By Pr. Eugene Brueggemann A Bonhoeffer moment is a moment of truth. It is a time of urgent necessity that is calling the church to bear witness to the truth when it is under prolonged and intense attack. Many American Christians, impressed with Bonhoeffer’s role and writings in the Nazi era, see parallels between then…
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By Dr. Norman Metzler In recent political developments at the presidential level, a parallel has become quite evident between the Watergate machinations of President Richard Nixon and his subsequent resignation from office, and the possibly actionable machinations of President Donald Trump that could rise to the level of impeachable offenses. There is another fascinating parallel…
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Reflections on Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination by Robert Schmidt Have you noticed the “numbness?” Citizens of the most powerful nation on earth are in a funk. No, don’t pay attention to the wordsmiths who make their living championing and bashing. Look rather at the bus riders, the shoppers, the teachers, and the clerks. Then…
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Dr. Norman Metzler Professor of Theology Emeritus, Concordia University, Portland, Oregon The defense of the “truth” in the matter of faith and science within the LCMS is certainly alive and well. An article published in the Summer 2017 edition of the Concordia Seminary St Louis Concordia Journal by Prof. John Jurchen of Concordia Seward caused such an…
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Rev. Dr. Paul Mueller Executive Director, Center for Applied Lutheran Leadership (CALL) Concordia University, Portland, OR Paul Mueller is a LCMS pastor who was called to serve as a missionary to Liberia. Later he became the LCMS mission director for all of Africa. He has a Ph.D. in Missiology from Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft….
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At its last convention, the Missouri Synod ended the licensed deacon’s program, which previously had authorized lay people, without a seminary education, to administer the Lord’s Supper in smaller congregations when an ordained pastor was unable to be present. Addressing that issue from a Biblical perspective is almost a voice from the grave in a new,…
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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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