A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s presiding bishop offered a take on the Dobbs decision in which the Bible is not quoted a single time, but rather their social statement on abortion is many times. Eaton is unable to call those with child, women, but rather “pregnant persons”.
Read MoreWe have all watched in horror as our American education system has degenerated. It’s not just over the past few years, but has been a slide that goes back well beyond the births of our grandfathers. And this hits home for us Lutherans, as education has been front and center for us since the Reformation itself.
Read MoreWe require our presidents to be preachers. I think it is a helpful way to evaluate a contender for the office of president to see how he handles the Word of God in the pulpit.
Read MoreThe altar had been removed from the chancel and put into a corner with a tarp over it. I saw this at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Palm Springs, California, an LCMS congregation that had adopted Church Growth methods.
Read MoreThere is an interview with an LCMS pastor that is illustrative of how modern mainstream Wokism - with its assumption of “systemic racism” - is incompatible with Christianity. This is especially the case for Christians who confess the Book of Concord, specifically, Luther’s Small Catechism.
Read MoreDr. Harrison has earned our full support, and we wholeheartedly offer it for his re-election, and the continuation of the liturgical and confessional renaissance our Synod has been witnessing of late.
Read MoreYou may have seen videos by Roman Catholic apologists - like the popular Rev. Mike Schmitz, that assert that Luther (or “Protestants”) have “removed books from the Bible.”
Read MoreMusic that communicates emotions with a Dionysian force is that kind which excites us to enjoy our emotions by being thoroughly involved or engrossed in them with our entire person. Our enjoyment of the emotion then becomes ego-directed, driven by the desire for self-gratification.
Read MoreHere is a remarkable 30 minute, exquisitely beautiful video about restoring the sacred in Chicago's St. John Cantius Church.
Read MoreThe Trinity 2026 issue of Gottesdienst is in the mail!
Read MoreSo, as I said at the eighteenth annual Concordia Catechetical Conference in Waukesha, Wisconsin last Thursday, there is such a thing as Dionysian music, as Dr. Daniel Reuning proposed some twenty-five years ago, and that it is to be discouraged, even disallowed in the Church.
Read MoreA Divine Service with the Sacrament is better than a Divine Service without the Sacrament. In that sense, the Sacrament is more important than the Word; because the Word itself directs us to the Sacrament.
Read MoreQuestions of confessional integrity, theological clarity, and ecclesial life remain perennial concerns for the church — particularly in times of institutional strain and cultural fragmentation. How does a synod faithfully uphold its doctrinal commitments while preserving unity, order, and mutual accountability?
Read MoreThe Chemnitz Forum is meeting in about a week in Brookfield, IL and has a stellar slate of presenters (Schulz, Ziegler, Preus, Rydecki, and Diers) and an important topic, Objective Justification.
Read MoreThe doctrine of the Real Presence asserts that in the consecrated elements of the Eucharist, Jesus is truly and actually present, in body, blood, and full divinity. This teaching is based upon a number of passages from Scripture, including 1 Cor. 10:16-17 & 11:23-29, and especially John 6:32-71
Read MoreBuilding on my previous article, I have a few more thoughts regarding the epidemic of open communion in our synod.
Of course, it is practiced in the name of being hospitable, and is treated as an adiaphoron. But open communion is really hostile, as well as self-contradictory. It is not inclusive, it is exclusive. It is the spiritual version of adultery, and worse yet, it is a form of abusive cuckoldry, complete with gaslighting and shaming of the one who is being wronged (the one who is remaining faithful).
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