LCMSpolitics.org

The Brothers of John the Steadfast have created a website called LCMSpolitics.org, which is designed to be your one-stop clearinghouse for all things related to the upcoming District Conventions, and the National Convention in 2010.

The site is in its infancy right now, and you can help by offering suggestions on what you'd like on the site, as well as volunteer your expert services in design, maintenance, writing, and information gathering.

Either already existing, or on the drawing board, are Convention dates, a beginners guide to LCMS "politics," reports on individual District Conventions, useful resources that relate to past LCMS conventions and resolutions, articles on LCMS polity, forums, polls, and more.

There's been a need for someplace where we can all get together and "brainstorm" on the convention(s), and I think this is it. I hope we will all utilize this site to pool our resources, and learn from what others have said as we head towards the 2010 Convention.

Blocked Overtures from the NDD Convention

At the recent North Dakota District Convention four overtures regarding the Synodical restructuring were prevented from reaching the floor of the convention. For those of you that have asked, here are those overtures. Hopefully, these overtures will stimulate conversation in your own congregations and circuits and help in the formulation of overtures for your upcoming district conventions.


Suggested Overture for 2009 ND District Convention #1


Whereas, The Synod is an association of Congregations and pastors and teachers who are bound together, not by an overarching organizational structure which exercises power and authority over its members, but instead are bound together by agreement in the doctrine of the Gospel, and

Whereas, the Synod is not over its congregations, neither is it under its congregations, and

Whereas, the Synod is its congregations walking together, and

Whereas, the only power and authority which is to rule and govern in the Synod is the Word of God, and

Whereas, the constitution of the Synod provides freedom for its members from any coercive kind of power exercised by elected officers of the Synod, (Constitution, Article VII.1) therefore be it

Resolved, that the North Dakota District Convention requests the 2010 Synodical Convention to reject the proposal of The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance (BRTFSSG) under “Congregations and Districts”, where it proposes “involve the district president in the selection of circuit counselors.”, and be it further

Resolved, that the North Dakota District Convention requests the 2010 Synodical Convention to reject the proposal of the BRTFSSG under “Congregations, National Conventions, and Representation” where it states: “Determine each district’s number of delegates according to that district’s exact percentage of the total number of congregations and communicates in Synod.” because it removes the doctrine and promise that, “where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20), and be it finally

Resolved, that the North Dakota District Convention requests the 2010 Synodical Convention to reject the proposal of the BRTFSSG under the same heading as above, where it states: “Elect national convention delegates at district conventions (where all congregations are represented) from a list of congregational delegates to the district convention that immediately precedes the national convention. Allow each district to determine how these candidates would be selected and elected, involving all congregations within the district and based upon criteria established by the national Synod.”

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Suggested Overture for 2009 ND District Convention #2

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Overture Warning

If you're planning on submitting an overture to your district convention, time is rapidly running out. For example, overtures for the NOW District, whose convention is June 18-20, are due February 15th. Texas overtures, with a June 25-28 convention, are due February 18th. The last convention ends on July 7th. Speak now or forever wish you had!

Overtures on the Synod restructuring are appropriate. Also appropriate, (hint, hint), are overtures regarding LCMS, Inc.'s continuing harassment of Issues, Etc. Host Todd Wilken and Producer Jeff Schwarz, and the threat of a lawsuit against these two guys who are just doing what they're supposed to be doing. I've dusted off The Big Map, which you might recall from when I marked those districts who passed protest resolutions on the cancellation of Issues, Etc. last year. Now's the time to put your district on the map!



photo credit: Totoro!

The Drama Continues

Yesterday’s Issues, Etc. show included this conversation between Host Todd Wilken and Producer Jeff Schwarz:

TW:

I marvel as well at the fortuitous and good, quick, return of the program, and the continuation of the program. It’s not that we’re, we’re not without our difficulties still with regard to the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. I mean, Jeff mentioned last week I think that the application for the trademark on the name Issues, Etc. is being opposed by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod Incorporated. Actively, legally opposed. And along with that news of the opposition, also came a letter informing us of the opposition and that we, Jeff and I personally, are being threatened with legal action. They haven’t initiated any legal action against us that we know of but they have threatened to do so. So, even though the story is over, the show is back, the drama as my daughter would say, the drama of all of it continues.

JS:

In some ways I think the drama has just begun.

