For the past six years about 700 LCMS pastors, lay folks, theologians and church workers have banded together in a conversation over the internet known as Daystar. We are an eclectic group, if ever there was one, committed to the Gospel and its renewal of our church. We have witnessed, often first-hand, how legalism has destroyed people and…
Read more
By Matthew Becker My friend, Dr. Edward Schroeder, often asks the question, “How does one commend good works without losing the gospel promise?” I think that is a good question. Nonetheless, as many others point out, we Lutheran Christians have not done a very good job of rightly and effectively joining the two aspects of…
Read more
By David H. Benke January 12, 2004 1965 LCMS Resolution 1-01D: WHEREAS, Jesus Christ is Lord of all the world and in every area of life; and WHEREAS, The Christian recognizes no area of life that may be termed “secular” in the sense that it is removed from the lordship of Jesus Christ, though…
Read more
By Matthew Becker Daystar began in 1999 as a small online network of individuals in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) who were concerned about theological issues and problems in and beyond their church body. Organized by Professor Robert Schmidt and Professor Matthew Becker, along with the help of two other LCMS members, the network grew…
Read more
By David Stein Kierkegaard wrote years ago: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” To that end permit me to return [some] to the past, stand beside the present and pray with hope about God’s future for the church catholic and apostolic. It’s always easiest to go backwards, to dredge…
Read more
The Statement of the Forty-four and the Evangelical Imagination By Andrew Schroeder “Do not adjust your television set; we have taken control of it.” So began the old television series The Outer Limits. In this series the viewer was treated to fascinating views of the human psyche, science fiction and just plain weirdness. Similar control has been…
Read more
By Robert Schmidt Ninety-four new congregations joined the Missouri Synod in 2003. Of these, sixty-two were made up of non-white ethnic groups. I have had the privilege of working with one of these new congregations. It started about five years ago among some dedicated Oromo people from central and southern Ethiopia. Seven immigrants met in…
Read more
By Frederick Niedner Isaiah 25:6-9 6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that…
Read more
By Marie Meyer When a layman asked Luther for guidance in being a God-fearing ruler, Luther directed him to Mary of Nazareth, a master teacher in understanding how God works through human instruments in the Church and in the world. Luther, God’s instrument for reforming the Church, wrote to the young man while waiting to…
Read more
By Stephen Krueger Martin Marty sets out on an enormous enterprise in his new biography of Martin Luther as anyone who has seen the recent “Luther” movie can attest. How does one do a satisfactory biography of Luther within the space allotted? The movie, “Luther,” was roundly criticized, among other things, for its patchy coverage…
Read more