CORE Voice Newsletter, Issue 6, November 2019
In This Issue...

Lutheran CORE’s writers underline the need for absolution, confession, renewal and reform. They:
  • discuss how to live life together.
  • note the projected decline of the ELCA and possible ramifications for the NALC and LCMC.
  • find the ELCA lacking in the diversity of opinion arena and they point out its wont to condemn others and make them feel unwelcome.
  • point out dangers within our culture, such as theological revisionism, the need to prepare to pass on the keys to the next generation of leaders, and to train all our people — particularly our youth and to catechize them in an “intentionally countercultural way.”
  • advise that sermons need to be apologetic in tone, whether pastors are apologists by vocation or not.
  • warn that the price to be paid for the freedom of preaching the gospel fully and faithfully is eternal vigilance or … we too may end up in boiling water like the proverbial frog. 

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Lutheran Renewal and the Absolution
Vice President of the board of Lutheran CORE
Whoever said it, said it well: without the absolution—“I forgive you all your sins for Jesus’ sake”—Lutheranism has no particular reason to exist. Every issue of the Reformation, from preaching and the sacraments to papal authority, revolved around the bedrock confession that sinners receive mercy through Christ alone. Luther put it clearly in the Large Catechism: “Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin” (Large Catechism, The Creed). Forgiveness is God’s mission, and there is no clearer statement of it than the absolution.  If we want to talk renewal, both in the Church and in society, it must begin with that justifying word.
Reflections on the Augsburg Confession
Lutheran CORE Board member
Note from CORE Executive Director, Dennis D. Nelson: We warmly welcome Pastor David Charlton to the board of Lutheran CORE. David is pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Niceville, Florida. He is deeply committed to the proclamation and preservation of the historic, orthodox Christian faith, which is based upon the Bible and is expressed in the Lutheran Confessions. We look forward to all of the articles that he will be writing for our newsletter, CORE Voice.  

"The Model Constitution is how we have agreed to live together,” she said. “No,” I thought to myself, “the Augsburg Confession is how we have agreed to live together.” The conversation arose because the synod office had asked me to update my congregation’s constitution. I began work on it, but had a concern about a part of the Model Constitution that seemed to require me to violate the Augsburg Confession. When I shared concern with the synod office, that was the reply.

One of my greatest frustrations serving as a pastor in the ELCA is the feeling that the Augsburg Confession has been eclipsed as the standard for how we will live together.  A perfect example of this is a video greeting given by Bishop Guy Erwin for the Southwest California Synod at the beginning of the 2019 Pride Month. He said, “Lutherans believe that God’s love and mercy accepts us as we are, with no prior conditions, and then teaches us to love each other in return. This is what we call the Gospel.” 
Not Here to Be Boiled
Former member of the board of Lutheran CORE
Brett Jenkins is an ardent defender of the historic, orthodox Christian faith. He is also an assistant dean in the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). We are very grateful that he continues to write for Lutheran CORE.  

Without a high view of Biblical authority, we can glean from its pages the sorts of vaguely inspiring ideas about God that are largely our projections in the first place, but we cannot receive revelations about God — or about God’s will for us, His creatures.

And that is exactly what theological revisionism is all about; it is about recasting God’s revelations as human conceptions, and once everything is a human conception, all is mere politics, the rules of which we know well from Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and Foucault… not to mention Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Alinsky. In such a world, it is perfectly legitimate for the philosopher-kings-and-queens to determine which views are “more equal than others” and to eliminate cross-examination in the interest of “justice.” 
Handing Over the Keys
Director of the Congregations in Transition (CiT) Initiative
So ELCA membership as of 2017 was 3.4 million. The projection for 2050 is that membership will be only 67,000! That’s right, 67,000.

And weekly worship attendance? As of 2017 just under 900,000 people worshiped at ELCA congregations in a typical week. The projection, which in this case is for 2041, is that weekly worship attendance will be only 16,000. You read that correctly: 16,000.

