2024 Synod Convention Recap Issue
Circumspectly in the World God So Loves
A Rush for Better Gold
At the 125th anniversary of the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, we visited the Gold Rush Cemetery in Skagway, Alaska. The majority of burials there happened in 1898 and 1899. Causes of death were from such things as inadequate sanitation, a spinal meningitis epidemic, poorly-prepared stampeders who suffered from the cold and hostile environment, avalanches and drowning from ice breaking in rivers and lakes, even murder and acts of violence, often as a result of greed and competition. Suicide was another cause for some who were overwhelmed with the many hardships and disappointments endured by so many.
The Klondike Gold Rush began in 1897. Stampeders hurried past the cemetery on one side the White Pass Trail and the Skagway River on the other. They were making their way to the White Pass summit, Lake Bennett, the Yukon River, and the Klondike. Each came believing there was every chance gold would be found, and he or she would be the lucky person to claim it.
In February 1898, the Rev. Bjug Harstad (the first president of the reorganized Norwegian Synod in 1918, today the ELS) left Tacoma, WA for Alaska in search of gold. He went on this quest to help pay off a debt for Pacific Lutheran Academy (established 1894) so the doors of the institution might remain open. So while Rev. Harstad was seeking the riches of this world, it was for a noble cause, not for personal enrichment.
On his ship making its way to Alaska, Bjug noted how few passengers appeared to be Christian. At one point, he preached a sermon on John 3:16. The day before he scaled the 1,500-foot Chilkoot Pass, there was an avalanche, killing 70 people. The perils were real and an ever-present threat. Bjug returned to Tacoma on July 20, 1899, with no riches
from his pursuit of that elusive gold. However, God provided the resources through His people by other means so the institution did not need to close its doors.
It was striking to observe in the Gold Rush Cemetery the numerous graves of young men who had died in those years. One could well imagine many of them had contact with the Christian faith in their younger years, learning such passages as Jesus’ rhetorical question: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8: 36). Such words could have tormented those who lingered for some time approaching their deaths, knowing that their pursuit of riches produced nothing of lasting value for them. But in their conscience-stricken musings, perhaps some also remembered Jesus’ words regarding the tax collector who exclaimed in the temple: “God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Then Jesus observed: “This man went to his house justified.”
In this season of Trinity, we hear several Gospel lessons in which our Lord addresses earthly wealth in contrast to our heavenly riches. First Sunday after Trinity - The Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus; the Ninth Sunday – Parable of the Unjust Steward; the Thirteenth Sunday – Parable of the Good Samaritan; and the Fifteenth Sunday – Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount Trying to serve God and Mammon.
So on the 125th anniversary of Pastor Harstad’s return, one wonders if any of those souls of those buried in that cemetery received Bjug into the eternal dwellings upon his death in 1933, having heard the saving Gospel from his lips. On that last day, how many of those same bodies from this cemetery will be caught up together in the clouds with the Lord to dwell with Him forever for Jesus’ sake through the ministry of this faithful servant?
Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Christian Education & Our Christian Day Schools
by REV. CHRISTOPHER M. DALE, Contributing Writer, Principal,
We in the Evangelical Lutheran Synod are blessed with the impact of the Lutheran education in our Christian day schools. When our spiritual ancestors arrived in America from Norway in the mid-19th century, leaders among them exhorted congregations to provide Christian education for their children. While they had access to state-sponsored secular schools, they worried that if their children were educated apart from the word of God and Luther’s Small Catechism, they would become like the world around them, adopting the anti-Christian philosophies of the day.
A bit later in 1918, when the group that eventually became the ELS organized, the starting of Christian day schools became an even higher priority and the synod resolved that each of its congregations should have a school. Proportionally speaking, the new ELS quickly established many more schools than the much larger group from which they had separated.
In every season of our past, parents and pastors were concerned about the secular influences of the world on their chil-
dren. The same is true today, of course, and there is heightened concern because of the never-ending influences of mass media and social media on our children.
