Reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, I discovered I might not know the real meaning of effeminacy. It doesn’t mean weak or even sissified to the author of that work. Continue reading
Google This
The following is part of an interview NPR aired on July 7, 2009 between “Marketplace’s” Kai Ryssdal and Google Chairman of the Board and CEO Eric Schmidt, and it should scare the tar out of us all. Continue reading
Posted in General
2 Comments
Keeping up With the Jones’
Contemporary worship didn’t come out of thin air. I think it genesis can be laid at the door of Vatican II which started from the principle of what is relevant to men not what is worshipful to God. Of course, people from less liturgical churches and ones that already worshipped from that premise took it much further. Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Worship
1 Comment
JDDJ and WWJD
Most confessional Lutherans know WWJD ought to be replaced by WDJD, i.e. “What Did Jesus Do?” should be asked instead of “What Would Jesus Do?” Not nearly enough of us know what JDDJ stands for. Continue reading
Posted in For Pastors Only
Leave a comment
Personal Relationship or Faith in Faith?
You won’t have to troll through many LCMS websites to find a “mission statement” saying their mission is to “lead others to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” You won’t talk very long to a member or a pastor of a contemporary worshipping church (Yes, there is a double entendre there.) without a personal relationship to Jesus coming up. I think what they are really talking about is having faith in faith, and I think it absolutely inimical to the Lutheran Faith and just plain sad for Christians. Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Worship
Leave a comment
Acting for God
“The more genuine and deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us” Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This quote is at the bottom of The Rev. Lowell Michelson May 2009 newsletter article. I find it incredibly ironic. Why? Because The Rev. Lowell Michelson is the ELCA pastor who will one day give an account for the soul of Dr. George Tiller. Continue reading
Posted in For Anyone who dares
1 Comment
A World Worth Noting
I personally don’t like World magazine and would not read it if a member didn’t give it to me, but some observations I’ve found there are worth noting. Continue reading
Posted in Families
Leave a comment
The Shack – Don’t Leave With What You Didn’t Bring
The May 2009 Lutheran Witness has what the author claims to be a fair review of the blockbuster novel The Shack. I claim the review is lame. I can’t claim the novel is lame since I haven’t read it. My only defense for not reading it is that even though I like Bob Dylan’s music I could hardly stand the Bob Dylan bio-pic filled with his music because he is played by a young black boy, an old woman, and a down-and-out youth. So I don’t think I can get through a book where God the Father is portrayed by an African American woman who is a gourmet chef, and the Holy Spirit is portrayed as a female Asian gardener. Jesus is portrayed as a carpenter which seems tame in comparison. Continue reading
Posted in General
4 Comments
The Pyramid has Crumbled
Surely “someone’ wanted it to happen this way. Defenders of the LCMS polity use the analogy of a pyramid standing on its tip. The congregations are the base; the Synod is the tip. Well, that pyramid has crumbled. Continue reading
Posted in LCMS 2007 Convention
1 Comment
Plain Label Christianity and Hall Monitors
There are hundreds of shampoos on the market; far too many to make any logical, rational, certain choice, so I choose one called “Generic Shampoo.” There are hundreds of beers too. All have competing claims and counter claims so I drink one called Beer. There are dozens of cars on the market each claiming to be the best, so I drive one called “Non-Detroit, Japanese, or European.” I reported for jury duty to a large courthouse with many rooms; I couldn’t decide which one to enter, so I stayed in the hall. Continue reading
Posted in Ablaze, Contemporary Worship
Leave a comment