The Purpose of an Unconditional Subscription

Quoting C. F. W. Walther:

The purpose for which the Church demands a subscription to its Symbols is twofold: a) that the Church may convince itself that its teachers really possess the orthodox understanding of Scripture and the same pure, unadulterated faith as the Church; b) that the Church may bind them with a solemn promise to teach this faith pure and unadulterated or renounce the office of teaching instead of disturbing the Church with their false teaching.

Quoted from Walther's essay titled "Why Should Our Pastors, Teachers and Professors Subscribe Unconditionally to the Symbolical Writings of Our Church," delivered at the Western District Convention in 1858. Printed in the April, 1947 Concordia Theological Monthly.

The Liturgy is God’s Leiturgia

Quoting from Richard A. Krause’s paper “Worship Wars at the Dawn of a New Millennium: Lutheranism and the Means of Grace vs. the 'Success Story' of American Evangelicalism":

The church must be visible. Its true marks, the right preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments, are to be perceptible to the eye of the people. Though the church does not consist in external things such as ceremonies and rites, and though her true essence remains unknown to the unbeliever, the presence of the church is established by the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. Lutherans insist that the church is not upheld by the piety of the believers but by the external means of Word and sacrament. As Luther said, "Where the gospel is, there is Christ. Where Christ is, there is the Holy Spirit and his kingdom, the true kingdom of heaven."

The liturgy of the church is the word in action. It is properly referred to as Gottesdienst, or "divine service." The liturgy is God's leiturgia, his public service to his fallen creation through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. The liturgy is comprised of the deeds and words of Jesus. They are cleansing words that bring forgiveness, life, and salvation. God is the subject, and we are the objects of his service. Unfortunately, in the English-speaking world, worship is most often understood primarily as something we do to recognize the greatness of God. Such a view stands in opposition to Lutheran worship. It turns worship into an anthropocentric activity defined by what we do and what we understand God to be. Lutheran worship will always emphasize the opposite idea, that worship comes from God to us. The gifts of God always stand at the center. Thus, worship is not just another program of the church, but it is the very heartbeat of our life with God as he comes with his gifts and we respond in our prayers, praise, and hymns.

God's Word in the liturgy continues the great work of holy baptism as it kills and makes alive...

Post-Church Era?

Thank you Pastor Beane for reminding us that the Lord is in charge of His Church. Here is an excerpt from Pastor Beane's post "The Post-Church Era?"

I find the words "Post-Church Era" to be disturbing. I think Scripture is clear: the Church is an eternal entity. And while the culture is increasingly hostile to the Bride of Christ - especially the more the Church clings to ecclesiastical traditions that the world finds repugnant - we have the Lord's promise: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt 16:18).

The word "post-church" is an oxymoron to the believer. Such language is the prattle of secular sociologists. When the Church stops talking like the Church, when she uses the language of something else - like a business in need of a bailout, or a social club in need of a marketing strategy to attract new members - it is indicative that she no longer sees herself as the supernatural bride of a supernatural God - but rather just another organization that can be analyzed and manipulated using the world's methodologies.

Instead of speaking of Christianity in the argot of the atheist analyst (from the perspective of the world) as "post-church", we should be describing the fallen world (from the perspective of Christ and his church) as that which is passing away.

The Green Bible: Environmentalism Gone Awry

When groups like the Sierra Club and The Humane Society endorse a particular version of the Bible, or any version of the Bible, something is amiss. The Sierra Club and The Humane Society are both secular organizations. There’s a confusion of God’s spiritual kingdom and God’s earthly kingdom going on in these types of situations where secular societies try to "save" the world. And that’s what’s happening with the newest version of the Bible, The Green Bible.

The Green Bible is a New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation with "verses and passages that speak to God's care for creation highlighted in green."¹ The NRSV is a middle of the road Bible translation, about midway between a word-for-word Bible and a thought-for-thought Bible. It’s not the best translation around, but usable nonetheless. The addition of the green highlighting, and the presuppositions which go along with it, however, create a different picture entirely. While the text of each Bible is identical, the emphasis in The Green Bible is completely skewed.

Judging from the hype surrounding the initial publication of this Bible, the endorsements, the lead-in poetry, the introduction in the front, the highlighted text itself, and the subject index, one can draw some solid conclusions about this "specialty" Bible.

Aside from the obvious marketing designed to make HarperOne (a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers) a tidy profit, the other thrust of this Bible is not related to orthodox Christianity per se, but rather to environmentalism. There is also a pervasive overtone of what might be called a Social Gospel.

