Are You Here to Risk Your Life for the Crucified?

Thank you, and God bless you, Dr. Weinrich.

Larry BeaneSeptember 11, 2025 Comments

On Thoughts and Prayers

We pray because we have suddenly come face to face, once again, with the unmistakable truth that we are helpless in the midst of such wickedness. What the mockers do not know is that they are helpless too, just like us.

Burnell EckardtSeptember 11, 2025 Comments

Throwback Thursday: The Ministry of Prayer

The ordination vows in the LSB ordination rite are stated as questions. The first questions are related to doctrine. “Do you confess the Unaltered Augsburg Confession?” and so forth…. The very last question is: “Will you be constant in prayer for those under your pastoral care?”

David PetersenSeptember 11, 2025Comment

On Authenticity

“Authenticity” and “authentic” are front-burner words today. And this is true especially for us confessional Lutherans at this time of great debate about Lutheran identity. Given that we are bombarded 24-7 by ads, marketing, and propaganda, the quest for authenticity is a big deal in our day, especially in matters of worship.

Larry BeaneSeptember 8, 2025 Comments

Thank you, Archbishop Jānis and the Latvian Church!

The above footage comes from the August 29, 2025 retirement ceremony of Archbishop Janis Vanags of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. The new archbishop, Rinalds Grants, was installed the next day.

Larry BeaneSeptember 4, 2025 Comments

Throwback Thursday: Weaponized Vice

How often have you heard people say that all sins are equal?

Larry BeaneSeptember 4, 2025 Comments

Just the Way You Are?

Burnell EckardtSeptember 3, 2025 Comments

“Let’s Take It to the Next Level”

This is one of the inherent problems with the Church Growth mindset. It’s all about number-lust, and it is never enough. The Church Growther is never satisfied. It’s built-in to the fabric of the universe. For numbers are infinite. There is always a higher number. In the world of mathematics, there is always a “next level,” even as the flesh is never satisfied.

Larry BeaneSeptember 2, 2025 Comments

We Have Got to Talk About Usury (Part VII): The Church Fathers—Chrysostom through Leo the Great (c. 347–461)

Born less than a decade after Ambrose, the next father in our series, John Chrysostom (347-407), renowned preacher and—like Gregory Nazianzen before him—Patriarch of Constantinople, addressed the issue of usury on numerous occasions, particularly in his homilies.

Guest AuthorSeptember 2, 2025Comment

Throwback Thursday: The Enneagram or the Cross?

The Enneagram (The Nine Paths) is an esoteric, mystic, occultish new age fad that has made its way into edgy megachurches - including the LCMS. Issues, Etc. has done two programs on the Enneagram.

Larry BeaneAugust 28, 2025 Comments

J.S. Bach: The Father of All Modern Music

What a treasure we have in our Lutheran tradition of hymnody!

Larry BeaneAugust 27, 2025 Comments

Put Not Your Trust in Princes... or Princesses

This misguided trust - especially in matters of sex and reason - is based on our progressive culture. A lot of people are confused when I use the word “progressive,” thinking that this means politically left-wing, that is, what often (and often erroneously) is described as “liberal.” Progressivism is a deviation from conservatism, but there are both left- and right-wing progressives.

Larry BeaneAugust 26, 2025 Comments

From the Archives: A Sermon on the Tenth Sunday after Trinity

Stefan GramenzAugust 25, 2025Comment

The Latin Mass in the Lutheran Church

Last year’s Institute on Liturgy, Preaching, and Church Music in Seward, NE featured a wide array of presentations on many matters pertaining to the worship of the Church, and KFUO Radio has been releasing recordings of some of these presentations on its various media platforms in the last few weeks. I had the opportunity to do a brief historical overview of the Latin Mass (and, to a lesser extent, the Office) in the history of the Lutheran Church, and you can hear that presentation here. I was, perhaps, slightly overambitious in my preparations, and so the presentation moves along at a rather speedy clip, but you can find the slides being referenced during the presentation here.

Stefan GramenzAugust 22, 2025 Comment

Enlightenment Religion

John BussmanAugust 22, 2025 Comment

Homer nods

We cited a nineteenth century Lutheran thought to be Walther. It turns out that the author of the remarks was not Walther but, in all probability, Martin Guenther.

Burnell EckardtAugust 21, 2025 Comment

Throwback Thursday: Building an Acolyte Corps

The primary purpose of our acolyte corps is to enhance the worship service with order and dignity. Acolytes are servants who provide a real service to the congregation. They do benefit from being acolytes but those benefits are secondary. It is not what drives them. Their guiding principle is to be reverent and to serve as examples to the congregation. The secondary purposes of our acolyte corps are to train men for the Ministry, to encourage and catechize the boys of the congregation in the faith, and to provide comradery among them.

David PetersenAugust 21, 2025Comment

We Have Got to Talk About Usury (Part VI): The Church Fathers—Church Councils and Ambrose

As I mentioned in the Introduction to this series, the seventeen-hundredth anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea served, in part, as the impetus for initiating this conversation about usury. Nicaea holds particular significance as the first ecumenical council to issue an explicit condemnation of the practice. Yet this prohibition against lending at interest was not confined to Nicaea alone; it appears in at least seven other councils and synods spanning the fourth to the seventh centuries. Before continuing with our exploration of the church fathers, it is worth pausing here to list these councils and synods, in chronological order, along with the specific canons in which usury was formally condemned.

Guest AuthorAugust 21, 2025Usury, AmbroseComment

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