Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. We are still

trekking through the life and thought and legacy of Martin Luther. We are

getting near the end of our journey together through this month and through the life of Luther. We have been on

location for many of these episodes together and once again we are on location. We are here in the town of Isonock. I am in the middle of a busy street and behind me is a very impressive statue of Luther from the end of the 1800s and also behind me is the old tower and the city gate of

the city here of Eisenach. Of course up on the hill overlooking all of this is the

castle Wirtburg.

And earlier we talked about how influential this place was in the life of Luther.

Well, we're back here now to talk about Luther's legacy.

Let me just sketch for you five points of Luther's legacy.

The first, we are here in the hometown of Bach.

We have to talk about hymns.

Imagine showing up in church, feeling,

just welling up within you the desire to sing praises to God,

and you can't.

You have no hymns in your language.

There's no congregational singing. Well, this was the situation before Luther.

And we talk about his reformation of theology.

We also have to talk about his reformation of church practice.

And so when you stand up and you sing a hymn and you join your voice with the other voices of the congregation and lifting praise to God,

we can thank Martin Luther for restoring congregational singing in hymns to the life of the church.

The second is preaching.

Again, prior to Luther, it was mostly the mass.

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