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Up one levelThe New Global South Face of Christianity: A Report on the Conference of the International Lutheran Council
Philip Jenkins, author of The Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity (2007), among others, argues that when American or European church leaders and scholars meet with their counterparts from Asia, Africa, or Latin America, the agenda is crafted by the participants from the global North. As a result, the “new Christendom” emerging in the global South is marginalized and consequently many of the present realities of Christianity in these locations and the impact of their projected future courses are ignored. The growing religious impulses found in Asia, Africa, and Latin America demand attention now if Northern Christian denominations are to avoid a number of misunderstandings...
A Day for Prayer: August 19
The divisions in the ELCA are not going away. In spite of repeated cries that the current disagreements regarding blessing of same-gender relationships and GLBT persons in same-gender relationships serving in rostered ministry should not be church dividing, the ELCA is in fact divided. The number of congregations that are struggling with reactions among the members to the 2009 churchwide assembly decisions is, in some synods, very large, even if most of those congregations are not taking votes to leave. Pastors, regardless of their own stand on these matters, find that some members are voting with their feet, or with their pocketbooks, or both. And the financial shortfall in both synods and churchwide offices is taking a real toll...
Mortality, Thrash Metal, and the Church
“The world seems a smaller place and less of it is mine.” I heard that in a song somewhere once. It speaks of growing up and looking back and realizing that as one gets older there are fewer possibilities. This is simply a product of living in a world of time, of the drip, drip, drip of moments come and gone. From the moment we are born, the possibilities ahead of us contract...
+Richard Charles Dickinson (1925—2010), A Memorial Reflection
Memorials like this can easily slide into trumpeted flourish or flashy cliché about the deceased. Our ordinary temptation to slip into anthropocentric eulogy rather than Christocentric doxology is stemmed when the funeral service itself gives praise to God. Such was the case at resurrection masses I attended for John Tietjen in Fort Worth, Texas (February 2004) and Richard John Neuhaus in New York City (January 2009). Such again was the case when adoration to God flowed for the life of a third man whose ministry reshaped twentieth century Lutheranism, the funeral celebration for the Rev. Dr. Richard Charles Dickinson held on 23 April 2010 at Grace Lutheran Church of Pagedale (St. Louis) Missouri...
I Am Not Going Anywhere. This Is My Church.
I had quite an experience at the Southwestern Minnesota Synod Assembly this past weekend. In addition to my duties as a voting member, I was providing occasional, informal color commentary on my Facebook page for distant friends and others interested in the proceedings. However, things got so bad, I simply quit posting out of shock and grief. I suppose this assembly experience was better for me than last year—at least this year, nobody accosted me in a bathroom and called me “bigot” and “bitch.” So, yay for a little bit more civility in this corner of the church. But boo, hiss to the horrible songs with their barely-Christian, social-gospel-and-good-works-save-us lyrics. Boo, hiss to the pastors who rolled their eyes and smirked at each other as I went to the microphone and called the assembly to repentance. Boo, hiss to the incessant “God’s Work, Our Hands” cheerleading. Boo, hiss to the pretense of business as usual. Boo, hiss to the fiction of bound conscience, which doesn't appear likely to last the year...
Why I'm a Confessional Lutheran
I'm probably not a confessional Lutheran in the strong sense of the term. Some folks who are "confessional" are adamant about it, fastidious in their attention to being confessional. It is a mark of pride, a crypto-fundamentalism. I don't consider myself a confessional Lutheran of that stripe. I think I tend towards more a "big-tent" confessionalism. How to define this...
Pietism According to Bo Giertz
The influence of Bo Giertz (1905-1998) on the American scene has been such that some have even taken to calling themselves “Giertzians.” What are the marks of a “Giertzian” confession of the faith? American Lutheran scholar Clifford Ansgar Nelson noted already in 1950 that Giertz “has a profound appreciation of the high-church liturgical movement as well as of low-church evangelicalism. If one should characterize the type of piety which is most congenial to his spirit, it would be as a broad evangelical orthodoxy”...
The Lutheran Churches of India
India is home to the oldest Lutheran body outside Europe and North America. One-third of all Asian Lutherans live in India. Thanks to the commitment, labor, and investment of Europeans and North Americans, Lutheran churches have put down deep roots all over India and thrive today as a vibrant Christian communion. This survey is an attempt to paint a big picture of Lutheranism in India today, building on the story of Lutheran missions to India in the Winter 2009 print edition of Lutheran Forum. Lutheranism is spread out all over India, encompassing several ethnic and linguistic groups, the oldest being the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church. Today Indian Lutheranism is organized into eleven autonomous church bodies under the banner of the United Evangelical Church in India. We will begin our quick overview of this communion with the southernmost part of India...
______, Justice, Jazz
The theme of the 2009 ELCA National Youth Gathering in New Orleans was “Jesus, Justice, Jazz.” However, early on what began to concern me and several friends who attended was that the first one in the list, Jesus of Nazareth, seemed noticeably absent by name in the mass gatherings, particularly from many (though not all) of the speakers chosen to headline the events...
