Hearing This Makes it All Worth It…

In our first few months the Lord has accomplished some fine things through the Brothers of John the Steadfast (BJS). We have established a new theological quarterly for laymen, we have got great bloggers and columnists writng several articles a week to edify God’s people, we have local chapters springing up all around the country, we are creating a strong force of men to support Issues Etc. and other new Lutheran media, we  are becoming the go to  place for news – both good and bad – for confessional Lutheranism (e.g. the Ayers petition stories)  and we even provide a chuckle here and there with our satirical look at the LCMS, but when I get e-mails like the following, I get a confessional thrill beyond  all these other things combined.

Greetings Pr. Rossow,
 
I wanted to let you know that we have just started a Lutheran Confessions study group at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Billings MT.   We just got this group started about 3 weeks ago.   I want to offer my gratitude to BJS for sparking the idea to do so.  
 
In Christ
Michael Verseman

This is how the LCMS and Lutheranism in general will return to its Biblical foundation. This builds hope for the future of Lutheranism – Lutheran laymen learning the Word of God through its clearest exposition, the Lutheran Confessions. This is the most encouraging thing that I have seen in the LCMS in the twenty years that I have been a pastor.

About seven years ago we started a confessions reading group at the church I serve, Bethany Lutheran in Naperville, Illinois, and I have found it to be a great tool for the Lord to use to build a stronger, more confessional and Biblical congregation. It has also become  a great training ground for prospective elders. Based on that experience we made it a key part of the BJS program and now we are hearing that there are numerous confessions reading groups around the country and more importantly, as we see with Michael in Billings, there are new groups starting up as well.

Once we get some more details on dates and times we will add the Billings group to our confessions reading group ticker. Since our post earlier this week that updated the ticker, we have also heard from some other groups. Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for our next update and God bless you Michael and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are studying the Lutheran Confessions our there on the great plains of  Billings, Montana.

Pastor Rossow

P.S. – For information on confessions reading groups check out this link on our Confessional Growth page.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.