Category Archives: For Pastors Only
How Cheap Can We Get Him?
A mentor of mine who for decades was a circuit counselor in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod told me that when he was working with a church that had a pastoral vacancy, when the topic turned to salary some old … Continue reading
What to say after Here I stand: Perhaps I’m Wrong
There is such a thing as the tyranny of conscience. This early quote from Luther applies: Luther’s own appraisal of his “Here I Stand” 95 Theses in a 1518 letter to his superior, the Bishop of Brandenburg, said in part: “For I … Continue reading
Just as I Suspicioned
I heard my mother-in-law say now and again that she ‘suspicioned’ this or that. I always thought that was a made up word. My Merriam-Webster says it is a word though they consider it “chiefly dialectal”. I always liked the word … Continue reading
Is Implying Closed Communion Practicing It?
Again, I don’t go browsing, surfing, or shopping the web for Communion Statements. Something else brought me to St. Paul Lutheran Church & Early Childhood Ministry, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Columbus, IN. Once there I checkd out their Sunday bulletin, … Continue reading
Useful Suffering
When suffering one either migrates to the poll of despair or resignation; at least I do. We know that despair is not of God but of the Evil One. We know that resignation is the refuge of the fatalists, Stoics, … Continue reading
To be Hoisted Yet Again
Having recently published a blog about the ‘necessity’ (This word seems ill-advised in this context, but nevertheless.) of properly discerning what is truly adiaphora I find myself flummoxed, adrift, even asea.
Fruit Dragging the Ground
If you don’t know what to say about this 2002 Editorial Cartoon, you don’t understand the bizarre nature of the Pro-Death movement. If you aren’t moved to write a Letter to the Editor in response, you might not be as … Continue reading
Forensic Justification is Objective Justification
The single greatest threat to Confessional Lutheranism is the denial of Objective Justification (OJ). It is a denial of the Gospel. That’s what Dean Saleska said in a 1981 meeting of the faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary at Fort Wayne. … Continue reading
Sanctity of Life Sunday
Before I retired, I moved the celebration of The Holy Innocents to Sanctity of Life Sunday. If you look at the history of the celebration on December 28, it was originally celebrated after St. Stephen and St. John, to tamp … Continue reading
Giving away the Farm – Part II
In the February 22, 2024 post, I promised this. There I posted the 1993 essay mailed to me at that time, and probably most conservative Lutherans. The booklet was titled “A second opinion after ‘The Church and Human Sexuality” (The … Continue reading