The Nihil Rule

So it has been found out that Forward in Christ has been using stock AI photos for the last few covers of their magazine. You can find a vigorous discussion on the WELS Discussions Facebook page. The following two images are from the March and April covers. I made an account with Adobe Stock to download the full resolution images. My license limits me to 500k views, so don't go blowing this post up :) So let us take a closer look at these photos. March has Jesus praying in what ostensibly appears to be the Mount of Olives. But look at those hands. I think there are three of them - maybe it's a hidden message of the Triune nature of God, but most like it's the fact that AI has yet to successfully traverse the uncanny valley .  April is more interesting. Let us start with the obvious - the resurrected Christ has no nail marks in His hands or feet. The AI could not contextualize that the risen Christ was also the crucified Christ. But then let's take a closer look at His...

Fashionably late as always, here are a few photos I took of the eclipse using my wife's DSLR through a small telescope.

  Our final post in the WELS  Women's "Ministry" Conference series will look at the presentation " The Power of Partnerships " with Dr. Kristi Meyer & Rev. Eric Schroeder. Let's read along with the description, shall we? Many congregations have vibrant and thriving women’s ministries: natural places for female congregation members to volunteer and get involved. Female congregation members. Where I come from, we call them women. However, it can be difficult for women to participate in and contribute to other aspects of a church’s ministry, especially if the congregation’s governance model follows a typical male-only board structure. Ahhh, we've found a way to sex up governance models . In these situations, partnerships are key—partnerships among all congregation members but especially partnerships between female members and their pastors. The reason Dr. Meyer is presenting is because she has a M.A. in Theological Studies from MLC. Her thesis paper is ...

    (within the context of theology...) "Some people are supposed to be ivory tower people, and some people are also supposed to raise the Jolly Roger" -C Jay Engel, Contra Mundum

Part two of our look into the WELS Women's "Ministry" Conference takes us to a presentation by Hannah Schermerhorn entitled " How to Stop Surviving and Start Thriving in Singleness " Luther had much to say about celibacy, of course, given his context: Roman Catholic priests were not allowed to marry, and monasticism was promoted as a more blessed estate than marriage. Luther recognized celibacy as a rare gift: "such [celibates] are rare, not one in a thousand, for they are a special miracle of God" - Martin Luther (LW 45:21) particularly in women:  “Though womenfolk here are ashamed to admit this, nevertheless Scripture and experience show that among many thousands is not one whom God has given grace to keep pure chastity. A woman does not have control over herself. God has created her body to be with man, to bear children and to raise them.” - Martin Luther, “To Some Nuns,” Letter No. 756 (6 August 1524) (Forget OTJATL : how has the feminist-sympathiz...

“How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St. Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (Ephesians 4:14) comes true. Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be “tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine,” seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one...

The WELS Women's "Ministry" Conference takes place July 28-30 at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee, WI. We are going to take a few weeks and dig into what is on offer at this conference. Let's start with one of the keynotes, " A Candid Conversation about Women in the WELS ", featuring Rev. Jonathan Hein and Dawn Schulz. You might remember Rev. Hein from such great hits as the WELS Lutheran Leadership Conference featuring Dr. Joan Prince , consensus-model governance restructuring,  and " Less Churches, More Ministry! " Dawn has "taught women’s bible studies, hosted retreats, counseled women through crisis situations, mentored young Christian women, and shared the love of Jesus at Christmas with the 100+ women who attend Advent by Candlelight each year." The description of the keynote starts with the sentence In the heart of every woman beats the desire to do what God created her to do. It is abundantly clear we are putting women on a pedest...

"A sermon that does not terminate in bringing us to communing with the Christ who is, in fact, present and giving himself to us in and through Holy Communion is a sermon that has failed..." - Rev. Dr. John Bombaro