Martin Luther wrote a little pamphlet when he was a pastor called “A Simple Way to Pray.” It basically takes some of the content of the Small Catechism and turns those things into headings for prayer. It was all written down in a letter to a guy named “Peter the Barber,” and was recently translated…

I will be flying out this Friday to do something that I have ended up doing once every 3 years – going to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod National  Convention. I have learned that not a lot of people understand what this event is about. So I’m going to spend a little time outlining what…

The Holy Spirit is probably the mysterious person of the Trinity. I think we see that in the way that the 3rd article of the Creed gets written. The 1st and 2nd articles seem to have this formula that goes, “I believe in (Father/Son), and this is what He does…(creates, comes to earth and redeems).…

It is always dangerous to come up with a metaphor that describes the Trinity. Sooner or later, you’re bound to commit some kind of heresy if you take the metaphor far enough. So as I get into this, please don’t read too much into this metaphor. Consider the endeavor of making a film. It usually…

Our word “economy” has its roots in the Greek word for “household,”: oikos. Economy is the “nomos”, the laws, of the oikos, the “household”. It is how things work in the household. The study of economics is supposed to show how all of the people in the “household” of a country or a society work…

This summer, I’m planning walking through a little refresher on the Small Catechism. If it has been a while, you can always check it out at http://catechism.cph.org . Luther didn’t invent the idea of the catechism. Catechisms had existed for quite some time, some argue from even around 70 AD, not long after Jesus had…

If you follow our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), you’ll see that we’re starting off a little campaign there that we are calling “Sanctified Summer,” digging into Luther’s Small Catechism one little bite at a time. A lot of Lutherans haven’t looked at their Small Catechisms in a while, at least since they were…

This past week I have been at the funeral service of Brenda Weisiger, saw the livestream of Virginia Riedthaler’s funeral, and was able to officiate the wedding of two of our alumni, Emma Pollard and Hunter Garrison. Weddings and funerals are called “occasional services” in church terms – services that are not tied to the…

Recently I downloaded a kind of fun app called “Slowly”. Slowly’s claim to fame is that it is an international pen pal app. Having been raised overseas and having traveled to a few different places in the world, the idea of communicating with someone from another country was interesting to me. The other thing that…

For a few weeks in the newsletter, you’ve seen a note that I (Pastor Jay) am starting classes this week for a “Doctor of Ministry” that is affectionately known as the “D.Min”, not to be confused with the nefarious spirit creature. I am taking on this project with so much gratitude for University Lutheran, allowing…