Lambs at Pasture for the Third Sunday after Trinity and its Answer Key are now available for download. The repetitive nature of Lambs at Pasture aids in familiarity and memorization of key passages. This is especially true when used in conjunction with the Daily Prayer meditation found in the Lutheran Service Book (page 295). … Continue reading →
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We all know pastors can be a bit mystifying sometimes. Growing up in a small congregation with fairly high pastor turnover, that’s what I thought anyway, no matter which pastor it was who was serving us at the time. They always seemed kind of mysterious and outside the mainstream. Our … Continue reading →
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Man Up! The Quest for Masculinity, by Jeffrey Hemmer (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2017) I won’t lie to you. When I first read the title for this book, I wasn’t sure I would read it since “Man up!” has become such a clichéd phrase. Concordia Publishing House made an … Continue reading →
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Found over on Gottesdienst Online: The video is finally done! Over a year in the making, we have at last completed our work of preparing our instructional film, The Form of the Divine Service: an instructional video for pastors and seminarians. This is footage of an actual Divine Service with … Continue reading →
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Concordia Publishing House has decided to print a great resource for Lutheran pastors, a new desk diary (daily scheduler) that has great information to help us in planning services, sermon preparation, etc. This is going to replace other planners that had been used in years gone past. They are hoping … Continue reading →
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What is justification? For Lutherans, the central teaching of the Bible is justification by faith apart from the works of the law. The classic expression of this doctrine is found in Article IV of the Augsburg Confession, “Also they teach … Continue reading → Share this:Found on Matthew E. Cochran’s blog, The 96th thesis: When a congregation begins toying with the idea of contemporary worship, one of the usual driving factors is an attempt to be more “inclusive.” “The Church needs to appeal to … Continue reading → Share this:I know we have kind of beaten the horse a bit with this issue, but I don’t ever get bored with this. Justification is always the issue. So in this article, I would like to talk about how Objective Justification … Continue reading → Share this:Did Christianity Steal the Date of Pagan Winter Solstice Celebrations? The Roman celebration discussed in this article is the multi-day festival of Saturnalia. The Mis-Use of Roman Sources: Saturnalia In these articles we have seen the texts from the early … Continue reading → Share this:“Jesus is Lord” Our Lord said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:19) What part of that do we not understand? In regard to the whole topic at hand, when it comes to … Continue reading → Share this:I came across an interesting blog article written by Dr. Matthew Becker, an LCMS clergyperson serving as a professor at Valparaiso University. The article is called “The Being of Adam, the New Adam, and the Ontology of Pastors.” In it, … Continue reading → Share this:(Editor’s Note: Early on this website has included much in the way of theological critique. Our goal is to not only teach the Brothers (and others) how to critique bad theology and practice but to also proactively train the Brothers … Continue reading → Share this:There has been lots of discussion on Pastor Scheer’s recent post .. one commentator pointed out this article by Pastor Paul McCain, which I thought should be brought to the attention of our readers. This is always a difficult subject, … Continue reading → Share this:(from Mollie) Today we commemmorate Johann Sebastian Bach, the most wonderful composer of all time. Or, as the Aardvark put it last year: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is acknowledged as one of the most famous and gifted of all composers … Continue reading → Share this:We are pleased to announce the videos are now available from the recent Brothers of John the Steadfast 2015 Conference held at Bethany Lutheran Church in Naperville, IL on Feb 20-21st. Thanks to Peter Slayton for helping getting these recordings … Continue reading → Share this:When my wife Karla and I were first married, over twenty years ago, I invited her to join me for the banquet at our annual LCMS district pastor’s conference. The food was great, but the banquet speaker was not. His … Continue reading → Share this:Another great article found from the ACELC — (found at their site here (pdf)) In our conversations with many of you we have sensed a need for a resource to explain our Biblical practice and the theology behind Closed Communion. … Continue reading → Share this:The reasons for Communion every Sunday are surprising. The reasons Lutheran churches fell away from this practice also are surprising. Pr Klemet Preus, the author of the article republished below, was surprised about the reasons for and against. After visiting … Continue reading → Share this:Below is a letter of resignation from a pastor in the LCMS. It came our way and we feel it is important news for our readers and a helpful warning for us all. By publishing this letter we are not endorsing … Continue reading → Share this:I presented on this topic for the 3rd annual Wyoming District Men’s Retreat this past weekend. What follows are my thoughts which I expanded for the presentation. Sadly, the recording of this was lost due to technical errors. Being a … Continue reading → Share this:In the comments section of Friday’s post by Pastor Rossow titled “Per DP’s Advice LCMS Pastor Cancels Participation in Joint Service but Still Supports Unionism,” arguments were made that having a joint worship service with congregations of other fellowships, such … Continue reading → Share this:About a year ago one of my professors gave me the lecture notes of my grandfather, Robert Preus, from when he taught a course on Justification at St. Catharines back in the 80’s. According to Dr. Jackson, Preus was an … Continue reading → Share this:On All Hallows’ Eve 1517 a monk named Martin Luther posted a list of points for discussion and debate at the University of Wittenberg campus church. The campus church is named All Saints’ Church. The regular bulletin board for such … Continue reading → Share this:Another great post found over on Gottesdienst Online: The president-emeritus of the LCMS, the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, has written a blogpost expressing his “perspective” positing that the LCMS has a culture that is unfriendly to the laity. However, the title he … Continue reading → Share this:Many of you have observed the “Explanation of the Divine Service” pamphlets that are found in the pew racks at Bethany Lutheran Church in Naperville while attending a conference or event there. The Brothers of John the Steadfast have worked … Continue reading → Share this:Calling a new pastor is a great and glorious occasion. It can however be a hard time as well. Your congregation is going through a lot of things after losing its pastor. There is grief in many situations at his … Continue reading → Share this:It was suggested in a comment by Pastor Paul McCain that we re-post this post of his published back in 2005 that includes an article written by Doctor Kurt Marquart: I was just in a conversation with two younger … Continue reading → Share this:Recently I was discussing some things with a fellow pastor and I uttered the phrase above. Many comments recently on this blog have been directed to the belief that solid Lutheran beliefs (expressed in the Book of Concord) can find … Continue reading → Share this:(Editor’s Note: Pastor Otten writes the BJS regular column “Steadfast Lessons from the Past.” The columns are archived here. Walter Bouman, well known liberal, of whom he writes here left the LCMS and became an ALC pastor in 1977. He … Continue reading → Share this:During my past 9 years of pastoral ministry the discussion with Evangelicals that has resulted in the most confusion, tension, and conflict is most definitely the dialog over infant baptism. Otherwise stated, in my humble opinion there is nothing more … Continue reading → Share this: |