What’s New On Pirate Christian Radio

You may have heard the hubbub about some show called "Issues, Etc.™" (don’t forget the “TM”). Issues, Etc.™ returned with much fanfare on the online radio station Pirate Christian Radio, or PCR for short. PCR is the brainchild of the original Christian pirate himself, Chris Rosebrough, with Pastor Craig Donofrio on board as well.

PCR is undergoing a launch into the arena of Christ-centered Lutheran radio programming worthy of a NASA-type countdown. Besides Issues, Etc.™, the current regularly scheduled programming includes:

• Fighting For the Faith, which is Chris Rosebrough’s “edgy” apologetics program - I highly recommend it.

• The White Horse Inn Classics- “Reruns” of the best White Horse Inn apologetics shows.

Upcoming on PCR are sermons from several outstanding LCMS pastors, including:

• Sermons From Holy Trinity, by Pastor Bill Cwirla

• The Feast: Pastor Craig Donofrio’s sermons

• The Gift: Sermons from Faith Lutheran; Pastors Ron Hodel and Jeremy Rhode.

Also on the drawing board:

• Table Talk Radio: Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller and Evan Goeglein, discussing various articles of the Christian faith and Holy Scriptures, as well and current events as they relate to the faith. This is another must-hear program. Those of you who’ve previously heard Pastor Wolfmueller on Issues, Etc.™ will know why.

• The God Whisperers: The dynamic duo of Pastors Craig Donofrio and Bill Cwirla discussing theological topics (Yes, they wear masks and capes, but you won’t be able to see them since it’s audio only).

• Christ For Us

• Higher Things: Pastor George Borghardt

• Grace Alone podcasts

• SOCO: Recorded presentations of previous South Orange County Outreach speakers such Uwe Siemon Netto, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery, and Rod Rosenbladt.

Check out the Pirate Christian Radio website for details.

Introducing the LCMS Studebaker!

Here's the latest "hot" ecclesiastical marketing plan, compliments of Frank at Putting Out the Fire - the LCMS Studebaker. She's a beaut ain't she? You'll have to go read Frank's post to figure out the details. It'll be worth the trip.

The Church Has No Word of Its Own

Quoting Francis Pieper in Christian Dogmatics, Vol. 1, p. 315:

What the Church proclaims (the "Word of the Church") also has divine power and efficacy, but always only in so far as the Church remains true to its commission and proclaims only God’s Word (Matt. 28:19; Rom. 3:2; 1 Tim. 6:3 ff.; 2 John 9-10). The Church has no word of its own. Whatever is not taken from Scripture is not the "Word of the Church," but what Luther bluntly calls "prattle." Also other books can exert a divine power and efficacy, but always only inasmuch as they have absorbed God’s Word.

Quotable Blog Quotes, v. 1.0

Assembled are a collection of notable blog quotes gleaned from various blog posts.

Weedon’s Blog
Pastor Wil Weedon

"The Church preserves the Gospel." Thus the constant appeal to tradition in both Rome and the East. But what do Lutherans say to this? "Rather, it is the Gospel which preserves the Church!" And we point to tradition *as witness* to how the Gospel has done so!

AC 24
Rt. Rev. Jack Bauer

The Lord longs for the fellowship of Divine Service with His Church. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. The Bread of Life comes down from heaven for the life of the world. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches, we cannot live apart from being service from the One who is Divine and Man. For if we are not cleansed of our sins we can have no place with Him, if we think it beneath Him to serve us. The Lord came to seek and save the lost, to forgive sinners. To be a Christian is to be utterly Christ-sufficient and that spiritual self-sufficiency is a way of death. Therefore Christian worship, despite human reason, is to be at the receiving end of all the Lord's mercies poured out to us in the strong Word of the Lord and so also the sacramental gospel.

Becky on her Wittenber Trail web page.

Let my husband share Your Gospel freely, and use Your Law only as much as is necessary.

Gottesblog
Rev. Fr. Burnell F Eckardt

He is a consuming fire, but in His eternal love He has purged my sin, and delivers that forgiveness to me by the Holy Ghost.