Click HERE to continue reading >>

Given the Left Foot of Fellowship

Chris Rosebrough, the host of the Fighting for the Faith radio program, made this comment on his September 18th show:

If you’re going to a Purpose-Driven church and you’re gonna try to combat this as a church congregant, you’re going to be given the left foot of fellowship because that’s what the Purpose-Driven church teaches them to do with people who are dissidents. They don’t tolerate dissidents because you’re supposed to unquestioningly get behind the vision of the pastor.

By Purpose-Driven, Chris means a church that follows the seeker-sensitive blueprint often found in the Church Growth Movement. The term Purpose-Driven comes from Pastor Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Church, and his subsequent book The Purpose-Driven Life. These types of churches often try to recast the die on how a church should look and operate – the technical term is paradigm shift.

In moving a congregation to a more seeker-sensitive "model," many things are thrown out the window. Out go the liturgy, doctrine, and the Old Testament lesson, out go closed Communion, vestments, and true unity. Out goes the name on the front of the building, and possibly even the cross on the wall. They are replaced by a sermon series on how to solve your problems, praise bands, coffee bar, consultants, and vision. The Gospel is twisted into Law.

Next comes the push for a re-engineered church "management" structure, Constitution, and By-Laws. The senior pastor becomes a manager, and you, the parishioner, become the minister. Your church starts looking like the "evangelical" community church down the road.

These kinds of "hostile takeovers" are not pretty. If you’re one of those people who think that the main focus of your congregation should be Word and Sacrament ministry instead of meeting the felt needs of unbelievers, and you dare to voice your opinion, watch out! You might just get the left foot of fellowship. At the very least, you’ll be labeled as "divisive" and ostracized.

I mention this because it’s happening now in a church near you – possibly even in the pew you’re currently occupying.

Chris states that the pastors of Purpose-Driven churches are taught to give troublemakers the heave-ho. This sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, but it isn’t. It’s the game plan of choice if you want your seeker-sensitive church to be a "success." Kick out the discerning, doctrinally oriented members, and replace them with "seekers."

If you’d like to get a sneak peak at the play book that provides the details on how to excise these troublemakers who resist the paradigm shift, here are two well written articles on the subject:

By Ralph M. Petersen on his blog Well-Meaning Gentlemen With Different Ideas, titled "Resisters, Obstructionists, and Troublemakers."

By Berit Kjos on her apologetics website Kjos Ministries, titled "Dealing With Resisters."

If you’re in one of these churches, and you’re the type of person who’d rather fight than switch, put on your shoes and breastplate, strap on you belt and helmet, and grab your shield and sword – you’re in for a fight.

A Sublime Description of the Divine Service

This truly Lutheran description of the Divine Service comes from the introduction found in Lutheran Worship. Thanks to Dr. Robert Shreckhise for pointing it out.

Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise. Music is drawn into this thankfulness and praise, enlarging and elevating the adoration of our gracious giver God.

Saying back to him what he has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. Most true and sure is his name, which he put upon us with the water of our Baptism. We are his. This we acknowledge at the beginning of the Divine Service. Where his name is, there he is. Before him we acknowledge that we are sinners and we plead for forgiveness. His forgiveness is given us, and we, freed and forgiven, acclaim him as our great and gracious God as we apply to ourselves the words he has used to make himself known to us.

The rhythm of our worship is from him to us, and then from us back to him. He gives his gifts, and together we receive and extol them. We build one another up as we speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Our Lord gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink. Finally his blessing moves us out into our calling, where his gifts have their fruition. How best to do this we may learn from his Word and from the way his Word has prompted his worship through the centuries. We are heirs of an astonishingly rich tradition. Each generation receives from those who went before and, in making that tradition of the Divine Service its own, adds what best may serve in its own day-the living heritage and something new.

There’s A New Bumper Sticker In Town

A new bumper sticker adorns the hind end of my car.

I’ve never been much of a bumper sticker guy. The bumper sticker this one replaces was the first I’d had since the ‘80's. It said “If God is your copilot, switch seats.” Kind of corny, but it went well with my pilot vocation.

But this, this is the penultimate sticker. One for the ages.

I am a little concerned though that it’s affixation to my ‘88 Honda Civic won’t really do it justice, considering the Civic is starting to show it’s age. I think the sticker will really turn heads though, and nobody will even notice what it’s sticking to. Now, if I can just keep the bumper from falling off.

The address for you to get your own Issues, Etc.™ bumper sticker is:

Lutheran Public Radio
1600 Gulfview Drive
Collinsville, IL 62234

Send a self-addressed stamped envelope along with your request.

