My personal belief is that you should not be be an LCMS congregation if you do not practice closed communion and use the hymnal.

I honestly don& #39;t think this is too much to ask. Let& #39;s find a way for congregations that don& #39;t want to do these things to leave and for their pastors not to lose their health/retirement benefits.

If you want to write your own liturgy every week or worship in a way that is pretty indistinguishable from evangelicals, I& #39;m not mad at you. But you don& #39;t believe what we do and I just don& #39;t think you should be a pastor in a church body whose theology you don& #39;t share.

If you don& #39;t want to have Lutheran in your congregation& #39;s name, I& #39;m not mad at you. But I definitely don& #39;t think you should be in a church body that has Lutheran in the name.