Lutheranism

The fragmentation of American Lutheranism

August 25, 2010

I expected to see many from the ELCA come flocking to Missouri after the ELCA’s church-wide assembly repudiated the Biblical view of human sexuality last summer. Perhaps not congregations, but people. For a time we had a steady stream of ELCA visitors at Immanuel, but that has stopped. Now it appears there will be yet another [...]

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The usefulness of psalms of despondency

July 27, 2010

A useful prayer, this psalm of despondency, because the life of faith is not a sustained, uninterrupted series of triumphs. –Patrick Henry Reardon on Psalm 44 in Christ in the Psalms

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LCMS elects new president

July 13, 2010

Rev. Matthew Harrison was elected president of the Missouri Synod today. He defeated the incumbent, Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, 643-527, on the first ballot. Afterward, Rev. Herbert Mueller, Jr., was elected first vice-president. President-elect Harrison is currently the executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care. He is the author of “A Little Book on [...]

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LCMS approves major restructuring; president’s power expands

July 13, 2010

The centerpiece of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synodical Structure and Governance, the consolidation of the entire synodical structure into two program boards that report to the president, passed on Monday. You can listen to a report from the convention site by parishioner Mollie Ziegler Hemingway by clicking here.

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LCMS President on unity in doctrine and life (third of three)

July 13, 2010

In the previous quotations, C.F.W. Walther, the first LCMS president, spoke about the dangers of disunity and the blessing of unity. In today’s quotation, Walther speaks about the Devil’s strategy: to sow disunity in the church: Satan knows all too well what kind of power the Church exercises when it is unity. It then not [...]

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LCMS President on unity in doctrine and life (second of three)

July 12, 2010

In the quotation I posted yesterday, C.F.W. Walther (the first LCMS president) talked about the disastrous effects of disunity. Here he speaks about the blessings of unity in the Church: Christian unity always produces a blessing. If the Church is one in doctrine and life, in faith and love, it shares its gifts and knowledge. [...]

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LCMS President on unity in doctrine and life (first of three)

July 11, 2010

The first LCMS President, that is: C.F.W. Walther. Timely as we head into the 2010 Synodical Convention: If Christians do not cultivate unity in doctrine and in life among themselves, they are misled by their flesh and blood, standing by peacefully as divisions arise and discord grows day by day. God did not give His [...]

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Good news from Jesus First

July 10, 2010

According to the LCMS political group “Jesus First,” more congregations are practicing closed communion in the LCMS. An email from a lay-delegate who just arrived in Houston for the Synodical Convention contains this nugget written by a Pastor Greg Smith in a publication distributed by Jesus First: I am also concerned over the growing practice [...]

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Prayer for the Synodical Convention

July 8, 2010

The following is from the Prayer of the Church I used in 2007 on the opening Sunday of the Synodical Convention. I plan to use it again this Sunday. I cannot remember if I wrote this, got it from somewhere else, or if it’s a hybrid of those. Lord of the Church, as our Lutheran [...]

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Becoming a theologian

June 28, 2010

Gerhard Forde, in his wonderful On Being a Theologian of the Cross, writes that every Christian must become a theologian, and that this is not to be equated with the academic work of the “professional” theologian. Becoming a theologian of the cross is a different matter.… It means being turned to seek out “the real” [...]

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