Here is Matt Harrison’s first theological challenge and it even comes from a seminary! I found this on Facebook, a posting from Prof Gard at Ft Wayne Seminary to President Matt Harrison, obviously written at 6:55am this morning central time. Daniel Lee Gard -> Matt Harrison: In 16 hours 5 minutes, you will be President of the LCMS, at least in the eastern time zone. But you have an extra hour to wait in Missouri. Now for your first theological challenge: what is your status during that hour when you are President here but not there? Realized eschatology? I’m not   More…

Rev. Fisk again hits a homerun with a video talking about his experience finding the Book of Concord, starting with seeing his future wife’s copy of it that she purchased because she took one class that required it. His first reaction was anger — why would a church need a book other than the bible as its confession? He also makes the point that in his Confessions 1 and 2 class in his first year of Sem he didn’t even open the book — with 400 pages to read, what are the students going to read — what the prof   More…

On July 30, 2010, I had the privilege of meeting with Pastor Tim Rossow at Bethany Lutheran Church and School in Naperville, Illinois. In communicating with him through the Brothers of John the Steadfast blog and by private e-mails, we decided that a face-to-face meeting would serve us best. I am currently serving as the assistant pastor at Carmel Lutheran Church in Carmel, Indiana. The reason we chose to meet was to smooth out some misconceptions and false assumptions that spawned from Pastor Rossow’s article “LCMS Council of Presidents Chooses to Focus on a Functionally Non-Lutheran Parish as a Model   More…

Today at Bethany Lutheran – Naperville, Illinois (pardon the construction work as we transition to a new website) we are rallying the children and adults back to Sunday School and Bible Class and celebrating with our annual church and school picnic. We have all of the standard Rally Day fare including Bibles and hymnals being given away to children, a new adult Bible class, a visit from a fire truck at the picnic, hot dogs, hamburgers and of course the decapitation of John the Baptist. The last item is not exactly standard fare but since August 29th is the Feast   More…

Over on the Ohio District website there is a blog (PDF) (since this was posted the blog has been taken down – see the note at the end of this post) that leaves a bad taste in the Confessional Lutheran reader’s mouth. It is written by Rev. Kevin Wilson of the Ohio district staff. He uses the marketing technique of Chipotle Mexican restaurants as a key for marketing the church. The distaste is not in the Chipotle – I’ve eaten there a few times and it is tasty - but in the fact that Rev. Wilson proposes that we base the philosophy of   More…

Rev. Joshua Scheer of Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bagley, MN has this article available as a PDF file on his church website; we’ve posted several similar to this in the past, but wanted to make it available to any new readers or to continue the discussion on what Worship is. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. – Psalm 51:15 (NKJV) Just what is it that we gather in a church for? Is it just fellowship, fun, and social interaction? How about to catch up on news, or to enjoy donuts and coffee? No, those   More…

Over on an old post on the NALC (North American Lutheran Church) we just recieved this comment from Darrell. The North American Lutheran Church has been born. The constitution was just adopted by a resounding voice vote by the 1100+ in attendance at the meeting in Columbus, OH. Thanks Darrell for keeping us posted. We will have further news and commentary on this monumental event in days to come. (Pastor Rossow, BJS Editor)

In what appears to be the final edition of his Perspectives, a weekly internet letter that Gerald Kieschnick has been writing for nearly a year now, the LCMS president shares some final thoughts on his service. We highlight it here not to talk about the person of Jerry Kieschnick but to use it as an opportunity to talk about the approach to church that he represents. This is a helpful exercise because it alerts us to the different ways to “do church” that are out there and to compare them to the doctrine and practice revealed in Holy Scripture. Rev.   More…

On October 10, 2010 (2:00 PM Eastern/ GMT-5), Rev. Dr. Joel Heck of Concordia University, Austin will give a one hour presentation on the Book of Genesis, followed by a question and answer session. While the host congregation will be Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church in North Ridgeville, OH, Dr. Heck will give his presentation from Austin via streaming Internet video. We will, in turn, broadcast this presentation live via our website, shepherdoftheridge.org. Anyone anywhere in the world with a broadband internet connection can watch live. We will also allow viewers to comment and ask questions via our chat   More…

Our BJS website is very blessed to have a truthful, revealing and Scriptural profession of a man who struggles with the sin of homosexuality. His words are instructive for all of us as to what homosexuality is and how it is to be addressed. His name is Andrew and he has become a regular commenter on the site. The specific comment I am referring to was made on a post from August 15th. It is actually two comments. They were given in response to two telling liberal comments in defense of the ELCA’s position on sexuality. Before getting to Andrew’s   More…

A BJS reader and commentator sent me a suggestion last night — to add a facebook “like” button on each comment so people can agree with something that others say. I’ve added the button to posts and would appreciate feedback on how it is working; I intend to further research it and add it to individual comments if it proves to be effective on posts. I see one post has 22 “likes” on it already; I don’t know enough to know how to find who clicked “like” but will be investigating further.

TRULY INTERNATIONAL — FIRST BJS/SKL SEMINARS ABROAD   The international character of BJS/SKL (Brothes of John the Steadfast/Sisters of Katie Luther) has been evident from the beginning with current membership representing at least three countries beyond the US borders — Canada, Finland and Kenya.  Now we have an opportunity to increase our international vision — afterall, promoting and equipping Lutheran laity as defenders of the faith is a global need.  Associate Director Suzanne Zobel is invited to Kenya for seminars among the Meru and Maasai Lutheran congregations — specifically working with women and youth on Luther’s Small Catechism.  Additional sharing   More…

I came across this in a google alert (requires a gmail.com account) on the term lutheran. This post is one woman’s thoughts on keeping children in church v.s. in a nursery. It’s always been my strong belief that children belong in the service; I know it was great when my 3-year old daughter was saying the Lord’s Prayer along with us, and have enjoyed seeing other kids in service following along with the liturgy. This is of course another reason to not make changes to the liturgy, as our young (and old) can follow along from memory. One point that   More…

We recently had a request for a review of the work of PLI – Pastoral Leadership Institute. I am not aware of any reviews that we have done here on BJS. Does anyone know of any written review/critique of  PLI? If so please drop a note and a link on the comment section below. PLI is a group that trains LCMS pastors in the “things that they do not learn” at the seminary. It is training in practical leadership for pastors. I look forward to your comments below on the matter but also offer my two cents on the matter. When it   More…

I just saw this brief story about a celebration planned at Zion Lutheran Church in Mission Valley, Texas, Sunday. The reason? They’re joining the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. With more than 90 percent approval, members voted to separate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America last year. The Rev. Mike Couchman, Zion’s chief minister, said the decision to leave their original denomination was a difficult one, and he admits the divide is bittersweet. “We’re sad we had to do it. It could have been any issue, it didn’t have to be a gay issue,” Couchman said. “Essentially the ECLA said, ‘We   More…