The Great Heart Of Neuendettelsau
Worship
What Grace They Received
Worship Commemorations For 12 Ancient And Modern Saints
Reader 1: In 1808 in Germany, Wilhelm Loehe was born into a pious Christian family with deep roots in the Lutheran church. At the very early age of eight, Loehe decided that he would become a pastor; and his mother, by then a widow, saw to it that he received the necessary education.
The Lutheran Church in Germany at this time was still very much dominated by rationalism, a movement which emphasized the mind over the spirit and neglected the evangelical and missionary thrust of the church. At the time of his ordination, Loehe wrote:
Reader 2: "Since in our time there is no lack of candidates who are completely devoid of evangelical faith and life but still desire ordination and want to bear the name of Evangelical Lutheran ministers, I cannot help but declare that I definitely do not want to be included in this group. By God's help I shall preach the true doctrine and not be silent until the Lord himself takes me, his peace-loving soldier, out of the church militant into the blessed quietude of the church triumphant."
Reader 1: No parishes were immediately available to Loehe, so for the next seven years he served a variety of vicarages, working under more experienced pastors. He soon drew attention as an outstanding preacher, but at the same time he acquired the reputation of a "troublemaker" -- one who would speak plainly about sin wherever he saw it, no matter whose toes were stepped on. The feathers of church authorities, too, were ruffled more than once. All this only delayed his first call to a parish.
Finally, however, it came: a call to serve the church at Neuendettelsau, a poor peasant community. Earlier Loehe had commented that he wouldn't want his dog buried in that town. Yet he accepted the call and spent the rest of his ministry in that tiny village.
Loehe's preaching was always gospel-centered, focusing on sin, grace and love; and it continued to draw large crowds from the surrounding countryside. He put considerable effort into his sermon-writing:
Reader 2: "With suffering must I bring forth my sermons. From Monday until Sunday I work during the first hours of the day on the sermon. I sigh, pray and fear until I mount the pulpit -- and then God's grace is made new."
Reader 1: However, it wasn't just the sermon, but the entire liturgy which commanded Loehe's attention. Very patiently and slowly he introduced a number of changes into the liturgy at Neuendettelsau. For example, he spent 10 years introducing a full communion liturgy. His congregation returned to the ancient tradition of celebrating the Eucharist every Sunday. Worship, in Loehe's view, was the most important part of a congregation's life:
Reader 2: "In the worship services the congregation feels itself closest to its Lord. There, as close to the Bridegroom as it can get, it leads a heavenly life on earth, an earthly life in heaven."
Reader 1: Another major part of his ministry was pastoral care, visiting the sick and the dying. He also reintroduced the practice of private confession before receiving holy communion. Loehe believed that the job of the pastor was to practice "seelsorge," the care of souls.
However, Loehe's greatest contribution to the church was in his strong encouragement of mission:
Reader 2: "Mission is nothing but one church of God in motion."
Reader 1: Loehe preached that the Christian life was a life of love. Thus he and his congregation established a number of social service institutions. He founded a training center for deaconesses and through them he set up a home for the poor, a home for unwed mothers, a home for the emotionally ill, a hospital for men and a hospital for women. No wonder that Loehe came to be called, "the Great Heart of Neuendettelsau."
It was during the same period, the middle of the 1800s, that many Germans were emigrating to America. A German Lutheran pastor in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fredrich Wyneken, wrote an open letter to the people of Germany asking for help.
Reader 2: "Come now, dear reader, and enter the settlements and log huts of your brethren! Behold now husband, wife and children must work hard to fell the giant trees, to clear the virgin forest, to plow, to sow and to plant, for their pittance of money runs low or is already goneÉ. But look at their souls -- for years they have been without the Word of life, no Table of the Lord has been spread for them. They have grown used to their spiritual death."
Reader 1: Wyneken's letter was published in Germany, and it came to Loehe's attention. He was deeply moved by this opportunity for mission, and he issued an appeal of his own:
Reader 2: "Our brethren are living in the wildernesses of North America -- without food for their souls. We sit on our hands and forget to help themÉ Shall we simply look on while our brethren in the faith are led astray because of a lack of shepherds, merely observe while the evangelical church in North America disintegrates? Shame on us if we do not do what we can!É Up, brethren, let us help as much as we are able!"
