The Nihil Rule

  a Christmas Eve candlelight sing-along overpowered by the candlepower of the almighty screen

The liturgy shapes the conscience to be like heaven | Listen Notes This was a particularly fantastic episode that took me a few listens and notes to unpack. I wanted to put those notes together for a broader audience, particularly to emphasize the connection of the heavenly council to the liturgy which then impresses our consciences week in and week out. Rev. Weedon has noted in his Revelation studies that novelty for the liturgy is from the future , that is our life in heaven. But it's also for now, as Rev. Wolfmueller shares.  The Heavenly Council - Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation gives us glimpses into the heavenly throne room There are five aspects of the heavenly council Conversation: Jesus' baptism; Ps 22 Court: Job; Revelations 12; Heb 4, 5, 7; Petitioning: Images of prayers and incense Worship: Four creatures Sending: Angels, prophets The Conscience Our conscience is a little courtroom, a little judgement seat, that can go wrong in many ways Instead of accepting the...

 

WELS Congregational Services  provides various media for congregations including Bible studies.  In Season and Out of Season  is a 3-part study on evangelism. It's kind of sketch. First, it isn't grounded in doctrine. There is no direct discussion of election, vocation or soteriology - kind of important! Instead the studies revolve around me, and me drawing conclusions from a smattering of Bible passages. It uses a number of evangelical ideas like a four point plan for addressing "your personal mission field" and using unbiblical categories like "de-churched" and "never-churched." One thing that particularly caught my attention was the following What do you think? Preach the gospel in all times and, if necessary, use words.    Well, since you asked... it's a false statement. Zero merit. First, "if necessary" poses a false dichotomy, see Romans 10:10,14ff. Second, re-read John 1! Christ is the Word, made flesh, and we are language-bein...

The WELS doctrine of church and ministry tries its best to pull a fast one by stating "It would be wrong to trace the origin of this public ministry to mere expediency (Hoefling)." If you didn't know better, you'd walk away thinking the WELS is repudiating Hoefling's doctrine of church and ministry. But in reality, the WELS doctrine of church and ministry is indeed Hoeflingnite in nature, they only deny that it is derived from 'mere expediency' by sanctifying it with a divine call. Rev. John Berg, in the final issue of the Motley Magpie, explains: The not so secret secret is that the Wisconsin Synod’s doctrine is Hoeflingnite. Francis Pieper in his Dogmatics outlines Hoefling’s position,   Hoefling grants that the ministry is divinely ordained but only in the sense as “everything wise, appropriate, morally necessary” can be said to have “divine sanction,” not in the sense that an express divine command for the establishment of the public ministry can be ...

Why Screens don't belong in our sanctuaries Screens are contingent. They require power, they require data, they require an intelligent operator. God's Word is not contingent. A hymnal is not contingent. Screens are temporal. Screens only show the immediate moment, they lack context in the flow of liturgical worship. Worship becomes a sequence of moments divorced from the flow of God's giving and our receiving and responding. The speed of worship becomes 30 Hz instead of the call and response of God and the penitent. Screens lack contextual clues. Screens can only show the immediate moment and cannot be placed relative to the other elements of worship.  A worshipper cannot pause and step backwards to ruminate or satisfy a theological curiosity, instead he is dragged forward by an arrow key and PowerPoint. The hymnal provides contextual clues and shows what is behind and what is ahead. A hymnal places the moment in context with the whole. The page on which you are is relat...

OK, hear me out....  1. Introduce a gender-neutral bible (NIV11) 2. Introduce a hymnal with questionable hymns and a novel liturgy disconnected from Lutheran heritage (CW21) 3. Separate the youth from the church through youth rallies, WELS youth nights, etc. (2022) 4. Implement pre-evangelism as a precondition to sharing the Gospel (2022) 5. Promote non-liturgical contemporary congregations on WELS Connections to normalize CoWo (2022) 6. Soften doctrinal statements as in our man and woman roles document (2023) 7. "100 in 10" initiative opening new missions churches that worship like (5) and require additional pastors per year in declining synodical and pastoral candidate demographics (2022-2032) 8. Accomplish (7) by either installing lay clergy, lowering the requirements for ordination, or by consolidating and closing "old" confessional liturgical churches. (future date) 9. Boomers die off, further closing/consolidating "old" confessional liturgical church...

(Cmon, WELS, even Bing knows the Lord our Righteousness is Christ!) NIV11 is the translation of choice in the WELS. The NIV11's rendering of Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16 belies an underlying concern in how the NIV11 weakens or removes OT messianic prophecy. Both passages call our Lord "The LORD Our Righteous Savior" in the NIV11, not "Our Righteousness". Jeremiah 23 is the OT reading for Christ the King Sunday in Year C, and Pentecost 9 in Year B for the 3-year lectionary. Jeremiah 33 is the OT reading for Advent 1 in the one-year lectionary.  The NIV84 study Bible notes Jeremiah 23:6 as "One of the most important Messianic passages in Jeremiah; echoed in 33:15-16." The EHV study Bible notes "Jesus the Messiah is properly called the LORD Our Righteousness because our righteousness before God’s judgment is Jesus’ righteousness which is credited to us through faith (Romans 3:23–28 and Philippians 3:8–9). " For Jeremiah 33:16, the EHV notes "The...