From its inception nearly two centuries ago, my church body, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod was known to be a church body that, despite all the caricatures (negative or positive, rightly or wrongly attributed) was a church body that had been, to borrow from a father in the faith, grabbed by a book that would not …
Continue reading What happens when they are touched by the breath of God?
Videos are dropping. (See this one and this one). Statements are being sent out (See this one). Times are fun in the LCMS. The topic of the day is pastoral formation and the restrictions regarding the SMP route to ministry. This is insider language and indeed the struggle is internal to the LCMS. I supervise …
Today my alma mater, Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, is holding its commencement exercises. I love a good commencement exercise. I enjoy the pomp and circumstance, the academic regalia, the nods to the institution and traditions of which those graduates become an everlasting part. At the seminary in particular my heart warms hearing “Thy Strong …
I sit here in a coffee shop on my day off taking care of some work that I am doing for the fun of it. This work includes, but is not limited to, working on the index for a forthcoming publication and doing some preparation, i.e., reading lots of stuff, for an article I am …
Those of you who know my story know that I grew up with a Lutheran, that is Missouri Synod Lutheran, identity. Part of that is because of the Lutheran day school attached to the congregation of my youth. Six days a week were spent in its walls, unless I was playing sick, which happened a …
an occasional theologian 