Items of interest from various sources of religious news and opinion, in print and on the web. Switching to Contemporary Worship Won’t Stop Church Decline, Study Says. In a comprehensive study of the reasons for declining church attendance, the American Enterprise Institute found that traditional and liturgical worship formats are not a contributing factor. The… Read More »Month Archive Read More
Year/Month: 2022/08
Every other month our CLC Board of Missions updates us with recent news from various mission fields. It goes without saying that travel has been a challenge over the past couple of years due to the pandemic. But even as travel restrictions have eased recently, making plans to travel internationally can still be challenging and… Read More »Month Archive Read More
TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006 Date Hymns Reading Comments August 1 TLH 39 Genesis 1 The record of creation is very precise: every day of creation has a morning and an evening, making each of the six days a 24-hour day. Notice also… Read More »Month Archive Read More
What’s new at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of White River, South Dakota? Probably not much—or so one might be tempted to think! After all, St. Paul’s is an old congregation. Its first services were held by German immigrant families 104 years ago when Mellette County was first opened to homesteaders; its first resident pastor arrived… Read More »Month Archive Read More
In this series, those involved with CLC foreign missions profile one aspect of our overseas endeavors. (Photos are from the early days of the author’s time in Nigeria) “Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.” This is a proverb from Nigeria. Palm oil, drawn from palm fruit, is used for cooking food.… Read More »Month Archive Read More
This series offers an overview of the chief teachings of the Christian church. When we think of Genesis, we think of beginnings. This is where we learn of creation, the making of man and woman, marriage, the nation of Israel. It is also where we find the beginning of sin ( Lutheran Spokesman, July 2022,… Read More »Month Archive Read More
“Thesis XX–In the sixteenth place, the Word of God is not rightly divided when a person’s salvation is made to depend on his association with the visible orthodox church and when salvation is denied to every person who errs in any article of faith.” There was a reason why the church graveyard was often located… Read More »Month Archive Read More
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) These majestic words set the stage for the most-read, most-printed, and most-translated book in history—the Holy Bible. Compare that statement to how Carl Sagan opened the 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage: “The cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever… Read More »Month Archive Read More
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,… Read More »Month Archive Read More
Ever wonder why we Lutherans use the form of worship we do? In this series we examine the depth and meaning of the various elements of our worship service, beginning with the history of Christian worship itself. When Isaiah saw the Lord in a vision, sitting exalted upon His throne, he was afraid that his… Read More »Month Archive Read More
“I’ve been to three churches on this street, and yours is the only one that says the Lord’s Prayer,” a visitor informed me one Sunday. This surprised me since I figured most Christian churches would regularly say the prayer that Jesus gave us. However, it appears that those familiar words are being prayed less and… Read More »Month Archive Read More
“And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no… Read More »Month Archive Read More