Today’s youth risk being labeled intolerant, toxic, and hatefilled for simply confessisng their faith in public settings, sometimes even in and by their public schools and universities. They are told to conform to what is contrary to Scripture or risk being cast out from the social groups of which they so desperately want to be a part. Technological progress has also made it possible for information and indoctrination to barrage today’s youth at a more rapid pace than ever before. Just as those who came before us worried about their children carrying on the faith for generations to come, so too we worry about this generation of children being properly equipped to withstand the temptation and persecution they face from the anti-Christian world in which they live.
In response to these challenges, the ELS continues to prioritize Lutheran schools where students daily receive the precious gospel of Jesus Christ in an environment that fosters a Christian worldview. Over the course of the last decade, I have had the opportunity to visit many of our schools and early learning centers. Each has its own unique qualities that sets it apart from
CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH & SCHOOL, Port St. Lucie, Fla.
other schools in the area. They are filled with dedicated teachers, administrators, and staff who devote themselves to assisting parents in raising their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. They are joyful places where children find safety and security from the often-hostile secular world.
In fact, many of our schools are experiencing an exciting new level of interest from parents outside the church looking for alternatives to the public school system, which is quickly moving away from traditional moral values. They see our Lutheran schools as safe havens for their children. Also, they are paying attention to the quality of our programs and wanting to get involved with them. What an amazing opportunity for evangelism!
Some years ago, a mother came to enroll her children in one of our ELS kindergarten programs in Florida. She opened the conversation by telling the principal that they were not interested in organized religion. They simply wanted a safe alternative to the public school system. As that first year went on, they experienced the love of Christ shown to them and their children by the school’s teachers and pastor, and the Holy Spirit began to work faith in their hearts through His Word. Soon their children taught them to pray at meals and at bedtime, and they
began reading Bible stories in their home. Before long, they began attending church, taking instruction, and requesting to be baptized. Now, a decade later, they remain vital members of the congregation and I’m told their children are considering our Bethany Lutheran College for their next step after high school.
Stories like this demonstrate new opportunities God is giving us to reach the lost through Lutheran education as children learn to know their Savior and His love for them and their families.
The progress of the school choice movement in states like Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Arizona presents even more opportunities for the ELS to start and grow Lutheran schools and Early Learning Centers. In these states, parents have access to tuition scholarships that make private school more affordable, and in some cases even free. Please join me in praying for God to equip us, with or without these opportunities, to support and establish Christian day schools for passing down our Lutheran heritage and faith to our next generations and for winning new souls for Christ and His kingdom!
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:16
2024 Synod Convention Essay (Condensed)
OCCASION:
107th Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod June 18, 2024 | Bethany Lutheran College | Mankato, Minnesota
AUTHOR: Rev. James Braun Trinity Lutheran Church | Brewster, Massachusetts
Walk Circumspectly in the World God So Loves
Evangelical Lutheran Synod
The Members of the Body of Christ Living in the Last Days
There is no existential threat to the Church.
Our Lord Jesus is quite adamant in telling us that the one, holy Church will never cease to exist. No one person, no one army, not even the amassed legions of earth and hell combined would be able to build an embankment around her and level her and her children to the ground.
Now, when Jesus speaks of peace, this is not telling His Church to calm down and know that everything will be all right in this life. For example: that the economy will improve or that your preferred candidate will win. We must always remember that there will never be, nor has there ever been, a total ceasefire between the Church and this world.
Jesus spoke words of peace before His capture in the garden…before His disciples would see Him brutalized… before they saw Him dead. Things, in an earthly sense, would not get better despite the resurrection three days later, yet He still gave them His peace. They were told that they would be hounded and later even be put to death for reasons similar to those that put Him on the cross, yet He still gave them His peace.
When we consider the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians, it might help to understand him better if you picture that the people in that city were members of a congregation that was very much like yours. Picture those Christians in the church in Ephesus as though Sunday after Sunday they were sitting alongside you in your sanctuary back home.
