Gottesblog

Ladies and gentlemen, we have found the one man in the world who really understands the Missouri Synod! (see below in bold).

The transcript of the oral arguments of the Lutheran teacher/minister/EEOC case at SCOTUS is up and it is....what? I don't want to diminish the pain and hurt this matter has caused both the parish and the former teacher...but...well, the transcript is kind of funny if you are a lifelong LCMS Lutheran who has been party to endless discussions of just what in blue blazes is the Lutheran doctrine of the ministry. Kyrie Eleison!

If you were to make a short list of "theological controversies in contemporary Lutheranism" there is no doubt that the Ministry would be near the top. And though you might not think of it as a controversy, part of the problem is surely our lack of familiarity with our own tradition. Therefore, CPH is doing Lutheranism a double service in putting Johann Gerhard's Loci into English, with the next volume up being On the Ecclesiastical Ministry Part I.

Baptized and confirmed membership is down. The number of congregations is down. And the number of clergy is up. Draw your own conclusions about the reality of a "clergy shortage."

The men who penned the Formula of Concord (as well as the men who penned the Small Catechism and the Augsburg Confession, for that matter) also penned binding church orders - the words and rubrics to be used in Lutheran churches. There was no allowance for "creative worship," for each pastor and parish to make up liturgies as they liked. Instead, whole churches (that is, all the congregations within the territorial boundaries of a prince/city council/duke who had accepted the Reformation) agreed together how worship should be conducted within their churches and then stuck to it.

Have you sat through enough tedious pastors' conferences yet? Well, then, maybe you should pass on this information about the Gottesdienst speakers' bureau to the folks on your district committee. Better yet, volunteer to serve on that committee and work directly to bring in one of our speakers. You can pick a wide range of topics and speakers as you can see from the full brochure.

It's all over the web today: the MN South District BOD has voted to sell the University Lutheran Chapel's building, probably to a real estate developer, for no less than $3.2 million. Read more about it here. The congregation and pastor don't want to lose their building. Wouldn't even the Fugger bankers give the congregation and pastor until the end of the year to raise a competitive bid? Doesn't that seem like the minimum of human decency?

I'm sorry to hear, through the grapevine, that you are having problems with your pastor. That's a rough business and doesn't do anybody, nor the church catholic, any good. I'm sure that more than one of your gripes have some basis in fact. I know that your young whipper snapper of a pastor is wet behind the ears and has a lot to learn from you men who were born and raised, and in turn begat and raised kids, in this parish. But, you know, he won't care how much you know until he knows how much you care.

I cry Uncle. Let it never be said that the folks at CPH have no sense of humor. The new Walther commemorative medal is made out of "antique bronze." That's a win.

At a funeral today, a parishioner from a different parish in the wider area cornered me to vent his frustration over his parish going to the American Evangelical worship route. I thought his comments were both insightful and humorous.