The Altenberg Thesis by C.F.W. Walther

When some of the first Lutheran's from Saxony settled in and around St. Louis in the early 1800s a major issue arose when Bishop Martin Stephan was deposed. Many had believed the old patristic addage, "Wherever the bishop is, there is the church."

Were they still a legitimate chruch without a bishop? What is the church? Are there visible signs or is it all a matter of invisibility? These are some of the questions they struggled with after leaving the old country. C.F.W Walther rose to the occasion, and after spending some time in the scriptures and reading Luther on the matter, began to take the reigns of the fledgling church that would become the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. But before this happened he was challenged to a debate over this question of the "church". He formulated and defended an eight-point thesis and won the crowd over. This is called the "Altenberg Thesis" and I leave it for your perusal:

I. The true Church, in the most real and perfect sense, is the totality (Gesaintheit) of all true believers, who from the beginning to the end of the world from among all peoples and tongues have been called and sanctified by the Holy Spirit through the Word. And since God alone knows these true believers (2 Tim. 2:19), the Church is also called invisible. No one belongs to this true Church who is not spiritually united with Christ, for it is the spiritual body of Jesus Christ.

II. The name of the true Church belongs also to all those visible companies of men among whom God’s Word is purely taught and the holy Sacraments are administered according to the institution of Christ. True, in this Church there are godless men, hypocrites, and heretics, but they are not true members of it, nor do they constitute the Church.

III. The name Church, and, in a certain sense, the name true Church, belongs also to those visible companies of men who have united under the confession of a falsified faith and therefore have incurred the guilt of a partial departure from the truth; provided they possess so much of God’s Word and the holy Sacraments in purity that children of God may thereby be born. When such companies are called true churches, it is not the intention to state that they are faithful, but only that they are real churches as opposed to all worldly organizations (Gemeinschaften).

IV. The name Church is not improperly applied to heterodox companies, but according to the manner of speech of the Word of God itself. It is also not immaterial that this high name is allowed to such communions for out of this follow:

1. That members also of such companies may be saved; for without the Church there is no salvation.

V. The outward separation of a heterodox company from an orthodox Church is not necessarily a separation from the universal Christian Church nor a relapse into heathenism and does not yet
deprive that company of the name Church.

VI. Even heterodox companies have church power; even among them the goods of the Church may be validly administered, the. Ministry established, the Sacraments validly administered, and the keys of the kingdom of heaven exercised.

VII. Even heterodox companies are not to be dissolved, but reformed.

VIII. The orthodox Church is chiefly to be judged by the common, orthodox, public confession to which its members acknowledge and confess themselves to be pledged.

Church Polity and Leadership

Last week I begun a 5 week course up at Concordia University on Church Polity and Leadership. While you would think this topic would be a tad dry and not as sexy as something like...Systematic Theology, I am finding it extremly interesting and valuable. It probably helps that the professor, Pr. Greg Seltz (who is also the program director), is a dynamic speaker who brings a lot of practical experience and wisdom to the topic from years pastoring and church planting.

There are several books required for the course as well as journal articles, and all seem to be pretty good, but my favorite of the bunch has to be Models of the Church by Avery Cardinal Dulles. I don't read Catholic theologians very often (it's sort of in our Lutheran blood I guess). But this treatment looks at the church from the various ecclesiological models that have sprung up through the history of the church and find some level of connection to the scriptures. Thus, he looks at the church from the standpoint of: institution, mysterious body, sacramental presence, servanthood, etc. What I really appreciate is Dulles' honesty to critique his own community, while also seeking to reform her. While I'm only a couple chapters in, what I believe he is trying to show is that you cannot force one single ecclesiology upon the church, because it is like lifting one section of scripture up as more authoritative than the rest, and doesn't appreciate the diversity and continuity of the Biblical expressions for the church. She is an institution, but she need not be institutionalized. She is a sacramental presence, she is a servant, she is the herald, she is the mysterious body of Christ. These all fit together to make up the communion of saints.

