A few years ago, Jerker Asterlund received the Church of Sweden's
prestigious "Innovator of the Year" award.
The award came his way
because, in 2008, he was asked to perform a wedding at a car show. The
couple went through counseling and everything was just fine. But then,
afterwards, another couple came up to Asterlund and said, "We'd like to
be hitched too, if you don't mind."
Well, Asterlund did mind. He
told them, "That's not how it works. You have to be prepared."
Most preachers I know would feel the same way, but not Asterlund.
Afterwards he began to think, "It's not the couples, it's the church
which isn't prepared." Realizing there were a lot of other couples who
also wanted to be married with minimum effort, Asterlund, with the help
of nine other preachers, offered drive-in weddings at the following
year's car show.
This is how it works: before a couple gets their
20-minute ceremony, which includes two hymns and a song of their choice,
they receive a 20-minute talk. That's it.
And thus, the "drop-in
wedding" was invented.
Initially, Church leaders frowned at the
idea, but eventually they became accepting. In fact, things have
progressed to the point in time where every major Swedish city and many
smaller towns are offering "Drop-in Weddings" and "Drop-in Baptisms."
Asterlund says there are a number of advantages to this procedure:
1. You get to the important stuff right away.
2. A quickie
wedding or Baptism is a way to get people back into the church.
Now at the risk of being called a "closed-minded fuddy-duddy," I have to
say the practice causes me problems. And, yes, I do remember how Philip
baptized the Ethiopian eunuch after a relatively short conversation, and
Paul did the same for the household of the jailer at Philippi. God
blessed these men and their new disciples, and for that I am most glad.
Still, these changes cause me problems. No, I can't point to a
chapter and verse in Scripture which says, "Thou shalt have pre-marital
counseling" or a passage in the Book of Concord that demands parents
have -- or desire to have -- a relationship with the Savior, if they are
to have their children brought into the family of faith.
But and
this is a big exception, I can find many passages which tell us the Lord
doesn't want to be minimized or moved down the list of our priorities.
It doesn't make any difference if it comes from the Old Testament or the
New, the passage, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength" remains true (see
Deuteronomy 6:5 and Luke 10:27).
Believing that I would rather
take the time to give these couples and these children a fighting chance
in a world where their Savior is maligned and His followers are
criticized. I would like to know that the Savior is important to them,
just as I know they are important to Jesus who spent His entire life
saving them.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, Your Son spent His entire
life seeking and saving the lost. Grant that His followers may give
themselves, their time, their talents, and their treasures to Him who
has given them eternal life. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Pastor Ken Klaus
Lutheran Hour Ministries
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