. . . I must say, I attended a Lutheran service in Brisbane that was very, very happy clappy, complete with PowerPoint "songs" instead of hymns and impromptu prayers. A nice service, but I do prefer the bells and smells approach, personally speaking.
I totally agree with what you have said. I grew up in an AELC church that later became part of the ALC Synod - always very strict about worship format and style, always very high church, as it had originated from the German Lutheran church.
Moving to Arizona, the church where I have been organist since 1982, was LCA before the merger into ELCA. We were very high church until the late 80's, then dabbled in some Contemporary (Folk?) services which failed miserably. That project was abandoned for nearly 10 years, and since 2004 we have tried "slapstick worship ", however without powerpoint on the wall (thank goodness). For the music, we use piano (me), electronic keyboard, drums, electric bass and a vocalist, along with the handheld percussion "things" like klave's, tambourine, and other "noise makers." The idea was to attract more young people to church services as we offered 2 services, one a very high liturgical service and the other this slapstick style. Attendance has soared (avg 192) at the high church one and has fallen to about 24 at the 'contemporary' worship.
So, we are re-evaluating the format for this contemporary service - due to necessary annual budget cuts (In the US, there is no "state church", so each congregation must stand on its own two feet financially and otherwise), we have lost the funding for the "praise band" so it will be keyboard with vocalist from now on. This church has about 450 members ... 20 years ago it had 1,750!
All said and done, my personal preference is high church with lots of liturgical chanting/responsorials ... and as long as this church has at least one of those type services, I'll stay onboard as their organist.