TW:

If this is going to be the second act, it looks like it. I mean, if the invincible stupidity of the church Corporate is true to form and plays its part well, it’s just the beginning of the second act. By the way, we will be posting a web extra at our web site, in the next couple days, explaining in detail, kind of the latest, and I won’t say the greatest, the latest and the saddest news, having to do with the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s opposition to the Issues, Etc. trademark name, and their threat to sue us personally. We’ll be posting it at our website, issuesetc.org.

It looks like we’re once again going to be forced to mobilize the troops. I’m guessing there’ll be more news forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

LCMS Ablaze!

It's the last day of Ketchup Week. We're nearly kaught up. This last post is one that Pastor Benjamin Harju posted on his blog Paredwka: Dropping the Ball last April. I know some of you will remember it, and it's definitely worth a second look. In it, Pastor Harju explores some of the fundamental theological problems confronting the LCMS today, problems that are deep-seated and manifest themselves in such programs as Ablaze!. Reprinted with permission.


I was attending a presentation by Dr. Mark Mattes (Religion and Philosophy Department Chair at Grand View College in Des Moines) on Easter Thursday. Dr. Mattes is an incredibly learned and insightful person, and I enjoyed his presentation a lot. Near the end of his presentation, this ELCA pastor helped we in the LCMS get 'clued in' to one of the critical problems we are facing. He suggested that the LCMS is in the midst of a Predestinarian Controversy, and to illustrate his point he referenced Uzzah's attempt to steady the shifting Ark of the Covenant. For these two insights I am indebted to Dr. Mattes, for this seems to be the missing piece of a puzzle for me. I mention all of this so that no one thinks that I arrived at the Predestinarian Controversy conclusion on my own, nor did I come up with the Uzzah and the Ark analogy in the least. These two points are from Dr. Mattes. The rest I am attempting to run with on my own

PEOPLE ARE PERISHING ETERNALLY AND WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING

What do the Lutheran Confessions teach about Predestination? (My Orthodox friends may find this view rather different from theirs. It might make for an interesting side-post.) Simply put, Lutherans (are supposed to) believe that the entire race of humanity is lost in sin and death because of Adam and Eve's transgression, but that God - in His own particular wisdom and secret counsel - has determined to save certain individuals by grace, through faith, for Christ's sake alone. The Lord knows who are His. He will accomplish their salvation through His own appointed means. While God cannot be blamed for humanity's rebellion, He is credited for showing mercy on a remnant. Jesus dies for all, but not all are elect. Yet the elect (read: those specifically chosen by God before the foundation of the world) will be saved through His ordinary means. The question for missions is this: will God save them with us (as servants of His will), without us, or in spite of us?

It seems that in the LCMS a different model of Predestination is at work. The salvation of the elect is not dependant on God's secret decision from before the foundation of the world. Otherwise, why does our leadership illustrate the Ablaze! missions agenda by rapid finger snapping (snap, snap, snap, snap, etc.) and then say something to the effect of, 'This is people dying without knowing Jesus, and we need to do something about it.'?

Now for Dr. Mattes' Uzzah analogy: what happened when Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark? He died. Why? Because of his lack of faith. The Ark was not his to steady. It belonged to God, and it was the sacramental vessel of God's presence among His people. God had provided means for its care. Uzzah looked up and saw how the Ark was unsteady, and he attempted to rescue God. His faith was not in God's word, command, and promise, but like St. Peter who sank in the water when he experienced the wind and waves, Uzzah's faith became distorted and misplaced. And what happened to Uzzah? He died.

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The Power of Persuasion

Quoting the dialogue between caller Steve and Host Todd Wilken from a February 2008 Issues, Etc. program:

Steve:

“Let me ask you this question. Are a lot of Christian preachers putting more faith in our ability to quote ‘Make a decision,’ than in Christ’s Word to convert us?”

Pastor Todd Wilken:

“Yes. Thank you Steve. I think of course almost all the faith is being put in the power of persuasion. I don’t even think it lies in man’s ability to make a decision to be persuaded. I think it’s gone far beyond that Steve. I think it’s gone to the point now, especially in the seeker sensitive movement, or whatever it’s calling itself nowadays. It’s far from the power of God’s Word to convert, and it’s not even in man’s ability to be converted, or to be persuaded, or to make a decision. It is now totally in the packaging of the message. It’s all totally in the ‘buzzwords,’ following the right process, taking the right steps, overcoming the right obstacles. The power to convert has been taken from God and even really from the person who makes the decision, and placed totally with the persuader. The great preacher, the guy who knows how to tweak the message and repackage the message just so to catch people, to get them, to bring them in - in the end to convert them. Which is odd because St. Paul makes it quite clear that it was not with the power of persuasion or persuasive words, or wisdom, that he presented the saving message. But he says God not through wisdom but the foolishness of what we preach, Christ and Him crucified, shows both His wisdom and His power."


photo credit: CS Muncy

What’s Heaven Really Like?