Jump On the Bandwagon

Well, maybe it’s not a bandwagon. Probably more like a broken down covered wagon, with the rim busted off the splintered wagon wheel, and the pioneer wife saying a prayer over her freshly snake bit husband.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about the new gizmo over there on the right. The one with the little icons of people’s faces. Yeah. That one. The one that says “FREQUENT FLYERS (5), and “FOLLOW THIS BLOG.” If you click on “FOLLOW THIS BLOG,” you can then sign up and proclaim to the world that you’re one of the few and the proud who read Stand Firm. Or for you shy types, you can sign up anonymously as well.

It’s the pious thing to do. (Or is that pietistic? Although I don’t think there’s that many pietists that read this blog. Maybe one or two). For you good Lutheran laymen and laywomen out there, what’s to stop you from signing on? You’ve always wanted your own private pew in church anyhow. And you pastors. Your face over on the right will certainly accelerate the gravitational pull of that CRM list. After all, the Augustana Ministerium is here for you.

If you click on the little icons, you can read that person’s profile. For the technophiles out there, if you’ve got a Blogger blog, you can follow the blogs you sign up for in your Google reader, and also via your reading list on your Blogger dashboard. You can also add this gadget to your Blogger blog, which I think will ultimately be a way for all of us to promote each other’s blogs.

For more info, you can read here, here, and here.

And of course, thanks to all for reading along and signing up.

Quotable Blog Quotes #3

Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere

The Brothers of John the Steadfast
Pastor Todd Wilken

Grammatically, the word ablaze seems to fall into the category of adjectives that can only be used predicatively, that is, as a complement to a noun, linked to it by a form of the verb "to be." In other words, the adjective ablaze will always come at the end of a phrase like "the building is ablaze" and never before the word it modifies, "the ablaze building." Ablaze is like some other a- words, such as astray, adrift, afraid, alone, aghast, ashamed and asleep.

A Little Leaven
Chris Rosebrough

Just in case you have a close encounter of the Klingon kind, there is a now a Klingon Language Version (KLV) Bible that you can use to share the gospel. We probably shouldn't be complaining because this thing actually looks far more accurate than The Message.

Father Hollywood
Rev. Larry L. Beane II, SSP

There is an increasing secularization of the Church - which brings with it the baggage of marketing. And that marketing is impossible without joining the world's chorus of "change for change's sake" - not only driving a wedge between style (lex orandi) and substance (lex credendi), but actually downplaying doctrine for the sake of popular appeal. This is precisely why churches - even in the once-conservative Missouri Synod - are being pushed by their own leadership ("executives") into abandoning tradition (from the Latin: "traditio" from "trado" - to hand over) in favor of mass-marketing and entertainment.

As the synodical president has said in his oft-repeated slogan: "This is not your grandfather's church."

This explains the proliferation of not only megachurches and "contemporary" services, but also niche congregations that seek only certain segments of the population, such as the young, or those who like heavy-metal music, or those who connect with coffee-shop culture. This explains why the cookie-cutter "emergent" model is being pushed from above (the corporate headquarters) - an approach to "doing church" that features pop music, a rejection of clerical vestments and traditional church architecture, a desire to appeal to pop culture, and a downplaying of the mysterious working of the holy sacraments ("emerging" churches within the LCMS will defend their infrequent communion by an appeal to the number of visitors who attend their entertaining services).

We are a church at war with our ancestors.

Necessary Roughness
Dan discussing the proposed restructuring in the LCMS

A synod is a group of members or congregations who agree. They are either in agreement or not; they cannot agree with "binding force." If this is "walking together," it must look like a three-legged race.

Click HERE to continue reading >>

Confessional Lutheran?

This post is reproduced with the permission of Pastor Gary Hall, the author of the new blog Creedal Crime. It is a copy of Pastor Hall’s September 26 entry, which garnered him the singular distinction of Jeff Schwarz’s pick for Issues, Etc.™ blog of the week.

Is it just me or is it odd that we have to qualify Lutheran with Confessional? And evangelical would seem an odd qualifier as well. For what is a Lutheran but one who preaches and teaches in accord with the Book of Concord? If you are not preaching and teaching in accord with the Book of Concord how can you call yourself Lutheran? I guess that would make you a Cafeteria Lutheran, to borrow a term. Preaching and teaching according to your own fancy...I think St. Paul had something to say about that...."There will come a time when men will not put up with sound doctrine, but gather teachers to say what they want to hear."

And to think I sat down to post just that first question.