Some Thoughts on “Order of Creation”

By Arnold Voigt Where one begins determines where one will come out. The New Testament is problem-solving literature. The writers are addressing audiences who lived in real-time real-world environments, environments that were frequently antithetical to the Gospel. Conflicting ideologies and theologies impacted communities of faith and demanded responses. Not only did the external environments raise…
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Rites and Wrongs in God’s Lifetime

By Mary Todd I have a number of friends who were quite sure that I would leave the Missouri Synod as soon as I finished my dissertation a decade ago. My work examined the synod’s identity over its 150-plus-year history through the lenses of authority and gender and used the issue of the service of…
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The Naked Truth

By David Stein “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there” (Job 1:21). The truth is “male and female were created in the image of God,” and God blessed them. And everything God made was very good. Three thousand years later the ancestral shepherd boy laments: “You have searched me…
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Ministry of All the Baptized… and Some of the Unbaptized

By Robert Schmidt What is the best preparation for understanding and communicating the Gospel to people of another culture? For the most part missionaries and church leaders have relied upon seminary education. As soon as congregations are planted, efforts are made for the education of the native clergy to serve the fledgling congregations and make…
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To Be Female and Called by God to Speak

By Carol Schmidt For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that the one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on,…
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Insiders and Outsiders

By Karen Miller We spend most of our waking hours looking through the lenses in our eyes, but we rarely look at them. Similarly, we look at the world, the Scriptures, the church and each other through the lenses of our attitudes, but unfortunately we rarely examine our attitudes. Not too long ago I heard one pastor…
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The Ministry of the Baptized (Editorial)

By Stephen Krueger By now, it is common knowledge that a group of President Kieschnick’s critics have done what was once unthinkable in the LCMS. The group of 100 or so (mostly pastors) have filed a lawsuit, presumably on behalf of the synod, against President Gerald Kieschnick, First Vice-President William Diekelman, and the synod itself….
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The Ministry of the Baptized

By Dale Krueger The most important moment in my life happened when, in my baptism, I was joined to Jesus Christ. The journey of faith that began for me in that moment led to pastoral ministry, a calling I believe that came from the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel. The community of believers where…
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Discovering Biblical Equality (Review Article)

By William Hassold Not only in the LCMS but also among so-called evangelicals (whose theology like that of the LCMS is based upon a high view of Scripture) is there an on-going discussion about the role of women in the home, church and society. Large numbers of evangelicals maintain that the Bible teaches that leadership…
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