Subtlety…
The above word just gives me phonetic horrors to look at, but what else is there?
I said in previous posts that there seems to be a trend where evangelicals embrace orthodoxy. My church is a pretty good church for that. Sure, new members class is a survey class intended to summarize catechism class. But, *really* Pastor does preach some pretty straight from Concord doctrine.
For example, we spent several months on the 10 Commandments… we are spending several weeks on The Apostles Creed… things like that. One could be fairly critical of our church because we don’t chant liturgy or Pastor doesn’t preach on the particular week’s lectionary passage… but as someone who is new to Lutheran Confessions, such a format has been very helpful.
A life long Lutheran could say, “Well, of course Pastor is preaching from the catechism and confessions.” Where an Evangelical turned Lutheran could say, “Wow, I never thought of it like this, where does this come from?”
Pastor is particularly skilled at presenting a full meal. Those who can handle steak have their meet, while those of use eating mashed vegetables are learning to digest such things.
When I talk about the differences between Evangelicalism and Confessional Lutheranism, I naturally talk about Pastor and my church. My church is great because it is clear discipleship is a life long process.
As I have reviewed a couple of my posts, I wanted to make clear that my church isn’t neglecting the teachings of the Confessions, rather, it is subtle and makes a person want to learn more.
I started attending my LCMS church because my parents were new members. And I kept going because I thought, “Wow, this is great preaching.” And before I knew it, I was convinced that Jesus really is somehow present in sacrament. I still really can’t explain it, but I don’t think we will be able to until Heaven. And then, I thought, “Yeah, when Josh and I have children, they should be baptized.” I really couldn’t tell you why, but I trusted it was right… now I’m beginning to understand why.
When Pastor teaches, it is always Confessional Lutheran… but it is subtle and the Holy Spirit makes you want more… And it is a good way to catechize Evangelicals…
I said in previous posts that there seems to be a trend where evangelicals embrace orthodoxy. My church is a pretty good church for that. Sure, new members class is a survey class intended to summarize catechism class. But, *really* Pastor does preach some pretty straight from Concord doctrine.
For example, we spent several months on the 10 Commandments… we are spending several weeks on The Apostles Creed… things like that. One could be fairly critical of our church because we don’t chant liturgy or Pastor doesn’t preach on the particular week’s lectionary passage… but as someone who is new to Lutheran Confessions, such a format has been very helpful.
A life long Lutheran could say, “Well, of course Pastor is preaching from the catechism and confessions.” Where an Evangelical turned Lutheran could say, “Wow, I never thought of it like this, where does this come from?”
Pastor is particularly skilled at presenting a full meal. Those who can handle steak have their meet, while those of use eating mashed vegetables are learning to digest such things.
When I talk about the differences between Evangelicalism and Confessional Lutheranism, I naturally talk about Pastor and my church. My church is great because it is clear discipleship is a life long process.
As I have reviewed a couple of my posts, I wanted to make clear that my church isn’t neglecting the teachings of the Confessions, rather, it is subtle and makes a person want to learn more.
I started attending my LCMS church because my parents were new members. And I kept going because I thought, “Wow, this is great preaching.” And before I knew it, I was convinced that Jesus really is somehow present in sacrament. I still really can’t explain it, but I don’t think we will be able to until Heaven. And then, I thought, “Yeah, when Josh and I have children, they should be baptized.” I really couldn’t tell you why, but I trusted it was right… now I’m beginning to understand why.
When Pastor teaches, it is always Confessional Lutheran… but it is subtle and the Holy Spirit makes you want more… And it is a good way to catechize Evangelicals…
posted by Consecutive Odds @ 7:40 PM
2 Comments:
At 12:15 AM ,
Monika @ Lovely Bookshelf said...
RYC: well, it did refer to the real Alice that Lewis Carroll based his Alice character on... but I didn't really find it to resemble the actual Alice in Wonderland story so much. I might have missed something though! hehe =)
At 6:16 AM ,
Consecutive Odds said...
Thanks for the recommend!
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