The culture outside their church was not unlike ours, either. They lived in a city in the center of which was a temple dedicated to the fertility goddess Diana. The Ephesians took part in all the rituals and experiences typical especially of the cults of the female gods, including sexual sins. But because of the very personal character of those sins, there was a very real danger to those Christians who came out from that false worship. They may have been tempted to go back to their former ways. Understanding this, it would appear that Paul was advocating that the people themselves walk the walk of the Ten Commandments. It seems reasonable, then, to take walking circumspectly as a moralistic command.
We often “run home to momma” with regards to the Law. Why? Because it works. It works at Christmas to modify our children’s behavior. It works in our culture when we outlaw certain behaviors from both left and right. It. Just. Works. With more emphasis on the rules in the Church, then, evidence tells us that the behavior of some people, at least, would improve.
It’s more than just rules, though, with Paul. Paul was reaching beyond the moral failings of society to tell the Christians in Ephesus that participating in such sinful things was not
the point, but that they will lead them into the much greater sin of unbelief because if they remained in it, they would be damned.
Paul warned the Ephesians: do not be partakers with them. Who are the “them”? They are the idolators there in that city from among whom some of the Christians had come. He wanted them not to become one with them either in practice or faith, because if they did, they then would end up back in the darkness from which they came.
So also with us. No, we weren’t united with the idolatrous of this world as it currently stands, were we? Yes, we were. We were once dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Our fleshly mind from conception was corrupt and we were enemies of God (Romans 8:7; 5:10). We all were by nature idolators, blasphemers, disobedient children, murderers, adulterers of all stripes (we were all hetero- and homosexual adulterers [and beyond]), thieves, liars, covetous of all those things we think we deserve. Breaking just one commandment made us guilty of them all.
Yet by baptism we were raised from that death to a new life. Yes, God’s Word continually reminds us of our former nature, but then, He chiefly tells us who we are right now in Christ Jesus. But proof of this faith of ours is nothing that can be seen.
Still, we want to quantify everything regarding the Christian faith. We want hard numbers on which to base our estimation of the success of what we are doing. We zero in on improving behavior as though that was the desired result. We become pleased when we preach the Law and people respond to its demands and threats. We make numerical success be the determiner of whether we are doing the right thing.
Yet the Christian faith is not so quantifiable as that. In fact, St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Colossians: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (3:1-4). Our lives as baptized children of God are hidden to the world.
The essential nature of that group of Christians in Ephesus, like ours, was not found in them refraining from sin. Their neighbors could easily point out the evil they committed at least in word and deed many times between trips to the church nave and the Lord’s Table as they lived their lives. Oh, sure, it may not have been frequenting the temple prostitutes in worship of Diana, but the innate hypocrisy even of Christians would have been seen and acknowledged as
being contrary to their profession of faith. Yes, saints, but also sinners.
What did mark them as something different was not their holiness, but the holiness of Jesus Christ given to them as a free gift. It was found in the all things Jesus sent His apostles out to teach, and the baptisms they were to perform were all done with the purpose of forgiving sins. These things revealed them to be different from the rest of the Ephesians. And this is what St. Paul preached in both synagogue and street for two years. And this is the very same thing that happens daily in your own congregations back home.
Paul, having spoken of the adulteries from which the Ephesian Christians were in danger, moved here from the negative (don’t) to the positive (be). He took them from the impurity of their relationships with idols to the purity of their relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the living hope of which St. Peter wrote in his first letter. “Living” because it is the living Christ who joins Himself to the Church, to you. “Living” because it can never die. It is an enduring hope that will be turned to joy when the Groom returns for His Bride. Though she can fail Him, He can never, nor will He ever, fail her.
This is why Paul sought to focus this little flock on those same things above the Colossians were to seek. They were to see that what they had in their congregation was the one and only thing that was needful for them. Their pastors served them by forgiving, by giving God’s grace in the Gospel in Word and Sacraments, by shepherding them as they were confronted by the assaults of those around them. Those things—all things—were given them Sunday after Sunday in the Divine Service. See how this plays out for us as we gather just as they did.