Stand Firm
Comment by Anonymous

How important was keeping track [of ‘critical events’ as Ablaze!® does] to Paul? "(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.)" (1 Cor 1:16)

On the Humorous Side:

Father Hollywood
Rev. Larry L. Beane II, SSP

In case some of my younger readers don't know what a diary is, it's an offline blog. ;-)

Father Hollywood
Rev. Larry L. Beane II, SSP

The word "missional" is not only being worn out faster than Lindsey Lohan's sense of self-respect by the latest round of church faddists and "experts" - it's being wielded as a club by starry-eyed church officials (neo-numerologists?) in the LCMS who have been seduced by the empty promises of church marketers.

Incarnatus Est

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Are You Without Guile?

"No one who is a follower of the Augsburg Confession without guile will complain about these writings. They will cheerfully accept and tolerate them as witnesses of the truth. No one can think ill about us because we get an explanation and decision about the articles in controversy from these writings. As we lay down God's Word-the eternal truth-as the foundation, we also introduce and quote these writings as a witness of the truth and as the unanimously received, correct understanding of our predecessors who have steadfastly held to the pure doctrine."

The Formula of Concord, SD Rule and Norm, 12-13
Quoted from
Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions
(St. Louis: CPH, 2006) 509.

Issues, Etc.™-The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In the first hour of the July 2 Issues, Etc™ program, Pastor Wilken and Jeff Schwarz revisited some of the good, the bad, and the ugly after their unceremonious firing. Here’s some of what they had to say. Don’t forget, you can listen or download the shows at their website:

Pastor Wilken’s light-hearted description of Jeff Schwarz’ present state of affairs: “...freed from the shackles of ecclesiastical bureaucracy.”

Pastor Todd Wilken:
Now the restriction that existed before, that really became a tremendous frustration to me, especially in the last years and months was not so much a restriction as to what we could or couldn’t say, but what the priority had become that surrounded the radio program before. The priority quite honestly, became, not the proclamation or the promulgation of the Gospel, but the preservation of the commercial radio station in the St. Louis market. So that very often the editorial conversations that we would have had to do with whether or not something we may have said or failed to say or someone we may have talked to or failed to talk to on the air, was going to somehow hurt the prospects for a commercial radio station in the St. Louis market. And I found that at first, confusing, and in time almost completely intolerable. So when I talked earlier this week about the sense of relief that Jeff and I both had after the cancellation of Issues, Etc.™, it was due largely to the fact that we would no longer have to be in service of the preservation of a commercial radio station in the St. Louis market and worry about whether or not something we say might get a radio station sold or cast in a bad light.

The frustration was compounded by the fact that when I would bring up these concerns they met largely with a deaf ear. I mean people would listen and bob their heads and say “Yeah, yeah, yeah, we understand, don’t worry, that’ll all change, and it did change, we got canceled. That’s how it changed.

When I talked on the first day of the program about how a lot of things didn’t make sense to me, do you remember the end of the meeting where we did get fired? The last thing that both of us said was “This makes no sense.” ...Both of us were just kind of left with our mouths hanging open saying “This makes no sense.” And I’ll be quite honest with you folks, it still makes no sense to me today. If someone were to ask me, and I’ve said this several times, if someone were to ask me “Why was the show canceled? Why were you fired?” My honest answer is, “I don’t know.” I know what explanations have been given.
Jeff: Not to us.
Todd: Well not to us personally, no, to everyone but us. I do not know why the show really was canceled and why we were really fired. I have my ideas, I have my speculations. But I probably will go to my grave never knowing why, and with it making as little sense to me today or then as it did on March 18th. It really does make no sense.

