Are the Blue Ribbon Proposals March Madness? An Interesting Chapter Meeting in Naperville

The Bethany Lutheran –  Naperville,  Illinois chapter of the Brothers of John the Steadfast combined a review of the Blue Ribbon Proposals with several hours of NCAA basketball March Madness. Eleven members of the chapter and four visitors met at the home of Tye Fox for a great afternoon of information and entertainment on Sunday afternoon.

The afternoon began with a brief presentation on the Blue Ribbon proposals by Pastor Rossow. He handed out copies of the proposals and challenged the men to be real men and real leaders by investing their personal time into knowing what was going on in the LCMS and then  taking a lead in the congregation by making sure that Bethany’s members take an informed position on the Blue Ribbon proposals. The cursory review of proposals led to much concern being expressed by the men over the power grab by LCMS Inc. and disenfranchisement of congregations and circuits represented in the proposals. (See the related posts in the right hand column of the website for more stories on the proposals including this post which details many concerns.)

As you can see from the picture both the chip bowl and the pitcher of beer were emptied along with several pizzas and plenty of bottles of the “Lutheran beverage.” As the afternoon wore on and more and more beverages were consumed it seemed as though the TV commercials became funnier and funnier, or at least the guffaws coming from the brothers seemed to swell. In the background of the picture you can see host Tye Fox switching the large screen TV from the network feed to an internet feed so that we could watch the Marquette/Missouri game and cheer along with chapter leader Keith Luhrs (seated in the foreground) as he rooted for his son’s school up in Milwaukee. We found it quite ironic that a room full of 15 “militant” Lutherans were rooting for a Jesuit university. Apparently round-ball ecumenism is alive and well in the LCMS.

Gatherings like this are happening all around the synod. If you are interested in starting a chapter in your congregation or region, send an email to and we will get you a chapter start-up kit to review. For more news from the chapters check out the “BJS Newsreel” on the Regular Columns page of this website.

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