Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Northland broadcasting legend Lew Latto dies | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota
Northland broadcasting legend Lew Latto dies | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota
Bummer. I always liked listening to Lew, even when he was grouchy, which was much of the time.
Bummer. I always liked listening to Lew, even when he was grouchy, which was much of the time.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Lutherans in Crisis: The Question of Identity in the American Republic from Fortress Press
Lutherans in Crisis: The Question of Identity in the American Republic from Fortress Press
David Gustafson's book on Schmucker and Krauth back in print via Fortress
David Gustafson's book on Schmucker and Krauth back in print via Fortress
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Ruminations on contemporary worship - an Andy Rooney moment (whoever he is)
Ever notice how the names churches use for their various types of services sound an awful lot like what coffee places use to name their different roasts and blends of coffee?
Ever notice how in our consumer society people have the same expectations of a "worship experience" that they have for going to a movie these days?
Ever notice how the pastors who know the least about liturgy and hymnody claim to be the experts in how to do it right their own way?
Ever notice how the pastors who love to say they are all about Jesus and missions, love to put themselves out front in their sermons, worship style, and in touting "leadership" skills?
Ever notice how weird it is that pastoral winkels still mostly use individual cups at services?
Ever notice how contemporary services use a "call to worship" for the people who are already there?
Ever notice how "praise service" puts the emphasis back on what we are doing in the name of evangelism?
Ever notice that "praise songs" are more repetitive than what contemporary worship proponents allege about traditional liturgy and hymns?
Ever notice that there seems to be a barrier put up by pastors not wearing vestments for service?
Ever notice that what today supposedly qualifies as making a "Spirit-filled church" can also be found at a Metallica concert?
Ever notice that what some call "uplifting worship" bears a strong resemblance with self-esteem talk down here on earth?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The battle of world history
John R. Stephenson. Eschatology – Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics (Volume XIII). (Dearborn, MI: The Luther Academy, 1993); p.74
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The Forgotten Loehe
Loehe, Three Books About the Church; pp.136,137
Korby quote - watch your language
Kenneth F. Korby. “The Pastoral Office and the Priesthood of Believers” in Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay: Essays in Honor of Ronald Feuerhahn on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Edited by J. Bart Day, Jon D. Vieker et al. (Houston, Texas: The Feuerhahn Festschrift Committee, 2002); pp.333,334
The Forgotten Walther
C.F.W. Walther. Pastoral Theology. Trans. John M. Drickamer. (New Haven: Lutheran News Inc, 1995); p.134
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Walther on laity using the Book of Concord
"The Book of Concord should be in every Lutheran home. If a person isn't familiar with this book, he'll think, 'That old book is just for pastors. I don't have to preach. After working all day, I can't sit down and study in the evening. If I read my morning and evening devotions, that's enough.' No, that is not enough! The Lord doesn't want us to remain children, blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine; instead of that, He wants us to grow in knowledge so that we can teach others." - Dr. C.F.W. Walther
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Those Old Confessional Lutherans...
“It is a very common subterfuge of those who do not want to accept any single doctrine of the divine Word, that they first ascribe it to a person and then, under his name, reject it as a human doctrine. They act in no other way than as if they also certainly believed the Word of Scripture, but they are only loudly objecting against submitting to the authority of a person who is prone to error, and having to accept a human, uncertain interpretation. Through such a maneuver they hope to mislead others, who might notice that they do not unconditionally submit to the Word of God. So, for example, many now are saying nothing honorable since in their hearts they regard Christ as either a liar or a thoughtless babbler when he says: “This is my body, this is my blood.” But rather, in order to be allowed to not believe Christ, and to be able yet to retain their honor amongst Christians, they say: “Oh, we are not one of those Old Lutherans! We stick with the Bible! Those symbolical books were also written by men!” When they’ve said that, they think they must be excused by everyone for rejecting what Christ’s Words say. Will God also accept their excuse “Oh, I’m not an Old Lutheran”? ”
Source:
C.F.W. Walther
Der Lutheraner
Volume 2, Number 11, January 1846, pg. 42-43
Translated by Joel Baseley
Pastoral Meanderings: What is the truth we don’t want to admit?
Pastoral Meanderings: What is the truth we don’t want to admit?
Good post by Pr. Larry Peters (again!)