As Jesus said, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, so He is. When we are gathered together in His Name, it is not just so that we can know that He is with us. There is still more to the Divine Service than that. Our God is never done giving us His love, and so He seeks to give it to us in more and as many ways as possible. Not only does Jesus speak to His Church there through His ministers, but He also comes to her and—as a husband to his wife—speaks words of love to her and joins with her in a sacred communion so that two become one.
There you hear a joyous conversation taking place as the Husband and His Wife—Christ and His Church—enjoy their spiritual and physical union. You can almost picture them as though they started out on two opposite sides of a room at the wedding banquet and, through their words, you can see them moving closer and closer until they embrace for that first dance. The Lord be with you... and with your spirit... lift up your hearts... we lift them up unto the Lord... let us
give thanks to the Lord, our God... it is good and right so to do…take eat…take, drink…for the forgiveness of sins.
The desire of Christ and His Bride is that they be united, body and soul, for eternity. This union finds its fulfillment— on earth—in this service that is truly divine when the Husband washes and dresses the bride in Holy Baptism, when He speaks words of love and forgiveness to her in Absolution, when He offers His very body and the blood to her to be in communion with her as He carries her through this time and over the threshold into eternity. This is a treasure inexpressible.
There is, though, an existential threat to you, your children, and your neighbor. And it’s even worse than an existential threat. That word means that your very existence is in the balance. But with regards to your faith and flesh, the attacks of the evil foe will not result in your dissolution, but your eternal damnation. It would be one thing to lapse into nothingness, nevermore feeling or seeing. Simply not being anymore. But it’s another to endure the agonies of hell forever, always dying but never dead.
To bring about your eternal destruction, the Deceiver uses the weapons he has at hand to push us ever slightly off course, to turn our attention to things that ultimately don’t matter. He wants us to think we have the ability to change the world even though we have no real power to do this.
Perhaps one of the most perplexing and comforting parts of the Passion History of our Lord is this: Sitting at the table with His disciples, Jesus had been talking about His betrayal. He said that one of those twelve would hand Him over to His enemies. John asked, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus replied: “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him (St. John 13:25-27).
This is when Jesus said: “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately” (St. John 13:31). Those words “now” and “immediately” are important. They keep us from understanding the glory as being found only in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. But the treachery of Judas hardly seems to be a thing of glory. Shame, yes, but not glory.
Jesus is God who would become Man, conceived of the Virgin just as the Prophet Isaiah foretold. Jesus was telling the disciples that the glory would not be only for a man who offered Himself as a sacrifice in place of others, as someone who stands in the path of a bullet to save a hapless victim. But as Man and God He would be glorified there on the cross. Why? Because His sacrifice would indeed be enough to pay for the sins of the whole world which He so loved.
This was displayed not long after our Lord’s ascension. The apostles, flush with dramatic success as thousands were baptized, taught, and brought into the fellowship of the holy Supper, had been put into jail by the temple authorities. What was their crime? They healed a bunch of people and preached the Gospel. That’s it.
In prison, they were locked up, but then the Lord’s angel set them free. They were pursued again by the authorities and thrown back behind bars where they were beaten, commanded not to speak of this Jesus, and then set free. Then we hear: So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name (Acts 5:41). They not only put up with their suffering, they rejoiced in it.
The Christian church in the USA has land, buildings, money socked away, and the freedom to preach and teach as God commands. These are difficult things to lose. And rather than bemoan our place in our society, Jesus counsels us when He said that we are blessed… when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake (St. Luke 6:22).
So what should we do in the face of the wickedness that has taken over much of our culture? A question we must first ask is: “What is God’s will?” in the sense of determining for what we are to advocate in our nations. Do we know whom God wants in office? Can we be certain that it is His will that a particular bill passes?