I'm also learning the value of Lutheran simplicity. Where is the church? Wherever Christ says he will be. Where does he say he will be? In his Word and Sacraments. Thus, wherever the Word is preached and the sacraments administered, you know objectively, that Christ is present and that his church is gathered. More to follow on this as I realize this last paragraph is painted with a very broad stroke of the brush...er...keyboard.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for my Vicarage

This past Sunday my congregation had its first semi-annual meeting to get a lot of business sorted out at the beginning of the year. While these are absolutely necessary I must admit that frankly, I hate meetings, especially where there are over 100 (well meaning, but opinionated) people. They are often long, tedious, and make me pray ever more diligently for Christ's immediate return.

At this meeting, however, one of the major decisions that had to be approved, was my call and support to be Grace Lutheran's Vicar. Vicar? Yes, an odd term I admit. It's latin and generally means in the stead of - and in Lutheran parlance, it means I am a seminarian in training for the pastorate and am working under the direction of another pastor. Grace has not supported a vicar or seminarian since the early 70's! So this was a big deal for her. Thankfully, my pastor did a wonderful job presenting the need for the position, my qualifications, and more importantly this as an opportunity for the church. Thankfully, this also means paying my tuition at Concordia. Unlike the nomral seminarian routes within our synod, which offer just a year long vicarage in the 3rd year of seminary, I will be serving a 4 year vicarage in one parish concurrently with my studies. This is still a relatively new practice, but one that I think has tremendous advantage for the local body of Christ. In this position, I will have opportunity to:

• Preach regularly
• Lead in the Liturgy and prayers in various services
• Teach Bible studies and Catechism classes in a variety of settings, including our school children where I hope to lead the weekly chapel as my schedule permits
• Strategize with the pastor and board of elders on matters of spiritual growth and discipleship
• Work with young couples in their pre-marriage classes
• And generally, learn from my mentor whom I'm serving under, Rev. John Bombaro, who is both a great pastor and biblical scholar

For all of this I am grateful to my parish for their confidence, and thankful to God for this calling. I pray he would strengthen me for the days ahead, grant me understanding and wisdom as I continue my studies and minister to his people. And may I never forget that this calling is not deserved or a right that I am entitled to, it is a position of servanthood to be lived out in humble submission to the true Shepherd of souls, Jesus Christ. Amen.

PERICOPE HELPS

In the Lutheran Church we follow (at least my church) the Revised Common Lectionary 3 year cycle of readings on Sunday. This includes an OT, Psalm (in the gradual spot), NT Epistle, and Gospel reading. There is usually a point of contact between the readings that help define the theme or motif. I appreciate the thought that went into setting up this lectionary and it benefits both the preacher and the congregation in multiple ways. Here are a couple of advantages I see by utilizing the lectionary:

• It forces the preacher to deal with "the whole counsel of God's Word" rather than just preaching from "hobby horse" texts. Some preachers are great w/ the epistles and hate narrative passages and vice versa.


• When preached well it helps both preacher and parishioner see the entire drama of Scripture. If exegeted in a canonical/Biblical Theological way the preacher can connect the OT and NT together using parrallelism, promise/fullfillment, type/shadow, Messianic motifs, etc. I see this aspect as an advantage over the normal expositional preaching through an entire book verse by verse.


• The readings/sermon when coupled with complimentary hymns and prayers can bolster the Church calendar so that the Trinitarian life with emphasis on the Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ taking center stage is re-enacted year in and year out. Even if a church doesn't have the greatest preacher the lectionary and liturgy get the Gospel clearly out.

To this end, I recommend a very helpful site called Pericope.org which features notes on the seaons, the readings, and offers a ton of recommendations on hymn selection to compliment it all. Additionally, there are helpful expository notes on the lectionary from Pastor Buls.

