Northwoods Seelsorger

Having just come through the largest Christian holiday, where the church is often filled to overflowing capacity with a variety not often seen during the remainder of the year, the age-old question of close(d) communion again presents itself. With many families making the effort to attend church as a group for at least this one day of the year, the conundrum of altar fellowship seems never quite as acute. For how does one 'refuse' the Sacrament to one family member while allowing it to another? And how does one deal with family members who once belonged to the church yet have now moved on to other communions, many of them at theological odds with their former church? There is little doubt that many in the LCMS are not at all supportive of the established practice of close communion as officially confessed by the Synod , and this practice is probably widely ignored especially at the Easter celebration where attendance is at an all time high. The rationale for attending com...

As we prepared to reintroduce a midweek service this summer, a discussion arose regarding the appropriateness of offering multiple services. Two main arguments against this practice were raised: 1.) We are catering only to the convenience of people who want to attend church around their own schedules, and 2.) It divides the congregation. This service is only a seasonal offering, taking place from June through August, so the impact is limited. During the summer months we have noted that many people camp and travel and are often not available for Sunday services - at least not locally. Now it is true that some take advantage of this so as to have their Sundays free for other activities, whether that is to sleep in or engage in some recreational activity. If the service was not available they might very well come on Sunday anyway. For those who camp they are less likely to get dressed up and seek out a church in their area. One could certainly argue that if a person truly wished to...

One of the more popular topics raised at pastoral home visits would have to be that of funerals. To their credit many simply want to know the ethical and appropriate way to proceed with certain customs, like the disposition of their remains. One topic in this category is the subject of cremation . Over the years I have taken the position that the church and the scriptures have been neutral on this matter. I am aware of Dr. Alvin Schmidt's little volume Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: A Biblical and Christian Examination of Cremation (2005) , although I have yet to more than skim and spot read sections of the book. The link here is to the Amazon site, and the customer reviews may be worth your time if you would like to investigate this further. My view at present is with the reviewer who held this practice to fall within the area of adiophora, those things neither commanded nor forbidden by Scripture. Readers of this article may take a very different view of this, some b...

By now many of you are no doubt aware that Vermont has legalized gay marriage. The state house overrode the Governor's veto by a slim, but sufficient margin. Obviously this is not the result of an overwhelming majority, and it would be interesting to see the results of a statewide ballot initiative such as they had in California. At present four states in our union now have legal marriage for homosexual partners. What is interesting is that the three other states - Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa - legalized this new definition of marriage through the courts, not the legislature . And California, which experimented with this novel procedure only to have the voters overturn them, is again trying to force the issue through the court system, petitioning the judicial branch to legislate outside of its jurisdiction. We will wait to see if the courts will dismiss the decision of a fair majority of voters and again play fast and loose with the governmental framework that our fo...