The Church I Was Raised In
Below are some comments I left on Procrastination Central to this post: Lutherans Not Allowed to Pray with Members of Other Denominations?:

I was raised in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church and am now a Catholic. I have nothing but admiration for my former denomination, even though I recognize it does not possess the fullness of the faith as only the Catholic Church does.

I once met a fellow Missouri Synod Lutheran at a conference who joked, "Almost Catholic, huh?" They really are that. In Germany, such Lutherans call themselves "Evangelical Catholics."

The Missouri Synod maintains a beautiful liturgy, much more reverent than your average novus ordo mass, I'm sorry to say. Imagine, I'm Catholic, but I miss the chanting from my former Protestant denomination! What sad irony.

Like Catholics, the Missouri Synod practices closed communion, signifying not that they are "judgmental" but rather that orthodoxy of faith is important to them. This even makes them anti-Catholic, which, paradoxically, is a good thing. The Protestant who thinks the Catholic Church is false at least acknowledges that what Catholics believe matters. The Protestant who ignores Catholic beliefs altogether dismisses them as unimportant. The Blessed Virgin, the Communion of Saints, the Seven Sacraments, etc. are essential, not optional, to the Faith.

As far as American Protestants go, the Missouri Synod is about as close to the real deal as you can get before reaching Rome. They'll be the first to come home.

A famous former Missouri Synod Lutheran is Father Richard Neuhaus.

Here's the denomination's website: The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

Here's the church I grew up in: St. John's Lutheran Church - Orchard Park, NY.