Reader 1: Loehe followed his strong words with action. He sought volunteers who would be willing to be missionaries to the United States, individuals who had not gone through the traditional German educational system, but yet had a love for the mission of the church. Two young men responded to Loehe's appeal, and they spent a year of training under his supervision. In 1842 these two were commissioned as missionaries and sent to begin their ministry in Ohio. Many more followed them, and they came to be called Loehe's "emergency men." The American Lutheran church relied greatly on these missionaries as German immigrants pushed farther and farther west. Loehe wrote:
Reader 2: "Though we do little, we are doing somethingÉ God can make it bigger!"
Reader 1: Another one of Loehe's missionary experiments was not as successful: the establishment of a whole colony of German immigrants who would work among the native Americans in Michigan. Four of these colonies were founded, Frankenmuth being the largest. The colonies themselves grew and prospered, but their work among the Indians was not very successful and finally failed entirely when the government transferred the Indians to a distant reservation.
Among these German immigrants the issue of language would arise again and again. Loehe himself was a strong proponent of continuing the German language in America:
Reader 2: "When the Englishmen keep their language to themselves they may regard it as lovely as they wish. But when they offer it to us in place of our German tongue, only a man who has never learned to distinguish between a beautiful and an ugly sound would be ready to surrender his beautiful German for the evil-sounding mish-mash."
Reader 1: Later on Loehe could see the handwriting on the wall, and he admitted:
Reader 2: "We are far from believing that the German Lutheran Church is to stand or fall with the German language."
Reader 1: It was more important, he feltÉ
Reader 2: "É to see our brethren more and more returning to the full truth of the Lutheran church and, in another tongue, confess themselves of the same faith and the same hope with us."
Reader 1: These "emergency men" of Loehe had been ordained by the American Lutheran church, and eventually they joined in partnership with a group of Saxon German Lutherans under the leadership of C. F. W. Walther. Together they founded a seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and another one in Saginaw, Michigan. In 1847, they formed a group of congregations, calling it the Missouri Synod.
Not long after, however, a conflict developed between Walther and Loehe, specifically a disagreement over the doctrine of ministry. Does the ministry derive from the congregation, as Walther believed, or does the congregation derive from the ministry, as Loehe maintained. Loehe certainly admitted that the two of them saw things differently, but he did not feel that their differences should lead to a break in unity. After one attempt at reconciliation, Loehe wrote positively of the spirit of brotherly love between himself and Walther:
Reader 2: "Such a spirit requires no haste to become one in formulas and theses. Hand in hand they go to the school of the Holy Spirit, where they see over the doorway the inscription: 'The longer, the more love; the longer, the greater unity and faithfulness.' "
Reader 1: Loehe believed that it was not necessary for everyone to see everything in just one way. Can't unity be maintained in spite of differences, with the hope that through God's Spirit and God's Word eventually they could come to see more and more alike?
Walther himself, however, believed differently, and the break finally came in Saginaw, Michigan. Rather than transfer the seminary there to the control of the Missouri Synod, Loehe decided to move it to Dubuque, Iowa, where it still exists today as Wartburg Theological Seminary. Because of the break, it was also necessary to establish a new synod, which was called the Iowa Synod. It later became a part of the American Lutheran Church, and now today, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American.
Loehe, like Walther, was a strongly confessional Lutheran. Yet Loehe believed that there could be a unity in spite of differences. For example, when he wrote his Three Books about the Church, he concluded his preface with these words:
Reader 2: "Peace be with those who say Yes! Peace be with those who say No! God's peace be with all! May we all in peace be one -- one church, his church!"
Reader 1: Loehe's theology was a simple one: we are all sinners who need God's grace in order to be saved; and, in fact, it is only by God's grace that we come to faith; and it is only as a result of grace and faith that we are able to lead lives of love.
This creed, which he wrote for the order of deaconesses, could serve as a summary of his own faith:
Reader 2: "What do I want? I want to serve. Whom will I serve? The Lord in his suffering and poor. And what is my reward? I serve neither for reward nor thanks but out of thanks and love; my reward is that I may serveÉ And what if I grow old in doing it? Then shall my heart flourish as a palm tree, and the Lord will satisfy me with grace and mercy. I shall depart and be anxious for nothing."
Reader 1: Loehe continued to serve the church and its mission to the world, all from his humble parish in Neuendettelsau. He died, at the age of 64, on January 2, 1872, never having traveled to America, where his influence has been felt so strongly. Upon his tombstone are those familiar, words from the Apostles' Creed:
Reader 2: "I believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."
Bibliography
Wilhelm Loehe, Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith (translated by F. C. Longaker). Newport, Kentucky, 1902.
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed-Grains of Prayer (translated by H. A. Weller). Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House.
