For the past several months, Brothers of John the Steadfast have had a calendar on our LutheranWiktionary site. It hasn’t taken off like we’d have liked it to, as the site doesn’t get the traffic that the Brothers of John the Steadfast site gets. The implementation also was not ideal; it was a bit hard I think to figure out how to find information there. Per requests from some associated organizations, as well as our own observed need for a common calendar, we have now added a calendar directly to this site. On the right sidebar you find the word   More…

One of the goals of the Brothers of John the Steadfast is the creation of reading groups whose intention is to get with a Pastor and read through the Book of Concord. For those people who do not have access to a reading group, it occurred to us that we might try creating an “online reading group” right here on the BJS site.

(Editor’s Note: There is quite a lively discussion of the sale of KFUO over on Uwe Siemon Netto’s blog The Center for Lutheran Theology and Public Life between Uwe, who is a BJS advisory board member and Cantor Phillip Magness, regular contributor to the BJS Quarterly. This must be the day for BJS folks to respectfully disagree since we started the day out with Todd disagreeing with Mollie. We have recorded two of Phillip’s comments here. He makes some great points about the nature of evangelical worship which will help all BJS members and readers to better understand authentic Lutheran worship. For   More…

Here is a quote from a recent Ablaze newsletter. It is written by an Ablaze worker in the Philippines (LCP).   The LCP has 92 churches, many of which are mission stations, and 26 ordained pastors with an Ablaze goal to establish 100 new churches by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation (October 31, 2017)!

A recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch story on the possible sale of Classic 99, KFUO-FM has received a lot of attention in LCMS circles. In fact, my friend Mollie Hemingway has posted about the story; she called the story “well written and fair.” With great respect and brotherly affection for Mollie, I must disagree that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story was fair. Here’s why. The story begins: “”Keep Forward, Upward, Onward,” words that represent the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s 85-year commitment to spreading the gospel via radio broadcasting. But now the Synod’s board of directors is quietly working to send KFUO-FM onward   More…

John Pless, professor from Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne has alerted us to the publication of a second edition of “Women Pastors, The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective” by Concordia Publishing House. The second edition includes new articles by Professor John Kleinig and Dr. Gregory Lockwood. As described on the CPH website, the book is refreshingly countercultural on the issue of women’s ordination and encourages Christians to listen to the clear voice of Christ and His word to reject this recent innovation. Pless’ co-editor is Rev. Matt Harrison. As we have stated before on this website, it is   More…

I’ve mentioned before my agnosticism on the matter of selling KFUO-FM. I am swayable to arguments on both sides. Still, from a public relations standpoint, who in the world thought that the way to announce the decision to sell KFUO was best handled this way? The story, featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is well written and fair, but the LCMS comes off looking horrific. The only people who come off reasonable are Synod Treasurer Tom Kuchta (proponent of selling) and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra president Fred Bronstein (opponent of selling).

BJS steering committee member Pastor Jacob Erhard of Dwight, Illinois alerted us to an article in a St. Louis online magazine with the following article. (BJS regular commenter “Carl Vehse” also noted this on one of our comment strings.) Ultimately we lay this at the feet of the president of the synod. As you read the story, note how his Ablaze program has brought a lot of tension and stress into our beloved synod. We can now count among the president’s detractors the fans of Issues, Etc., the fans of classical music in the entire St. Louis area and the   More…

There is a great article on the Reformation Today website by Rev. John Frahm III. It also has some clever graphics for all you visual learners and a string of links to some excellent segments from Issues, Etc. The article is about the “old” modern trick called gospel reductionism. The old guard liberals in the LCMS tried to excise the miracles and morality from the Bible by reducing God’s word to the Gospel. The article is very timely because Rev. Frahm does the important work of showing how the new guard church-growthers in the LCMS have a version of Gospel   More…

(We have received the following from the ACL and the Luther Academy and encourage you to make plans to attend. The lineup of excellent speakers includes BJS blogger Klemet Preus and our BJS Quarterly Editor Fritz Baue.) “Who Is God?” You know Him, of course, but others claim to know Him, too…often others who really do not know Him, but only a corruption of His revelation that neither saves them nor serves their neighbor.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s raising funds for itself. Heh. LCMS News just sent out information about Gift Development and Stewardship courses provided by The LCMS Foundation. One of the courses, offered for two days in April and held at the International Center, runs $950 per person! As a former development professional, and with all due respect to the Foundation, I’m pretty sure that outfit — known more for its trouble raising money and bureaucratic waste and idiocy — is the last place I’d go to for fundraising training. But hey, your mileage may vary.

We recently discussed the financial woes being faced by Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. They are not alone. This USA Today article looks at the widespread financial problems at seminaries across the land.

If you are as fascinated by bioethics issues as I am, you simply must head over to Rev. Robert C. Baker’s new blog Bioethike. You can thank me later.

(I’ve been doing this series on the Catechism, especially because we have a Book of Concord Reading Group that has just finished reading the Small and Large Catechisms. This coming Monday, March 30, we start the Augsburg Confession. Anyone in the St. Louis area who wants to join us, our class meets on Mondays, 9:30-11:00 a.m., at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Bonne Terre, Missouri.) “The Six Chief Parts of Lenten Catechesis” The Ten Commandments The Creed The Lord’s Prayer The Sacrament of Holy Baptism Confession The Sacrament of the Altar “Frequently Asked Questions about an Infrequently Used Practice” (Confession)   More…

(This is the final post in this series on “Lawsuits Among Christians.” For the whole series click on Pastor Preus’ name on the Brother’s Cafe.)   As indicated in my recent blog something happened on December 2 of which the entire synod needs to be aware. A legal opposition was filed before the secular authorities against certain Christian men. This action, according to President Kieschnick’s understanding of I Corinthians, is a sin. Who did it and how should the president respond?