As I lie down in bed last night, I pondered the serious question of what would the blog of a mature layman of a congregation of the LCMS look like. I took my age into consideration, factored in a Monty Python and Blackadder quotient, integrated it all together and I basically came up with this: I need to be a little more serious and a lot less sarcastic. If anyone thinks that in trying to become more mature I can just rip out my extremely dry sense of humour is kind of like asking an elephant to become a mouse. It just doesn't work. I am silly. Get over it. What I can and will is improve my tone while writing and put a little more thought into things. I am reactionary in nature, and I know I can get downright mean and sarcastic. Be patient. I'm trying.
 
Three Walls Preventing Reform: What's preventing genuine reform toward orthodox Lutheranism in the LCMS? Getting back to real Lutheran missions and parish life...  

An Essay on the Reform of our Own Estate (Despite the Three Walls): A diagnosis and a bold alternative to institutional politics for confessional pastors and congregations...
 
Confessional Lutheran Ministerium (CLM): A brotherly association of orthodox pastors for theological study, confessional practice, support, missions and more, but not a new synod

Finally, because I am a little silly, I would like to leave you with this quote. 
 

... because I want to be young and wild, and then I want to be middle-aged and rich, and then I want to be old and annoy people by pretending that I'm deaf.

You have to love Blackadder.

I'd be curious to know: How do you think a "mature LCMS layman" might blog differently than you do currently?
 
When I figure it out, I'll make sure to let you know.

I was at lunch today and, while in line at Quizno’s, I happened to see my pastor talking to one of the members of the church while eating. After paying for my food, I walked over to say hello. The normal chitchat ensued when the issue of the Terrible Swede’s blog and my blog came up. I have been much less of a problem to many of the local pastors because I just don’t talk about what is happening locally. My blog has a national audience and I don’t want to inflict local problems upon you all. It doesn’t mean there haven’t been exceptions, but, as a rule, I try to leave local problems alone.
 
So, what wisdom did my pastor impart on me? He asked me a simple question: do I want to continue blogging like a college student or am I finally going to start blogging like a mature LCMS layman? Because of that question, I asked myself another question: how does my blog reflect on my congregation? I am sure this will lead to more questions dissecting my words and myself.

I went for a bike ride today. While I was wheeling around, I saw this very cute pair of chocolate lab puppies. They ran up to the fence and barked at me. I rode along the fence and they ran after me. After a couple of seconds, the smaller of the two would play bite the bigger of the two and they began romping around, playing as only dogs can. It was extremely cute.
 
Maybe Josh is onto something here. I think the hymn parody from a while back says it all. Maybe we'll all have to travel down that road. Maybe not.
 
I've been so busy I haven't even had a chance to discuss a couple other major things that have happened in my life. I started a new job a couple of weeks ago. I am now a geotechnician for one of the bigger independent oil companies in Wichita. I'm learning a new language and I'm learning a lot about geophysics and the geophysical properties of rocks. I am enjoying the work so far, even though much of the work currently is just grunt work. Everyone in the company has to go through this. I'm willing to take my lumps.
 
Since I am taking flack from people for making fun (and allowing people to make fun) of Ablaze, (which is extremely childish on my part), all I need from someone who supports this program is a simple explanation: how does Ablaze not confuse law and gospel? If you can give me a good enough answer to that question, I will never speak of it again.

I make a fairly normal post criticizing the whole Ablaze craze and the "mission-minded" mindset that goes with it and no one even tries to respond (even though Thomas made a good joke). Alright, time for a little satire. Let's let everyone make Ablaze jokes. I do admit it is a bad idea not because it pokes fun at that mindset (and the mindset deserves all the flack they are getting from me because I, someone who cannot read Greek, somehow has managed to read Greek better that over 50% of the synod in convention), but because me and my friends have made all the jokes already. I shouldn't have bothered. Unfortunately, some people don't want to see it as satire and want to make big fusses over a program which can't even take basic Biblical scrutiny. Those same people probably write nasty letters to the editor to The Door.
 
Not-so good news for Rev. McCain. It looks like he might have one more interm appointment (maybe) before he gets swept under by events. It will be unfortunate because Rev. McCain has had CPH in the black now for the past two years, at least. He has offered incredible confessional products and we should all be thankful for the service he has done for the LCMS and Lutheranism worldwide, as evidenced by all those British Lutherans on my blogroll.
 
On an unrelated note, if you are on my blogroll and haven't posted anything within the last, ohhh, say a month, you might want to post something soon because I am looking to see who I can delete to trim my blogroll down. I actually don't want to lose anyone, but I can't have people on my blogroll who don't want to blog. It kind of defeats the purpose of the blogroll.

Here comes another contest. The rules are simple. Make your best Ablaze blast. I've probably used them all, but I must make sure.

More good news for us to ponder. Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

When you get a good night's sleep after a bottle of Chimay Ale that gets rid of the lactic acid that has made you crabby because of twelve hours of basketball, you tend to look at things just a little differently. Thomas too the time to send me an e-mail and my friend Ryan sent me an e-mail as well. They both told me the same thing, and it was a conclusion I had reached already without their help, but thank you for the e-mails. I'm staying. As I sat back and thought about it, things are not nearly as bad as they might look at first. We still have the seminaries, who both came out with opinions to the effect that the Dispute Resolution Panel decision in Benke's case was theologically unsound. John has an excellent point about the smaller synods we are in altar and pulpit fellowship around the world. So, I sit here like a fly on a garbage can, waiting. Patiently. Waiting.

