We at BJS have created a new column where we hope to review at least one program from Issues, Etc. each week. Our hope in doing this is to help people to understand what types of programs are available on Issues, Etc. and perhaps to generate interest in the show by new listeners. We also hope to make it easier for you to introduce Issues, Etc. to friends or members of your church; you can print these out and hand them to people who might be interested in the topic. Listen to the show to learn more about this topic,   More…

The BJS website went on line nine months ago, A.D.  June 25, 2008, the  478th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. In that time we have had over 35,000 unique visitors. Here are a few other statistics: We average 1,100 unique visitors a day. Since January 1 of this year we have averaged 167 new visitors a day. We have over 30 regular authors, columnists and bloggers who submit posts to the site. There have been 497 posts on the blogsite and 5,311 comments on those posts. Organization Statistics We have 225 dues paying members. 11 chapters in   More…

(I recently received an e-mail from a BJS reader who was concerned that her congregation was moving to a policy based governance system (PBG). A friend of hers suggested that I had some experience with PBG and so she asked me my opinion on it. The following is part one of my response to her. PBG is a philosophy of governance that was created recently in the corporate world to give Boards of Directors guidance on solving the age old challenge of over managing the CEO. To implement PBG a corporate board develops a set of policies intended to create   More…

The following is a letter sent by certified mail to President Kieshcnick two weeks ago concerning his role in the trademark controversey. We have given him two weeks to respond but as of yet we have not heard from him. We hope he will change his mind but as of now, he has shown no interest in taking responsibility for his role as a member of the Board of Directors that threatened legal action against Todd Wilken and Jeff Schwarz. The Board of Directors has also not addressed this matter as President Kieschnick promised they would. Scott Diekmann P.O. Box   More…

The Bethany Lutheran –  Naperville,  Illinois chapter of the Brothers of John the Steadfast combined a review of the Blue Ribbon Proposals with several hours of NCAA basketball March Madness. Eleven members of the chapter and four visitors met at the home of Tye Fox for a great afternoon of information and entertainment on Sunday afternoon. The afternoon began with a brief presentation on the Blue Ribbon proposals by Pastor Rossow. He handed out copies of the proposals and challenged the men to be real men and real leaders by investing their personal time into knowing what was going on   More…

We found this posted on Cyberbrethren and thank Pastor Paul McCain for permission to reprint it here. I received a postcard in the mail yesterday from “Church.Inc” [note: The material in quotes in this blog post are exact quotes from the postcard]. The front of the postcard showed a silhouette image of a stereotypical family: Mom, Dad, daughter, son [so much for people who are not in a stereotypical family].

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: 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 various denominational tag lines out there as we seek to uphold the Lutheran Confessions and distinguish them from false confessions. Bethany has a Ph.D. from Boston College in modern British history and is starting an assistant professorship in modern European history at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI in the fall.   More…

With all due respect to those who use them, I can not STAND sermon illustrations that use props. I always feel like my intelligence is being insulted. But here’s a great illustration of why they’re even more dangerous than you may have thought! A Sheboygan Falls pastor and parishioner were issued municipal citations Thursday for firing an arrow during Sunday’s service as part of a sermon illustration. About 120 people were attending the evening service at Pentecostals of Sheboygan County, 621 Broadway, when the Rev. John Putnam had Jason Wilke, 26, draw and fire a steel-tipped practice arrow across the   More…

(This is part seven in a series. To view the other posts in this series click on “Klemet Preus” in the Brothers Café.)   On December 2, 2008 the LCMS went to the secular government in a disputed matter with Harry Madsen and indirectly with Todd Wilken and Jeff Schwarz.   As I have shown this action was not in and of itself wrong. At the same time the action does betray a litigious attitude which ought to be of concern to synodical leadership and the synod as a whole. Further the action has created questions about the integrity of   More…

We found the following on the web on sacredsandwich.com, and found it a thought provoking piece on what the contemporary reaction might be if Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians and submitted it to Christianity Today for publication. It’s obviously satire, but it makes one think about the reaction of people to our call for a return to doctrine. If you are not acquainted with Paul’s letter to the Galatians we recommend you review at least the first two chapters and this satire will make more sense (Gal 1:1-2:21). If Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians was Published in Christianity   More…

This is a great story about a Catholic high school teacher who was honored by the school for his work with students and the community. This is the part that grabbed me: What Mr. Skerl is probably best known for, however, is the St. Joseph of Arimathea Pallbearer Society, an organization he started in 2003 that is now the largest extracurricular activity at the school, with 300 members. That level of participation is extraordinary, since membership is restricted to juniors and seniors—nearly half of all juniors and seniors are members. What the members do is act as pallbearers for those   More…

“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 “It Works” (The Sacrament of Holy Baptism) The Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer. Tonight, in our series on the Catechism, the basics of the Christian faith, we come to the sacraments. We begin, fittingly enough, with the sacrament with which we begin the Christian life, namely, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. I think all that I want to say about Holy Baptism tonight I can include under a heading of just two   More…

We at BJS have created a new column where we hope to review one program from Issues, Etc. periodically. Our hope in doing this is to help people to understand what types of programs are available on Issues, Etc. and perhaps to generate interest in the show by new listeners. We also hope to make it easier for you to introduce Issues, Etc. to friends or members of your church; you can print these out and hand them to people who might be interested in the topic. Listen to the show to learn more about this topic, or go to   More…

(Technology Editor’s Note: We are pleased to post articles on the BJS website from one of the longest operating confessional groups in the LCMS – The Lutheran Concerns Association  - LCA. This article is by BJS Advisory Board member Rev. Martin Noland. We will be posting the LCA newsletters on their page on this site: http://steadfastlutherans.org/lca and excerpting articles from those newsletters here on the home page.   We recomend you join the LCA and subscribe to The Clarion. Please see the bottom of this post for more information on the LCA and   “The Clarion.”) (Here is Rev. Noland’s   More…