The only job of the church is not to change the world but to forgive sins. On account of this, we can talk about objective and subjective love for your neighbor. Love is an easy concept to talk about in objective terms: “Jesus died for the world.” This is most certainly true. But in terms of the subjective, the individual, it’s much harder because we’d rather operate in categories. It keeps some distance between us and “them.”
We understand that each individual is of more value than the sparrow whose falling God notices, and we rejoice with the angels over even one sinner who repented. And it’s both Law and Gospel that must be our tools, even though this goes against our nature. We would rather exalt politicians, political parties, and even the Constitution as being not just God’s visible representatives with regards to His left hand, but as being in their positions (or seeking their positions) because we know what the will of God is, having so wisely figured out how He wants to get certain results.
Yet you and I so often fail in all of this, though there is a difference between what God’s Right Hand and God’s Left Hand do. Bishop Bo Giertz wrote at around the same time in history, but here from the Swedish context of a nation set between two anti-Christian philosophies—Nazism and Stalinism:
[We need] a living faith in the world to come, that which lies beyond and which the Church in all times has painted in bold images. All too often it has been said that this world-to-come can be permitted to fade away…if only we with all our heart took the opportunity to serve God in that setting in which we find ourselves today. The church should be more realistic, [it is argued]. However, the more she engaged herself in the struggles of the day, the more she was seized by the impatience of the fervent advocates fighting for societal causes…. She lost the crown of glory upon which it is written: [“She is patient, for she is of eternity.”]. She shared in that sin which so often blemishes our human zeal for world improvement: she forgot love to a refractory humanity. She began to protest, scold, and condemn, where she was called to suffer, pray, and serve.
None of what he said can be equated with capitulation, nor is his a call to passivity. It is in the context of her faith that the Church views the world as her Lord did, who said to Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (St. John 18:36). As far as the Church’s confession, serious damage is done if it puts its energy and time into changing this dying world instead of declaring that through Christ Jesus we look chiefly, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, for the life of the world to come.
The Love we show individuals does not mean tolerance. Both Law and Gospel must be preached, each in its time. These words are God’s Words, after all. The job of convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (St. John 16:8) is His to do, not ours. We are but tools created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
Realize this: there will not be one person who is not in heaven who should be there. The end is delayed until all whom the Lord has predestined have come to trust in Christ Jesus for their salvation. Believing this, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, we walk in the light of Christ always looking to Him for the gifts that bring our salvation so that we, in turn, give those good and perfect gifts to the world God so loves.
What in the world is going on?
transgenderism
Laura grew up in a typical middle-class family in the Midwest and says that she had a good early childhood. She was diagnosed with high-functioning autism when she was 11. Puberty was difficult for her. She suffered from polycystic ovarian syndrome. She struggled with depression and suicidal ideation. When Laura was about 15, she started to desire to be a man and embraced transitioning to a male identity until she was 22. She had hormone treatments and a double mastectomy. She now recognizes that many of her struggles centered on the thought of “being unloved and unlovable.”
The transgender conversation is an emotional one. It is easy for people on both sides of the discussion to become very judgmental very quickly. “Tolerance” can be used as an intolerant club to avoid a true discussion of the matter. The purpose of this article is not to win the fight but to approach the subject with compassion and the light of God’s Word.
Let’s begin by defining terms. Transgenderism refers to the broad spectrum of people who transiently or persistently identify with a gender different from their natal sex (Diagnostic and Statical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition). Closely related to transgenderism is Gender Dysphoria. People suffering from Gender Dysphoria have a “marked in-
by
by the ELS DOCTRINE COMMITTEE
Photo
Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
congruence between their experienced or expressed gender and the one they were assigned at birth” (DSM-5-TR).
Historically, issues of gender and sexuality have been viewed through the lens of mental illness, but that is changing. In fact, now those who suffer from Gender Dysphoria are being encouraged to embrace the gender of their mind and to force the body to conform to it with hormones and even surgeries. Gender Dysphoria can be seen as a battle between the body and the mind of the individual. A gender dysphoric person is suffering. Many feel, as Laura expressed, that they are unloved and unlovable. They need our compassion.
