Here is Matt Harrison’s first theological challenge and it even comes from a seminary! I found this on Facebook, a posting from Prof Gard at Ft Wayne Seminary to President Matt Harrison, obviously written at 6:55am this morning central time. Daniel Lee Gard -> Matt Harrison: In 16 hours 5 minutes, you will be President of the LCMS, at least in the eastern time zone. But you have an extra hour to wait in Missouri. Now for your first theological challenge: what is your status during that hour when you are President here but not there? Realized eschatology? I’m not   More…

Rev. Fisk again hits a homerun with a video talking about his experience finding the Book of Concord, starting with seeing his future wife’s copy of it that she purchased because she took one class that required it. His first reaction was anger — why would a church need a book other than the bible as its confession? He also makes the point that in his Confessions 1 and 2 class in his first year of Sem he didn’t even open the book — with 400 pages to read, what are the students going to read — what the prof   More…

I came across this in a google alert (requires a gmail.com account) on the term lutheran. This post is one woman’s thoughts on keeping children in church v.s. in a nursery. It’s always been my strong belief that children belong in the service; I know it was great when my 3-year old daughter was saying the Lord’s Prayer along with us, and have enjoyed seeing other kids in service following along with the liturgy. This is of course another reason to not make changes to the liturgy, as our young (and old) can follow along from memory. One point that   More…

There is a great post on Lutheran Worship over on Intrepid Lutherans. By the way, the Intrepid Lutheran site was in part inspired by BJS. They are a group of Wisconsin Synod Lutherans who, like the Brothers of John the Steadfast, are concerned about the intrusion of the Church Growth mentality into Lutheran orthodox churches. When they saw what we were doing, they thought it would be a good thing to start a similar site with a WELS bent to it. From Intrepid Lutherans: Now and then in my discussions with those who favor sectarian worship, or even so called   More…

Here is another video contrasting the two types of worship in the synod today. It’s from Eric Comstock. Check it out. President Elect Harrison certainly has his work cut out for him to try and bring unity of practice to the LCMS.

Rev Fisk has once again generated an excellent video. This one shows a problem with Worship services in the LCMS and other churches which led Brian Yamabe to write this overture. Brian would like to see it ”bubble up” as an idea from the grassroots and hopes that many would submit it to their circuit convocations, districts and to synod. Watch the video, then read what Brian has to say below.     One comment came in from a high schooler that is interesting to read: This is terrible. As a senior, I see this narcissistic paganism in my own “Lutheran” highschool.    More…

A loyal SteadfastLutherans reader pointed me to this article on Evangelism Myth #7: By Grace Alone, not “By Grace, alone through you” posted by the Rev. Eric Brown. While this one is good, a click through to CyberStones (from which I’ve posted previously) led me to the below article found here, posted by the Rev Fr. H. R. Curtis as an article for the next Gottesdienst Journal (Worship Journal).     The following will appear, Dv, in the next print issue of Gottesdienst along with other analysis of the future of traditional, confessional Lutheranism in the LCMS from many of   More…

This was pointed out to me by a loyal BJS reader — it’s found on Liturgy Solutions, the place to find effective musical resources for confessional Lutheran liturgy. I know that the Choir Director at my church (St John’s Lutheran in Champaign, IL) has used material from Liturgy Solutions to add some interest our services throughout the year. The following article talks about the worship service at the LCMS Convention … the title says it all, “More Like the Baptists Every Day?”.     As a former church musician in the Evangelical Free Church, I was for years immersed in   More…

Found on the MNN Faithful List, from Kari Anderson: I’d like to invite you to join us on the Wittenberg Trail to study Luther’s Small Catechism. I’ve posted the “Preface” to get us started. Please, if you have friends, relatives, Lutherans or people that may wonder what Lutherans believe, teach, and confess. Ask them to join us. Kari has been posting portions from the Book of Concord on the Wittenberg Trail since May of last year. She started at the three creeds and has read linearly through it, posting a new section approximately every week. People chime in with questions   More…

I found this on The 2010 Convention Site .. seems there is a post-final version of The United List As reported earlier, we are providing an updated report from The United List. NOTE: Even though the last update was labelled “final”, this is a post-final “Friday Edition” of the United List for your work today. Pick up The United List from the gathering place in your hotel or on the second floor, to the right of the registration desk on the second floor of the Convention Center. You can also access it on The United List site by the pdf   More…

If you haven’t been following the website 2010convention.com it’s a great source for information. I subscribed to their email list and just received the following article. Also note if you are looking for current convention information, the people over at Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri have a live tweet from the floor on their site. Dear Delegates: Please look for the first edition of the printed 2010 Convention (with the banner above) at a table at the Hyatt and at the publications area on the second floor of the convention hall. Unity and Mission Two words need to be spoken in   More…

For another video, click here. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one rejoices, all rejoice together. Right now there are many rejoicing and there are many suffering. Luther says when you’re walking along and you strike your little toe on a chair or a table, a table leg, what happens is the whole body bends over, the face grimaces and grabs that little toe. And there’s no use saying “that’s just a little toe,” because the whole body suffers. This I realize is a tumultuous change in the life of our Synod. I wish to thank President Kieschnick   More…

If you haven’t been following the website 2010convention.com it’s a great source for information. I subscribed to their email list and just received the following article. Also note if you are looking for currently convention information, the people over at Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri have a live tweet from the floor on their site. Matt Harrison: Bold New Leadership for Bold New Structure Now that we have voted for new structure to address some of our financial problems, it is even more important that we choose a leader who can bring us forward with a vision and energy for the   More…

Another great post found on Cyberbrethren:     From Pastor Weedon: “I would argue that when the documents comprising the Lutheran Confessions, the Christian Book of Concord, are no longer permitted to critique and challenge current teaching or practice; when instead our Church’s Confession is relegated to the museum as an interesting artifact of what was once the case, then we have lost the right to the name “Lutheran.” Whenever the Symbols are dismissed with “well, they can’t mean THAT because we DO that and we’re Lutherans after all,” their corrective voice has been silenced and stilled. Well, not really.   More…

And I couldn’t post that one without posting his previous post. If any of you aren’t following his blog in your RSS reader you are missing out on lots of great stuff. This one from CPH’s recent release of Walther’s Law and Gospel, an important part of any home library, in addition to the Essential Lutheran Library. Read what Pastor Paul McCain has to say about the new edition of Law and Gospel here. The Key to the Successes of the Missouri Synod The longer you preach to your people in the way [Scripture describes above], the more they will   More…