So what, if any, are the conclusions and/or implications of these predictions when it comes to confessing Lutheran congregations in the LCMC and NALC? I can think of at least three.
Obsessed with Diversity
Executive Director of Lutheran CORE
Evidently the ELCA Conference of Bishops’ highest value and greatest joy is not the joy of heaven, which is described in Luke 15 as being like the rejoicing of a shepherd who finds the lost sheep, the woman who finds the lost coin, and the father whose son has returned home. Instead their highest value and greatest joy is diversity.

... considering the recent ELCA Churchwide Assembly, I wonder how much diversity actually exists in the ELCA. Sure, the Conference of Bishops might now have more racial and ethnic diversity in their membership than ever before, but is there also a diversity of opinion? Is a diversity of opinion even welcome in the ELCA? Because orthodox students at ELCA seminaries tell me about being bullied and even silenced, I would say, “No.”

I find it absolutely astounding that there is no mention that either the Churchwide Assembly or the Conference of Bishops even brought up the [Zscheile] report. Rather what are they doing? Celebrating their “blessed diversity.” 
ELCA: Answer the Question!
Executive Director of Lutheran CORE
There is a question I have asked several times, but I have been unable to get an answer. The question is this –

How can the ELCA say that 2019 is the tenth anniversary of LGBTQIA+ persons' being able to serve freely in the church when what was actually voted on and approved at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly was only the ordination of persons in publicly accountable, life-long, monogamous same gender relationships?

Recently I was sitting at a table during lunch with several pastors from the synod in which I have been rostered since retiring. When I realized that one of the persons at the table was a member of the synod council, I figured this was an opportunity to ask my question. So I did. 
Recap of Encuentro 2019
Member of Lutheran CORE Board
"...Build yourselves up in your most holy faith..."   Jude 20                                              
"...Mantenganse en el amor de Dios, edificandose sobre la base de su santisima fe..."  Judas 20
 
On Holy Cross Day, Saturday September 14th over seventy lay leaders, pastors and neighbors gathered at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Chicago's Hermosa neighborhood for the inter-Lutheran " Encuentro " for Hispanic Latino Ministries, sponsored annually by Lutheran CORE.
ALPB Anniversary Medal Presented to Pope Francis
Pastor Terrence Weber, first non-Roman Catholic (RC) person to serve on a RC two member commission for the Canonization of a Saint, presented a medal to Pope Francis at the Vatican on November 5th. He said, "On behalf of 80 million Lutherans I present this medal to you commemorating your historic visit to Sweden for the Joint Commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation and the 1999 Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification."

In a phone conversation with the ALPB's Rev. Frederick Schumacher, Pr. Weber said that "the Pope examined both sides of the medal and while looking at the obverse where he appears next to Luther he smiled and pointed to his image and said, 'That's me and Luther!'"

Rev. Frederick Schumacher and family developed the concept for the medal. The photo was taken by a priest, a friend of Pr. Weber.
Insert Included in Presentation Box
Click below to see details about this medal which depicts Martin Luther and Pope Francis.

The Christian Faith: A Catechism for the Curious
Editor's note:I love this ALPB catechism, so I'm buying my teenager her own copy of it for Christmas. She can't have mine because it's too valuable to me. I read this book from cover-to-cover and it's exactly what she needs. Why? Because my daughter asks tough theological questions that I struggle to answer; Pr. Reisen answers just about all of them herein. It is called an adult catechism. As Pr. Jenkins noted in his article above, we need to " catechize a new generation of theologians from elementary school age on up in an intentionally  countercultural  way." This will help!
Dr. Robert Benne liked it too. He wrote, "It is a pleasure to write the preface for Pastor Riesen's new adult catechism. I not only read the manuscript in preparation for publication, I actually enjoyed it." He goes on to state that the book is winsomely written and that Pr. Riesen draws upon years of experience, is well-read, and offers "good orthodox Christian instruction of a Lutheran sort." He writes, "...he sees Lutheranism as a reform movement within Western Christianity."
March for Life and 2020 NALC Life Conference
Trinity Lutheran Church in Joppa, Maryland will host the 2020 NALC Life Conference on January 23, 2020--just one day before the 2020 March for Life in Washington, DC. Joppa is about 60 miles from DC. Click the Read More button to see a lot more detail!

Photo courtesy of Life Issues Institute.
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