In the March 8/15 issue of World magazine, Marvin Olasky references 2 Samuel 6:16 to bring up short those of us defending liturgical worship. He quotes the passage: ” ‘As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.'” And then says, “Some church leaders who prefer solemnity despise those who leap and dance. But David insisted to Michal, ‘I will make merry before the Lord,’ and some evangelicals rightly say the same.” Do they? Continue reading
Radio Shows Go Mercy Stays & Politics Rules the World
Several members sent me Radio Silence by Mollie Ziegler Hemingway in the March 28 Wall Street Journal. Here is what troubles me: Continue reading
Posted in For Anyone who dares, LCMS 2007 Convention
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Of Style and Substance
The following will enable those who haven’t placed me in the category of fundamentalist or uneducated to do so now. Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Worship, General
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Heaven Waits for those who Congregate
Don Williams sang in 1980 that he didn’t “believe that heaven waits for only those who congregate.” With due respect to the truth of country music in general and Don Williams in particular, I disagree. Continue reading
Posted in For Anyone who dares, General
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A Belated Review of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion”
Four years seems long enough to wait before writing a critical review of a movie that the church for the most part praised. It was thought to be a great vehicle for evangelizing, a great way to bring the Passion of Christ alive. I called it at the time “spiritual pornography,” and I stand by that judgment. Continue reading
Posted in For Anyone who dares
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Everything New is Old
All quotes are from the book I referenced in an earlier post: Sign of the Kingdom by Lesslie Newbign.
” ‘The Evangelisation of the World in this Generation’ did
Posted in Ablaze, Contemporary Worship
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Ministerial Health
There’s an oxymoron for you: “Ministerial Health.” According to some researcher somewhere the “average” minister puts in 55 hours a week. He vicariously experiences divorce, death, and disease more times a year then he would like to remember. And besides all this there is the daily pressure on him of concern for all the churches (2 Cor. 11:28). Ministerial health? Nope. There’s ministry and there is health. They don’t go together. To bolster my point I cite one comic and one fact. Continue reading
Posted in For Pastors Only
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On the Reading of Small Books
Solomon warns, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Ecc. 12:12).
Having just finished two small books worth reading but less wearying, brought to mind other small books I have read with profit. Leaving out C.S. Lewis several small manuscripts because those are well known, here are several others I commend. Continue reading
The Sin Nobody Talks About
Having recently published a letter, I didn’t think The Lutheran Witness would, I decided to publish this article Higher Things wouldn’t. To be fair, it’s not that they didn’t think it worthwhile. They just thought it too risky, perhaps risque. You decide for yourself. Continue reading
Posted in Families, For Anyone who dares
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Falling Flat on Your Face
Nobody likes to fall flat on their face. It means embarrassment, humiliation, and defeat. I doubt there’s a pastor alive who has not had that dream where he fell flat on his face while giving a sermon: his notes blow away; his manuscript is unfinished; he has no clothes on. The variations are many, but however your dream goes I’m quite sure you wake up with a start. That’s why it will probably strike you as strange to hear me say that falling flat on your face is the solution to all problems in the ministry. Continue reading
Posted in For Pastors Only
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