?...someone unfamiliar with Lutheran theology?...Should it be? I do not think so. I am a young adult worship leader with 3 children and a wife by 26...hardly the profile of a typical young adult these days. But, I have seen too many people never come back to a Missouri Synod Lutheran church in a college town, not because of the theology.