Specific Ministry Pastor: To Meet a Special Need
Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) is the newest LCMS program for preparing pastors to fill an identified need in a congregation, cultural setting, or other ministry.
The Magazine
Big-picture Questions
In response to President Kieschnick’s March article regarding the Missouri Synod’s position on “Right to Life,” I would like to share some of the discussion from a recent Sunday morning Bible class. The question was posed: If the California mother of 14 children were a member of our church family, how would we respond? Initial
Technology: A Dynamic Tool for Forming Pastors
As technology enables seminaries to broaden their reach, they also assure that technical advances foster the goal of training and forming pastors.
Hack “The Shack?”
“The Shack” is a publishing blockbuster and a cultural phenomenon. What are we to make of this exercise in ‘Christian’ fiction? A Lutheran pastor takes a look.
For Abused and Neglected Children: ‘Validation that Someone Cares’
“Over the years, our experience has shown us, and we deeply believe, that no child can be truly healed unless he is cared for emotionally, physically, and spiritually.”
Fixed on Eternity
Because she was too tired to hold him, I held him as the water was poured over his head and he was baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Gratitude for Our Pastors
In addition to preaching and teaching matters of faith and life on the basis of God’s Holy Word, pastors are called to be a part of the lives of people in good times and bad, in happy times and sad.
Making music
I can’t remember an issue of The Lutheran Witness I’ve enjoyed as much as your March 2009 offering. I grew up in the WELS and joined the LCMS as a young adult. I’ve been active in church music in some form for my entire ministry. I’m in the music ministry today because my fifth-grade teacher
Moved to tears
I had to e-mail you immediately after reading Susan Rosselli’s March Lifeline story, “God Hears, God Cares, God Moves.” I was moved to tears upon reading about her struggle to secure the basics for her and her then 9-year-old daughter during a difficult time in their lives. It was such an unbelievably compelling article to
A winsome presence
I was very heartened by Diane Strzelecki’s March article about LCMS Lutherans at Harvard. My own time at Yale Divinity School confirmed a similar situation there: It, too, is “not the hotbed of pagan activity” that many believe it to be. LCMS students at Yale (there were five LCMS students in the divinity school alone
What’s New at Our Concordias?
Our LCMS colleges and universities are responding to needs in their communities.
Hot-button issues
Two articles in February pushed my political “hot buttons”: “In Bethlehem: Hope Behind the Wall” and “Dueling Messiahs.” Each presents only part of a hot political issue. Far worse, each misses an opportunity to share the Gospel. In discussing the Wall, Rev. Mahsman criticizes Israel without discussing Israel’s viewpoint. Of course, my reply leads us