The Trinity and Humanity - Extract by Chester

I gave a brief talk to our parish school teachers a few months back entitled, The Doctrine of the Trinity: Relationships that Matter, which I was going to post in full, but I realized that my notes would be fairly incoherent and require a rewrite. Instead, I thought I would link an extract of a chapter by Tim Chester in his book, Delighting in the Trinity, which focuses on a very good application of understanding the Trinity (and which I heavily borrowed from).

In short, he argues that personhood has largely been misunderstood (falling prey to Greek thought rather than the Biblical truth). He states that our relationships largely define us as people in light of the Trinity. The Father is the Father because he has a Son. The Son is a Son because he has a Father and so on. When we diminish these relationships, we are sinning and dehumanizing ourselves. Great pastoral application points that I would never have considered. Highly worth 30 minutes of your time.

PDF: The Trinity and Humanity by Tim Chester

Tribe Building with Help from Seth Godin

I've been pondering the topic of pastoral leadership of late and I realized that I stand in the not-so-happy middle ground of current publishing in the area. My Lutheran synod is largely composed of two polarities: Church Growth types & the Confessional Fundamentalist crowd. The Church Growth types do not seem to be rooted very well in the scriptures, nor do they seem to appreciate their own tradition or liturgy very much, but they do long to see the church reaching people through missionional endeavors (which is good). The Confessional-Fundamentalist crowd is firmly rooted in the scriptures and tradition (which is very good, in my opinion), but they seem to lack any desire to progress or change tactics for the purpose of mission. Then there is me, who wants to do both, and to do them both well.

The church growth model tends to rely heavily upon current marketing techniques and business development structures, which in turn causes the confessionalists to whince, because they do not see the need for such dependence. I see a need for having a foot in both worlds, and learning from our surrounding culture without capitulating or idolizing it so long as the Gospel is in no way being crowded out by such techniques.

All of this prologomena to say that I purchased a book entitled, Tribes: We Need you to Lead Us, by Seth Godin. My friend Drew Goomanson intruduced me to Godin while vacationing together in Hawaii a couple years ago. Godin is a popular blogger, writer, and entrepreneur. He is also a keen sociologist that writes about cultural trends, similar to Malcolm Gladwell, but without the depth of research. This book interested me as it looks at the idea of community (hence, Tribes) and what connects and motivates them from a leadership perspective. It is here that I find a useful point of contact as a pastor. A pastor leads a tribe called the local church.

Here is Godin's definition: "A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea" (pg. 1). Thus you can say that a church is a tribe because it is connected to one another through its union with Christ (confession and baptism), connected to a leader (pastor/undershepherd of Christ), and connected to an idea (the Gospel).

He goes on to say that "all that a group of people need to be a tribe is two things: (1) a shared interest and (2) a way to communicate" (pg. 2). What I find interesting is that he acknowledges what all Christians should know. "Human beings can't help it; we need to belong" (pg. 3). From the creation account in Genesis 2 we learn that part of our inherent make-up is that it is "not good that man be alone". The perichoretic life of our Triune God in his supreme self-giving/receiving is largely that which makes us the imago Dei, and according to Trinitarian thinkers like Colin Guton, it is also part of the definition of personhood.

I'm working through how to best enable my local parish to build communities of discipleship (tribes growing on mission for Christ). In future posts I plan on using Godin, Bonhoeffer, and others as partners in dialogue. For Godin's free "Tribe Building Tactics" click, here.

Greek for Beginners...

For anyone interested in learning New Testament (Koine) Greek, there is a great site called Little Greek. It is interactive with helpful flashcard-like games. I would imagine if you spent about 20 minutes a day working thru the lessons as well as reading thru John and building your vocab, it wouldn't take long to get a basic working knowledge. Probably not deep enough to do real translation work, but for the educated layman a great place to start. Additionally, I would also recommend Mounce's Greek for the Rest of Us (link will take you to his website with a bunch of free audio). While you won't come away understanding the intricacies of Greek grammar, you will definitely understand English translations better and how to read your Bible utilizing Greek exegetical tools. This is extremely helpful if you lead a Sunday school or Bible study in your local parish.

