To my non-Lutheran and non-LCMS readers: I appreciate your patience with these “inside” posts, and thank you for your continued readership (who invented that word, anyway?).++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For my congregation’s members, other laity, and fellow clergy: I am encouraged by seeing so many “Save the LCMS” style blogs and websites and so forth. I was delighted that M.Z. Hemingway has revealed the truth about what has been happening in our Synod. For the moment, there seems to be a general movement of folks who’ve had enough with what is going on. Some have written and said, “Perhaps the cancellation of ‘Issues, Etc.’ is the shot heard ’round the world for us.” Perhaps there will be change! I’m afraid not. The divisions in our Synod go far deeper and longer than this … Read entire article »

On this day in 1521, the Monk Martin Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms and made his famous speech, concluding: “Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen.” Luther had already been excommunicated by the Papal Bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, and the Exsurge Domine had been issued before that. What we tend to forget then, is how patient the Curia was with Luther. The 95 Theses had been published four years previous, and many, many writings had been published after that, each one ratcheting up the rhetoric and criticism Luther had. Yet, even after he had been excommunicated, the Emperor was willing to hear him, to give him a chance to renounce his errors. With such a pedigree one would think that Lutherans … Read entire article »

Dear Brothers in Christ, Greetings on behalf of the global Ablaze! movement of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and its 30 partner churches around the world. Asia is Ablaze! Africa is Ablaze! Eurasia is Ablaze! Latin America is Ablaze! Each of our 30 global partner churches has Ablaze! activity. In countries where we work with emerging churches and other partners, they, too, are participating in the Ablaze! movement. In the Philippines, Lutherans at regional conferences wear Ablaze! shirts and share results of outreach activity. East, West, South, Anglo, and Franco Africa mission training centers feature Ablaze! resources. Children in Sunday schools sport Ablaze! bracelets and display Ablaze! balloons. In India and Sri Lanka, probationers … Read entire article »