Bunnie brings a little good news.

It seems my comment on the church not being mission-minded or purpose-driven (note on grammar: the first thing that stuck out to me about The Purpose Driven Life was the fact that the author failed to hyphenate the compound adjective purpose-driven. How do people get Ph.Ds without knowing basic grammar?). So, the good Lutheran question has to be asked: what do I mean? Do I mean missions are bad? No. Do I mean missions are not important? No. Do I mean missions don't have their place? No. Do I mean missions shouldn't be our top priority? Yes. For those who wish to beat me over the head with a stick, you might want to quit reading that lousy English Bible translation and actually pull out your Greek Bible before burning me on a stake like John Hus. Like Monty Python said, "Blessed are the Greek." Do you have Matthew 28:18-20 yet? No. OK, I'll wait.

You will notice that the first verb is very poorly translated in most English Bibles. There is no imperative verb there. There's no command, which makes you wonder why most English Bibles translate a command there. Hmmmmm. That's besides the point, however. What you do see is a verb representing something that happened in the past and that action is continuing to now. Rather than go, we are just going. We are going because that's just what we do. A healthy church will baptize and teach, not because of any command, but because it is its nature. It cannot be a church without baptizing and teaching. So, what does a church teach? Pure doctrine. A church cannot be healthy without having the foundation of doctrine to sit upon. An unhealthy church puts missions on par with pure doctrine, and I believe that is because that church is reading the great commission as law rather than gospel. So, if we're so healthy and doctrinally pure, why are we trying to set the world ablaze?

The official new release has been posted on the other blog.

There is demand for what I think about what happened tonight. What I think is this simple. Unsere geliebte Synode ist tot.

Can These Bones Live? The Dilemma of Missouri's Confessional Remnant

There comes a time where you just have to decide enough is enough. Everyone needs to be prepared to shake the dust off your sandals and walk away. We might lose a lot because of this, but we are only called to be faithful, not to be mission-minded or to be purpose-driven, only to be faithful. To those of you who in England, we need the ELCE to stand strong with us on the long, hard road we are about to embark. It helps if we have friends. To those of you in WELS and the ELS, there is good news: the synodical conference may yet arise from the ashes of the LCMS. Monty Python may have gotten it right in this case: always look on the bright side of life.

It is time for me to really stir the pot and get everyone on edge.

In Statu Confessionis

For those who want more current updates about the convention, I direct you here and here.

I have forgotten that tomorrow I have a fundraiser I will be at all day, so I will be unable to blog much of anything on the crucial first day of the convention. I shall out up a summary on what has occurred with my patented commentary (not-so random Monty Python lines) on the day's events. Pray for all the participants involved and, God willing, we shall have a new SP tomorrow.

Bush Lied! Bush Lied!

So many people are so intent on believing this that they cannot accept it when he tells the truth.

I love it when I find stories the National People's Radio will not cover and continue to bolster the claim that we were right to go to war. (Via Instapundit)

Today was my first day at my new job. I moved about a ton of electric logs today. This is all pre-grunt work so I can start doing the real grunt work. How's that for irony. I currently have a fairly large collection of completion cards inhabiting my office that have to be moved. Thus, I moved the logs so I can move the cabinets holding the logs so I can move the completion cards to where the logs were. Now that I have the logs moved, I can now move all the cabinets and the completion cards. Joy.

The calm before the storm is here. The convention starts on Saturday. We'll see what happens.

I dug into the depths of the internet. Me and my trusty machete cut our way through the jungles of blogdom. My e-mail response was underwhelming (4 so far). Even though only four people have decided it is worth the effort to talk to me, one of them runs a blog I didn't know existed and now is part of my ever-growing blogroll. Kiihnworld is the first ELS blog I know of. Now I have to find the first CotLC, CLC, and many other small synods that exist.

Another ELS blog that Kiihnworld directed me to is Norman Teigen's Weblog. The ELS has two blogs, WELS has only one. They are in altar and pulpit fellowship, however, so it really doesn't matter.

If Saddam drove a taxi, what would it look like? Allah, the creator of the worlds (and genius with photoshop) has done it once again.

Pastor Brondos is setting himself Ablaze.

Another e-mail from CAT41

Alright, I'm going to do something that will get an underwhelming response, but I need to go ahead and ask for it anyway. Will you all please e-mail me at my new gmail address. you know, the daniel dot sellers at gmail dot com adress? One of the things I hoped this blog would generate was some e-mail. I've received maybe two or three pieces total since I began this adventure over a year ago.

Also, my posting will slow the next week or two. I have a couple of good reasons for this. First, I will begin at a new job soon so I need to focus on that rather than the internet. Secondly, my sister's boyfriend is in town. I have to have my baseball bat with me at all times. Thirdly, the synodical convention starts on July tenth and, as you might imagine, I'm going to be going gangbusters once it starts. I have one or two more posts (maybe, unless something big comes up) before the convention causes me to lose my mind. I'm going to subscribe to every major source of news for the convention I can find and give blanket coverage I can muster at my new job. There will be a lot of cutting and pasting, believe me. It will be the only way I keep my sanity.