The Earlier St. Martin
St. Martin of Tours, as he became known, was born in Sabaria, the capital fortress town in Pannonia (now Hungary) in the year 316. It was a period when the vast straggling Roman Empire stretched from the tip of northern Britain to Spain, from North Africa to the Middle East, to the southern banks of the Danube and Rhine rivers. The blood-letting of Christians under the despotic emperor of Rome, Diocletian, had ceased five years before Martin’s birth. His father had risen through the ranks of the Roman army to become a military tribune. Both of Martin’s parents were committed pagans, even selecting to name their son after Mars the Roman god. But what appeared to be the impregnable strength of the Roman Empire was displaying signs of inward decay. Inflation was starting to undermine the economy; with the impending danger from the horde of Vandals massing on the eastern frontiers of the Rhine. Both intimated ominous threats to Roman power and stability...
The Elusive Lion and the Shepherd
In this second excerpt from his memoirs, missionary to Tanzania, Howard Olson, provides a picture of life in 1950s Africa.
A Response to the LCMS "Theses on Worship"
The “Theses on Worship” adopted unanimously by the LCMS Council of Presidents of the LCMS on September 19-22, 2009, after two years of study and discussion, has both strengths and weaknesses.
The Lutheran Constellation
There has been a full moon in the sky these past days, which has made it a bit more difficult to notice the vast array of stars in the heavens. I remember as a Boy Scout learning the patterns and stories of the different constellations. Some were constellations with all large, bright stars. Some constellations had several strong, bright stars, and several lesser, faint lights, but the point was that they gathered in a cluster that made them a unique presence in the firmament of God. For instance, the Big Dipper, with its seven large stars, is part of Ursa Major, twenty stars and a Greek myth to go along with it. As I am getting older, I have to tell you that it is getting harder and harder to distinguish Ursa Major in the heavens. It feels like I am losing the stars one by one, even some of the brightest ones...
The Empty Crib
As a young couple of 19 and 23 my wife, Louise, and I went to Tanzania in 1946 to serve as Lutheran missionaries. We were stationed at a remote, but beautiful, area called Kijota. The nearest Americans lived 20 miles away as the crow flies, and 50 miles by road during the rainy season. We did not experience loneliness because of the warm hospitality of our African neighbors. Yet we desired the enrichment our lives would acquire if we were more than just husband and wife alone...
Crisis in Zimbabwe
A pastor of the ELCZ tells the story of being "Hungry, Sick, and Dying in Zimbabwe" in the fall issue of LF. But a picture is worth a thousand words, especially in the case of rampant political corruption and horrifying violence. Here are some pictures of what God's children are suffering in Zimbabwe...
Going Postal
Those of you who are enjoying your newly-arrived Summer 2009 issue of Lutheran Forum may wonder what on earth happened to the Hebrew words that appear in the current Old Testament article, "Going Postal." Let us be the first to say: responsibility for the garbled Hebrew lies with the editorial staff, not with the author, and for this we apologize both to Dr. Goodine and to our astute readers. And if we may be so bold, please do the author the honor of reading her article from the PDF link below, which now has the correct Hebrew in it...
Glenn Stone, 1928-2009
The Rev. Glenn Charles Stone, of Jackson Heights, NY, died Saturday, June 6, 2009, after living 23 years with cancer. Born June 13, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, he left high school early to attend the University of Chicago on a full scholarship, graduating with a degree in geology. During college, he felt God's call to ordained ministry, and graduated from Augustana Theological Seminary, Rock Island, IL. Ordained June 15, 1952 as a pastor in the Augustana Lutheran Synod (a predecessor church body of first the Lutheran Church in America, then of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), he was installed as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, New Hyde Park, Long Island, NY. He earned the Master of Sacred Theology degree from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, in 1960, with his thesis on “The Use of the Sacrament of the Altar,” and began assisting at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Roosevelt, Long Island, while also serving other specialized ministries, primarily in publications and teaching. In the 1960s he taught at Our Saviour’s Lutheran High School in the Bronx, worked at the National Lutheran Council, and served as editor of The National Lutheran, in New York City. In 1969 he was called as founding editor of the journal, Lutheran Forum, also in Manhattan, and served for many years as executive director of its publisher, the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau; this is the editorial ministry for which he was best known...
Becoming the Church in Tanzania, Part 2
The formation of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanganyika in 1963 came as a result of the already existing Federation of the Lutheran Church in Tanganyika. In areas where more than one mission society was active, there existed joint mission boards that oversaw assistance plans for developing the work of each synod. The collaboration of these mission societies, despite diversities in their theologies and administrative systems, paved the way towards a united Lutheran Church in Tanzania. Moreover, the nationalistic ideas of unity for an independent Tanganyika challenged the regional churches to form one united church...
A Lutheran Responds to Altar Calls
It’s something I can’t quite come to terms with. Is it a source of shame? No, I don’t think so. And yet, I’ve been cautious about sharing this particular tale of a holy experience. You see, I, a life-long Lutheran, encountered the Holy Spirit at an altar call...