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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Poised for Mission

Robert Schmidt Squabbling in the church, lack of central coordination, everyone going their own way, locked in an acrimonious debate between traditionalists and those on the cutting edge of mission? While that certainly describes the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod at the beginning of 21st century, it was equally true of the early church at the Council of…
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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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Letter to the Christian Nobility of the World

Robert Schmidt Editorial Note: Robert Schmidt was a seminary professor in Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. The first draft of the following paper was written in the late ’60s after he returned to the United States. It probably will not be helpful for those pastors struggling to keep their congregations and their careers afloat in these difficult…
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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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Doing Theology in Our Christian Calling

Robert Schmidt It was an argument a third-year seminarian could not win. The professor, the sainted Henry Reimann, was teaching an elective called “The Nature and Function of Theology.” What is “theology” anyway? He suggested that in the history of the church, especially the Lutheran church, theology was the “critique of teaching and preaching.” In…
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The Call to Good Citizenship

Robert Schmidt In the September 2006 issue of the LCMS Reporter Uwe Siemon-Netto, a German national and director of the Institute of Lay Vocation at Concordia Seminary, wrote about our need to heed our calling as Christian citizens. The international journalist rightly selected the Lutheran doctrine of the calling as an appropriate place for Christians to face…
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“Not” – Resolution 4-06 Task Force Report

Robert Schmidt The 2013 convention of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) resolved that the president of the Synod establish a task force to resolve questions about the service of licensed deacons serving congregations of the Synod with the word and sacraments of Christ. The task force recently issued a report in response to the convention’s…
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The Caliphate and the Kingdom

Robert Schmidt The carnage in Paris touches a deeply felt need in most of us for revenge, or some sort of action to retaliate. France’s Hollande called it an “Act of War.” Might not a broad coalition of nations root out that violent, cowardly, barbaric group called ISIS? Yet, as we are informed, ISIS seeks…
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A Call for Discussion

Foreword Through an ecclesiastical technicality the Rev. Dr. Matthew Becker has been expelled from the clergy roster of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Yet everyone knows that President Harrison and the most conservative members of the Synod have wanted him out because Dr. Becker wanted an open discussion on the subject of creation and…
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