My talk at the National Youth Gathering was entitled “Relax and Be a Christian”. When people asked what my talk was about, I told them that the gist of the talk was “Stahhhhp…..just stoppppp…” Sometimes we need to be told to stop, to relax, and to recognize that Jesus has this all under control. But…

I (Pastor Jay) have been out of town quite a bit lately, first in Milwaukee for the National LCMS Convention (read more about that here http://universitylutheranchurch.org/2016/07/15/inside-lcms-baseball/ ), and most recently in New Orleans LA for the National Youth Gathering. Of those two trips, the Youth Gathering was certainly the biggest. The Convention featured approximately 3,000 people…

Today marks the end of my ninth year of a very specific way of serving God, as a “called and ordained servant of the Word”. As year number 10 starts,  I look back to a weird moment when I felt the “inner call” of God to be a pastor. This “inner call” is a gut…

“Inside baseball” is a term that usually refers to a detail-oriented approach to the minutiae of a subject, which in turn requires such a specific knowledge about what is being discussed that the nuances are not understood or appreciated by outsiders. Hopefully this is a little easier to understand. This past week the Lutheran Church Missouri…

I’m all about the Gospel. I have the word “Gospel” literally tattooed to my right arm (I have “Law” on the left). But I’m just not sure that the average person on the street understands the word Gospel. If anything, they probably think I’m talking about one of the four accounts of Jesus’ life in…