For them, the goal of good liturgy is always the transforming of culture by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Culture, untransformed by liturgy, in effect destroys liturgy. The Church becomes indistinguishable from the culture and the Gospel is lost. The theology of the cross is summoned as a warning against such liturgies. Rather, the liturgy should help the Church show the world how to live under the cross.
Liturgy transforms culture and is the primary context in which evangelism takes place.
Liturgy is like us-an earthen vessel that bears, by God's grace, the presence of the Redeemer. There is an historic liturgy, but in every generation that historic liturgy recognizes and responds to the cultural context. To ignore that context is to become a liturgical fundamentalist and stand condemned as a museum keeper of a dead tradition. The liturgical structures of Word and Sacrament transcend all cultures and create our Lutheran theology of worship, which is its own culture. Culture and cultus are derived from the same root word.