A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy
What concerns me about the sudden explosion of making pastors by means of a thousand different routes is that, while it appears we have an increase in numbers, formation isn’t happening. It can’t happen under the direction of one pastor, and it certainly can’t happen through a computer screen.
Read MoreThere are many reasons: historically, liturgically, and also as a general cry for help.
Read MoreOur Lutheran identity is not merely some kind of tribal identification. Rather, the hymnody from our own tradition confesses our own theology - which is often missing when we borrow hymnody (or even worse, “songs”) from outside of our tradition…
Read MoreThe article is a reflection on President Harrison’s admonition to pastors to smile more often and the Orwell quote that a man of 50 is responsible for his face. The thesis is that the Gospel gives joy and that that joy is reflected not only in a Christian’s words and actions but also in his countenance.
Read MoreIn response to Dr. Eckardt’s advice to seminarians to “Show yourself a man,” a younger pastor disagreed. He said that it would be better to tell them to “Be humble.” I found this perception of incompatibility between manliness and humility illustrative, both of generational disagreement about masculinity, as well as differences as to how we see the office of the holy ministry.
Read MoreAmong the Orthodox, theosis refers to a process of becoming one with God, generally by way of spiritual exercise. For Confessional Lutheranism, by contrast, theosis is not a process at all, but another, beautiful way of looking at what we have received in Christ. The difference is ultimately as simple as the difference between works and faith.
Read MoreThe public space has never been a theologically or morally neutral one; therefore, the Church has and will continue to heed the divine obligation to speak into it the holy Word of God. Only a godless culture would dare to claim that the public sphere is somehow neutral. The New Testament clearly announces the darkness of this present age (Eph 6:12).
Read MoreWe do not live in the Age of Reason, nor the Age of Aquarius, nor the Information Age. We live in the Age of Bubulum Stercus.
Read MoreThe Paschal Greeting is one of the most ancient Christian traditions by which disciples of the risen Lord Jesus Christ around the world confess and celebrate His glorious resurrection and victory over death.
Read MoreThis is the night, beloved. This is the night. All is accomplished, all is finished, all is done. All is fulfilled. And all that was written before reaches its grand climactic end in this wonderful night of the resurrection of our Lord.
Read MoreOne of the official publications of one of our LCMS Districts reports that a retired pastor has just been given an honorary doctorate from one of the Concordia universities owing to the fact that under his leadership, his congregation's music "transitioned from the emphasis on traditional music and added a more Gospel oriented genre."
Read MoreAdvocates of church-growth, multiculturalism, and anti-liturgicalism in our midst often resort to the canard that the liturgy is “too European” and our hymns are “too German.“
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Read MoreThe LCMS is a conservative church body in a conservative confession, grounded in the inerrant Scriptures according to a quia subscription to the Book of Concord. We privilege our fathers in the faith, and look askance at innovation. This is not to say that we never change things, but we are reformers, not revolutionaries.
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