Everyday Lutherans

Have you seen the new movie entitled "The Son of God".  It is a movie that shows the entire story of Jesus life from birth to his death.  It is coming out on February 28, 2014. Will you be taking your youth group? Will you be having a Bible Study on it?

Reaching this milestone within blogging has had me thinking.  Why am I doing this?  Am I doing a good job at this? I started blogging so that I could have a place to share some of my thoughts, sermons, and think through concepts that will help me in life and in my job.  I also wanted to improve my writing skills and means of communication.  Therefore most of the reason that I began this blog was personal. As I think and wonder if I am doing a good job at this, I have wondered, how shall I measure success?  I could go through the number of posts, the number of readers, how much I feel that I have grown through this blog.  I have not had a lot of posts, most are sermons and a few personal thoughts about theology.  If I look only at the number of readers, it is not very good record.  I average about twenty eight readers per post and in the whole life of my blog, I have had seven thousand separate views upon all of my posts.  Above all, I started...

There are many conversations and understandings that relate to the Lord's Supper.  Even at the time in which Jesus was sharing the meal with the disciples, they did not fully understand what Jesus was doing and what it all meant.  Truly the meal that they were gathered was a Jewish Seder, a meal that helps the Jewish people remember and be within the history that God saved them from their time in Egypt from slavery and led them to the promised land.  The people wanted to remember the vast power and strength that God displayed to the Jewish people and the Egyptian people. It was this meal that Jesus was celebrating with his disciples.  Yet as Jesus was leading them in this meal of remembrance, when it came to certain parts, he changed the meanings.   When Jesus spoke of the unleavened bread, the bread that was prepared hurriedly to sustain the Jewish people on their journey from Egypt without yeast that would normally cause bread to rise.  Jesus said: "This ...

For some people, Baptism was something that happened when they were an infant.  They do not remember it.  They do not understand what was happening.  For others, they remember the day and event as it was something that they had a part in. Within Baptism, water is used upon the person's body.  Water is one of the most abundant resources upon the Earth and it is something that is vital to our very life.  With this resource that you use within your daily life, God combines God's own Word.  Then God commands us to share and give this gift. In Baptism, God calls us by name to be God's very own child.  As a beloved child of God, you are given forgiveness of sins, delivered from death and the devil, and everlasting salvation to all who believe in this promise of God.   It is not water that does this but God's promise and work on the cross that delivers all that is promised for you directly to you. You do not need to remember the day that the way was plac...

In recent years, I have noticed a growing number of larger congregations. Congregations where there are more programs, more people and more focus on keeping more people caring for the institution that is the building and not really the Gospel.  (Please note, I am not saying that all large congregations fit this but there seems to be a growing trend.)  You may notice the features: Young pastor - cause young pastors can relate to the youth and our church does not have any. Band - cause the old songs do not speak to the people that you are trying to get into your building. Focus on Life - most of the messages, classes and general direction of the congregation is helping people in their physical journey.  Right living and morals are the dominate messages being given.  Less emphasis on Jesus and more emphasis on 'What Scripture teaches us' becomes the language in which we hear more and more with the messages. Now you may be saying but our congregation has some of these th...