Church

The Pulpit Is Not Your Platform

By Bob Hiller –

With the death of Muhammed Ali, 2016 has taken one of the most significant public figures in the last half century. Almost without argument, Ali is considered to be the greatest boxer of all time. He even, rightfully, self-glossed himself “The Greatest.” (Is it bragging if he’s right?) Not only did Ali dominate in the ring. He was a trailblazer outside of boxing, as well. In an era where athletes, let alone black athletes, were expected to be seen and not heard, Ali used his fame as a platform to stand up for what he thought was right. In the ‘60s, when the Civil Rights movement was in full swing, Ali provided a voice for the black community.

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Drive Time

By Ross Engel –

Growing up in the greater Chicagoland area, one didn’t measure distance by miles. Distance was always measured in the amount of time it took to get somewhere. For example, when my wife and I were dating, I never would have said, “We live about 70 miles away from each other.” Instead, I would’ve said something like, “We live an hour away from each other.” Traffic and road types were always factored into the amount of time it took to get somewhere, since ten miles on one road might go by faster than five miles on another.

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The Tip of the Spear

By Paul Koch –

Well, it’s that time of year again. The kids are finishing up school, families are beginning to look anxiously toward their planned vacations, and it seems like every other week someone you know is getting married. Summer doesn’t officially begin until the 20th, but all the signs are pointing to its early arrival. And of course, this year, if you are part of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, summertime is marked by that strangest of strange churchly functions: the Synod in Convention.

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The True Magisterium of the Church

By Joel A. Hess –

Often times, my Roman Catholic friends enjoy mocking my reformation allegiances by pointing out all the different denominations. “Luther did that!” they quip.  Perhaps the major criticism of the reformers from the Roman side is their introduction of individual interpretation over and against the official Church interpretation. Of course, if one were to actually read the confessions, there is no support of every man for himself interpretation. Also, having an official magisterium does not guarantee unity of teaching. There are as many ‘little’ church bodies within the Roman community as there are among protestants.

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From the Outside

By Paul Koch –

Today we pick up where we left off last week with St. Paul’s powerful letter to the churches in Galatia. If you recall, the letter began much the way all of Paul’s letters begin with those great words of peace being proclaimed to those who received his words. But we also recall how suddenly the tone of the letter changed. It moved quickly from “Grace to you and peace from God our Father” to “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ.” It turns out that the Galatians had been turning away from the Gospel that Paul first preached there,

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Strapped!

By Ross Engel –

For twenty years now, I’ve had the same pair of companions accompanying me to the gym. My wife can’t stand them. They’re old, they smell like sweat and maple syrup, and they push me beyond the limits of what I can do on my own. Well, today my wife can rejoice, because those companions are no more. They ripped during my morning session in the gym.

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A Different Gospel?

 

By Paul Koch –

In a day where our communication is shaped and defined by electronic media more than anything else, the art and beauty of the hand-written letter is almost a forgotten joy. E-mails and texts and Facebook updates are quick and easy ways to stay connected to family and friends, but they always seem to lack something compared to an old fashioned letter. When our thoughts and well-wishes are translated through our computers and cell phones, the individual persona is often filtered out. By comparison when you receive a hand-written letter, it is like you are receiving a part of the person who wrote it.

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Mashing Buttons

By Jaime Nava –

There was this game I remember playing on the SNES. It’s called “Out of This World.” The art in it was fun to watch, and the story was interesting. You were this guy that ended up on an alien world. Captured by aliens, you try to break free. There is no English spoken, as the game goes on, so the player is as clueless as the character being played. There’s this one scene where you end up in an alien tank. There’re no instructions. There’s no clue as to what you’re supposed to do, so you just try everything. You just mash down on the buttons hoping something will happen. The game expects that kind of reaction, and eventually you create enough havoc to save yourself. It’s cleverly done.

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Afraid of Church

By Bob Hiller –

As a football fan, I would love to one day take my kids to see an NFL game. Watching the games on TV, you get the impression that these games are fast-paced, high energy games with thousands of fans rooting as one body for the victory of their team. To me, the idea of taking the Hiller clan to an NFL game is exhilarating: Sitting with my kids, decked out in Broncos gear, going nuts over huge plays and hard hits. The idea of the whole thing is awesome. But, the reality, I fear, would be a different story.