Wilhelm Loehe, Three Books about the Church (translated, edited and with an introduction by James L. Schaaf). Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
Erich H. Heintzen, Love Leaves Home: Wilhelm Loehe and the Missouri Synod. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1973.
Gerhard Ottersberg, "Wilhelm Loehe and Wartburg Theological Seminary," a lecture on the 100th Anniversary of His Death, April 11, 1972.
Hymn Of The Day: (Written by Loehe; can be sung to the tune of Erhalt Uns, Herr, "LBW" No. 230):
Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For it is now toward eventide;
And let Thy Word, that light divine,
Continue in our midst to shine.
Our heart's true comfort is Thy Word,
And well it shields Thy Church, dear Lord;
So let us in Thy Word abide,
That we may seek no other guide.
Thus keep us in Thy Word, we pray,
While we continue on our way,
And help us, when this life is o'er,
To be with Thee forevermore.
Prayer Of The Day: (The following was written by Loehe for use as the prayer of the day during the Christmas season.)
Help us, Lord God, that we, being released from our old sinful birth, may be made partakers of the new birth in the flesh of Thy beloved Son, and ever continue in the same; through Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
A Litany For The Lord's Prayer (written by Loehe):
OUR FATHER,
in-superable in creation,
sweet in love,
rich in every heritage!
WHO ART IN HEAVEN,
a mirror of eternity,
the crown of joy.
the treasure of eternal salvation!
HALLOWED BE THY NAME,
that it be like honey upon the tongue,
a harp unto our ears,
a devotion in our hearts!
THY KINGDOM COME,
joyfully, without perversion;
quietly, without sorrow;
safely, beyond possibility to lose it!
THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN,
that we hate whatever displeases Thee;
love what Thou lovest;
and fulfill all things that are pleasing to Thee!
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD,
the bread of
knowledge,
penitence,
pardon
and every need of our bodies.
FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US;
forgive us our trespasses against Thee, against our fellow-men and against ourselves, which we have multiplied either through the commission of wrongs or the omission to do the good we ought to do, as we forgive all who have despised or offended us by word or deed, by giving or taking away from us, spiritually or temporally.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,
of the world,
the flesh,
or the devil.
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL,
both temporal and spiritual,
and from all sorrows in time and eternity.
AMEN.
Prayers:
In thankfulness for your faithful shepherd of souls, Wilhelm Loehe, that we too may praise you in our worship, seek peace and unity in the church, and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the mission of the church in the world.
The Lutheran Church in Germany at this time was still very much dominated by rationalism, a movement which emphasized the mind over the spirit and neglected the evangelical and missionary thrust of the church. At the time of his ordination, Loehe wrote:
Reader 2: "Since in our time there is no lack of candidates who are completely devoid of evangelical faith and life but still desire ordination and want to bear the name of Evangelical Lutheran ministers, I cannot help but declare that I definitely do not want to be included in this group. By God's help I shall preach the true doctrine and not be silent until the Lord himself takes me, his peace-loving soldier, out of the church militant into the blessed quietude of the church triumphant."
Reader 1: No parishes were immediately available to Loehe, so for the next seven years he served a variety of vicarages, working under more experienced pastors. He soon drew attention as an outstanding preacher, but at the same time he acquired the reputation of a "troublemaker" -- one who would speak plainly about sin wherever he saw it, no matter whose toes were stepped on. The feathers of church authorities, too, were ruffled more than once. All this only delayed his first call to a parish.
Finally, however, it came: a call to serve the church at Neuendettelsau, a poor peasant community. Earlier Loehe had commented that he wouldn't want his dog buried in that town. Yet he accepted the call and spent the rest of his ministry in that tiny village.
Loehe's preaching was always gospel-centered, focusing on sin, grace and love; and it continued to draw large crowds from the surrounding countryside. He put considerable effort into his sermon-writing:
Reader 2: "With suffering must I bring forth my sermons. From Monday until Sunday I work during the first hours of the day on the sermon. I sigh, pray and fear until I mount the pulpit -- and then God's grace is made new."
Reader 1: However, it wasn't just the sermon, but the entire liturgy which commanded Loehe's attention. Very patiently and slowly he introduced a number of changes into the liturgy at Neuendettelsau. For example, he spent 10 years introducing a full communion liturgy. His congregation returned to the ancient tradition of celebrating the Eucharist every Sunday. Worship, in Loehe's view, was the most important part of a congregation's life:
Reader 2: "In the worship services the congregation feels itself closest to its Lord. There, as close to the Bridegroom as it can get, it leads a heavenly life on earth, an earthly life in heaven."