We actually weren’t called in on a moments notice. We were given a weekend to stew about it. ...We didn’t have a lot of meetings at the International Center. Jeff and I are not kind of International Center type of guys. Both of us kind of feel the wind being sucked out of our lungs every time we walked into the building, and kind of the bones in our spine slowly turning into jelly. So we would usually keep those meetings as short as possible. ...I enquired about what the meeting was going to be about, and no one would tell me. ...So Jeff and I began to think about this and as Jeff and I were in the habit of doing, kind of living in a bunker mentality we began to develop our multiple scenarios for what might happen Tuesday during that meeting at 10:30. And I think we had six scenarios if I counted them all correctly, and we talked them over many times on the telephone over the weekend. Jeff being the pessimist that he is, said we’re being pink slipped. It’s that simple. But he expected two weeks notice at the very least. I thought it had something else to do with, I don’t know, management, maybe we were going to get a talking to. We didn’t know. I thought it highly unlikely that we would get pink slipped. But the minute we got there and walked to the meeting room and saw the little placard on the door that said “human resources meeting” we both knew exactly what was happening. And to tell you the truth, even though I can say honestly we didn’t know what it was about, we had some suspicions, neither of us were, I don’t think I was surprised. I was not surprised. It was kind of one of those things when I sat down in that meeting I thought to myself “Well this was going to happen sooner or later. Let’s just get this over with.”

Todd replaying the aftermath conversation with his wife:
I said, “Honey, I just got fired.” And my wife is hard to surprise, because she lives with me, but she was completely and utterly shocked. She said “You’re kidding me.” “No. I’m not kidding you. I got fired.” “What about the show?” “The show is gone. It’s over with.” “Aren’t you going to the radio station?” “No. They told us we can’t go to the radio station. Hand in your keys.”

Are You the Witnesser or the Witnessee?

I was eating lunch at In-N-Out^® on a layover in San Francisco. Delicious fries from a freshly cut potato. A burger with a grilled onion on it - I doubt my co-pilot’s going to like that part so much. The polite twenty-something guy who had taken my order was now sweeping up, and he asked me if I would mind telling him what I was reading. It was C.F.W. Walther’s First Presidential Address. (Hey! It’s not as weird as Pastor Wilken’s propensity for surfing church websites in his spare time.)

I explained a little about my choice of reading material. He said he was considering going to seminary. He told me one of the seminaries he was considering, although I can’t remember now which one it was - I hadn’t heard of it. I mentioned he should consider a Lutheran seminary. If we’d had three hours I’m sure I could have convinced him, but his boss might not have appreciated it.

After our short conversation concluded, the gentleman sitting to my left commented that it was good to see another Christian. The guy to my right said that the employees there were a "cut above." He then proceeded to tell me that he was a member of a Lutheran Church in the bay area, and told me about some of the youth ministry he was involved with. Had the employee not asked me his random question, I never would have known I was dining with fellow Christians.

Walking back to the hotel, I knew my lunch trip was a reminder for me that I am supposed to be the "witnesser," not the "witnessee" (or the confessor using Klemet Preus’s way of saying "witness"). There have been other times when someone else made a bold confession of their faith to me, while I meekly replied that I too was a Christian, feeling a bit embarrassed that I wasn’t the one doing the confessing. Of course, in those situations, it didn’t matter, because we were both enlivened by our trust in the One who has set us free, but how many opportunities have I missed because I didn’t strike up a conversation? We are not all evangelists or ministers, but we do have the opportunity to share the Good News in our daily lives through our vocation as called Christians, no matter which restaurant is your preference. As 1 Peter 3:15 says, "but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you."

So the next time you’re waiting for your order, it might not be a bad idea to say "hi" to the person next to you. You never know who you’ll bump into. It could be a fellow Christian, an angel in disguise, or it could be someone starving for more than just a burger and fries.


One hint: The next time you’re at an In-N-Out Burger^®, look inside the rim on the bottom of your cup.

Some Things Never Change

Pastor Blondos, at his Kyrie Eleison blog, has a post titled "Nothing New Under the Sun." He quotes P. E. Kretzman's 1929 comments to illustrate how "modern" church innovations are not at all modern. One quote from Kretzman:

"Gospel Anthems"

We must take note also of a most deplorable tendency of our times, namely, that of preferring the shallow modern ‘Gospel anthem’ to the classical hymns of our Church. The reference is both to the text and to the tunes in use in many churches. On all sides the criticism is heard that the old Lutheran hymns are “too heavy, too doctrinal, that our age does not understand them.” Strange that the Lutherans of four centuries and of countless languages could understand and appreciate them, even as late as a generation ago! Is the present generation less intelligent or merely more frivolous?