We got onto the subject of heaven this evening at dinner and had a rousing discussion on what heaven will be like. The first question was would you know other people, particularly your relatives. Hmm. What about half-brothers and people who’ve been married more than once? How would you ever sort all that out? (See Matt. 22:30 for part of that answer.)

Zach wanted to know about the transportation system. I thought it would be a monorail. He then wondered if you could long board [skateboard] in heaven. That’s definitely out, because it would mess up the gold streets. Now that I think about it though, that’s what would happen in our fallen world; it’ll probably be just fine in heaven.

He also wondered about breaks in between all the singing and worshiping. Would there be time for sports? I think there’ll be cloud jumping, the softest eight seconds in sports (a reference to Professional Bull Riding for the uninitiated).

Then there’s the problem of so many people to accommodate. How does everybody see and hear God. I thought Zach had a great idea – the earth could be flattened out so you wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to see over the horizon, and thus could see the “stage” (except of course the stage is in heaven, not here). No, it’s more like Joel Osteen’s church. Really huge with a gigantic jumbotron. The apostles and really important people (DP’s and such) would get their own luxury boxes. You’d be able to see all the camera flashes going off in the background. Quite a spectacle.

Okay. That sounds a little bit like a theology of glory. I can’t wait to see what it’ll really be like. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27 ESV)

Spilled Ink

Pastor Todd Wilken, discussing Christian vocation on the July 14th, 2008 Issues, Etc. program:

How much ink is spilled, how much time is spent, frustrated Christians looking for God’s will for their life? They’re worried that they’re out of God’s will, that they’ve lost God’s will, that they need to somehow find that bulls-eye that God draws on the floor, and stand back in the center of it. It is much simpler than you’re given to believe by all of the, I should call it “modern monasticism,” that we find in pop American Christianity today. It really is as simple as “where has God put you, and who has God put in front of you, and what are their needs?” And guess what? That’s what God has given you to do. And you can worry about things one thing at a time.

photo credit: Darren Hester

Saving Private Ryan

Welcome to Ketchup Week. All this week I’m posting things that were written or quoted/transcribed a while back but got lost in the stack, and have now been reinvigorated.

This post was written during the first part of last year, when our previous Vicar was still here – one in a continuing stream of storied and distinguished Vicars, or something like that:

I was passing by a T.V. at the airport and caught a glimpse of a scene from the movie Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks. In the scene, a French family is living in the remnants of their bombed-out house, with little roof left to shelter them from the downpour and hopelessness of their situation. The village had been overrun by the Germans. The French father begs an American soldier to take his daughter, to save her from the threat of starvation and German occupation. No parent could watch that scene without being torn. It was a moral dilemma.

Cut to now. In my church we’re starting a Bible study on The Theology of the Cross. I’m really excited about this class, which truly gets to the heart of Lutheranism.

So far we’ve had one class. Part of teaching The Theology of the Cross is to contrast it with The Theology of Glory, which is often seen in Evangelical circles. I patiently bit my tongue on several occasions, avoiding comment on the Theology of Glory manifesting itself in our own circle, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (through such programs as Ablaze!). Our pastor did allude to the false theology oozing in under the door at a couple of points, and I suspect he will delve into the seemy underbelly of confused theology in the LCMS at some point (if not, you have my assurance that I’ll give him a little “nudge”).

After class, I was talking with our Vicar. Somehow the conversation meandered toward apologetics, and we discussed the quandary of whether he would tell his flock-to-be about the theological battle(s) that currently rage in the LCMS. This is a dilemma not unlike that faced by the French father. Should the Frenchman attempt to hold on to his child at the risk of starvation and mistreatment at the hands of the Germans, or, out of love for her, send her away with the American troops? The French father’s decision and the Vicar’s decision seem a little alike. But where the father’s decision was a moral grey area, the Vicar’s really isn’t, if you listen to what St. Paul has to say to Timothy:

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