Yesterday Pastor Wilken posted a comment on the President Benke story that is worthy of re-posting here for all to read. Pastor Wilken wonders why the Council of Presidents is so concerned about restricting input on the proposals from the Blue Ribbon Task Force.

There are many devotional sources around the web that will deliver to your inbox a new short piece to help you in your daily or weekly devotionals, or just get your day started in the right frame of mind. We at BJS use several of these ourselves, and wanted to bring some of them to your attention. We will be posting a devotional from different sources we are aware of. If you receive or know of a good Lutheran devotion, please contact us and we’ll look at it and make it available to our readership. The Memorial Moment is a   More…

The Rev. Tom Chryst has an awesome post to help you see how much you’re under the influence of evangelicalism. He’s taking suggestions for additional examples: YOU MIGHT BE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF EVANGELICALISM IF: You believe it’s important to be “Christian First, Lutheran Second” You would rather have lunch with James Dobson than C.F.W. Walther You believe the Great Commission is the central point of Christian teaching You think that many Lutherans are too concerned about Doctrine You’ve ever called someone a pharisee for defending a point of biblical teaching You think that different Christian teachings needlessly offend people   More…

The  unionistically tolerant Atlantic District President David Benke is intolerant of his fellow LCMS members. A group called Interested Laymen have grown frustrated that the Blue Ribbon Task Force is less than transparent with input to their proposals and so they put online the very same presentation and survey that the task force uses so that all LCMS members can participate in feedback and do so openly. (You can log on and take the survey here. The survey is very lengthy so it will require patience.)   So far the task force has taken surveys at district conventions but they   More…

We at BJS have created a 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, or   More…

You have heard of bad hair days? Well,  Rev. Kieschnick and Rev. Matt Harrison had bad AV days but according to our source, they reacted quite differently. Each man had trouble with the video presentations they had planned. In each case the video equipment malfunctioned. According to the pastor that we interviewed, President Kieschnick did not handle it well. He was quite perplexed and after a few minutes awkwardly went on with a stunted presentation. Harrison on the other hand, it was reported, had the same problems but responded without much hesitation and went on with a full presentation. This   More…

A friend who works in politics just sent me the following press release that ran across his desk. He thought it was hilarious. I’m passing it on because it features our own Chris Rosebrough! And some delicious quotes. Joel Osteen Wins First Ever ‘Worst Easter Sermon Award’ INDIANAPOLIS, April 28 /Christian Newswire/ — Chris Rosebrough, captain of internet based Pirate Christian Radio and host of the Fighting for the Faith Radio program announced on Monday that Joel Osteen is the winner of the “Worst Easter Sermon Award” for 2009. “Every Christmas Christians whine and complain about secular and atheistic efforts   More…

(Scott’s posts are archived on the Regular Columns page under the title “Apologetics: Apply Liberally.” This is the first in a series on the TCN program. It is also posted on his website Stand Firm.) You may have heard of the invasive plant species called kudzu, which has taken over the south. Originally imported from Asia and used extensively to control soil erosion, this non-native vine grows rapidly, overwhelming native plant species. It kills trees, covers abandoned buildings, and collapses power lines. Indigenous animals lose their food supplies, resulting in starvation. This foreign plant, which was meant to be a   More…

So from Ed Stetzer’s Twitter feed, I learn that another Baptist will be meeting with Synodical leadership tomorrow. Here’s the, uh, tweet: Dinner with Bob Roberts. Bob is speaking tomorrow to the same LCMS Lutheran group where I just spoke today. Nice surprise. I’m sure these people are lovely, but I don’t get what Lutherans hope to learn from Southern Baptists. Here’s some info on Bob Roberts and here’s his blog: Dr. Bob Roberts, Jr., founding pastor of NorthWood Church, a fast-growing church near Dallas/Ft Worth, TX, is a leading practitioner and writer on glocal—local and global—transformation of individuals, churches,   More…

One of the people I follow on Twitter is Ed Stetzer. Stetzer is part of the LifeWay Research Team, a Baptist research effort that studies church trends. I’m not enamored with the statistical methodology used but reporters like to have data for their stories. And Stetzer is a great guy to follow. A Southern Baptist, he is a leader of the emergent missional movement. Anyway, here are the last three “tweets” I read from Stetzer: # Heading to the airport wwwaaayyy to early. I’m hoping that the St Louis weather does not delay my time with the Lutheran bishops &   More…

A group of LCMS laymen have grown concerned that the Blue Ribbon Task Force’s (BRTF) approach to getting feedback is not as complete as it could be and so they have made the BRTF’s survey available to a wider audience. The council of presidents is not happy with their efforts and during their meeting last week decided to discourage people from taking the survey. We talked recently to the laymen who put the survey on line to find out more about their efforts. To take the survey go to http://blueribbonsurvey.com. It takes at least 45 minutes but it is set   More…

OK, OK, so I’ll get back to synodical politics in a day or two. But today is Sunday, and it’s still Easter, so I can’t help but celebrate a little more. A few days ago my friend Tom Engler asked me to write words to some music he had heard on a Korean historical drama. Tom suggested, “Could be Easter . . . (martial, manly, overcoming death, etc.).” So that’s what I did, and here is the result. (A couple of notes on the notes: In the second stanza, third line, the words, “But on,” fit into a one-syllable slot,   More…

I’m working on a story about how families should plan the end-of-life care of elderly family members and treat it as a sanctity of life issue. I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts about what this might mean from a Lutheran perspective. What should we keep in mind, vocationally and otherwise, as we work on this? Of my four grandparents, one died of cancer before my parents married, two died suddenly and one died after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For her, my grandmother, we were able to plan for in-home hospice care with a focus on pain management. Pancreatic   More…

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…

President Kieschnick’s most recent letter to pastors includes this request: What is the Synod’s position on . It is not at all unusual for me to be asked the Synod’s position on . and name your topic-cloning, admission to the Lord’s Supper, gambling, etc., etc., etc. To help answer such questions in an official way, the Office of the President is preparing a booklet that will cite the Synod’s position regarding these matters of faith and life as determined from Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. To make this resource as helpful to you as possible, I invite you to write   More…