Let's Talk

20 years of
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod since 1996

  • Home
  • Issues
    • Welcome to Let’s Talk 2020
    • 22. 2 Reformation Jubilee 500
    • 22.1 Death and Dying
    • All Issues 1996 – present
  • Noted Guest Authors
  • About
  • Contact

Powered by Genesis

You are here: Home / Archives for Wayne Cowell

Articles by Wayne Cowell

Wayne Cowell served on the Editorial Council of Let’s Talk from 1998 until 2010. He is a member of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Downers Grove, IL.

A “Yes” in Kansas City

June 8, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

ALPB Conference on Christian Sexuality, Ruskin Heights Lutheran Church, Kansas City, MO, October 2002 Report and Reflections by Wayne R. Cowell They came to the heartland from every state except Hawaii, and some from Canada.  Conference organizer Russell Saltzman had been clear about what they should expect.  In his announcement (Forum Letter, Vol. 31, No. […]

Filed Under: Human Sexuality in the ELCA: Perspectives on the Struggle

A Standing Invitation…

June 6, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

At the end of July last year the Editorial Council of Let’s Talk agreed that an issue on “peace with justice” would be timely and fruitful.  We asked: How is the church involved in peace/justice issues at various levels?  Has there been a “sea change” in the Lutheran approach to social ministry?  We recognized the […]

Filed Under: Justice

What Drives Your Church?

June 3, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

The Purpose-Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission by Rick Warren, Zondervan Publishing House, 1995. Reviewed by Wayne R. Cowell Every Sunday the traffic streams up the four-lane half-mile entrance to the seventy-four acre campus of Saddleback Community Church in Orange County, California. Ten thousand people will attend “seeker” services at this fastest growing […]

Filed Under: Leadership and Direction in the ELCA

The Forde-Nestingen Letter Critiqued

June 2, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

Passage of “Called to Common Mission” by the 1999 Churchwide Assembly has brought a storm of protest organized as the so-called “WordAlone Network.”  A preview of the protest could be seen in heated discussions of the “Mahtomedi Resolution” at synod assemblies last year.  Let’s Talk published the proceedings of a pre-assembly forum at our MCS […]

Filed Under: Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

Comments and Questions: The Dialogue Extended

June 1, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

[At the 1999 ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod Assembly workshop on ecumenical decisions, written comments and questions were submitted by workshop attendees to the panel of presenters resulting in a lively exchange among the four; a “Let’s Talk” moment.  The different views of the nature of communion with other church bodies, different readings of confessional documents, […]

Filed Under: Called to Common Mission

The Reception of the 9.5 Theses: An Exchange of Letters

May 28, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

Wayne Cowell, one of the editors of this issue of Let’s Talk, wrote to Louis A. Smith, one of the authors of the 9.5 Theses, with questions about the reception of the theses in the church You and your fellow authors of the 9.5 Theses have addressed the people in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in […]

Filed Under: Confessional Renewal Movements

Dialogue and Debate: Revisiting the Concordat

May 27, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

Following the narrow defeat of the Concordat of Agreement in the recent ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the Assembly then adopted two resolutions aimed at restarting the move toward full communion with the Episcopal Church. The first declares the intention of the ELCA to preserve conversation and eucharistic sharing with the Episcopal Church, and to bring a […]

Filed Under: Ecumenism and Full Communion

Speaking of Church: Good Words for Episcopalians and Lutherans

May 20, 2016 by Wayne Cowell

The dialogue between Lutherans and Episcopalians during the past two decades has been, for the most part, carried forward by theologians whose work has placed a proposal for full communion on the agenda of both churches. It is important that lay women and men in both traditions now engage in the dialogue by learning about […]

Filed Under: Ecumenism

Remembering Thomas C. Knutson 1946 – 2013

May 22, 2014 by Wayne Cowell

The Rev. Thomas C. Knutson, pastor of First Ev. Lutheran Church, Harvey, a founder of Let’s Talk, died on September 18, 2013 of pancreatic cancer.  Pr. Knutson served as Chairman of the Editorial Council for a decade and a half from the first issue at Epiphany 1996, through the years when the journal was a […]

Filed Under: Growing Leaders

20.1 Lent 2015

The Catechumenate

19.4: Advent 2014

Communion and Community

19.3: Ordinary Time 2014

Green coffee beans (top left), Nicaraguan red beans (top right), corn (bottom left) and millet, vital Nicaraguan crops, held in women farmers’ hands

Food and Justice

19.2: Pentecost 2014

Latvian Wheat by Dace Kiršpile

Growing Leaders

19.1: Epiphany 2014

archangel gabriel

Religion and the Arts

1996 – 2013

Previous Issues