When it comes to choosing hymns for Sunday and Festival services it sometimes feels like a coin might serve best. There are so many from which to choose, and, it seems, the hymn repertoires grow exponentially day by day. One way to solve the dilemma is to seek help. There is plenty available. On pp. […]
Welcome to Let’s Talk
We invite submission of papers and talks from members of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA, talks given to members of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, or articles from other pastors and theologians, not limited to ELCA. Send submissions in Word docx. to fcsenn70@gmail.com.
3.2 Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor: Just a brief note of appreciation for the Let’s Talk (Lent 1998) issue devoted to the important topic of the mission of our Synod and its congregations. It was interesting to get to know the viewpoints of some key members of our Synod Council. I wish there had been a clearer statement of […]
Are We So Right We Can’t Be Saved?
Several years ago I received a brochure promoting a very conservative Lutheran seminary. Among its boasts: “This seminary is founded on an inerrant interpretation of the Bible.” Was that simply a syntactical slip? Do these people rely on God’s inerrancy or their own? As long as the Christ has been around, he has been “a […]
9.5 Concerns for Confessional Renewal
When I was first asked to comment on the confessional renewal movement in general and the 9.5 Theses specifically, I could not imagine what I would say. To me it is a no-brainer. I am all for confessional renewal. It goes without saying. It’s what Lutherans do. It is what we are. I’ve been honored […]
The Theses, Confessionalism, Me, and My Congregation
How surprised I was to receive an emotional phone call from an acquaintance at the ELCA Churchwide Office asking how I could endorse such an attack on the ELCA! At first I didn’t know what my caller was talking about. But the 9.5 Theses had arrived by mail on Higgins Road; I hadn’t received my […]
The Reception of the 9.5 Theses: An Exchange of Letters
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 […]
The 9.5 Theses
These theses were written by a group of pastors from New Jersey and published in Lutheran Forum (Vol. 29, No. 4, November, 1995) with commentary by Ronald B. Bagnall, Mark Hoffman, Phillip Max Johnson, Linda Larson, John David Larson, Richard J. Niebanck, Beth Schlegel, and Louis A. Smith. Preamble To the people of the Evangelical […]
Renewal Movements in the United Methodist Church
In recent months more and more voices are calling for the United Methodist Church to split into two churches. So serious has this issue become that our General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns has published a booklet entitled, In Search of Unity. Note how the first paragraph states the problem: In recent years […]
A Response to Let’s Talk’s Special Issue on Ecumenism
The invitation of Let’s Talk in its Epiphany, 1998 issue motivates me to share some thoughts on what happened and what did not happen at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly in Philadelphia last August. The response to the vote on the Lutheran-Episcopal Concordat of Agreement by some of the writers in Let’s […]
Common Ground: We Are Sinners
Did you ever sit around a table with parishoners to write a mission statement for the parish? As I recall we were instructed to state who we are and then state what we are about. When it was my turn around the table I suggested we state who we are in three words: “We are […]
Faithful Change in Our Synod
The velocity of social and cultural change that our generation now faces has profound implications for the church. In the time of our grandparents’ youth, travel of more than 20 miles was a major event. A college education was rare. Disposable income (that is, money remaining after paying for essentials) was a very small percentage […]
Our Mission Statement: Toward a New Reality
Remarkable! Ask me what our new Synod Mission Statement is and I can recite it from memory without any hesitation. Adopted by our Synod Assembly this past June, it is so clear and forceful that it burns in one’s heart. Remarkable. Now this is a mission statement with real possibilities! And after all, isn’t this […]
An Opportunity for a Reformation: An Interview with Bishop Olsen
Let’s Talk: Bishop, our Synod adopted a new mission statement at its last Assembly, ”Proclaim the Gospel, Make Disciples, Do Justice.” What focus do you think this commitment will bring? Bishop Olsen: First of all it very much changes the focus of our Synod from what it has been for the last few […]
Dialogue and Debate: Revisiting the Concordat
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 […]
Heritage and Hope?
“Making Christ Known: Alive in Our Heritage and Hope,” was the theme for the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which met in Philadelphia, August 14-20, 1997. Ecumenical issues dominated the proceedings, with the focus on three major decisions: (1) the Formula of Agreement with the three churches of the Reformed tradition; […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- …
- 30
- Next Page »