Monday, August 1, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Adiaphora Often Reveal Troubles that Aren't Adiaphora
The vestments a pastor wears or doesn't wear are in an of themselves "middle things" (mitteldinge), that aren't commanded in the New Testament, though the Lutheran Confessions certainly commend the use of vestments which are expressive of reverence and the continuity of the church and the liturgy through the ages (AC XXIV). Now one pastor might wear a cassock and surplice and another an alb with no real theological difference between them. Another might wear an alb and stole, while his neighbor wears alb, stole and chasuble with no real theological difference between them. At other times the choice may be reflective of a theological difference. You don't know until you ask. In the parish this can be the case as well - when one choice is objected to or not, one should converse about the reasons and certainly always pursue catechesis.
This is certainly not just the case with vestments. To chant or not to chant, to make the sign of the cross or not, to bow or genuflect, to kneel or stand, to print out the service or simply directly use the hymnal, to use a sermon manuscript or to memorize the sermon or preach loosely from an outline, to wear a clerical collar, and so forth are areas that might be similarly considered. Other things would not be so much in the same category (such as plastic throw away communion cups, who reads the Scripture lessons, altar fellowship, grape juice in the sacrament, etc). Still, even in these other situations, as one peers into the situation from the outside, one should ask the question as to whether these things are patiently endured for the sake of catechesis, discipline, and shepherding in the economy of pastoral changes in the parish, or whether the pastor has given up and wants to coast into retirement without any stress. Of course there are cases also where despite much teaching and patience stubbornness to improvements in practice in the parish the practice remains statically where it was. Still, what was begun under one pastor might move under the next. That is the economy of the ministerium within the history of a parish.
Adiaphora do not exist within a vacuum. The Formula of Concord recognizes this as well. And for confessional Lutherans, especially grinding for pastors are other pastors who love to quote Formula of Concord X on adiaphora while ignoring the definition and practice of liturgy in Augsburg and Apology XXIV. "Liturgy" is not adiaphora in the Book of Concord. Certain "ceremonies" are adiaphora. But worship and the administration of the means of grace can never be "indifferent."
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Kenneth Korby on the problem with speaking of visible and invisible church
Kennth F. Korby, Theology of Pastoral Care in Wilhelm Loehe with Special Attention to the Function of the Liturgy and the Laity (Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Printshop, n.d.), 91.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Lost Sheep, John 6 disciples, and Itching Ears: Young Pastors Pay Attention
But the truth is that people come and people go. The reasons why are more where the truth motives is to be found. Of course, reasons stated aren't always complete reasons. In our culture people often will join a place because of programs offered, the appearance of the building, youth activites, whether the school covers parochial school tuition for members, family habit, geographic proximity to home, the personality of the pastor, and of course the sort of music they expect at church.
As many have said, Lutherans in North America are strangers in a foreign land and will always be odd balls, at least Lutherans who take the Book of Concord seriously. Historic Lutheranism does not find its idenity in programs, personalites, Power Point, or in becoming chameleons to the culture. Its unity is found in doctrine, particularly in justification by grace through faith, which is not the same thing as evangelism, though they are not unrelated. Lutherans are a creedal-confessional church in liturgy, catechesis, pastoral care, and outreach.
And there come moments in the life of the parish, in the economy of pastors succeeding one another in parishes, especially where there has not been consistence in right doctrine and orthopraxy, where people "vote with their feet," as it were. Now what is a pastor to do? Is there singular answer to this? Not really. Unfortunately many will think that there is, but they haven't thought enough through the issues.
Lost Sheep Moments
Lost sheep stray in foolishness, weakness, curiosity, and looking for pasture on their own. They weren't being particularly hostile or hateful. They get into danger, fall into sin, absent themselves from the flock. Wolves stalk them in order to perhaps eat them or turn them into something other than merely a lost sheep, in order to further harm the flock in some way or another. These often aren't those who take advantage of Bible study and did not mature incredibly in the faith since becoming a communicant. The Good Shepherd goes after the lost sheep by means of the Word and calls them in repentance to return to the LORD their God for He is gracious and merciful. We pray for a hunger and thirst for righteousness and to be guided once again by the rule of faith for the Lost Sheep.
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
John 6 disciples
Think of the crowd that listened to our Lord Jesus' Bread of Life discourse in John 6. By the end they complain of how difficult the teaching of Jesus is and they don't like what it implies. They say it is too much for them and walk with Him no more. That synod is no longer walking together, but scatters in disagreement and confusion over theology and its implied practice. Christ is the stumbling block. You cannot separate Jesus from His Word. His Word has implications, consequences and concrete expressions. Some will say to that Word, "That's impossible." Or others will say, "I don't like that or what it implies." Some will say, "That makes God too close to what I'm trying to protect from Him in my life."
