The Common Service
At Our Savior, we use the historic Christian liturgy as found in “The Common Service”, specifically the Divine Service Setting III in Lutheran Service Book. Whether you are long-familiar with this liturgy or have never encountered it before, you’ll find it simple to follow because we print the entire service in our bulletin. You’ll have to open a hymnal when it comes time to sing one of the hymns in our services, but outside of those times you’ll be able to easily follow along and participate by using the bulletin. Below is an example of what we use in our service.
Hymns
You can see by the selection in the bulletin that we use only hymns out of Lutheran Service Book as our source. We are thoughtful and discerning in our choices and try to pick ones that go well with the Scripture readings and overall theme of that particular day. Hymns teach and we take that fact seriously as we enjoy the beautiful, rich, musical truth handed down to us for generations.
“High Church”
Not only do we use The Common Service, but we use it in a style some would consider “High Church”, while we simply see it as the faithful practice true to Church history as confessed in The Book of Concord (1580). The service is reverently aesthetic with the goal of exalting Christ from beginning to end in every single thing that we use, do, say, etc. as we gather to receive His Holy Word and Sacrament. Divine Service is unlike any other moment throughout our week, so it intentionally looks and sounds very different. Many parts of the service are chanted, which helps set the words apart from the normal speaking that happens in daily life. At your first exposure to it, this style of service may seem cold, but it is actually far from it. Once you come to discover the depth of the historic liturgy and how it is literally built on and structured by the Scriptures, you’ll value the due reverence this style carries. There is no part of the service that doesn’t have a Godly focus driving it to happen that way.
Lectionary
We use the historic one-year lectionary for our Scripture readings. Each Sunday’s place in the Church Year is listed on our calendar. It’s also a good place to see when we have special services scheduled.