(The latest isue of the Steadfast Quarterly is now on the site – click here to see it. It is mailed out to all members free of charge as a part of their annual dues. Once it is in the hands of all the members we post it here on the site.) The Steadfast Quarterly is seeking brief articles for a special issue on Evangelism. This issue intends to demonstrate that one can be a confessional Lutheran and still be serious about Evangelism. That one can engage in outreach without turning into an Evangelical Church Growther. That Lutheran evangelists need   More…

It looks like all of the temporal aspects  of the Issues, Etc. trademark case have been taken care of, now we just have to hope and pray that the far more important spiritual matters are handled in a godly manner by President Kieschnick and the Board of Directors. We want to thank Alex, one of our readers, who just left us these three links to the United States Patent and Trademark Office that prove that the temporal chapter is concluded. I have never felt so pleased reading official government documents. These documents  clearly spell out that the Lutheran Church Missouri   More…

Jesus First–aka JerryPAC, Geezers First, Jesus’ Fist, and ***us First–is back and gearing up the machinery for another campaign. Like John Kerry standing on the stage and saluting, the political-action committee that helped elect Jerry Kieschnick sent out two e-mails this month that say, in effect, “Reporting for duty!” Jesus First, for those who may not know, is the coalition of liberals and church growthers that is dedicated to advancing their common cause of not being shackled by Lutheran doctrine and practice. They were successful in getting Kieschnick narrowly elected in ’01, ’04, and ’07, and in pretty much running   More…

Yesterday morning the petition to ask the LCMS Board of Directors, which includes President Kieschnick and First Vice President William Dinkelman, to stop haranguing Issues, Etc. with threatened legal action reached 2,000 signers. In just nine days over 2,000 people have said to the President of the synod and to the Board of Directors, stop harassing Issues, Etc. and let them get on with the important work of bringing the pure Gospel to the world. We have not seen anything in print but the word is out  that the board is backing down from their threat to make use of   More…

(This is the first post of several on this topic.)   Here we go again with a discussion about the rightness or wrongness of Lawsuits.   The last time the question of Lawsuits was discussed in our circles was in 2005 when certain members of the synod brought suit against President Kieschnick and Vice president Bill Diekelman. Labeled the “Anderson lawsuit,” it was brought for two reasons. First the president had created over 175 votes at the 2004 convention by granting an undue amount of exceptions to the rules governing the size of electoral circuits in the synod. Second there   More…

There are some new posts on the Issues, Etc. website  that will interest you. There is  an audio Web Extra of Pastor Wilken’s response to President Kieschnick’s memo today. There are also a couple of other goodies there as listed below. Once you are at the website click on the “on demand” button.   You will want to listen to this audio. Pastor Wilken makes it clear that President Kieschnick has still not answered the most important question: did he oppose the Board of Director’s decision to pursue legal action against Issues, Etc? Pastor Wilken also restates his point from   More…

Here is a memo issued moments ago from President Kieschnick. Take a moment and read through it and I will provide a few comments below. MEMO To:                                  LCMS Council of Presidents From:                          Gerald B. Kieschnick Subject:                    Issues, Etc. Date:                            February 26, 2009  

Two items have been added to the Brothers of John the Steadfast site that we wanted to call your attention to. In the right sidebar is now a search box that looks like the following: Type a word or phrase in it and click “Search” and the BJS site will be searched for that term. We are using Google Custom Search Engine to implement the search. As always with Google, you can include a phrase in quotes and it will search for that phrase. People have been asking for this for quite a while, so hopefully you will find it   More…

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Randy Bosch, who has prepared a current text version of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance restructuring PowerPoint presentation given at the Southern Illinois District Convention, and compares it with the previous presentation at the North Dakota District Convention. Deletions are struck out, and additions are noted in red, for comparison purposes. The actual slide presentations, old and new, are available here and here, respectively. His efforts alleviate a real bottleneck, since the Synod apparently sees no value in providing useful materials with which to study their proposals.   More…

I have a brief entry in an Ash Wednesday symposium over at National Review Online, in case you are interested.

Sometimes it’s the little things that can mean so much. We had a little girl in kindergarten become ill this morning. Her mother had to come to pick her up. She told the teacher that she was sorry that she would miss getting ashes put on her head at our Early Childhood Chapel later in the day. The teacher talked to Pastor Schumacher and he arranged to have her “ashed” before she went home to recuperate. For the last several years we have had a simplified but still liturgical weekly chapel service for the early childhood children in our school.   More…

This Ash Wednesday in the year of our Lord 2009 would be a great opportunity for President Kieschnick, Vice President Dinkelman and the rest of the LCMS Board of Directors to confess their sin so that there can be healing in our denomination. I know I have countless sins to repent today and will receive ashes twice today, as a reminder of that sin,  during our Day School Chapel this morning and at our Ash Wednesday service this evening. Many have tried to get to the heart of the Issues, Etc. Trademark story. I think at the root of it   More…

(Editor’s Note: Bethany Tanis has authored many great comments on the BJS website, particularly concerning Calvinism and so we asked her to do a little writing for us on the relationship between Calvinism and Evangelicalism. It is a good thing for the Brothers and all our readers to understand the teachings of various denominations, particularly Calvinism since it is the mother of Evangelicalism. This knowledge will help us uphold the Lutheran Confessions and distinguish them from false confessions. This is part one of a five part series.) Several months ago, Pastor Rossow asked me if I would be interested in   More…

This paper was originally published on the Wittenberg Trail by Rev. Scott Hojnacki; we at BJS thought our readership would like to review it. This analysis is based on the North Dakota presentation. The papacy is the most efficient form of ecclesiastical governance on earth. The pope speaks, and the matter is decided. Any form of governance that is consistent with the principles of the Lutheran Reformation will, of necessity, be less efficient.

(The Augustana Ministerium is one of many confessional groups that reports regularly here on the Brothers of John the Steadfast website. For a complete list see our Regular Columns page.) The Fourth Annual Theological Conference and Plenary Session of The Augustana Ministerium will be held May 11-13, 2009, and hosted again by Trinity Lutheran Church, Kearney, MO and her pastor, the Rev. Drew Newman. This year’s conference will continue a discussion begun at last year’s TAM conference concerning challenges of a confessional Lutheran ministry in a post-synodical age. A timely theological agenda, open to all—pastors and laity—is being planned that   More…