Let’s Include Women in the Pastoral Office

Karl Wyneken Editorial Note: Can we talk? Can we talk about how the Bible is to be interpreted with regard to women’s ordination? In Germany the Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (SELK) has had a vigorous open discussion of the issue, as has the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA). Karl Wyneken sought to raise the issue in…
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Letter to the LCMS’s CTCR

Arnold Voigt Editorial Note: Pastor Arnold Voigt served an Afro-American parish in Mobile, Alabama, and a suburban parish in Littleton, Colorado (where he ministered to those grieving and surviving the tragic school shooting there in April 1999). Having visited and worked in the Middle East ten times, he was recently co-leader of Sabeel-Colorado peace and…
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“…because it is a woman….”

Arnold Voigt The order of creation is the keystone argument used in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) for understanding the relationship of men and women as well as denying women opportunity for ordination to the pastoral ministry. The seeds of this argument and its application go back in the history of Missouri, coming out of…
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A Fable

Mary Todd Once upon a time a woman was invited to write a book on gender that her church wanted to publish. She was told she could write whatever she wanted about women, but she had to agree not to mention the O-word, for the ordination of women was not a subject the church wished…
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Reformation Homily

David Stein Editorial Note: David Stein is the past-president of the Daystar community. With a Ph.D. in rhetoric he taught at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. Later he served as pastor at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. There he hosted the second meeting of the Daystar community. Since his retirement he has preached…
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Women’s Ministry in the Mission of the Church

Robert Schmidt Editorial Note: Long before there was a Daystar online discussion group, Robert Schmidt received a phone call inviting him to become active in promoting women’s ordination in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Having come from the Nigerian mission field where, in addition to teaching at the seminary, he served as a chaplain to a…
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Reformation Today

Robert Schmidt For Lutherans it is a familiar celebration. Reformation Day celebrates Luther’s nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, heralding the beginning of the Reformation. As Lutherans remember this day, they rejoice in the cardinal teaching of the Reformation that we are justified by grace, through faith, because…
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Ministry under the Cross

Robert Schmidt Editorial Note: The following paper was delivered April 17, 2007, at the Theological Convocation of the Texas District. The theme of the convocation was “Living the Theology of the Cross in a Pluralist World: Being Missional and Confessional.” Other speakers at the convocation were Dr. Paul Robinson of the St. Louis seminary, Dr. Art Scherer,…
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The Ecumenical Vision

Robert Schmidt Editorial Note: Under the auspices of the Campus Ministry Division of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. (LCUSA) the author led twenty-five students from Canada and the United States to work on several farms in Zimbabwe in 1984 after the Rhodesian-Zimbabwe war.  The work there was coordinated by Lutheran World Service, the development…
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The Practice of the Reformation

What happens when Reformation theology gets practiced in everyday ministry? A parish pastor in Alexandria, Louisiana, writes with eloquence about rediscovering what the Gospel is all about in his daily work. Robert Martinek It seems that things are really quiet now, and I am usually one who “lurks,”but I thought I would share with you…
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