Gottesblog

In years and cultures past, society valued young men.  There was a common-sense realization that strong men meant a strong fabric of society.  Christianity recognized the divinely-ordered family structure of the godly leadership of husbands and fathers, as well as masculine leadership in society.  Indeed, God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, describes the leadership of women and children as a curse (Chapter 3).

As a continuation of my thoughts in an earlier piece that I wrote called “The Church is Not a Business,” I wanted to reflect on the concept of entrepreneurship. This is part of running a business under the capitalist, free market model of economics.

“How big is your church?” is often the first question a pastor gets. It usually isn’t “What confession does your church hold?” or “Is it interesting to serve as a pastor?” Rather, they want a number. And if you say, “A thousand,” you will get a nod of approval and raised eyebrows. But the reaction would be quite different if you were to say “twelve.”

Officially, we in the LCMS don’t practice selective fellowship. We view official fellowship as a matter of doctrinal agreement between church bodies. And this is a matter of our polity.

The Church (sic) of England has elected a dame to be the “archbishop” of Canturbury. While some naïfs within the Anglican Communion have expressed shock and surprise (aren’t they adorable?), it’s not like we couldn’t see this Canturbury Tailspin into Dante’s concentric circles of infernal excrement coming.

In the story, the donkey is the postmodernist. He makes a subjective truth claim that is contrary to common sense and simple observation. The tiger, by contrast, states the obvious: what his senses - not to mention centuries of collective observation and wisdom have taught.

When God gave Adam dominion over the world, He gave him the authority to name the animals. In every culture and for all of human history, parents have given the children under their authority a name. God sometimes gives certain people new names to recognize some kind of new authority or status of the person.