(From P. E . Kretzmann; Magazin fur evang.-luth. Homiletik und Pastoraltheologie; June 1929, pp 216-217.)

Life In the Post 2004 Convention Era, A Pastor's Perspective

by Rev. Glenn E. Huebel

(Presented previously and republished with permission. Also published at Consensus.)

My assignment today is to provide a parish pastor’s perspective on our Synodical struggles. Pastors in our Synod serve in a great variety of ministries, and context shapes perspective. A pastor who serves a small rural congregation of families who have been connected for decades, whose grandparents were baptized in the congregation, and who see very few new faces on Sunday will see a different Synod than a pastor who serves in the inner city or one who serves a fast growing suburban congregation. It is only fair for you to know my background before you hear my perspective. I have served in many different kinds of ministries and communities during my 24 years in the pastoral office. As a young man I pastored a tiny mission congregation in a quiet little old Texas railroad town with one traffic signal, one small high school, and no chain stores, not even a McDonalds. I am now serving as Sr. Pastor of a multi-staffed congregation with a preschool and school in a heavily populated and fast growing suburban community with traffic snarls, three large high schools, shopping centers, and new neighborhoods on every corner. I have also served everything in between. All of this I have been blessed to experience without ever changing locations or congregations. I was sent out of seminary in 1980 to plant a congregation in Keller, Texas, and the world has been dramatically changing around me ever since. I am not a confessional pastor who lives in the delusion that we can recreate the 1950s or any other era. I am used to dealing with change, and I know that we must adapt to new circumstances, but not through accommodation. From the beginning to the present, Messiah, Keller, has been a haven and refuge for orthodox Lutherans who want to remain steadfast and constant in confession of the truth as the world changes around us. Messiah’s membership is a cross section of the community itself, a wide distribution of ages and economic status with a large core of young families. A large proportion of our members are professionals working in the airline, defense or high-tech industries. As I have informed my congregation of synodical problems and issues through the years, the people of Messiah have remained theologically unified. We may debate for an hour over a $50 item in an $800,000 budget, but we are of one accord in the important matters. The present crisis is no exception. For this rare and precious blessing I give God thanks daily.

It might be helpful for you to know also that I am a pastor who is well acquainted with our Synodical President. Our relationship actually began on a very positive basis over 30 years ago when I was a 19 year old church youth director in Port Arthur, Texas. I greatly admired Pastor Kieschnick, the young and enthusiastic pastor of Redeemer, Beaumont, who was also the spiritual counselor for the zone youth organization. This experience gives me some understanding of those who have fallen under the Kieschnick spell today. Pastor Kieschnick, as circuit counselor, ordained me in my home congregation in 1980. During the following years we occasionally engaged in friendly correspondence and personal conversations, discussing various issues troubling the Synod. We did not always agree with one another, but our relationship was cordial. After he was elected District President he appointed me to my first term as circuit counselor and thereby placed me on his “team.” This was a magnanimous choice on his part since I was a founder and editor of Concord, and he was not a fan of unofficial publications (at least, not confessional ones). The circuit counselors met for two three-day retreats each year to discuss Synodical issues and to be informed of the Kieschnick agenda. Our conversations and correspondence became increasingly confrontational as I saw, firsthand, his agenda and leadership methods, and as he saw that my loyalty was not to him …. my reluctance and refusal to be a “team player.” I do appreciate, however, the opportunity that I had, while circuit counselor, to deal directly with those on the other side of the theological fence. I became keenly aware that the issues are not as simple as both sides often make them out to be. I also became aware that our disagreements are not merely a matter of semantics. In the end, I think both Jerry and I finally realized that our conversation is futile. I think he appreciates my advice even less than I appreciate his agenda. Our conversation has virtually ceased since he became Synod President.

