confession

I’m Converting

By Graham Glover –

I’ve been thinking about it for almost 22 years. Sometimes it’s simply a fleeting thought. Other times it preoccupies an inordinate amount of my day. Making this jump – taking this plunge, is something I’ve considered my entire adult life. And now I’m ready. After a long journey of vacillating, I’m really going to do it. I’ve spent countless hours researching every conceivable reason why I should and even more why I shouldn’t. I’ve analyzed copious amounts of data, including primary and secondary sources, as well as scathing critiques of them all. I’ve carefully deliberated what my decision will mean, both immediately and in the long term. But it’s not just my decision. It’s a family decision, because my decision will affect them all. It’s no wonder then that my wife has been instrumental in leading me to this point. You might even say she is the one who pushed me over the top – the one who gave me the final bit of encouragement I needed.

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Holy, Holy, Holy

By Paul Koch –

The great and powerful king of Judah, King Uzziah, has died. He, of course, wasn’t the first king to die and he wouldn’t be the last. Perhaps with his passing the hopes and dreams of his people have crumbled. On the other hand, perhaps it is a moment of renewed resolve. But despite the coming and going of humanity’s great kings of the earth, there is one King whose throne is never vacant. There is a King that does not change with the times. So, in the year that Uzziah dies, Isaiah the prophet of God, finds himself in the throne room of God standing before the eternal King.

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A Better Confirmation Vow

By Joel A. Hess –

This past Sunday, our church celebrated the confirmation of a bunch of our kids, my son included. Poor kids. What are we doing? Thirteen and fourteen year olds promising to be upstanding members, givers, and receivers in the Church, to hold to the teachings of the Church according to the Small Catechism, even to suffer death than to fall away from the faith.

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The Choir Needs to be Preached to

By Joel A. Hess –

Most churches have that cute, little sign planted near the exit of their parking lot that tells parishioners, “You are now entering the mission field.” This reminder is founded on the faulty premise that the driver was not previously in the mission field as she sat in church, as if she has it all together. She’s saved. Now she needs to get more Christians, like Amway or any pyramid scheme business. 

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God, I have something for you

By Cindy Koch –

It’s not much, but I thought you should have it. My life should give glory only to you. And so I give my all to you. Every minute, every thought, your action will always be on my mind. Every morning I will give my time to you. In this crazy mixed up world, you should at least have the first few minutes of every day. My heart is yours, from the morning through the night. No other person or thing will stand in your way. God, you created everything, and I know this should all be yours, so I want to give it all to you.

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Hope you fail this Lent

By Joel A. Hess –

Well, here it comes again. Lent. I used to say that this was my favorite time of year. It should be for a pastor, right? It’s time to get serious about the faith. Get back to basics. Restore the Roar. Those are just a some of our eye-popping, life-changing Lenten themes you have probably seen at various churches as if the perfect theme name will get people excited about coming to church. And of course, there are the Rs: Repent, renew, reflect, rediscover, rejuvenate, rehearse, rehash, regurgitate, blah blah blah.

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Proof Text Mafia

By Cindy Koch –

They shouldn’t scare me, but I find myself hiding from them. Smugly sauntering into any situation, armed with a knowing glare. They hold up their heads high, bold and unashamed. Stepping over the weak and lowly, they collect respect and fear from the quiet stares that follow their path. They flash their weapons, not made of iron or steel, but daggers made of Words. Powerful words once on the lips of the Almighty, forged into bullets and knives. Stinging words of Truth carefully selected to wound and murder.

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The Real Us?

By Tim Winterstein –

The shocking thing about watching Christine (available on Netflix) in 2018 is maybe not that Christine Chubbuck committed suicide on live television in 1974. The shocking thing is that we haven’t seen such a thing, or something like it, in the forty years since. She took the logic of “if it bleeds, it leads” to its extreme conclusion. What surprises me is that the idiocracy hasn’t descended further and faster than it has. I wonder whether Christine (an excellently monotone Rebecca Hall) does what she does because her mind was clouded or because she was more clear-eyed than everyone else. Is she irrational and, therefore, “crazy”? Or is she mentally ill in a Nietszchean way, seeing what everyone else refuses to see?

