Thanks to the person who read and recommend this for featuring as a “Great Stuff” post on BJS; we appreciate those who make use of the “contact us” on the sidebar to recommend articles for us. Pastor Peters’ on his blog, Pastoral Meanderings, hits another home run about the commitment that parents make at baptism but fail to keep at catechism and beyond. Which leads to the first commentator : More and more I’m becoming convinced that at least one of probably many “keys” to issues like this is Christian men — the husband and father in Christian families. The   More…

And so it begins. An overview of the 104 convention resolutions prepared by the eight floor committees for the 64th Regular Convention of the LCMS has been released by Reporter Online. The biggest news may not be what’s in them, but what isn’t in them. In what seems to be a growing tradition in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, the floor committees did whatever they wanted to do, ignoring the majority of the overtures presented to them by congregations and Districts across the Synod. Pastor Todd Wilken’s partial list of resolutions Floor Committee 8 ignored is rather stunning (Floor   More…

Today, May 29, is the 105th anniversary of the death in 1905 of Heinrich Schwan, the third president of the Missouri Synod. We honor his memory today by listening to his wise counsel. This is the third in a series of excerpts from writings of the first five presidents of our synod–Walther, Wyneken, Schwan, Pieper, and Pfotenhauer–all found in a book by Pastor Matt Harrison, “At Home in the House of My Fathers” (available through logia.org). Harrison’s introduction to his translation of a Schwan sermon reads, in part, as follows: In a beautiful way, dominated by the Gospel, and charitable   More…

Earlier I posted a partial list of overtures expressing concern and caution about President Kieschnick’s Task Force proposals for restructuring. You may have noticed that at least 21 of these overtures were submitted by LCMS districts conventions. At least 17 of them were submitted by entire circuits. Each of these 22 District overtures and each of these 17 circuit overtures were ignored by Floor Committee 8. Is this is the same Floor Committee that is now recommending that circuit and district overtures be given preferential consideration by other floor committees? YES. According to this Reporter article, Other proposed resolutions call   More…

The official news source for the LCMS, the Reporter, has released a summary of the work of the convention floor committees who met this last weekend. Critics of this website have thrown up a constant smoke screen to cloud the concerns raised on this blog site by asserting that the final resolutions have not been released and so any concerns expressed ought to be dismissed. Well, the resolutions are now prepared for the convention and have been released so let the final discussions begin. What is glaringly evident in the release of the floor committee’s work is that the concerns   More…

The LCMS Reporter has this story on pre-convention floor committee actions. Here’s just a partial list of overtures expressing concern and caution about President Kieschnick’s Task Force proposals for restructuring that Floor Committee 8 ignored: To Foster Greater Unanimity in Decisions re Structure To Postpone Consideration and Implementation of Task Force Report To Exercise Care and Delay Implementation of Structure Changes To Allow Time to Study Task Force Recommendations To Submit BRTFSSG Report to All Congregations for Study and Defer Action until Following Convention To Proceed with Task Force Proposals Only If Full and Timely Disclosure of Proposed Revisions Is   More…

Scott Diekmann over on his blog Stand-Firm started a List of Articles on the BRTFSSG back in February. He has updated this list twice now, and Version 3 was recently released. I’ve always been concerned that there are a great number of articles talking about different aspects of what is happening in the LCMS, but no way to find them. This is one problem of any blog — BJS definitely included. We always look for ways to make it easier to locate articles that were written on the site for new users or for people who remember the article and   More…

The United List has released their full list of nominees for the 2010 convention.   RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2010 The United List announces the release of its full list of candidates for consideration at the upcoming Synodical Convention. A convenient one page form is available for download at the newly revamped United List website: http://theunitedlist.org Please forward this information to help promote and disseminate the United List. Visit the site frequently for newly updated information and future press releases. Fraternally in Christ, The United List

As of 11 AM this morning this website has had 1,876,130 page loads. Actually we have most likely exceeded 2 million down loads  but we changed stat counting software after our first few months and so those stats are not included in this report.  We went online on the occasion of the Dedication of the Augsburg Confession, June 25, 2008. The stats I am reporting here are from August 2008 to the present. We are humbled and honored that so many folks have found a home here for Lutheran news and commentary. Our readership is diverse and far-reaching. We focus   More…

I happened on this today over on Pastor Peters’ Pastoral Meanderings blog .. another home run to me. It steps back from all the individual issues that we are talking about to look at the overall direction of the LCMS. One of the great questions before Lutheranism is not about who we were in the past or even who we are in the present moment but which way are we headed? When we elect leaders, when we undertake great mission initiatives, or when we decide to review and change our structure, we make what are at best incremental changes. Often   More…

Remember a few weeks ago when we were commenting on all of the overtures submitted  by Districts, Circuits and other entities of Synod? I don’t think that Districts, Circuits or Boards could have done much more to express specific concerns they had with some of the proposals being suggested by the Blue Ribbon Task Force. But I have bad news. I’m getting a ton of reports coming out of the recent meetings of floor committees (the groups that decide whether any of those overtures will ever see the light of day at the Synodical Convention in Houston) that indicate a   More…

Of the various proposals suggested by the Blue Ribbon Task Force, one of the most radical is #18. That’s the one that would eliminate all program boards and consolidate them under the office of the Synodical President. There would be a national mission commission and an international mission commission. Supporters of this proposal argue that it would save money and make things run more efficiently. But opponents say it would do the opposite and they’re worried that it would seriously harm some of the Synod’s best programs. Opposition doesn’t come from one “side” of the LCMS or another but it   More…

Check out the picture that appears in the LCMS website’s article about churches and their wireless microphones.

On the national political scene the attempt as been made to denigrate conservatives as an “angry mob of bitter clingers.” Based on the early season primaries it is not working. There is a parallel going on in the LCMS. Consider this quote from the Jesus First Delegate Newsletter #2 (pp. 2-3). I would be remiss if I painted only a rosy picture, stating that all people are happy. There is a small group of people who do not like ANY of the changes. They are actively writing and stating that all of the proposals should be voted down. Those who   More…

I wanted to make sure to point you to this article in World magazine about the work LCMS World Relief and Human Care is doing in Haiti right now: The LCMS has been in Haiti since the quake, providing for the immediate needs of the survivors: food, water, medical supplies and temporary shelter. They realize, however, that they were not doing enough to help with the sense of hopelessness in the people. After speaking with the Rev. Marky Kessa, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti, the organization leaders realized that the best way to help rebuild the survivors’   More…