First United Lutheran Church

Next up on my tour of the various denominations was First United Lutheran Church, on Mockingbird. It was founded in the early 1900’s, and is a member of the ELCA. Their pastor, Dr. Russell Vardel, is professor of history at Paul Quinn College and dean of the Parish Lay Ministry Academy of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the Evangelicl Lutheran Church in America. Mark Herbener was the assistant minister with the title of, “Theologian in Residence,” (which I thought is a good position for a church to have) and is a former bishop.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that 10 minutes before service time, the parking lot was nearly completely empty. After the service started, I realized why: there were 21 attendees, including myself and the two ministers. I spent my high school years in a church about that size so I was aware of their situation and immediate response to a visitor. They were very friendly and were interested to here about my exploration of Christendom.

The inside of the church was fairly plain. It had lots of woodwork that did not look like it had a finish. Interestingly was the “Sanctuary Lamp” which hung from the ceiling to symbolize God’s presence.

The liturgy was based around Communion as with the Catholic and Anglican churches. It was interesting to see the small church dynamic with a liturgy. For instance, when it was time to “spread peace”, instead of just saying, “Peace,” the congregation all took time to visit with each other, since they knew everyone there. Similarly, the pastor moved to the middle of the sanctuary with his homily, to try to be closer to everyone. Different from the other denominations was that they turned off the pastor’s microphone when they recited the creeds and Lord’s Prayer.

The homily was pretty good as far as homilies go. No real exegetical work done on the text, but a good application of the text nonetheless. I am coming to miss solid exegetical sermons.

Overall, the church was friendly and obviously meshed well together. I liked the “Theologian in Residence” staff position. Much like the Presbyterian and Methodist, I could not particularly tell any theological differences from the service.