Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere
One Lutheran ...AblogTM
Pastor Paul Beisel
I did not go to the seminary to learn how Church budgets work, or to learn how to be an administrator. I went to the seminary to study theology, to prepare for the Ministry of the Word. I am a preacher. I am a herald of God’s Word. Don’t expect me to be a great administrator. I’m not. It’s not my ’spiritual gift.’ If that means that I will only serve small parishes for the rest of my life, so be it.
The Brothers of John the Steadfast
Pastor Toby Byrd
As I witness the decline of orthodoxy within the LCMS I am more than ever committed to defending the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church against an ever encroaching adoption of what has become commonly known as a MethoBaptoPentocostal approach to worship and doctrine. Such an approach will have serious negative affects on what we believe, teach, and confess regarding the sacraments. It cannot be otherwise for the “Church Growth” movement does not subscribe to a Lutheran understanding of the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. They reject the truth that these are mysteries by which God has joined His Word of promise to a visible element in which He offers gives, and seals the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ. Moreover, they reject the presence of our Lord’s body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion, calling it simply a memorial of His death. Therefore, unless this encroachment of non-Lutheran doctrine is stopped, we can rest assured the LCMS will be no more confessional than our sister synod, the ELCA.
Extreme Theology
Chris Rosebrough
Paul gives thanks to God for the faith of church in Rome. This is the highest from of praise. Paul did not talk about what the church did but what they believe. Today, we hear that faith is not enough to please God, we have to more. This is not true faith since faith never requires anything else.
Cyberstones
Pastor Petersen
Does this apply to confessional angst over the state of the synod? Yes. Let's see if we can take it down a notch. We abide and work in the Lord's Church. He will take care of Her. This isn't a call to complacency, but to balance and perspective. We are significant and central to the Lord, who counts every hair on our heads, but in the history of the Church, we are nothing. We are not St. Augustine. We are not Martin Luther. We are not being called to the council of Nicea or the Diet at Worms. We are the quiet in the land. We need to pray and work, as the Latin slogan says, but we should keep in mind the order. Ora et labora. Let the work be tempered by the prayer, that we would be calm and confident in the grace of Jesus Christ and not given to either fear or anger. Because no matter what happens to us or the LCMS in this life, the mercy of the Lord endures forever. This is not our home.
thinking-out-loud
Pastor Rick Stuckwisch
To be sure, the freedom of faith never is the freedom of wild anarchy. The Christian does not use his freedom in the Gospel to live selfishly, but unto righteousness in Christ. True freedom therefore orders itself in love, and love is always freely given and freely received. This freedom of faith and love is a freedom for what is good and right and true; it is never a freedom for wickedness. Above all, love will freely contend for the truth of the Gospel, because all true freedom stands or falls with the Gospel. Call it tough love, maybe, but that it why it is sometimes necessary to argue about adiaphora; and that is why adiaphora are not always free.
Vocation in the Valley
Brian Yamabe
After listening to Dr. Ken Schurb discuss the BRTFSSG (LCMS restructuring) and WELS President, Pastor Mark Schroeder I can’t help but thank the higher-ups at LCMS, Inc. for untethering Issues, Etc. from LCMS politics. I doubt these two discussions, and many others, would have taken place if Issues, Etc. were still part of the KFUO family. So, since nobody ever claimed credit for this decision, I’m forced to give an anonymous high-five and thanks to the brave and forward looking individual who freed Issues, Etc.
Stand Firm
Comment left by Matt, on reading the blog post “Congrats,” in which Pastor Todd Wilken was "mistakenly" identified as the person in the photo signing an autograph for one of his fans:
So somewhere there is a babe walking around with "Wir sind Bettler" scrawled across her pecs. Kind of gives the term a whole new angle!
photo credit: Thomas Hawk
2 comments:
Are there folks in the LCMS taking about moving away from real presence? If so I haven't heard about it.
I suspect that Pastor Byrd is referring more to denominations outside of Lutheranism that reject the real presence. I'm unaware of anyone in the LCMS that would state that Christ's body and blood aren't present in the Sacrament. There is in the LCMS a fairly large minority that offer Communion to people other that LCMS Lutherans, which has never been our practice. When you usher a lot of foreign theological practices into your own practice, eventually you believe what it is they believe, and I think that's what Pastor Bryd is alluding to. If you look at some of the church plants in the LCMS, those that are more contemporary, you'll often see practices which don't treat the Eucharist with much reverence - which would certainly make you wonder what it is they believe about the bread and the wine. Is it Christ's real body and real blood that were sacrificed on the cross? If so, why do they treat the elements as they do? We're forgetting what it is we believe by behaving the way we do.
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