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”[i]
Itching Ears
St. Paul in writing to Pastor Timothy warns of the ongoing end times fact of itching ears in the life of Christian congregations (2 Tim. 4):
1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at[a] His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Itching ears. You know what a dog is like when it has itching ears. They want to lean into you and have a friendly person scratch the itch. This is to say for us that members of the church want to hear what they want to be told in the way they want to be told in the context of their choosing as often as they choose, by the person that they choose or form to their own image.
This is exactly where, in some areas especially, you get a lot of "musical churches" going on. And in this scheme it is often confessional Lutheran parishes that lose in numbers and finances. The sugar sap of Rick Warrren/Joel Osteen wannabes entices many away - they had no deep roots in themselves. The siren song of praise bands and blended services gathers a crowd like U2 or the Beatles playing an impromptu concert on a city rooftop. The fleeting high of hand-waving, foot-stomping, and Power Point graphics shines like Las Vegas in the moonlight. And they think they are fed, comforted, and given the truth.
In these end times that we live in (Lutherans are so apt to forget their eschatology), itching ears are the order of the day, every day. Ongoing remedy for as many in the parish as you can get is catechesis, solid Sunday Bible study, good newsletter articles, teaching substance in casual small talk, tracts, etc. But this will not catch everyone. Itching ears will still happen as long as people have an Old Adam and there are those who will entice them, transfer them, refuse to enforce the confessional standard, and while people are so mobile, consumer-oriented in their thinking, and able to take their toys and go home. The confessional Lutheran knows he must be counter-cultural, but that that is not without cost.
Sinful, Weak, Pastors
It is true that Jesus is the only pastor without sin. And most pastors today are nowhere near the holy apostles in character and life, no have they suffered to the same degree. But pastors mess up, forget things, get cranky, get burned out, become depressed, fail in prayer, fail in studies, fail to say no or yes when they should, and don't always even know the right thing to do in some tough cases. This is not even to get to the cases that rise to a different level. I'm talking about run-of-the-mill stuff.
Then there are the misconceptions about particular men serving in the office of the ministry. St. Paul dealt with that plenty in Corinth (see especially 2 Corinthians). "You aren't as polished as those super apostles." "Why can't we do what that other church does over at XYZ?" And we all know as Lutherans that nothing can be written or said so clearly such that it cannot be misunderstood, twisted or misconstrued - or used against you.
Pastors must repent. This is to say they must suffer, die, not to pay for sins, but because their sins are paid for and pastors stink things up, even when people do like what they are doing. Pastors need to be responsible fathers who no when to say "no" out of love and how to preach full blast gospel, justification by grace alone, that is to say, to preach Christ and Him crucified, as even the risen Lord Jesus did on Easter evening. Pastors this is not chiefly the art of bargaining or compromising, but in learning how to be economical, process oriented, and catechetical in one's modus operandi, yet not forgetting the goal and objectives.
It doesn't matter whether the pastor is an extrovert or an introvert, whether he has depression or ADD or just has too much coffee. The pastor knows he much preach and catechize in leading a congregation back to the truth and its practice, and repeat that process over and over. The tough thing is in realizing when the change should be made - because you want as many on board as you can, but rarely will every single individual be on board with a change. And of course there will be complaints all along the way, and sometimes, sadly, people who reveal they didn't understand much of what you said.
But through all of this, especially when tempted to cave, quit, or some other expression of frustration and sadness, do indeed remember the words of St. Paul in 2 Corinthians:
1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.
Well, Now What?
Be careful, pastors, as your family suffers this with you. Realize that. Also know that you must(!) give attention your own being (faith, mental health, physical health) as well. Satan would love for you to go to some coping mechanism rather than be helped by the gifts the Lord provides through His means in this world.
But realize that for both the lost sheep as well as the John 6 crowd that leaves, there is no instance where the response is to repackage the message or change it, to serve men rather than God. For we serve the church for the sake of Christ. That's what the vows mean. It is fairly easy for a man to be a confessional Lutheran at the seminary, it is another to be confessional "in the field." Likewise to be pastoral is more than being nice or a backslapper or an extrovert or to be proficient in small talk or rhetorical flourish.
There will always be areas for individual pastors that are tough. Talk to various pastors and they might say it is preaching, or others they say it is funerals, some find weddings hard to handle, others dread misbehaving children in catechism class, some find shut-ins difficult to visit, others struggle with a board of elders. Others still might find study or having to say "no" difficult. Each pastor has his own strengths and weakness, his own struggles, and feels the strain. The devil does not quit against Christians and certainly not against pastors.