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Don’t Bore Me With Your Glory Days

By Joel A. Hess –

Last week, I was blasting Bruce Springsteen as I drove to a hospital in a nearby town to visit a sister in the hospital. He was singing “Glory Days.” Do you know the song? If you don’t, I’ll bet you know the feeling

I had a friend was a big baseball player 

back in high school 

He could throw that speedball by you 

Make you look like a fool boy 

Saw him the other night at this roadside bar 

I was walking in, he was walking out 

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The Church Will Suffer, and I’m Okay with That

By Jaime Nava –

The United States feels like it’s in a tail spin, at least to me. More than likely, I think the next president will be a goon. Subjective morality has become the local truth which is no truth at all without absolute truth. Socialism is the glimmer in the eye of so many millennials now. We’re setting ourselves up for the same wall that Germany and Russia ran into. First, we’ll try to be great one last time only to get kicked in the nuts as a nation. Next, we’ll sulk and blame the old ways for all the troubles. Following that will be a leader who promises to send us to greatness. He’ll do this with total control because the people want him to have it. With each and every step, the church will be relegated to a room, then a corner, then finally kicked out.

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The Night I Love Confirmation Class

By Ross Engel –

Recently Paul wrote about Confirmation and hating the way it has been utilized as a sort of silver bullet to make up for years of no catechesis taking place at home. I found myself nodding my head in agreement as I read his words. My Sunday morning Bible study and I recently had had an in-depth conversation about the need for parents to step up to the plate and teach their own children the faith, so it was a timely article.

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Seducing Eve with a Yummy Apple: Encountering Church Growthery

By Joel A. Hess –

We are witnessing a reality in the western world that I don’t believe anyone would have truly believed possible even ten years ago, even though all the signs of its eventuality were present all the way back to the naive metaphysical premise found in the declaration of independence. Today, most people in the West believe that the validity of something is entirely a subjective enterprise. The obvious manifestations of this new religion appear in the growing list of invented sexualities as well as the ability for some to look at the picture of a human being in a mother’s womb and call it a clump of cells.

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Being Known

By Paul Koch –

In our home, a home with a lot of children running around, there is a call that can be heard echoing throughout more than any other. From the youngest to the oldest and at all times of the day and night you can hear one of the children calling, “Moooom…” Now we believe that a basic goal of parenting is to aid your children toward emancipation and so we don’t cater to our children’s every whim; yet whenever a child can’t find something, or can’t figure something out, or is hungry, or almost any other imaginable circumstance arises in his/her life, the kneejerk reaction is to call for mom. The reason for this is simple, moms know things.

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Post-Christian?

By Jaime Nava –

America has been considered a Christian nation for quite some time. It’s considered that because of the number of Christians who are here and the values they hold, not because everyone here is automatically converted. People have been saying for years that America is becoming or has become a post-Christian nation. What do they mean by that? Usually, it means that there are fewer people going to church in the US or that attendance is down. Those things are true. Attendance across all denominations is dropping.

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A Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty?

By Caleb Keith –

Most of the people reading this probably haven’t heard of the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty (LCRL). I hadn’t heard of the LCRL until this past summer, and it wasn’t until this last semester that I really understood what the LCRL is and what they do. As part of a research paper for my Christians and Ethics course this semester, I examined the LCRL and reviewed its functions in light of the classical view of Lutheran two-kingdom theory.

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Fireplace Church

By Cindy Koch –

For years, I was told that church was a place of refuge. My pastor spoke of this mighty fortress of strength. My Sunday school teachers taught about this safe place of pasture. My parents talked about these people as if they were familiar relatives. And so I just assumed that church was a good place.

Like the warm Christmas fire, I can remember the red brick fireplace of my youth and the warm, soft church chairs on a Sunday morning.

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This is our Finest Hour

By Joel A. Hess –

On the 18th of June, 1940, Winston Churchill concluded his historic speech to the House of Commons, saying,

“Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”

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