Reader 1: Another major part of his ministry was pastoral care, visiting the sick and the dying. He also reintroduced the practice of private confession before receiving holy communion. Loehe believed that the job of the pastor was to practice "seelsorge," the care of souls.
However, Loehe's greatest contribution to the church was in his strong encouragement of mission:
Reader 2: "Mission is nothing but one church of God in motion."
Reader 1: Loehe preached that the Christian life was a life of love. Thus he and his congregation established a number of social service institutions. He founded a training center for deaconesses and through them he set up a home for the poor, a home for unwed mothers, a home for the emotionally ill, a hospital for men and a hospital for women. No wonder that Loehe came to be called, "the Great Heart of Neuendettelsau."
It was during the same period, the middle of the 1800s, that many Germans were emigrating to America. A German Lutheran pastor in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fredrich Wyneken, wrote an open letter to the people of Germany asking for help.
Reader 2: "Come now, dear reader, and enter the settlements and log huts of your brethren! Behold now husband, wife and children must work hard to fell the giant trees, to clear the virgin forest, to plow, to sow and to plant, for their pittance of money runs low or is already goneÉ. But look at their souls -- for years they have been without the Word of life, no Table of the Lord has been spread for them. They have grown used to their spiritual death."
Reader 1: Wyneken's letter was published in Germany, and it came to Loehe's attention. He was deeply moved by this opportunity for mission, and he issued an appeal of his own:
Reader 2: "Our brethren are living in the wildernesses of North America -- without food for their souls. We sit on our hands and forget to help themÉ Shall we simply look on while our brethren in the faith are led astray because of a lack of shepherds, merely observe while the evangelical church in North America disintegrates? Shame on us if we do not do what we can!É Up, brethren, let us help as much as we are able!"
Reader 1: Loehe followed his strong words with action. He sought volunteers who would be willing to be missionaries to the United States, individuals who had not gone through the traditional German educational system, but yet had a love for the mission of the church. Two young men responded to Loehe's appeal, and they spent a year of training under his supervision. In 1842 these two were commissioned as missionaries and sent to begin their ministry in Ohio. Many more followed them, and they came to be called Loehe's "emergency men." The American Lutheran church relied greatly on these missionaries as German immigrants pushed farther and farther west. Loehe wrote:
Reader 2: "Though we do little, we are doing somethingÉ God can make it bigger!"
Reader 1: Another one of Loehe's missionary experiments was not as successful: the establishment of a whole colony of German immigrants who would work among the native Americans in Michigan. Four of these colonies were founded, Frankenmuth being the largest. The colonies themselves grew and prospered, but their work among the Indians was not very successful and finally failed entirely when the government transferred the Indians to a distant reservation.
Among these German immigrants the issue of language would arise again and again. Loehe himself was a strong proponent of continuing the German language in America:
Reader 2: "When the Englishmen keep their language to themselves they may regard it as lovely as they wish. But when they offer it to us in place of our German tongue, only a man who has never learned to distinguish between a beautiful and an ugly sound would be ready to surrender his beautiful German for the evil-sounding mish-mash."
Reader 1: Later on Loehe could see the handwriting on the wall, and he admitted:
Reader 2: "We are far from believing that the German Lutheran Church is to stand or fall with the German language."
Reader 1: It was more important, he feltÉ
Reader 2: "É to see our brethren more and more returning to the full truth of the Lutheran church and, in another tongue, confess themselves of the same faith and the same hope with us."
Reader 1: These "emergency men" of Loehe had been ordained by the American Lutheran church, and eventually they joined in partnership with a group of Saxon German Lutherans under the leadership of C. F. W. Walther. Together they founded a seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and another one in Saginaw, Michigan. In 1847, they formed a group of congregations, calling it the Missouri Synod.
Not long after, however, a conflict developed between Walther and Loehe, specifically a disagreement over the doctrine of ministry. Does the ministry derive from the congregation, as Walther believed, or does the congregation derive from the ministry, as Loehe maintained. Loehe certainly admitted that the two of them saw things differently, but he did not feel that their differences should lead to a break in unity. After one attempt at reconciliation, Loehe wrote positively of the spirit of brotherly love between himself and Walther:
Reader 2: "Such a spirit requires no haste to become one in formulas and theses. Hand in hand they go to the school of the Holy Spirit, where they see over the doorway the inscription: 'The longer, the more love; the longer, the greater unity and faithfulness.' "
Reader 1: Loehe believed that it was not necessary for everyone to see everything in just one way. Can't unity be maintained in spite of differences, with the hope that through God's Spirit and God's Word eventually they could come to see more and more alike?
