Eugene Brueggemann Eugene Brueggemann is a premier historian of Lutheranism in America. This article reflects his rich campus ministry experience at Kent State, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois in Chicago. He has also served parishes in New York and Colorado. A contributor to the online Daystar conversation posed this classic question: “If God’s…
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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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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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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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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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Robert Schmidt “We won’t worry about the election. We are Lutherans and believe that there are two kingdoms. Though Trump won one, he didn’t, and couldn’t touch the other.” That’s the Kingdom of God’s grace.” But what does God’s grace include? Might it have something to do with the Old Testament promises about a new…
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Why a Life-long Lutheran Fled the LC-MS Mark Woodworth Mark G. Woodworth is an Illinois attorney who holds a J.D. and a Ph.D (with a concentration in organizational analysis) from Saint Louis University. He and his wife, Teresa, reside in Geneseo, Illinois. Daystar has asked me to write an essay about why I, a life-long…
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Robert Schmidt The last gavel has been struck; the convention is over. No more licensed deacons and plans are underway to find an easier way to rid the Synod of honest dissenters. Moderates are mostly retired and mission minded folks are concentrating on better practices, not a better administration. Three years from now there will…
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Donald Muchow Leadership Conference LCMS Foundation/Lutheran Church Extension Fund San Diego, California 21 November 1999 Thank you for The introduction Your invitation to this conference The privilege to address you In preparation for this moment I faced two challenges: Too much material for the allotted time. Reminds me of my mother-in-law who, being a farm…
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Robert Schmidt Portland Daystar Conference January 17, 2000 Introduction As the Christian Church greets the 21st century, it does so with some trepidation and gloom. The old idea of a “Christendom” where Christians set the agenda and sought to translate their values into the society is almost gone. Instead, active Christians find themselves in a minority…
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