Hymns for the Book of Concord
The Book of Concord is a wonderful devotional book as well as being the formal confession of faith for the Lutheran Church. To…
Category: Flashback Posts
Being a Man in the Church
I presented on this topic for the 3rd annual Wyoming District Men’s Retreat this past weekend. What follows are my thoughts which I…
Concordia University Plan for the Future? A consolidated Concordia?
What I mention in this article is my opinion and thinking out loud. It was prompted by the Synod President’s comments after the…
The Call Process Primer
Calling a new pastor is a great and glorious occasion. It can however be a hard time as well. Your congregation is going…
Why Christians Make the Sign of the Holy Cross (and a word on genuflection)
In The Small Catechism, Martin Luther encouraged Christians to retain the practice of making the sign of the cross. The Missouri Synod, following Luther’s…
Light from Light — Pictures from the 2015 BJS Conference
Thanks to BJS reader Rick Techlin for posting this pictoral review of the BJS conference on his blog, Light from Light: The…
Best Practices for “Ministry”? Report from Rev. Brian Flamme
The “Best Practices for Ministry” description is brief on the convention website. “A FREE conference encouraging pastors, church workers and lay people as…
Video Presentations from BJS 2015 Conference
We are pleased to announce the videos are now available from the recent Brothers of John the Steadfast 2015 Conference held at Bethany…
Anonymous Complaints and their fruit…
Complaints are a part of life in a fallen world. Add to that a culture of personal opinions and tastes, and complaint can…
Distinguishing Between Doctrine and Life
This is a re-post from October 2014 that reflects Luther’s teaching on how to deal with false doctrine and its teachers. “Doctrine…
What to do in the congregation concerning the LCMS?
So with the news of the LCMS inability to deal with one of its most flagrant dissenters since the 1970s, it is sure…
Communion Every Sunday: Surprise, Surprise
The reasons for Communion every Sunday are surprising. The reasons Lutheran churches fell away from this practice also are surprising. Pr Klemet Preus,…
Christ Myth Theory: Horus? Born of a Virgin? Not!
One of the many points falsely claimed in Christ Myth Theory about the supposed dependence of Christ upon the legends of Egypt is…
Redeeming Holy Days from Pagan Lies: Christmas and Saturnalia
Did Christianity Steal the Date of Pagan Winter Solstice Celebrations? The Roman celebration discussed in this article is the multi-day festival of Saturnalia….
Christ Myth Theory [Jesus is a copy-cat]
This particular claim toward pagan sources for Christianity and Christian Holy Days goes under various names: Jesus Myth Theory, Jesus Mythicism, Mythicism, Copy-cat…
Redeeming Holy Days from Pagan Lies: All Hallows’ Eve in the Mediaeval Church and the Reformation
On All Hallows’ Eve 1517 a monk named Martin Luther posted a list of points for discussion and debate at the University of…
Redeeming Holy Days from Pagan Lies: All Saints’ Day/Eve and Samhain
All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day: Origins and Samhain-ization Today it seems that everyone knows that Halloween is originally a Celtic pagan holy…
God, my loving Savior sends them…
Often the topic of how God governs all things comes up in parish life during suffering and struggles. Questions will arise about God…
The Challenges of Church Growth and Decline
When my wife Karla and I were first married, over twenty years ago, I invited her to join me for the banquet at…
Sinful Removal of Pastors — Let me count the ways…
If you or your congregation are considering taking that “vote” to remove a pastor (or using such a vote to coerce his resignation),…
Redeeming Holy Days from Pagan Lies-Easter 2
This is a reposting of a pair of articles published last year on the origins of Easter and some Easter traditions. The sources…
Redeeming Holy Days from Pagan Lies-Easter 1
This is a reposting of a pair of articles published last year on the origins of Easter and some Easter traditions. The sources…
Why Biblical Inerrancy is Important — and Always Will Be
Forty years ago, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (hereafter LCMS) was in an uproar. Its Saint Louis seminary president, John Tietjen, was suspended in…
Some Clarifications in Articulating Objective Justification
First, Objective Justification and Subjective Justification are not two different justifications, but rather two parts of the act of Justification. My brother…
A Statement on Justification from the ACLC
A while back, the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America adopted a statement on the doctrine of justification that decisively rejected the teaching…