Walther himself, however, believed differently, and the break finally came in Saginaw, Michigan. Rather than transfer the seminary there to the control of the Missouri Synod, Loehe decided to move it to Dubuque, Iowa, where it still exists today as Wartburg Theological Seminary. Because of the break, it was also necessary to establish a new synod, which was called the Iowa Synod. It later became a part of the American Lutheran Church, and now today, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American.
Loehe, like Walther, was a strongly confessional Lutheran. Yet Loehe believed that there could be a unity in spite of differences. For example, when he wrote his Three Books about the Church, he concluded his preface with these words:
Reader 2: "Peace be with those who say Yes! Peace be with those who say No! God's peace be with all! May we all in peace be one -- one church, his church!"
Reader 1: Loehe's theology was a simple one: we are all sinners who need God's grace in order to be saved; and, in fact, it is only by God's grace that we come to faith; and it is only as a result of grace and faith that we are able to lead lives of love.
This creed, which he wrote for the order of deaconesses, could serve as a summary of his own faith:
Reader 2: "What do I want? I want to serve. Whom will I serve? The Lord in his suffering and poor. And what is my reward? I serve neither for reward nor thanks but out of thanks and love; my reward is that I may serveÉ And what if I grow old in doing it? Then shall my heart flourish as a palm tree, and the Lord will satisfy me with grace and mercy. I shall depart and be anxious for nothing."
Reader 1: Loehe continued to serve the church and its mission to the world, all from his humble parish in Neuendettelsau. He died, at the age of 64, on January 2, 1872, never having traveled to America, where his influence has been felt so strongly. Upon his tombstone are those familiar, words from the Apostles' Creed:
Reader 2: "I believe in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."
Bibliography
Wilhelm Loehe, Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith (translated by F. C. Longaker). Newport, Kentucky, 1902.
Wilhelm Loehe, Seed-Grains of Prayer (translated by H. A. Weller). Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House.
Wilhelm Loehe, Three Books about the Church (translated, edited and with an introduction by James L. Schaaf). Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
Erich H. Heintzen, Love Leaves Home: Wilhelm Loehe and the Missouri Synod. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1973.
Gerhard Ottersberg, "Wilhelm Loehe and Wartburg Theological Seminary," a lecture on the 100th Anniversary of His Death, April 11, 1972.
Hymn Of The Day: (Written by Loehe; can be sung to the tune of Erhalt Uns, Herr, "LBW" No. 230):
Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For it is now toward eventide;
And let Thy Word, that light divine,
Continue in our midst to shine.
Our heart's true comfort is Thy Word,
And well it shields Thy Church, dear Lord;
So let us in Thy Word abide,
That we may seek no other guide.
Thus keep us in Thy Word, we pray,
While we continue on our way,
And help us, when this life is o'er,
To be with Thee forevermore.
Prayer Of The Day: (The following was written by Loehe for use as the prayer of the day during the Christmas season.)
Help us, Lord God, that we, being released from our old sinful birth, may be made partakers of the new birth in the flesh of Thy beloved Son, and ever continue in the same; through Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
A Litany For The Lord's Prayer (written by Loehe):
OUR FATHER,
in-superable in creation,
sweet in love,
rich in every heritage!
WHO ART IN HEAVEN,
a mirror of eternity,
the crown of joy.
the treasure of eternal salvation!
HALLOWED BE THY NAME,
that it be like honey upon the tongue,
a harp unto our ears,
a devotion in our hearts!
THY KINGDOM COME,
joyfully, without perversion;
quietly, without sorrow;
safely, beyond possibility to lose it!
THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN,
that we hate whatever displeases Thee;
love what Thou lovest;
and fulfill all things that are pleasing to Thee!
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD,
the bread of
knowledge,
penitence,
pardon
and every need of our bodies.
FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US;
forgive us our trespasses against Thee, against our fellow-men and against ourselves, which we have multiplied either through the commission of wrongs or the omission to do the good we ought to do, as we forgive all who have despised or offended us by word or deed, by giving or taking away from us, spiritually or temporally.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,
of the world,
the flesh,
or the devil.
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL,
both temporal and spiritual,
and from all sorrows in time and eternity.
AMEN.
Prayers:
In thankfulness for your faithful shepherd of souls, Wilhelm Loehe, that we too may praise you in our worship, seek peace and unity in the church, and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the mission of the church in the world.