People with Gender Dysphoria will sometimes say, “I am a man/woman trapped in a woman/man’s body”. There is obviously great pain for the sufferer. Imagine looking in the mirror and not seeing the right body; thinking and feeling that you are trapped. That must be a tremendous burden. The extremes to which those suffering from Gender Dysphoria are willing to go, such as body- and mind-altering medications and body-changing surgeries, are an indication of the mental anguish that they experience. It could also be heard as a scream for love. They are looking for relief and happiness. Often, they do not find it. Again, they need our compassion.
Did God put them in the wrong body? Our bodies are gifts from God. God made Adam and Eve male and female. When He was done, it was very good (Genesis 1:28, 31). Our bodies are beautiful gifts from God. We may not always be happy with our bodies. We may want to lose weight or become faster and stronger. We may wish that we were taller or shorter. Jeremiah tells us, “The heart is more deceitful than anything. It is beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). When there is incongruity between a person’s biological sex and the person’s subjective thoughts and feelings about his or her gender, it is the thoughts that have been deceived. The physical body has not been deceived. Our minds are not always happy with the bodies that they see, but our mental dissatisfactions do not mean that God made a mistake. This is certainly true of our genders.
God made us male or female. There are rare cases in this fallen world where someone’s genes do not function properly while developing in the womb, and this person may be born with both male and female characteristics or incomplete sexual development. Sometimes exposure to certain chemicals during pregnancy can lead to similar problems during the development of a baby. However, the exception does not make the rule. God created male and female. In normal circumstances, when there is an incongruence between the experienced or expressed gender and the gender assigned at birth, the problem is not the body but the mind. Changing the body is not the solution. Changing the mind is. Many of those suffering from Gender Dysphoria turn to mental health professionals for help because they believe that this is a psychological issue. However, it is also very spiritual.
God caused St. Paul to write, “Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy and pleasing to God—which is your appropriate worship. Also, do not continue to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you test and approve what is the will of God—what is good, pleasing, and perfect” (Romans 12:1–2).
What can change our minds? Paul points us to the mercies of God. There are times when we may hate our bodies. God the Father loves our bodies. He loves them so much that He willed God the Son to take on a human body just like ours. Jesus suffered all of the infirmities and weaknesses of the body that we experience (Isaiah 53:2-4). He knows what it is like to be human. He knows you. He loves your body so much that He allowed His to be nailed to a cross and to suffer the punishment of hell in payment for your sins. He did this so that your body can be in heaven. God loves you. He doesn’t just love your mind, personality, and spirit. He didn’t just rescue your mind and soul. He saved your body. He loves all of you.
God’s love for our bodies is especially proven by the resurrection. God could have taken just our souls to be with Him in heaven. He is not satisfied with that. On the last day, Jesus will return and will raise the dead, uniting their souls once again with their bodies. He will then take the believers, body and soul, to be with Him forever. God obviously values our bodies as much as our souls.
God’s love is transformative. It has the power to change how we view ourselves. God’s powerful Word may change our minds by declaring that we are loved and loveable in Christ. In the light of God’s love, our bodies are gracious gifts from God and full of purpose. He has made you male or female with specific acts of service to perform. Your body has been sanctified, that is, declared holy and set apart for holy use. Paul urged the Roman Christians to be changed in mind and seek God’s will. He also encouraged the Corinthians by writing, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Your body was bought by the blood of God’s Son to be used according to God’s will.
There is much more that could be written about transgenderism and the devastation that it leaves in its wake. That is beyond the scope of this article. However, maybe you know someone like Laura and can be a supportive friend. You can lovingly point them to God’s love in Christ and what His Word says about the gift of their bodies. Maybe you are someone like Laura and need support. There is hope. We are loved and loveable in Christ.
2024 Photo Collage
107th Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod
68th Annual Meeting of Bethany Lutheran College, Inc.