Learning the Liturgy - Confession & Absolution

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)

In a culture drowning under the deluge of self-empowerment techniques, true Christianity stands in direct opposition declaring: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). At its most basic level Luther said the Christian faith can be summarized with the phrase: The forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. Certainly it is bigger in scope than this, but without this vital truth, it is mere religion and worthless. As one pastor put it, “Christianity is not a self-improvement plan. It is about God doing for us what we could not do ourselves.”

This is why following the invocation on Sunday morning, we Lutherans fall at the feet of our gracious God and confess our sins and receive absolution. It is the recognition that we stand before our holy God by the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ and not through our own inherent goodness or works. I’ve always appreciated that this takes place at the beginning of the service as it becomes a preparatory element and releases in me a true sense of thanksgiving and joy, freeing me to worship wholeheartedly, because I am reminded that I have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, my sins are nailed to his cross. Most Sunday mornings I must admit that I enter the sanctuary as a man weighed down by sin and repeated failures. I trust that I am not alone on this one. Thus, I feel the immeasurable weight of stating aloud with my fellow sinners:

Most Merciful God, We confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment.

These may sound like harsh words to the uninitiated, but they are true nonetheless. Therefore, when our pastor declares that my sins forgiven I do not just wish the slate was wiped clean. I know it actually is! And this provides great impetus for me to sing robustly to the praise of my great Redeemer.

Absolution may seem odd to those coming to Grace Lutheran from a broad evangelical background. “I thought just Catholics practiced that,” is a frequently heard sentence. In point of fact, Martin Luther saw no biblical reason to get rid of this long held practice, both in the public liturgy and in private with the pastor since it follows our Lord’s words to his apostles, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:23). The Augsburg confession sums it up this way: “We also teach that God requires us to believe this absolution as much as if we heard God's voice from heaven, that we should joyfully comfort ourselves with absolution, and that we should know that through such faith we obtain forgiveness of sins” (Article XXV). Having confessed to God and received His forgiveness, we are truly ready to receive His Word and sing His praises. Amen!

Willimon on Preaching: Highly Recommended

It may sound sacreligious of a Lutheran promoting the work of a Methodist bishop, but when it comes to homiletics, Will Willimon is one of the best. Yes, he's been around for decades and written numerous books on preaching, liturgy, and pastoral care, and frankly, most of it I must admit is excellent, particularly his book: Peculiar Speech (Preaching to the Baptized), which I'm reading now.

But the purpose of this post is to point you to two lectures he gave: (1) The Power of Preaching and (2) The Person of the Preacher. He is sometimes crass and quite funny, but there is a raw honesty that comes from his experience of having to deal with difficult biblical texts and the aftermath of preaching those hard-to-hear texts by parishioners who've been offended by Jesus. Good stuff! I couldn't figure out how to link to the iTunes podcast, so here is a link that will take you to the real link, if you have iTunes: Willimon's Podcast

WTF? Rebuilding my Blogging Virtual Self

After a long hiatus I have decided to renew the purpose of this particular blog. I was going to begin afresh with a different title and website altogether, but I've always liked the phrase "Walls to Fill." The name is suggestive as if to say, "There once was a time when the walls were full, when they stood tall and strong, but now they lie in disrepair, eroded, and in need of rebuilding." This is the story of Nehemiah who after receiving a vision from God left exile under a pagan king to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. This is everyone's story, actually. Everyone has a sense of what their life should be like: with God, with one another, with self and with this created world; and yet, we recognize things are not as they should be.

This blog will be about the rebuilding of life that comes by way of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In particular, it will focus on things you find in the book of Nehemiah and the rest of scripture:

• Theology
• The Bible
• The Mission of God's People
• Church Leadership
• Liturgy

The acronym for Walls to Fill is WTF, which also suggests another idiom found in popular parlance. Even though this may not sound very Christian(y) of me, I like this too. Maybe after reading something on this blog someone may say, "WTF?" At least it got someone thinking, and that's always a good thing.