A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Newsletter (Page 26)
There is something about having a great name, and this Bible reading plan has a GREAT NAME. The name of this plan is “the Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers”. Rather than giving you a defined week by week set of readings, the plan simply separates the Bible into different days. So every Sunday…
For the next few weeks we are going to be reviewing different Bible reading plans to give you an introduction into some ways that you can start to read the Bible. Today we’re looking at “Reading the Word of God,” a Bible reading plan put together by three different Lutheran church bodies working together. You…
Recently, through the “Question of the Week” in our email newsletter, we found out that people wanted to grow most in the area of “understanding the Bible”. When we dug a little deeper, we found that this was coming from about three places: 1. “I feel like I don’t know where to start.” 2. “I…
Here’s your big word for the day, “Adiaphora”. “Adiaphora” literally means “it doesn’t make a difference”, and it is the Latin word used by the Lutheran Reformers to talk about things that don’t have a necessarily Biblical basis, but are a part of church practice. Confirmation is a good example of this. Nowhere in Scripture…
One of the aspects of worshiping at a liturgical church is that it has an ancient feel to it. That’s on purpose. Liturgical churches seek to connect the present day with the ancient reality of the faith. The sainted Robert Webber wrote a whole series of books on this topic called “Ancient-Future”. So our worship…
If you’re here on a Sunday morning, right after the Words of Institution (“On the night in which He was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ….”) and right before people come up to receive communion, you will hear something to the effect of “we believe that this meal is truly the Body and Blood of our…
The old joke goes that two Lutherans went to go see a Star Wars film together and when they heard a character say, “the force be with you,” they responded, “and also with you.” We have a lot of fun in Easter proclaiming “He is Risen!” and then responding “He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!” Those…
One of the questions I get from time to time from non-Lutheran students is, “hey, what are all those ‘Lutheran’ holidays about?” I try to explain that they are more than just “Lutheran” holidays, but that most liturgical Christians celebrate these things. Those holidays include things like Pink Candle Sunday, Pentecost, Reformation Day…and of course,…
“What do you do?” It’s a question that I get from time to time. It is the dynamic equivalent of the college “What’s your major?” Some people bemoan those questions because they are so cliche, but I actually think that there is something to them. When we ask “what do you do?” we’re asking for…
Not too long ago I ran across an internet video that talked about a church in Finland that hosted a “Metal Mass,” wherein worship was conducted alongside heavy metal instrumentation and style, like electric guitars, headbanging drummers, rapid melodies, and soaring solos. This maybe fits for Finland, which supposedly has the highest per capital metal…