This coming week, I (Pastor Jay) will be at the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod National Convention. This is a gathering of representatives from the near 6,000 congregations within our church body, representing about 1.75 million members. Each Circuit (a unit of approximately 7 nearby churches) elects one lay person (non-churchworker) and one pastor, each from…
A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Posts by University Lutheran (Page 15)
This Saturday will mark my 16th year in pastoral ministry. In many ways it has flown past. I can still remember the first days of being here. I remember visiting the church building with Liz for the first time before my ordination. I remember settling into the office. I remember working out the kinks of…
This week Ai Bao, a panda in a South Korean zoo/theme park, gave birth to twin baby panda cubs. If you look at the pictures however, you may wonder if something weird happened with the two girls. They are largely hairless, pink-skinned, skinny little things. Not exactly what you would think of when you think…
Martin Luther is credited as saying that besides theology, music is the greatest artful expression of mankind. I happen to agree, however, I have a confession – most of the time my thoughts are elsewhere during the hymns that we sing together. I think this comes from being told at an early age that I…
What benefits do you receive when you take the Sacrament of the Altar? Flies. That is how a fellow pastor taught his confirmation students. “Flies” is a mnemonic device that stands for “Forgiveness” “LIfe” and “Salvation” (F-Li-S). Those are the things that Martin Luther wrote in his Small Catechism about what we receive when we…
The other day someone asked me when the practice of confession began in the Church. Obviously in Matthew 18 and John 20, Jesus alludes to His disciples and/or the Church forgiving sins. Even before that, in the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, there is a moment for one to consider their…
Four questions: What is it? What does it do? How does it do that? What does that mean? Those are four questions that we ask of anything that is new or novel to us. Think about artificial intelligence, AI. We want to know what it is first, to have some sense of understanding of what…
As things heat up outside, we’re taking things “back to basics” as we take a look at the six chief parts of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. All it takes is a meal amongst Christians. All of the sudden, there is a recognized need – someone to say grace before the meal. I’ve seen this any…
The weather is getting hotter and graduation parties are showing up. It’s time for summer school where we take a quick look at the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism. This upcoming Sunday we will do something we do only once a year: Confess the Athanasian Creed in worship. The Athanasian one is the…
Graduations parties are being held and kids are getting out of school. It’s a great time for us to do some review as a congregation. For the next few weeks, we will be going over the six chief parts of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism in this “Summer School” newsletter series. The 10 Commandments are the…