First United Lutheran Church - Worship

Worship

While maintaining the fundamentally Lutheran elements of the traditional mass, the community of First United finds richness, vitality and spiritual renewal in using a variety of forms and musical settings in worship celebrations. Musical settings, therefore, often change with the various seasons of the church year. Frequently new or different settings are employed within a season or for special celebrations, including its own setting of Lutheran liturgy, the Mass of a United People. Written by the musicians of First United, the setting uses a variety of elements including the spoken word, flute, organ, drums, guitar, piano, and styles ranging from a cappella plainchant to folk to soft jazz/rock. First used in Advent 2000, the Mass of a United People was dedicated to Reverends Donna Duensing and Robert Smith for their dedicated service to the First United Family.

First United is a community that values inclusion in many aspects, especially forms of worship. Yet, Lutheran tradition and heritage are important, as well. Inclusion, however, is interpreted in expansive terms that provide for the intention of inclusion, even when the chosen forms may appear to contradict this very principle. Traditional hymns composed of language from a different era and seemingly exclusive are sometimes used. The community believes that these hymns hold their own power of inclusion because they connect the worshiper not only to their Christian and Lutheran roots but also to many people across the wide expanse of God's family who have shared and continue to share these same hymns.

Occasionally prayers are offered in which God is addressed as Lord or Lover, Father or Mother, Creator or Spirit, or even Goddess. First United strongly holds to the tenet that God is not limited even though language is; the names change, the truth remains the same. They understand words to be products of time and history, the context in which God is encountered. At the same time, they understand that God is timeless. Worshipers are welcomed to add their own ways and means of calling forth the divine love that unites them.