Before this, I didn’t even know about Prezi presentations. What a Luddite! And here, Pastor Philip Hoppe has made a very nice use of Prezi to introduce people to the Small Catechism. Any Lutheran will find handy uses for this with fellow church members, family, friends, online acquaintances, and others. Go for it! Click here … Read more
You might have heard about the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. It is a pipeline to transport oil through the Dakotas. There are major protests against it. One of the complaints is about danger to water quality. The protests have gotten out of hand. Consequently it is in the news every day in the … Read more
VIII. Luther’s Efforts at Restoring Catechetical Instruction. 90. Cooperation of Parents Urged by Luther. Friedrich Bente, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Public Domain, Kindle Locations 2677-2734). In order to bring the instruction of the young into vogue, Luther saw that church, school, and home must needs cooperate. The home … Read more
In its mission, the church always has run up against some recurring stock errors in the world’s thinking. These errors have a strong hold on the minds and hearts of people, and they are obstacles to people hearing or believing the Gospel. From the fund of stock errors, a subset ascends and is vogue at … Read more
The first time my Dad sent me out seeding alone, a feeling of pessimism overcame me. That night I said, “How can we expect a green, leafy, lush crop from this? We are dropping dry seed through dead iron machinery into dirt.” He said, “It’s made to work.” That gave me something to think about. … Read more
For the ordinary church member, however, especially for those who are troubled about their faith and yet come to no conclusions about it, for the innumerable people on the fringes of the church who cannot find their way through all the conflicting opinions, the almost chaotic confusion in the realm of religion, it is of … Read more
“With respect to the Third Article, Luther struggled long and hard to find a simple catechetical term for what is confessed therein about the Holy Spirit.” Albrecht Peters, (trans. Thomas Trapp), Commentary on Luther’s Catechisms: Creed, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2011), p. 34. At a first reading, the third article seems to have a number … Read more
Pastor Phillip Hoppe has written an excellent article titled “What the NYG and Higher Things have in common,” that compares youth gatherings with church and pastor, with home and parents, including catechesis. Here are some excerpts: What do the NYG and Higher Things have in common? Neither is as important as they seem. Your church and … Read more
Pastor Mark Surburg has written a great article for his congregation’s August newsletter that we can preview on his blog. The article launches a challenge to the congregation to learn by heart the Small Catechism, and an explanation of the benefits this brings. This includes memorization, of course, but uses memorization to go on to … Read more
God is the Father with whom man can and should speak person to person. Man can do it on the basis of what is given to him in the gospel. Herbert Girgensohn, Teaching Luther’s Catechism, John W. Doberstein, trans. (Philadelhia: Muhlenberg Press, 1959), p. 5.
At the recent LCMS convention, a recurring topic was the decline of the church. President Harrison had written about it in his report. Some had criticized one part of what he said, the part about declined birth rates among church people. Our birth rates are below the replacement rate. Other explanations also circulate, and each … Read more
The Luther House of Study has begun a set of videos on the Catechism. So far they have produced videos on the first five commandments. The videos are distributed on the internet via Vimeo. Anyone can access them free of charge. To see the list of catechism videos, click here. To learn more about the Luther House … Read more