Tonya Eza Perhaps one of the most powerful arguments for the LCMS to rethink its position on women in ministry will come from women doing ministry today. Tonya Eza is currently serving as a deaconess in Texas. Here is her story. Contrary to many professional church workers in the LCMS, I did not feel the…
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Nolan Bremer Theological education is not only a subject of discussion and debate in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In Theologia: Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education, Edward Farley lamented the five-fold division of theological studies and called for the development of “theological wisdom” on the part of seminary graduates. David Kelsey in his Between Athens…
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Conflict, Confession and Unity: Addressing Doctrinal Issues Faithfully and Fraternally for the Sake of Christ’s Mission Rev. Dr. David H. Benke, Presenter PACIFIC SOUTHWEST DISTRICT 2004 ANNUAL THEOLOGICAL CONVOCATION February 16–19, 2004 Suncoast Hotel, 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada The Practice of Theology, Prayer and Worship in the 21ST Century or How Do Churches and…
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Dr. Ralph A. Bohlmann There is a great deal of concern within the LCMS about the proper relationship between the synod and its members. Just a few months ago, the chairman of the synod’s Task Force on National/District Synod Relations (Rev. Eugene Oesch, May 2000 Reporter, p.3) publicly expressed his surprise “at how little some church…
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For the past six years about 700 LCMS pastors, lay folks, theologians and church workers have banded together in a conversation over the internet known as Daystar. We are an eclectic group, if ever there was one, committed to the Gospel and its renewal of our church. We have witnessed, often first-hand, how legalism has destroyed people and…
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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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Rev. Dr. Norman Metzler Emeritus Professor of Theology Concordia University, Portland The Daystar Journal has recently published three articles explicating the congregational polity of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and its advisory nature.[i] They have made clear that while the Synod was organized around the concept of local congregational autonomy, that autonomy has been increasingly challenged…
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Pr. Dean Lueking, Pastor Emeritus, Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Illinois January 28, 2016 This is the third article on the advisory role of the Synod. It is important because the court case cited below demonstrates that a civil court has ruled that Article VII of the Constitution of the Synod takes precedence over the…
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Matthew L. Becker Matthew L. Becker is an associate professor of theology at Valparaiso University. In addition to teaching courses in modern systematic theology, he also offers courses on the Lutheran Confessions and the history of Protestant theology. He recently wrote an introduction to Christian theology, Fundamental Theology: A Protestant Perspective (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2015), and…
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Pr. Eugene Brueggemann Pastor Eugene Brueggemann served in parish and campus ministries as a member of the Missouri Synod for fifty-five years. He has an abiding interest in the history of that Synod and has written extensively on its historical development since the 1973 New Orleans Convention. Ed. One of the most important questions before the…
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