My assignment is to describe life in the Missouri Synod in the post 2004 Convention era. The assumption, of course, is that the 2004 Convention was a watershed for our Synod, and it certainly was quite a significant event. It is now crystal clear that this is no longer our “grandfather’s Synod” even in doctrine and confession. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the real watershed occurred with the election of Rev. Kieschnick in 2001. All that has followed since that election, including the Benke controversy, the power struggles of the past triennium, and the 2004 convention, has been a predictable and natural result of the 2001 election. Confessional leaders differ from one another in style or degree, but Rev. Kieschnick is a leader of a different KIND. Pastor Lawrence White calls him the first “post modern Synod president,” and he is right. He is a thorough-going, unabashed, impatient, pragmatist. President Kieschnick emphasizes and focuses on what works instead of what is true. He prefers the measurable over the unseen, the things he can control over the free course of the Gospel working where and when it pleases God. He tends to view the church primarily as an outward institution rather than a union of saints who hear and follow the voice of Christ. President Kieschnick is not just a little more moderate than old LCMS conservatives. He has a fundamentally different approach to the nature of the institution, ecclesiastical authority, and even to the clarity and authority of the objective Word of God. This kind of difference has been described quite well, I think, by Bonhoeffer, in his “Life Together,” where he makes an interesting contrast between the community of Spirit and the human community. He wrote,

“In the community of the Spirit the Word of God alone rules; in the human community of spirit there rules, along with the Word, the man who is furnished with exceptional powers, experience, and magical, suggestive capacities. There God’s Word alone is binding; here, besides the Word, men bind others to themselves. There all power, honor, and domination are surrendered to the Holy Spirit; here spheres of power and influence of a personal nature are sought and cultivated. It is true, in so far as these are devout men, that they do this with the intention of serving the highest and the best, but in actuality the result is to dethrone the Holy Spirit, to relegate Him to remote unreality. In actuality it is only the human that is operative here.” (From Life Together, Harper and Row, 1957, page 32)

With the election of Kieschnick, Synod crossed the line from a “community of the Spirit” to a “human community of spirit,” whether it intended to or not, whether it realized it or not. An institutional revolution was set in motion. No longer are church politics ruled and shaped by theology. Under President Kieschnick, theology has become the handmaiden to political expediency and social engineering. In this reversal, the centrality of concord is replaced by the centrality of institutional harmony and growth, the authority of the Word is replaced by Synod’s official “interpretation of the Word,” which is, coincidentally, under the President’s control, the theology of glory replaces the theology of the cross, the relationship between Synod and congregation is reversed (i.e., Synod does not belong to congregations, congregations belong to the Synod), the authority of clear Scriptures, is replaced by the authority of fuzzy and complicated bylaws which always seem to say what the President wishes them to say, theologians are replaced by administrators, pastors are replaced with institutional managers and entrepreneurs, and the principle of sheep judging shepherds is abandoned.

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“The Boys Are Back In Town”

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. That Christ-centered Cross-focused talk radio show, Issues, Etc.™, is back.

The first hour of the first show on June 30th was spent with Host Todd Wilken and Producer Jeff Schwarz reminiscing about their three month “spring break.” Pastor Wilken noted that he lost twenty pounds, started finishing his basement, and adopted a cat and subsequent kittens. There were plenty of “thanks” to go around to all of those people who supported Jeff and Todd during their hiatus.

There were several humorous moments, including a sound bite of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous statement “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last,” as well as Margaritaville music with the voice over “We’re not funded by LCMS Inc. You’re listening to Issues, Etc.™”

The second hour was vintage Issues, Etc.™, featuring John Green of the Pew Forum discussing religion and politics and Dr. Carl Fickenscher of Concordia Theological Seminary discussing the Gospel versus the inspiring and helping Gospel of Evangelicalism.

Both hours of the show are available on the Issues, Etc.™ website.

This week’s upcoming shows:

Tuesday: Greg Koukl on relativism
Wednesday: Dr. Paul Maier on the historicity of Christianity
Thursday: Dr. John Warwick Montgomery on Islam