9th Annual Meeting of the Lutheran Schools of America, Inc.
June 16 - 24, 2024
Bethany Lutheran College
Mankato, Minnesota
Announcing
FOR THE LOVE OF KINGDOM & SYNOD
Rev. Craig Ferkenstad retires from synod secretary after 28 years
To anyone familiar with synod convention and the day-to-day duties of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the role of synod secretary is very obviously a labor of love. It demands time and attention to detail. It calls for a love of synod history and an awareness that our synod’s present work is the next generation’s church history. And for the past 28 years, Rev. Craig Ferkenstad has gracefully and skillfully executed this role for our dear synod – a role from which he now has retired as of this past June’s convention.
Given the demands of time and attention and the many years of it, too, one might quickly ask, “Why all the work? Why so many years of it?” Well, Rev. Secretary Ferkenstad summarized that answer quite nicely. “This work (has been) special to me. I have done this for the love of the Kingdom -- for the love of the synod.”
Ferkenstad elaborated more on the “special” nature of the kingdom’s work as it has been carried out through the decades of our Evangelical Lutheran Synod:
“The Evangelical Lutheran Synod is a melting pot of strong-minded individuals. It was formed by members from the Norwegian Synod at places such as Luther Valley Koshkonong, Lime Creek, Jerico, and Norseland. The synod was cracked and nearly thrown away; but in 1918, this clay pot of the synod was mended and reshaped. Even though it never regained its former grandeur and her flaws still show, it has served well as a vessel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ”
As one with a well-informed and well-refined perspective of this ELS history and kingdom work, Rev. Ferkenstad also parted from his post with some encouragement for the future:
“We must have an appreciation of our own history, otherwise we become rootless and may become generic Lutherans… Treasure this jar of clay which we know as the Evangelical Lutheran Synod… that has been passed on from those who knew its great value! The value is the cost of the blood of the only-begotten Son of God who has risen from the dead. Do not hide your light under a bushel (Matthew 5:14–16) or close the cover on your heritage. Remember the Rock from which you were hewn (Isaiah 51:1) and let it flavor your every movement. Live in Christian love and trust for one another. Take care of each other. That is what makes our synod unique among American Lutherans.”
And finally, as one who knows and appreciates well-kept records, Rev. Ferkenstad made a point to record and acknowledge a few who were so very integral to him and his years of service.
“The pastor’s wife is not called to the ministry, but she is the one who holds the pastor’s hand and upholds his hands. It is important that I take note of my dear wife, Teresa, and all that she has done—for me, for the congregations, and for the synod! She has supported me all the way. Appreciation is also expressed to those who have assisted in the synod office, especially to Mary Jane Tweit and to Elsa Ferkenstad.”
ELS President Rev. Glenn Obenberger shared these words of thanks and appreciation for Ferkenstad’s decades of faithful service to our synod:
Rev. Craig Ferkenstad has served 28 years as our synod secretary and as a member of our Board of Trustees. That is over a quarter of our 107-year reorganized history… On behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, I wish to express to you, Craig and your helpmeet, Teresa, our deep appreciation for this truly faithful and zealous service… Craig, your love for the ELS can be observed in your love for her history and capturing its evangelical flavor in all that you write and say… You have served us in so many ways reflecting these fine qualities that have been put to use for our benefit. Enjoy your well-deserved retirement from this office as well.
Reverend Ferkenstad, Mange Tusin Tak!
Question ...
I’ve noticed that some Bible translations still include the Apocryphal books written between the time of the Testaments while the versions of the Bible we commonly use in church and in our daily lives do not contain those books. This leads me to wonder:
How did the Christian Church decide which books to include in the canon of Scripture?
Answer:
I’ve noticed that some Bible translations still include the Apocryphal books written between the time of the Testaments while the versions of the Bible we commonly use in church and in our daily lives do not contain those books. This leads me to wonder: How did the Christian Church decide which books to include in the canon of Scripture?
