- “Church of Joy” theology–right here in St. Louis
Colleagues,The feature article on Religion in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for Saturday May 10 carried this headline: SYNOD AIMS TO SPREAD FORMULA FOR SUCCESSFUL CHURCHES. Sub-head: “Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is starting a program where growing churches will serve as mentors for static churches.”
Major mentor in the program is the LCMS flagship mega-church in St.Louis, ...
- Christians in Time of War–Hitler’s Germany, Today’s America
Colleagues,
Art Preisinger’s prose has appeared here before. The ThTh postings for May 28 and November 14, 2002 came from his hand. Those two ThTh postings focused on Christians relating to the Muslim World. Art was embedded there at the time, doing a stint in Beirut (Lebanon) teaching Church History at the Near East School of ...
- Gospel and Community Church of Joy [CCOJ], Part 2
Colleagues,
Last week’s posting on the topic above drew the most response ever for ThTh. Seven percent of our (admittedly not too huge) listserve-receivers wrote back. Here are a few of them.Some of you asked for more particulars on the CCOJ sermon. I’ll reprint the sermon outline page with fill-in-the-blanks in the worship folder: [Bracketed info ...
- Which Gospel Creates a “Community of Joy?”
Colleagues,
A few weeks ago Marie and I were in Phoenix AZ. Sunday rolled around. Where to go for “church?” Easy decision. The Community Church of Joy, flagship mega-church of the ELCA–12 thousand members and a 360 acre “campus.” We knew it only from the hearing of the ear. Now we would participate, see it “live.” ...
- The Eastering of Robert W. Bertram
Colleagues,
Bob Bertram was born on Easter Day in 1921. Easter was early that year, March 27. An Easter egg hatchling, right from scratch. He never got over it. Therefore it was no surprise that Easter was the cantus firmus of our liturgy in his memory on March 22. Yes, he’d given instructions. And in those ...
- Voices from Australia: One on Armageddon, one on the Holy Spirit
Colleagues,
This week’s ThTh passes on to you two items I received in recent days from fellow Lutherans in Australia. The two are not obviously on the same topic–one on Armageddon, one on the Holy Spirit. But cognoscenti among you will doubtless make connections.The FIRST is a single paragraph from Dr. John (“Joe”) Strelan, retired prof ...
- The Day of Jesus Embedded in the Tomb
Colleagues,
Introduction: Herewith a Saturday Soliloquy (in-between ThTh postings), a somber soliloquy – but not without hope. Some ruminations stemming from yesterday’s 2 Good Friday liturgies. [I checked “soliloquy” in my Webster. First definition: The act of talking to oneself. Yes, sometimes I wonder–especially on this topic. Some of you tell me that you wonder too. Not ...
- Shock and Awe in Time of War, Part II
Colleagues,
Yesterday was Bonhoeffer Commemoration Day on the church calendar, the anniversary of his death in 1945. His name still signals “shock and awe” from the days of World War II. In last week’s Thursday Theology Amy Thoren took the Shock and Awe of current American rhetoric and ran it through the sieve of law and ...
- Shock and Awe–at the Power of Death or the Power of Life?
Colleagues,
Amy Thoren is the seminary intern this year at our congregation here in St. Louis. But only half-time. The other half of her internship is with the Lutheran Campus Ministry here in town. Amy is something else! Not only is she amiable; she’s awesome–especially when it comes to knowing the Gospel and then proclaiming it ...
- “Your Gospel is too Small.” A Look at 2 Recent ELCA publications.
Colleagues,
For ThTh #250 I asked two of you regulars to do a show-and-tell on the quality of the Gospel in two pieces that recently went public in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Both pieces focused on the “evangel” (a.k.a. the Gospel) signalled in that first “E” of ELCA. I thought the Gospel was skimpy ...
