Fellowship for church musicians
I am troubled following a conversation with my granddaughter who is a senior at one of our Area Lutheran High Schools. It is my understanding (and I may not have all the correct information) that the special choir from her school was scheduled to sing at one of the area WELS churches. However, prior to their participation in the scheduled service, one member of the choir was told she could not participate because she was not WELS. I also am aware of another incident within the same congregation where the sister of a member who passed away was not permitted to be the organist at the funeral because she was a member of a Missouri Synod congregation. My granddaughter (and quite frankly I too) has difficulty in finding a biblical basis for such decisions. How is it that this young choir member can regularly sing at chapel and other high school sacred concerts but not at the area WELS church? Thanks for the opportunity to present my inquiry to you.
I do not know the circumstances involving your granddaughter’s choir, so I am not able to comment on that particular situation. What I can do is provide an update on a study that has been undertaken in our synod regarding area Lutheran high schools and fellowship practices.
The WELS Conference of Presidents plans to make documents and study guides available to area Lutheran high schools this summer, so they can review their fellowship practices—especially in regard to membership in their choirs.
When it comes to organists who serve at regular worship services or special worship services like funerals, our practice is that those individuals be of our faith and fellowship. Why is that? We want to follow what Scripture says about doctrinal unity and our participation in activities in which we express a common faith (Romans 16:17). We want to send a clear signal that all teachings of the Bible are important (Matthew 28:20). We want to work together with fellow Christians when there really is a common confession of faith (3 John 8).
If someone belonging to a church outside our fellowship were to assist the worship in one of our churches as an organist, we would give a confusing and inaccurate signal about unity. While we might be united with that person in the Holy Christian Church, we are not united with that person when it comes to membership in a visible church body. And visible church bodies are the realm in which we operate. In the scenario you described, the person who wished to serve as an organist in one of our churches was a member of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). As WELS and LCMS are not in fellowship with one another, an LCMS organist assisting with worship in a WELS congregation would send the signal that differences in doctrine between the two synods are not important. For that same reason, the stated regular practice of both synods is one of close(d) Communion. We finally do not want to pretend there is complete unity when there is not.
You and your granddaughter may be interested in exploring these issues in more detail. A resource that could shed more light on these issues is Church Fellowship: Working Together for the Truth. It is available as a hard copy book or an eBook.