Maybe what I've said here is controversial or maybe it isn't. Don't blame the seminary for talking through all of this or more. There's only so much you can cover there. But the solution is not to go running after the Reformed or to get gussied up with "leadership" skills. Suffer and rest. Study and pray. Confess your sins and confess the faith. But know that a pastor must live by grace alone through faith alone and not by what he feels, sees, controls, or does to improve himself in the practical realm. Grace alone - Christ crucified and risen for you too, pastors.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Church Growth Movement and the Bondage of the Will
Fairly recently on Issues Etc, Todd Wilken discussed with Burnell Eckardt the topic of the Church Growth Movement/contemporary worship basically assuming a view which is Arminian, that is to say, it posits free will. I've long thought this and this is very troubling as it runs entirely counter to Luther's Bondage of the Will (De servo arbitrio) against Erasmus, not to mention, very simply, the Third Article of the Creed in the Catechism, and the principles of salvation being entirely by grace alone and faith alone through Christ alone. This becomes, as I've said before, "evangelism at the expense of the evangel (Gospel)."
While the Word of God is rejectable, as Christ suffers it to be (see the parable of the sower, for example) the power to believe, conversion as we say, is completely in the Holy Spirit's working in the Word of the Gospel. We cannot improve upon the means of grace. (Shocking!) All the schooling on leadership, experiential engineering of worship, having 2 or 3 flavors of services in most LCMS churches these days, flies in the face of clear Lutheran reformation theology, the Lutheran Confessions, and simply being able to say that our salvation is completed rested in Christ alone.
Sadly so many times churches will engage in "evangelism" or "stewardship" programs or emphases merely out of fretting about money. George Barna is consulted, a sermon series concocted, and special meetings are held. Faith flies out the window. How many times did Israel as a people run to their own solutions when confronted with challeges, only to be rebuked by the LORD in His call for them to repent and return to Him and receive His mercy. We do this over and over again in the name of effective ministry, successful outreach, church growth, and kingdom building.
Sadly while we claim not to buy into rapture theology, we think that we ought to be raptured, by methodistic machinations, from suffering for our confession of faith. We have, as Sasse pointed out elsewhere, a superstitious belief in dialogue. Lutheranism is most certainly a stranger in our North American landscape and we go running after S.S. Schmucker redivivus only to find that we sink again and again on the S.S. Schmucker and find that we are no longer Lutheran and in the process to save ourselves we lost what we hoped to save in the name of the institution.
This is why justification by grace through faith is indeed the article by which the church stands or falls. It is the case in liturgy, outreach, stewardship, church organization, and for us as individual congregations. We who are free keep putting ourselves into bondage while we fall into the lie that the world we seek to proclaim Christ to is free and may simply "choose Christ" with the right marketing and enginnering of worship experiences.
While the Word of God is rejectable, as Christ suffers it to be (see the parable of the sower, for example) the power to believe, conversion as we say, is completely in the Holy Spirit's working in the Word of the Gospel. We cannot improve upon the means of grace. (Shocking!) All the schooling on leadership, experiential engineering of worship, having 2 or 3 flavors of services in most LCMS churches these days, flies in the face of clear Lutheran reformation theology, the Lutheran Confessions, and simply being able to say that our salvation is completed rested in Christ alone.
Sadly so many times churches will engage in "evangelism" or "stewardship" programs or emphases merely out of fretting about money. George Barna is consulted, a sermon series concocted, and special meetings are held. Faith flies out the window. How many times did Israel as a people run to their own solutions when confronted with challeges, only to be rebuked by the LORD in His call for them to repent and return to Him and receive His mercy. We do this over and over again in the name of effective ministry, successful outreach, church growth, and kingdom building.
Sadly while we claim not to buy into rapture theology, we think that we ought to be raptured, by methodistic machinations, from suffering for our confession of faith. We have, as Sasse pointed out elsewhere, a superstitious belief in dialogue. Lutheranism is most certainly a stranger in our North American landscape and we go running after S.S. Schmucker redivivus only to find that we sink again and again on the S.S. Schmucker and find that we are no longer Lutheran and in the process to save ourselves we lost what we hoped to save in the name of the institution.
This is why justification by grace through faith is indeed the article by which the church stands or falls. It is the case in liturgy, outreach, stewardship, church organization, and for us as individual congregations. We who are free keep putting ourselves into bondage while we fall into the lie that the world we seek to proclaim Christ to is free and may simply "choose Christ" with the right marketing and enginnering of worship experiences.
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