In the delivery room, the newborn baby cries and cries. When the nurse places the infant in her mother’s arms, she immediately calms down, recognizing her mother’s voice as the same voice she heard for months in the womb. Children do not choose their parents, but they do recognize them.
The same holds true for the Christian Church and the Holy Scriptures. The Church does not choose which books to accept as authoritative. Rather, as a child identifies its mother, over time the Church has identified those books which show themselves to be from God. The canonical Scriptures are simply those books which the Church has always recognized as having divine authority.
So what is meant by the word “canon”? The term “canon” comes from the Greek word kanon which means “reed” or “cane”—items which people commonly used as rulers and measuring sticks. Eventually kanon came to mean standard or rule. So, in connection with the Bible, the word “canon” refers to the list of books which the church has received as Holy Scripture.
The Scriptures testify to their own authority. In 1 Corinthians 14:37, for example, the apostle Paul writes, “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or a spiritual person, let him recognize that the things I write to you are the Lord’s commands” (EHV). The books of the Bible have an authoritative character and content that sets them apart from other writings. They show themselves to be not the words of men, but the words of God.
Yet that recognition by the church did not happen all at once, but over time. For the Old Testament, the canon was fixed by the time of Christ. Jesus told his disciples that everything must be fulfilled about him that was written “in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44, EHV), referring to the Scriptures according to the manner in which they were organized—and are still arranged today in the Hebrew Bible. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, wrote that, after the time of Malachi, no book was added to the Hebrew Scriptures.
When the Christian Church was first established, it did not take long for inspired men to begin writing letters of instruction and exhortation for congregations and other individuals. From the beginning, believers saw that these letters were inspired and authoritative. They read them in the public worship assemblies (1 Thessalonians 5:27) and eventually exchanged them between churches for mutual advice and edification (Colossians 4:16). Later came the four Gospels, recording the central events of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, followed by the remaining books, such as Acts and Revelation. Soon, congregations began gathering these writings into a single whole. Yet not every congregation in every place had an identical collection. Over time, however, Christians everywhere came to recognize which books were divinely inspired. For the most part, by the middle of the second century (around A.D. 150), the New Testament canon existed as we know it now. By the fourth century, faithful men like historian Eusebius and Athanasius of Alexandria listed the same twenty-seven New Testament books we have today.
Interestingly, the early church also recognized books and letters which were not inspired. Several of these writings, like The Shepherd of Hermas, were highly valued and could be read from in public worship, but they were never to be counted as Scripture.
Early church councils may have attributed authority to the New Testament books. This was not because there was confusion as to which books to admit and which to reject. As Dr. Neil Lightfoot puts it in his book, How We Got the Bible, “The church does not control the canon, but the canon controls the church” (p. 112). Scripture receives its authority from God, not from the church. In holding to the canon of Scripture, we simply recognize the authority these books already have as God’s Word. In the next column, we will take a look at why the Apocrypha are canonically rejected, but still included in some versions of the Bible.
Do you have a question for Pastor Van Kampen? ?
Send them via email: Send them via “snail mail”: pvankampen@holycrossmadison.org
Pastor Piet Van Kampen Holy Cross Lutheran Church 734
Never Confounded
Houston, Texas | February 17-21
The “Never Confounded” Retreat is an opportunity for our shepherds to be fed, to “lie down in the green pastures,” and to receive the waters of life. There will be daily offices (Matins/Vespers) and a communion service, as well as the availability for private confession and absolution. The retreat is to provide a relaxed setting for the “mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren.” Presentation topics include: the Christian conscience, family and congregational life, habits of daily prayer, burnout (defined, borne, healed, and prevented), and more. Pastors will be refreshed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and made aware of resources for ongoing spiritual care.
Pastors: Please block the week off so that you can take advantage of this retreat.
Congregations: Please consider setting funds aside so that your pastor can attend.
Early Registration:
• $175 (+ some transportation costs)
• Opens October 1st (Pastor Appreciation Month)
ELS PASTORAL CARE RETREAT