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Same Blood, Different Heart

By Tim Winterstein –

[SPOILERS]

Sami Blood (Sameblod) is the one film I missed at the 2017 Newport Beach Film Festival that I’ve been waiting to see. It’s finally been released for streaming on Google Play and iTunes, and I wasn’t disappointed. Though I’m nearly 100% of German ancestry (as far as I know), I will watch anything that comes from Ireland or Scandinavia. (As I’ve mentioned before, Scandinavian crime dramas are at the top of my list: see the Department Q films on Netflix, of which the newest one is under production. And though The Snowman—which I’ve not seen—did not get good reviews, the Harry Hole books by Jo Nesbø are excellent.)

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Holy Ghost Hypocrisy

By Tim Winterstein –

There are more prominent hucksters in American religion, but perhaps none as honest as Marjoe Gortner. “Charlatan” is a word custom made for him. I’m not sure why I hadn’t come across the 1972 Academy Award-winning documentary Marjoe before I found it on Sundance Now (you can also see the full film on YouTube here). After watching it, I was all the more surprised I hadn’t seen it—until I found this fascinating interview with the director, Sarah Kernochan, who says it was all but lost until 2002, when she came across an original negative of the film. (Another essay by her is here [although her misspelling of “Pentecostal” and her facile connections make me grimace].) Even so, maybe because he was before my time, I’d never even heard of Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner.

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The Analytics-Driven Church

By Bob Hiller –

Another World Series has come and gone. And it was a great one! Game five was about as good as it gets. Never had there been a score of 13-12 in a Series game. The rest of the series was pretty entertaining too. It was truly a joy to watch. But I’m going to be honest. I’m kind of burnt out on the superlatives. A number of commentators were touting this as the greatest series ever and so forth. Have we already forgotten last year between the Cubs and the Indians? This was a fun series, but it’s going to take a few more years before we can talk about its place in the history of the game.

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Force Majeure

By Tim Winterstein –

Want to start a war between husbands and wives or friends of opposite sexes? Watch Force Majeure together. My wife went to sleep, so we didn’t get to have the discussion. But this is a film that raises questions of the differences between men and women, fathers and mothers. I suspect that, like the characters in the film, the reactions of men and women will match the reactions of Ebba and Tomas, Swedes on vacation at a French skiing resort.

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Confessing with It Comes At Night

By Tim Winterstein –

What’s more terrifying: the things outside the walls that you cannot see or the things inside the walls that you may not fully understand? And so the question is begged: What comes at night? I had wanted to see It Comes At Night as soon as I found out that the writer/director was Trey Edward Shults, who made one of the best films of 2015, Krisha (which is magnificent and terrifying in its own way as an examination of family and mental illness). 

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Here We Still Stand

By Paul Koch –

Hanging on the wall of my study is a framed image (like the one above) of Luther standing before the Imperial Diet at Worms. Across from him is the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and on a table next to him are many of his works. He had been summoned there to recant of the things that he had written and turn from his heresy. Every Lutheran pastor knows the story well, the story of his defiance in the face of power and influence, the story of his unshakable resolve to make a stand. It is a story we know well for it is our inspiration when times are tough, when the deck seems stacked against our preaching and teaching of the Word of God. It is good for us to remember how Luther stood tall that day, to recall that he said:

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A Shattered Faith

By Paul Koch –

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.” (Phil. 2:1-4)

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The Weakest Link

By Paul Koch –

I’m writing this in my hotel room in Palm Springs on the concluding day of our annual pastors’ conference for our district of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Now, pastors’ conferences can often be quite the grab bag of competing experiences—of fun, disappointment, encouragement, depression, laughs, and silent tears. It is a place where I get to gather with my brothers in the ministry to speak openly and honestly about the task set before us. This can be refreshing and uplifting on the one hand and upsetting and discouraging on the other. To be sure, there are difficulties facing the Church on which we need to have open and honest reflection. So, the tone of the thing (like the tone of this opening paragraph) can fluctuate between confidence and fear, joy and discouragement.

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