Sumgmu’s Monthly Message, October 2025

Welcome to October! Luther took the first step of the Reformation on October 31, 1517, by posting on the door of the Castle Church the Ninety-five Theses, which discussed mainly the errors of indulgences. Later he challenged the authority of the Catholic Church directly and reformed the Church, which was the beginning of the Protestant Church.

The worship was also radically reformed from the Catholic Church. First, the Reformers disagreed with the Catholic priests who forbade the giving of both bread and wine to the congregation at the Lord’s Supper. At that time, the lay people, unlike the clergy, were supposed to receive the bread only at the Lord’s Supper. The Reformers emphasized that the sacrament does not belong to the priests only but to all believers.

Another important change is that the worship service began to be led for “unlearned” lay folk with both their own language and music. (Before the Reformation, the worship was proceeded by Latin, which was not their native language.)  The Reformers broadened and deepened the spirit of worship and gave the common people a more intelligible part. As a result, the common people were able to follow and participate actively in the worship service.

These two important changes are focused on the active participation of the laity during worship. We Protestants have inherited the wisdom of the Reformers who insisted that the worship is a work of the clergy and the congregation, not a work of the clergy only. As a Protestant minister, I encourage you to participate actively in our worship service.

If you have special hymns you would like to sing during worship, if you would like to write a unison prayer, or if you want to give a sermon as a Lay Servant, please let me know. If you want to serve as a worship leader, please contact our worship committee co-chairs, Pat Bruinsma and Ann Wesley. This is the way that we make beautiful spiritual work through which we praise, please, encounter, experience, feel, and touch the living Lord.

According to the liturgical theology of the Reformers, the Christian worship is not the personal work of the clergy but a collaboration of both the clergy and the congregation. Let us collaborate to enhance our worship service. Amen.

Sungmu Lee