Reformation Irony

Robert Schmidt While the Synod celebrates the 500th anniversary of Reformation, its president, his curia, and supporters are acting far more like the sixteenth-century Roman Church than the Luther they honor and extol. The celebration includes President Harrison leading “The Lutheran Mile,” an informative tour of the sites of the Reformation. The Luther film is…
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The New Tribe

Robert Schmidt* The LCMS February Reporter wrestles with the fall off of membership of the Synod. It states that between 1971 and 2010 membership declined by 500,000.  Child baptisms are down 70 per cent and adults received into membership have shrunk 47 percent. (Reporter, 2-28-2017). President Harrison provided six observations concerning the decline. The demographic…
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Wisdom from Walther

Norman Metzler, Dr. Theol. Prof. Emeritus, Concordia University, Portland January 2017   The LCMS faces the prospect of an increasingly hierarchical exercise of church authority that betrays the congregational polity explicitly enunciated in the Constitution of Synod.  Previous Daystar articles have discussed various aspects of this congregational polity and the advisory nature of Synod. In…
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A Letter from a Gay Christian

Mathew Andersen Dear Pastor: I was going to tell a bit about myself to introduce this letter but, as I spill my guts enough throughout the article, that would be rather like bringing owls to Athens.  I do want to say this one thing about myself, though. I was a pastor in the LCMS for twenty-five…
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