Just in case you were sleeping. . .

They're back! It's been over two months, but there will be a return.

http://www.piratechristianradio.com/ Make sure you have your speakers on.

Guys, we missed you, but we're glad you're coming back!

I am a C

I don't understand why people think that Lutherans (or another denomination) aren't Christians. I had a conversation with someone just the other day who didn't know what a Lutheran is and then informed me that her mom is Catholic, and she was a Christian. I can excuse her; it was clear she wasn't very aware of denominational differences. It fries me, on the other hand, when I find people who should know better saying things like this: "I'm first a Christian, then I'm a [pick your denom]."
Sorry, but that's like saying, "First I'm an American, then I'm a Texan." Being a Texan makes you American by default (not that Texans would admit that--maybe using them is a bad analogy). Just like being Lutheran makes you a Christian by default. Let's be proud of who we are, people. Dare to be what you confess to be, and if you don't know what that is, please find out what you belive and confess.

Prepare to Commence

I attended the seminary's commencement last night. It was a lovely evening, minus a few mosquitoes. {Warning: Old curmudgeon griping ahead} I didn't, however, like too much the whooping and hollering for graduates as their name was read. A cheer here or there for a job well done will suffice, but please, people, this is an institution of highest learning for our church, not a racuous party high school. A little decorum is called for! {End Old curmedgeon griping}
That's not the point I'd like to point out here, though. I would like to offer a rebuttal to the commencement speaker. Okay, not a rebuttal so much as a commentary on the commentator. He was not the most dynamic person I'd ever heard, but he does the buisness and stock report on the radio. . .
All kidding aside, he had a message plain and simple. All pastoral types should take note and learn. You are the pastor. You have the knowledge. Your people are the people on the front lines of the workaday world. Teach them. Teach them well. If they don't learn from you, they'll learn from somewhere else; however, that somewhere else may not be true, right, or good.
It all comes down to this: We have our vocations, and we need to do them. Pastors, please help us do our vocation by doing your own.

A Pearl from Pearl

"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent." Pearl S. Buck

I guess that's why I have BO.

Financial and Stewardship Reasons

I guess I'd better apply for Todd's job (I'd link it here, but apparently it has diapppeared from the Reporter's website), since I'm not going to get paid for my own job. (I can hear the wheedling voice now saying, "My dear, sarcasm does not become you.")

No, this is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that any church in the LC-MS hasn't been able to pay their church workers on time--this is the first time it's happened to me. I know that you can't use money that's not there, nor would it be a good idea to borrow what can't be paid back, but why balance the budget on the backs of the servants? Sure, the electric company needs to be paid, as well as the gas and such, but just as the church needs to pay their bills, so do the workers. Gas prices aren't going down, and the teachers still need to get to work.

In these economic times, sure, things will be tough. I know that gas and food prices are up, and the dollar is weak. I know that people aren't putting into the offering plate enough to fund all things that need to be funded; of course, we are paying $25,000 in Ablaze! funds to underwrite a congregation so that they can have enough money for offensive billboards. . . (Bean counters and nit-pickers, please take note: I did NOT say that the money was spent for the billboards--I was merely pointing out that Ablaze! funds went to the congregation so that they would have enough money from their other funds for the billboard ad campaign. We need to free up advertising funds, you know.) Meanwhile, struggling congregations can't pay salaries because they aren't thinking up schlock to sucker the people into giving up their time and money for Satan signs and sex sermon series.

Seems to me that our money can be better spent elsewhere--like giving our servants a liveable wage--not $5,000 and a side of beef.

Misnomered Worship

First of all, let me say this: Contemporary Worship is a misnomer. If it is happening in your lifetime, it is contemporary. I don't have another suggestion for it, unless I go with the term I once heard--"contemptable worship."

You know what? I don't mind guitars, non-keyboard instruments, even drums (!) in a worship service, but (you knew there was a but) provided it is done properly in a manner in which worship in done in my church. Sorry to break the news to some people, but Lutherans worship like Lutherans. Otherwise we would be whatever group we were trying to emulate by our worship. How we pray is who we are. We are Christ-centered, cross-focused (thanks, Todd) people. We worship that way.

So I heard some seminary students talking about worship. One said that when they first moved here they visited large mega-Lutheran-which-won't-openly-admit-they're-Lutheran church (apparently they abide by the "don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to denomination affiliation--but I digress) because they had contemporary worship. "Oh it was great," he gushed. "They had like 50 people up there." Okay, fine. I can appreciate music done well, but he had to go on. . . "So my field work church has been doing the liturgy from time out of mind, and they begged me to start a contemporary service."

Pardon me, what's wrong with the liturgy? What's wrong with doing things from time out of mind? I mean, people have been eating and breathing since creation, I don't see anything wrong with continuing those activities. You know what? The liturgy works just fine and has for thousands of years. You can't tell me we were any smarter (based on the dumbing down of America, we're not) than our ancestors that we can just throw it out. It's funny, no, ironic, that our culture which takes so much stock in "heritage" that we have entire "heritage" festivals will throw out the quality old for the cheap new just to say it's new, which, like it or not, Kum By Yah is NOT new.

Confirmation

Tomorrow is confirmation at our church. Another round of teens will be promising to be faithful to the death and then disappear. Sorry sound somewhat cynical, but last year there were still confirmation pictures waiting to be picked up in the church office at least 3 months after confirmation.
Due to a calendar error, our church musician scheduled the school’s 3rd and 4th graders to sing for church on the same day. The mistake was realized, and the children were moved from the late service to the early service so that they could still sing. Not a big deal, except one family has a 4th grader and a confirmand. The grandma called the school up in arms: how can one expect us to do everything, we’re not the only family with this problem (actually, they are), we’ve got family in town, so on and so forth. Then mom called: confirmation is a big deal to us, how can we have one kid singing in 8 o’clock and one getting confirmed at 10:30. . . I advised them to deal with the music director directly, who said not to worry about the 4th grader showing up for the early service.
I got to wondering, however wrong it may be, why confirmation is such a big deal. I know why it was a big deal for me, but what about the family of the afore stated confirmee who had trouble getting the required number of sermon reports done? Why? Because nobody brought the child to church (too far to walk, and 8th graders can’t drive) so that the reports could be completed. (Sorry for the passive sentence, Mrs. Mills!)
Obviously this is not the only family in our church, our church body, or even any church with the same issue. Why do people put so much stock in confirmation, only to leave it alone? Confirmation means “to make sure or firm”. It’s like when you confirm your flight. Okay, I’m going to check in on line and then not show up for my flight. Um, doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Now I’m going to say, yes, this is what I believe, I want to be a part of this church, I will defend my faith to the death, and never come back. Huh? Also defeats the purpose. I guess it's the same approach to wedding vows these days--you know that "until death" thing I promised? I didn't really mean it. . .
So, how do you get rid of bats in your belfry? Confirm them, they’ll never come back. You know, that joke isn’t so funny anymore. . .