If you haven’t been following the website 2010convention.com it’s a great source for information. I subscribed to their email list and just received the following article. Also note if you are looking for current convention information, the people over at Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri have a live tweet from the floor on their site. Dear Delegates: Please look for the first edition of the printed 2010 Convention (with the banner above) at a table at the Hyatt and at the publications area on the second floor of the convention hall. Unity and Mission Two words need to be spoken in   More…

I arrived in Houston this morning for a day of R + R with my college roommate and his family. It was supposed to be a day of golf but the tropical storm ruined that. Maybe there will be a new wind blowing in the synod by the end of next week or sooner. Golf was replaced by a visit to the original Fuzzy’s Pizza, the favorite pizza hangout of the Bush family in west Houston. The walls were decorated with presidential aura. Maybe Matt Harrison should eat at Fuzzy’s? Enough of the travelogue. This is my last post before   More…

The Confessional Lutheran momentum that just may lead to the election of Matt Harrison as  LCMS president has its origin years ago and has been building through those years. Here is my list of the five most influential causes of the current revival of Confessional Lutheranism in the LCMS and the world.  You may have a different list and I invite you to share your thoughts in the comment section below but from my perspective here are the fundamental contributors. The Faculty Assembled at Ft. Wayne by Robert Preus – I am a St. Louis graduate but I received my   More…

Did the LCMS need to sell the FM signal? 1) If the in-house management of KFUO had made the AM station its first priority, no. If the in-house management of KFUO had shaped the budget, staffing and development priorities around the well-being of KFUO AM –kept the AM and FM ledgers separate, automated the FM station to make it profitable, and devoted a majority of development resources toward the AM station– then the LCMS might not have needed to sell the FM signal. Instead, the in-house management of KFUO made its first priority the preservation of the FM station. They   More…

I know some people were hopeful that the FCC would forbid the sale of KFUO-FM. Looks like the sale has been approved. From the St. Louis Business Journal: The Federal Communications Commission has approved the sale of St. Louis classical music station KFUO-FM to Joy FM for $26 million. Exactly when the license will be transferred is not yet known but will happen on a mutually agreed upon date, said Vicki Biggs, a spokeswoman for Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which struck a deal last fall to sell the 62-year-old KFUO-FM to Joy FM, a Christian radio station.

When radio station KFUO AM was founded in 1924, the call letters stood for “Keep Forward, Upward, Onward.” But that was back in the days of our grandfathers’ synod. What do those call letters stand for today? KFUO AM recently held its annual on-air fundraiser “Share-a-thon 2010.” At the same time, the boys over at Issues, Etc. were broadcasting “Issues, Etc. 24,” their live, 24 hours of Issues, Etc. Bible studies. Listening a little to both proved to be a study in contrast. Issues, Etc. 24 was in-depth Bible study with guests like Arthur Just, John Kleinig, Scott Murray and   More…

A reader pointed out that a Lutheran congregation in Nebraska is hosting a “Beth Moore” simulcast. Beth Moore is a Christian evangelist and writer who was the next big thing a few years ago. Issues, Etc. had a great critique of her theology a few years ago. Fighting for the Faith also looked at her recently. If you’re not familiar with her, here is a portion of a Presbyterian critique of one of her books. It ran in Modern Reformation four years ago: Although she wants to be theological and Christ-centered, too much of Moore’s material is about her take   More…

Here’s yet another example of how success in the Contemporary Christian Music industry is a terrible reason to use a song in Christian worship (or play it on synod’s AM radio station). Many times the song is Christless; sometimes it’s godless. Tuning in this morning to KFUO AM, I heard this. The song is by Natalie Grant, the Gospel Music Association’s female vocalist of the year for four years running, and recipient of four Dove Awards for best female artist.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a committee opposed to the sale of KFUO-FM to Joy FM has filed a supplement to its petition to the FCC. I really have no idea how seriously the FCC will take any of these complaints but they are interesting none-the-less. LCMS layman Robert Duesenberg asserts that the LCMS Board of Directors made the decision to sell KFUO in one of their eleventy billion executive (closed) sessions. The specific session was held on February 19, 2009. And then while an experienced media broker named Robert Cox tried to inquire about the possible sale, he   More…

Here’s the problem with churches (or in this case, our synod’s AM radio station) choosing music for worship (or for broadcast) based on a song’s success in the world of Contemporary Christian Music. Most of the time it’s one of the many Jesus-is-my-boyfriend love ballads –hipper versions of Debbie Boone’s 1977 hit “You Light Up My Life.” But sometimes it’s far worse. Tuning in this morning, as I often do, to my former employer KFUO AM, I heard this. Now, keep in mind that this song was number five on the Billboard Hot Christian Adult Contemporary Chart in 2008. It   More…

The Webster-Kirkwood Times has a story saying as much, based largely on an interview with Frank Absher, a broadcast veteran and St. Louis radio historian. Here’s the meat of the story: In a November interview, Kermit Brashear, an attorney for LCMS, suggested that critics of the sale might be mollified by a provision in the sale contract to continue classical music broadcasts on the station’s HD2 channel. Gateway would lease the high definition frequency 99.1-2HD to LCMS to continue classical music for at least two years. However, that plan for a lease-back is in violation of FCC rules on licensure.   More…

“Cellolee” has been leaving interesting comments all through the KFUO discussion. We thought this one was worth a broader read and was appropriate for today since it ends with Christmas greetings. (For the entire string of comments click here. You might also want to check the last few comments from Rev. Stefanski on this string. He does a helpful service of reminding us to distinguish the Word from the music.) December 24th, 2009 at 02:31 | #441 Interesting the direction this thread is going despite a few barbs thrown back and forth. I’m trying to wrap my mind around this   More…

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: At least three petitions challenging the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s proposed sale of radio station KFUO-FM to Gateway Creative Broadcasting have been filed with the Federal Communications Commission. One group of petitioners, the Committee to Save KFUO-FM, is made up of local members of the synod. Another, the Radio Arts Foundation, is a new nonprofit entity formed around the core of the old Radio Arts Board, which sought to buy the station from the synod. Both those petitions cover essentially the same points. One is whether Gateway, which has considerable debt and has run at a   More…

We thank one of our readers (LCMS Christian Classical Musician) for alerting us to the citizens petition that has now been filed to stop the sale of KFUO – FM. (To view the petition click here.) Those of you following this story on this site know that the sale is hotly debated even among our readers. Pastor Wilken has had the best view of the situation for the last several years and supports the sale of the signal but he also admits that the LCMS Board of Directors has acted in a much too secretive way. Controversy follows President Kieschnick   More…

The conference is over and everyone is recharged after it; here are the presentations given at the conference: BJS 2010 Conference Live Blogging BJS 2010 Conference — more audio Click here to register for this conference Click here for Hotel Information Click here for Pietist Allowed Parties Click here for Schedule Since we have three top notch speakers but  do not have a central theme for this year’s conference  I asked the Steering Committee to brainstorm clever titles. Leave it to the wit of Charlie Henrickson to come up with a real knee-slapper: “Todd, Mollie and Klemet: The Fired and   More…